Call to Action

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth."

- Martin Luther King Jr., in his speech "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence"

This is a great quote, but hard to act on. We are such selfish people. Lately, however, I've begun to realize that I'm not the most important person in the world - it doesn't always have to be "me first". And although I realize that, I know I have a long way to go to break this life-long mindset. Hopefully this shift of values will be quick to take hold.

Well Duh!! Gas Prices Force People To Start Using Their Heads

This is an excerpt from a recent Autoweek article.

Rising fuel prices are prodding the U.S. market toward smaller, European-style cars and forcing automakers to consider much more efficient engines, industry executives agreed here last week.

While Hurricane Katrina caused a spike to the $3-plus per gallon range in the United States, it was the steady climb in gasoline prices in the months preceding the killer storm that caught the attention of automakers.

In a market that was up 3.8 percent overall in August, sales of the biggest SUVs and pickup trucks tanked.

Tom Purves, CEO of BMW of North America, says he already sees evidence of pump-price-influenced shopping - at the company's Mini brand. "I can't tell you I have any hard evidence," Purves said. "But I can tell you that in the last month, Mini dealers have been inundated on Saturdays by SUV owners saying, 'I've had enough of this.'

You can read the rest of the article here.

Blue Like Me

I always think I understand Grace. When it gets right down to it though, I don't. I still don't get it. There may be moments of clarity but I still don't get it. This quote from Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller pretty much sums up where I am at.

Rick tells me, looking back, that he was too proud to recieve free grace from God. He didn't know how to live within a system where nobody owes anybody else anything.

Though he understood that God wanted nothing in return, his mind could not communicate this fact to his heart, so his life was something like torture.

More than that, grace did not seem like the thing I was looking for. It was too easy. I wanted to feel as though I had earned my forgiveness, as though God and I were buddies doing favors for eachother.

This is where I have been stuck that last 3 or so years. My mind can't communicate the nature of grace to my heart. I find myself feeling quite tortured at times. It's painfull. So much so, that I find myself avoiding the subject all together lately. So, I find myself laying incredibly self-depricating guilt trips on MYSELF because I can't measure up to my own warped standards. I go through cycles of this. Discipline. Guilt. Discipline. Guilt.

If you haven't read this book yet, do.