W!T AND CR3AT1V!TY

I love coming across random flashes of wit and creativity in unexpected places. This example was found on a hotel sign on S. Main near a SuperTarget in Houston.

Lifting Up A Brother

William Taylor, the Minister of Missions at Houston's First Baptist Church, is going on a spiritual sabbatical from January 1 through January 31. Please keep William and his family -- Nancy (his wife) and Will and Sarah (his kids) -- in your prayers. Praise God that William is able to take such a break in order to seek God's will and be refreshed in his spirit -- and to have some time to relax!

I am continually amazed at the amount of work our Missions office does, especially with such a small staff. Certainly, William's passion for our Lord and for telling others about Him are what helps keep that office running! It is so great to be a part of a missions-minded church.

S'FORE!

I love being a kid. Or, at the age of 35, I guess I should say that I love being around kids. It gives me an excuse to be a kid again -- or at least it provides a legitimate way to get away with acting like one. Regardless, it's fun being a kid.

On Christmas day, I gave my niece and nephew matching marshmallow guns -- original creations of Catha Duck. They were a hit. Kyle and Kristin and I went out on the fairway behind my parents' house to test 'em out, each with our own Zip-loc baggy of marshmallows.

After a few minutes of aimless firing at each other and a brief contest to see who could shoot theirs across the pond, we came up with the idea of marshmallow golf. (Since I had more experience with the guns, they jumped at the idea of doing something that would not involve my whacking them in the face with marshmallows.)

Here's how it worked: We started on the tee box by each firing our guns in turn. Then, we went to where our respective marshmallows landed and shot from there. We continued this until we made it on the green and shot the marshmallows into the hole. Fortunately, my parents live on a par 3 hole. We each shot a 22. (Actually, Kristin shot a 23 but she refuses to admit it.)

We decided to play the hole backwards from the hole to the tee box. (Again, I think there were trying to avoid any activity in which their faces were my targets.) We all shot a 9 going back. Why the significant improvement in our scores? Well, have you ever tried shooting a marshmallow into the wind? That's what we were up against on the first round. The tailwind helped on the way back.

So, that was part of my Christmas day -- blowing marshmallows through a piece of pipe along with a couple of 11 year olds. Regrettably, I introduced them to the fact that wet marshmallows stick to people. Things got ugly after that.

Told You So!

According to a study conducted by a UCLA political scientist, bias in the media is real. You can read an article about the study for more detail, but here are a few key points:

• Of the 20 major media outlets studies, 18 scored left of center
• The most left-leaning were (1) The Wall Street Journal (news pages), (2) CBS "Evening News," (3) The New York Times, and (4) the Los Angeles Times
• Only Fox News "Special Report with Brit Hume" and The Washington Times scored right of the average U.S. voter

Rumor has it that KUHF (88.7FM) scored so left of center that it was considered an anomaly and was not included in the final results.

Do You Have Water Weight?

I received this e-mail today. Perhaps you've seen it before, but it was new to me and I really like the illustration. As a Christian, I see how it is not a perfect illustration when you consider that we do not (or should not) go back to our burdens and pick them up again -- rather, we lay them down once and for all at His feet.

That said, here you go . . .

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A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water? "

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it.

"If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.

"If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.

"If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.

"In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on."

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."

"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Relax. Pick them up later after you've rested."

I Like Martha Stewart

I like Martha Stewart. There. I said it.

Now that that is out in the open, let me explain. But before I do, let me address all of the normal complaints that people have about her.

"She doesn't do all of that herself!" Um, has she ever claimed to? Of course she has legions of minions behind the scenes doing the work for her. Do you think Bill Gates design or builds every program for Microsoft? Of course not.

"Women can never live up to her standards!" Of course not ... unless you have the aforementioned minions on your payroll. And for the record, we men can never live up to Bob Villa's standards, either. He has his own minions, too. I am pretty sure that I will never be able to tear down a wall, install a skylight or build a multi-level deck. But I'm not accusing him of setting me up for failure.

So why do I like her? I like her for her business sense, her tenacity and her ability to laugh at herself.

Sure, making your own marshmallows is absurd. But people are buying what she's selling -- and they're buying a lot of it. Despite a five month stint in prison she's back in the saddle with two TV shows and no apparent end in sight. Along the way, she cracks jokes about her criminal record and allows people to make fun of her, too. (Did you see David Spade dress up as Martha on her new daytime show -- with a house-arrest ankle bracelet, too? Hilarious.)

Not really sure why I felt compelled to post this. Lord only knows what level of grief I am going to get for it. But I say, "More power to ya, Martha!" Hers is an American story -- blemishes and all.