Nonsensical Ramblings of Mark

  I thought of posting something humorous (if only to me) in my status this morning about me being a dork (nerd, geek, doofus, etc.) in high school and the freedom that afforded me to not have old flames chasing me down and saying "So...how you doin'?". But, the more I thought about it, the more thankful I became that I am not in that situation. I was never "in" with the ladies back then and it wasn't until college that I had any semblance of a serious relationship with a member of the opposite sex (yes, female, for those of you who are as sarcastic as I am). For me that was a good thing even though, at the time, it was more than a tad painful. Of course I did not have this perspective in the midst of my mate-lessness and always had to scramble to find someone to go to the semi-formal or prom with, but now all of that has faded into a great deal of freedom. I am not so naive to think that every high school or college relationship that has ever existed is re-...

I didn't think this had a chance of working, but I am awfully glad it did. I am one of the head technology geeks for our upcoming school auction and needed a way to generate the Silent Auction bid sheets as automatically as possible from a database of auction items. We are completely Microsoft Office based which is both good and bad. Good because we can be very creative with the tools and the knowledge about the application is very diffuse; bad because not all of the laptops we have are not going to have an install of MS Office. Well, in order to run the MS Access database on the day of the auction (to manage bidders and winning bids) I found an MS Access 2007 runtime that seems to perform admirably enough for us not to have to worry about having Access installed on all of the machines at the auction. This will save us a bunch of headaches and is probably the biggest piece of the puzzle we needed to get this whole thing running well. The second piece was the use of OpenOffice (OOo)...

Since becoming a dad I have been trying to enter into the emotional aspects of God's love and provision for me through relating the Godly feelings I have for my boys to how He may feel for me. There was one time that my oldest son asked me to buy him a toy and I could tell that he wanted it very badly. I wanted desperately to get it for Him and had plenty of income at my disposal to do just that. But, there were other agreements, circumstances, and short and long term consequences that led me to think that the wiser course of action would be to not purchase the toy for him. I could tell he was disappointed and I felt his pain so deeply that I am even feeling it right now as I type out this note. He tried to convince me later in the day that it would be a great idea to purchase the toy but, as much as I didn't want to, I had to hold my ground and say no. I am sure he has forgotten about the incident but certain situations recall it to my mind. I was wondering if God feels the sa...

Maybe I am odd...okay I know I am a tad odd but maybe I am odd in this way in particular. Nan and I prayed for something a while back and God answered our prayers so profoundly and certainly that it was nothing short of Him coming in the clouds (so to speak). It was one of the more blatant answers to prayer I had seen in a long time and I think I, quite literally, had my mouth open in amazement over it. One would think that the experience would motivate me to pray more frequently and more fervently. It hasn't. But why hasn't it? I had a sausage and mushroom pizza the other night for the first time in a little while and, let me tell you, it fueled the fire for more sausage and mushroom pizza for sure. I also, after spending a considerable length of uninterrupted vacation time with my wife, do not want to tear myself away from her and the experience that we have had together. You may even say that to taste the goodness of these two things fuels a fire that burns ever more true fo...

Oftentimes I do not afford myself the luxury of thought. I think, but I do not order my life or activity in a way that would make the most sense. Just ask anyone who is around me in a time when "a lot of things need to get done" and you'll see my gnat-like the attention span. I do not have the natural ability to look at 6 different things that need to get done and order them for maximum efficiency. And, in the midst of a project, I do have a tendency to dive head-long into something without a proper plan. I think that one of the reasons why I do not formulate a plan for projects is that, given my adult ADD, if I stopped to think about something I would be off on a tangent that would have me actually doing something else. If my hands are actually busy doing something then I need to stay focused on it for a while. Or until it gets done. Whichever comes first. I do, from time to time, find thoughts in my head and throw them out there and see if they hold my interest for an e...

  If the words "I deserve" is followed by anything other than "to go to Hell" then I have not fully grasped the Gospel message that has been faithfully delivered to me. I don't even deserve a good day today, but I know that God has and will continue to shower blessings on me. I don't deserve them, I just get them. They're gifts to me and I do get caught up in the gifts at times and get my eyes off of the Giver, but that's for another post. I was thinking about serving other people both in and out of the church today and a thought struck me. I was wondering if the people I serve deserve the best I can do. I would like to think so because, as a servant, I want to please my master (who happens to be "others") and my master does deserve my best in all areas. But that lead me to the present dilemma. If they are anything like me (and they are as far as I can tell) they don't deserve to be served by me because, through my service, they receive...

I have a couple of Spiritual Gifts that are operating in my life. My primary gift is teaching and my secondary gift is mercy. What is interesting is that I did not choose the gifts (they were given to me) and I cannot choose how to exercise them in the church (that is chosen for me). For one reason or another God had it so that I was passed over for numerous opportunities to teach adults for an extended period of time. In my flesh I felt really badly about that and all of the usual questions came into my mind that sprang from my being self-absorbed: Am I not good enough? Did I say something wrong? Did people complain about me? and on and on they went. And I almost missed one of the more exciting things that has happened to me in the ministries God has called me to - the opportunity to teach children in a dynamic, high-energy setting with people that have extraordinary talent. The exercise of Spiritual Gifts strengthens the church (1 Corinthians 12:7). I now know that God moves people i...

While listening to some statements that President Obama made about the recent events in Egypt I was struck by a phrase that he used to, no doubt, explain what was happening and espouse a particular world view. The President briefly spoke about the "inevitability of freedom" and linked it to a notion that people will be free at some point and, more than likely, rule themselves through some form of democracy or representational government. Politics and political systems aside I agree with the President on this point, but probably not in the way that he intended the statement to be interpreted. As a Christ-follower I know that Jesus came, died, and rose again so that I can be free and taste a freedom that goes all the way down. No longer ruled by sin nor swept away by the confusion of counselors that seem to be at odds with each other on some of the most basic life circumstances I have been given the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures that have given me a freedom that a democracy ne...