Ten Things I Think I Think

1) I think that there isn't much of the Gulf Coast that can be destroyed right now. What a horrible hurricane season.

2) I think that Joseph Bishman's sermon on Sunday was dead on. Probably the single best description of the "thorny soil" I've ever heard in my life. And here's the thing, the desire for more stuff and the "good life" can choke the spiritual life out of you even if your worth is very little (or negative). Just a powerful sermon.

3) I think that Charlie Rose's interview with the finance minister of India last week was one of the most interesting I'd seen in a while. India is a nation of extremes: Extreme economic growth (expanding at a rate of 7%, and this is projected to be the case for 15 years - it will be the world's third largest economy in the next ten years). Extreme poverty (more than a quarter of India's population, that's 250 million people, live on less than 1 dollar a day). Extreme expansion (India will need to build enough electrical plants to generate more than 10,000 megawatts of electricity every year for next TWENTY years to keep up with projected demand). Extreme education (Indian universities will graduate over 2 million college graduates this year, most of whom are scientists and engineers). And unlike China, India's economic expansion is built more on the demand for goods in services within its own borders, as opposed to exports, meaning that She has a growing middle class. The world is changing rapidly, and India will help lead the way.

4) I think that going over to my grandmother's to watch The West Wing is most relaxing thing I do each and every week. Her little nest at the Lima Towers is a haven of blessing and peace in my life.

5) I think my oldest cat is slowly going insane. She is 16 (which is 16 in cat years, cause they use the same ones we do), which is pretty old for a cat, but I caught her trying to eat the sponge in our kitchen sink. That's just not right.

6) I think that my friend Steve posed an interesting question to me that came out of his seminary Bible class. Would the church at Corinth have faced all of the challenges that it did if Paul would have stayed, or appointed a strong leader as his successor? Would a strong leader have ended all of the fornication and chaos, or would have the culture of Corinth overwhelmed that person's best efforts? An excellent question that deserves a blog post of its own, very soon.

7) I think the hardest thing in the world for me to remember is to bring my coffee travel-mug home after work. Pretty soon I'll run out of coffee cups (they'll all be at work) and you'll see me in my van drinking straight from the coffee pot.

8) I think that while Desperate Housewives has more twists and turns than US50 in Eastern West Virginia (worst drive I ever made), if stuff like that happened in any suburb I lived in, there would be whole blocks of houses for sale. It's more dangerous to live on Wisteria Lane than the South Side of Chicago.

9) I think the show "Breaking Bonaduce" is by far, the most compelling (in the same way driving slowly to gander at a car crash is compelling) attempts at TV yet. I get the sense that Danny Bonaduce would have been messed up even if he hadn't been a child star. He's deadly smart, and self-destructive to the core. It makes for interesting television, but I can't say I'm entertained while I watch the guy pop pills or shoot up with steroids, just terrified that we'll witness the first reality death scene with this guy. Scary!

10) And finally, I think that Eli, our youngest, is the rolypoliest, happy baby of them all. I love to see him smile.