Can't We All Just Get Along?

I think Norton and Google Chrome hate each other and couldn't play nice if they had to...which you would think they do.  Not on my computer!  Norton has something (I can't remember which part of the package it is) that keeps freezing my internet when I use Google Chrome.  I managed somehow to open up a dialogue box with the option to shut the thing off on the normal internet browser, so that is working, thankfully.  I just got Norton back on my computer a few days ago.  This is ridiculous.  Why can't these technologies just play nice together?  It's all supposed to make life easier and this certainly is not.

Only One Sunday Left

So you know I've been watching "The Bible" on History.  Tonight began Holy Week (rightly so since today began Holy Week).  They took some artistic license with a few of the familiar stories of Jesus' miracles and the placement of some well-known things he said, but it could have been worse and the special effects (Jesus walked on water tonight) are still good.  Tonight's episode got up to Maundy Thursday.  Jesus has been arrested and Caiaphas has rent his garments.  Next week will see the crucifixion, resurrection, conversion of Saul to Paul, and from my understanding, a touch of the remaining New Testament come to the small screen.  Should be interesting.  I am looking forward to it.  Maybe someday I will have the DVDs...I'd watch the kung fu angel of God part over and over just because.  :)

Random Thought

How is it that the bad guys always manage to car jack the people wearing no seat belt?  If they were buckled in, they wouldn't get pulled out of their car quite so easily and the bad guys wouldn't get away. Some writer somewhere needs to think about that - might be a fun little bit to put in a story - bad guy foiled by law-abiding, buckled-in driver.  :)

Just Something Interesting

Ran across this on FoxNews yesterday and today, and thought I'd share it...though I think most of you who read this blog I already shared with or told.

http://nation.foxnews.com/cbs-amazing-race/2013/03/21/beckel-demands-apology-cbs

I wonder if this is one of those passing in the night types of stories, though.  Does it end with one upset commentator?  Maybe the world has changed so much that it's getting so no one cares about anyone else anymore.  Or, maybe it's not so much that, but that it has become wrong to care about some groups and only right to care about others...and definitely only right to care about oneself.

Once upon a time...

...I was angry.
Long ago, in a life far, far away, I would become very angry - so angry, in fact, that I would yell and scream, throw things if there was something to throw and a few times clear a table of its contents.  Then I would cry myself to sleep and wake up with the vague memory of my actions but only a passing idea of any of the words that might have come from my mouth.
And I decided I didn't want to be that person anymore.  I learned how to be a much calmer soul - a better self.  This is not to say that I don't have the ability to be that angry person again if I was to stop being diligent.
It is there.  A great, prehistoric monster lurking in the dark, murky depths of my psyche waiting for me, its prey to sink that low - down, down, down into its lair, into its waiting, gaping, toothy mouth.
There are times, places, and situations in which I feel the water getting colder, darker and hopefully sooner versus later recognize how deep in I've been pulled and can claw my way back into the warmer, clear water I've come to prefer.  The trouble is there are familiar things, places, and people in that murky water.  It is dangerous because I know it there.  It is easy to slip into the familiar surroundings and start behaving in familiar ways.  In that place, far too close to everybody knows my name - my name, but not necessarily me.
"Ay, there's the rub."  To know me then is not to know me now and to know me now is (blessedly) not to know me then.  What of those who have known me both then and now?  Can one persona overcome the other?  In myself, yes, I believe so as I have seen it.  I am not who I was.  In the mind's eye of those who knew me long ago, in a life far, far away...if you have not visited me where the water is warm and clear, please, I assure you, the water is fine.  And if you are content in those murky depths, I beg you please to not try dragging me down to meet you.  I have strove through too many of my lives to overcome what now lurks below.  It is ugly and I do not wish to be that person again.

It has people talking.

If you give "The Bible" anything, you have to admit it gets people talking.  Before you read my post any further, read the post about the miniseries found on this blog...

http://kurtknecht.blogspot.com/2013/03/why-bible-is-bad-for-your-spiritual-life.html

Now that you've read his post, here's my response...


I would have to say that it's only harmful if you don't already have a solid foundation and enough imagination for more than one person.  (Yea!  I am immune!)  I suppose it might be harmful to someone with a particularly weak faith who isn't in the Word, I might concede, however...However, I actually applaud for devout people of faith in an incredibly secular industry putting a lot on the line to produce/create something like this and get it out there where so many people can see it.  Remember, "The Bible" has the highest ratings of everything on TV for that time slot on Sunday nights this month.  I even heard more people are watching it than "American Idol."  Think of all the people otherwise ignorant of even some of the most well-known stories from the Bible.  If a movie or television show can plant a seed of curiosity, I say make more of them!  People are talking about the Bible like they seldom ever do - asking questions, discussing moments, learning!  It is the job of those of us familiar with the Bible and theology, with a strong Christian foundation and faith, to know what is sparking the conversation and be prepared with an answer when questions are asked of us as they inevitably will be.  And, really, aren't there far worse things on television to watch?

P.S. Kurt, this one's not filled with good-looking white people (though the Portuguese man playing Jesus is quite a looker).  For example, Samson was a huge black dude with nappy hair.  ;p