Nonsensical Ramblings of Mark

My oldest son wants a tablet that can connect to the web. He is saving his money and we are looking for a used one on craigslist for him and, in the meantime, I am looking at ways that I can extend the web filtering I have on our PC to every connected device in the house. I had heard about OpenDNS  and the free web filtering that it can provide, but I was having a hard time changing the primary and secondary DNS entries on my router. Thankfully, I came across this forum post   this forum post  that led me in the right direction. It was not information specific to my actual router (we have a Netgear B40) but the interface that the post referenced was the exact one that I had. At any rate, I changed the DNS entries and now all of the connected devices in our home (including our Wii) are subject to any rules that I want to set up using the OpenDNS service. I do need to find a way to subject specific devices to different filtering schemes. So, for example, when my son gets ...

In this woeful state that I find myself in I find that I pray for this or that to happen so that I can be comfortable rather than so that I can be holy. In imitation of Christ I need to pray with an eye towards holiness rather than comfort.

Maybe I am doing it wrong but this life with Christ can get downright exhausting at times. In fact, if someone's goal is to be happy all the time I would recommend staying far away from Jesus. I would think that I could fashion a god that is impressed with most of my efforts to live a righteous life. I would say that a god who is less concerned about justice and unity and more about making me, as his or her subject, comfortable and rich would be more to my liking. Maybe a god who winks at sin (however that's defined) just once...or twice...or maybe at a certain number of sins a month would be a good thing. Getting the sin bank replenished every once and a while would be so much better than a God that demands perfection wouldn't it? A god who can get distracted at times too would be just wonderful...as long as he or she isn't turning a blind eye to any legitimate wants or desires that I may have it would be a superb state of affairs. Then again there should be some sacri...

It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. Ecclesiastes 7:2-4 My friend death shocked me on Friday. As I did dishes on Saturday morning my hands shook concerning the implications of his visit to a friend of ours and I wondered where they would go from here. I found my intellectual end and he hurt me but much less so than he hurt my friends. I woke up in the middle of the night praying for them and awoke in the morning to pray for them again. On Saturday he seemed to be everywhere casting a pall even on my son's birthday celebration. My wife and I wondered aloud to each other articulating our dismay over the events of his sudden, unannounced appearance. My friend, why did you sha...

This may surprise most of you but, as of last Sunday, I have been married to my first wife for 17 years. The number 17 seems so much more than 15 and I think that is due to the fact that we are, solidly, on the other side of the teens and hurtling headlong to 20. It has been a wild ride and we have shared many a special time, holiday, and trip together both as a couple and with our two sons. I cherish those times and love to reflect on them. However, as I thought back across the years (almost decades) that we have spent together I couldn't help but consider our everyday lives, our Monday mornings or Thursday evenings, as being the most meaningful to me. There was a boy a while back that seemed to be a bit confused. No. It wasn't me. Well, not this time. Anyway, whenever this boy saw Nan and me he would ask his parents who that was and they would say, "Oh. That's Mark and Nan." Well, this boy had heard that so many times that his parents reported to us that he thou...

Yeah - this may be a bit too geeky for many (er...all) of you, but I had an interesting, albeit brief, moment in my driveway last night. Our house is very socked in by trees. There are holes in their canopies here and there that allow for glimpses to the sky, but for the most part there are no clear sight lines to take in any meaningful portion of what is going on "up there". And that is where my moment begins. I had to grab some milk the other night and return some tail light bulbs that I had erroneously bought. Thankfully the grocery store and the car parts stores were both open, but I noticed that it was quite a bit colder than it had been the past couple of nights. When I got out of the car I looked up into the sky and saw that it was snap clear. Through the copious trees that are in our front yard I noticed that I could see some of the Autumn constellations that I had grown to know and love. And there it was: Cygnus. All its stars were arranged so perfectly and I co...

Great son, great band, great night, and the greatest God. Last Friday Drew and I went out to dinner at Greece Ridge Mall (his choice!) and then made our way to the Classic Petra concert at Roberts Wesleyan College and let me tell you...it was an absolutely fantastic night. We got to the auditorium a little early so we hung out in the lobby for a bit and then headed to our seats in the balcony. We were practically the only ones up there and waited a bit for the band to take the stage. From the first chord they were absolutely great. I hadn't ever seen Petra with Greg X. Volz before and his voice was fantastic. He was funny, engaging, encouraging, and spiritually-minded. These guys may have been around for over 40 years but they absolutely rocked the place. The best part of the night was Drew and I were rocking out together. I was wondering if he was enjoying it as much as I did so, after the concert was over, I asked him if he would come back with me and, with a big smile on his fac...