Similarities

While reading through the book of 2 Samuel a few weeks ago, I was struck by something interesting. 2 Samuel focuses a lot of attention to the hero David. You know, the David-and-Goliath David. The writer of Psalms David. You know, Big King D.

Anyway, David was God's anointed king and shed much blood to unite the 12 tribes of Israel. Not only did God choose him to be king, but his lineage can be traced to Moses and JC. In other words, David was an important guy in the OT. He was a powerfully faithful man to boot.

I was reading about one of his major sins. He saw Bathsheba bathing on a roof and lusted deeply to have her in the Biblical sense. In his lust for her, he knocked her up. Even went so far as to have her husband killed and hastily married her just to hide the truth.

Of course, you can't hide the truth from the Lord. And, while God forgive his greatest servant for his sins, David's sins produced ... negative effects... on Israel. After all, how could God's chosen one be so susceptible to such temptation and sin? His enemies could see that he was no better than they were, and worse they could call him a hypocrite.

All that to say, while thinking about the story of David's life, I kept coming back to Bill Clinton. During Bill Clinton's presidency, the USA enjoyed prosperous times, no doubt (Republicans will argue that, but go with me here). While I lived during his term, I felt I was doing good. Got through college in his first term. Entered the work force, even started worked for the company I still work for in his second, and was married by the end of his presidency. Life was good. Some of my best years I feel happened during his time. So, in my eyes, Billyboy was, at the very least, good domestically for me and the US. I won't argue about his foreign policy (at least not now).

Then, Monica happened. And, I think for a while this country was ok with our president getting a bj. Once the leader of the free world was caught having an affair, it seems we responded (in a general sense) by not only accepting the behavior, but letting our morals decay further. Hey, if loose morals are ok for the President, then I'll have lesbians strippers do a tap dance with my silly putty. I guess what I'm saying is Bill Clinton's affair allowed our society to be even more free. While the situation was no doubt embarrassing, Clinton really didn't suffer humiliation in society. In fact, it's probably safe to say he made it socially acceptable to cheat on your significant other.

Take note that I'm not trying to judge anybody for their lifestyles and their own morals. It's not my place and just because I choose live one way doesn't mean someone else has to. No judgment here.

But, it's interesting to note the similarities between David and Clinton. They both were kings of their time. They both were, argueably, good to and for their people. And they both had their knobs shined by someone that was off limits. While Israel was unified during David's reign, there were rebellions. One was even successful for a period. But David got the throne back. Eventually though, many kings down the road, Israel was divided into two kingdoms and later ransacked by the Babylonians.

Interesting to note, America is now all about the red and blue state. The Republicans and Democrats. The Conservative and The Liberal. Maybe not two kingdoms, but certainly a divided nation. And look where all the ill-will toward US is coming from. Why, it's Babylo... I mean, Islamofascists.

I'm not trying to blame Bill Clinton for our problems. I'm just saying history does has a way of repeating itself. We learn about our future by understanding the mistakes made in the past. The question remains will we learn from the past? Are we too proud to admit our mistakes? Can we understand our actions, no matter how small and trivial, start a chain reaction that ends up affecting more than we could possibly have thought? Can we humble ourselves, admit we were wrong, and change our ways? Or could our fall be far off?

Teenagers suck

Cap'n Jack is 'round about four months old now. It's amazing to think that two months ago he was this little tiny furball. Now, he's a bigger furball with energy and curiosity.

I'm happy to report that he's had only two accidents when it comes to using the litterbox. And, those were in the first two days that we had him. The only other problem we've had in that department was when Jack informed us in his own way that we needed to clean the litterbox. He took one of my wife's socks and dragged it through his litterbox. Then, he laid the sock down near the box. He also dug a clump out and placed it next to one of my wife's bras. Cleaning the box has become a near daily chore now.

Like I said, Jack's four month old now and I think that makes him a teenager in cat years. At least, his actions as of late mirror that of human teens and make me think he's reached kitty puberty.

He's taken to sleeping on my wife's leg. Make no mistake, I love Jack, but he's the wife's cat. Anyway, for about a week and a half now, we've been woken up early in the morning to a ... well... licking and sucking sound. A very loud sound. As teenagers tend to do, Jack's found a new toy to play with... himself. We're not sure what's more disturbing, that cats can discover the joy of self-gratification or that he's doing in on our bed at our feet.

The worst part is that when you bust him, you can't get him to stop. You can shove him, shake him, kick the bed so it shakes like an earthquake, nothing, no reaction. He just keeps on keepin' on. We're hoping the impending spaying/neutering (I don't know which is for a boy) will *ahem* fix that.

He's still skittish when it comes to visitors or me. I'm big and in the darkness of the early morning have stepped on him. Can't see a black cat sitting in the middle of the floor when the lights are off. Still, he permits me to hold him, but only a certain way. And, he's yet to jump on one of our laps for affection. Mostly, we play fight; he's still a kitty after all.

What's been funny is the kid brings down his toy wrestling ring to the living room and plays with his wrestling action figures in it. Cap'n Jack wants to play, too. He'll actual get into the ring and attack the action figures. He's a pretty good wrestler and is so far undefeated. He's even faced the Undertaker and resorted to decapitating the deadman to pick up the W.

Still, he's a teenager. When we go to bed, we bring Jack into our room for the night. While we're doing our bedtime routines, Jack's sitting at the door howling to go out at night. Even after the nights are off, he'll sit at the door yowling to get out. I guess sometime after I fall asleep he jumps on the bed and curls up at the wife's feet. I wonder what he dreams about. He's probably plotting some scheme to kill us in our sleep. Cats are like that, you know. Or he's dreaming about female cats... Probably both.

Trust: Part 3

Part 3 in a continuing look at Trust in God. Click here for part 1 and part 2. You've got some reading to do :)

I've been away for a while. Just haven't had time to write about things really. Plus, not a whole lot of interesting things worth mentioning happened to blog about it every single day. Besides, isn't the antcipation worth the wait?

So, how are things? Well, with the 90-day tithe trust challenge, I realized something quite interesting. I get paid every two weeks and I earmark a certain amount of money to pay half of the mortgage (rent a few months ago), half the car note, and half the auto insurance. When I write the check for my tithe and pay the bills, I'm always, always, always short of that earmarked amount by my tithe, give or take a few dollars. In the two weeks that go by between paychecks, I still have to buy a few things - food, gas and the like - and end up even more short for those bills. Yet, when it comes time to pay them and my other bills, the money is there. Somehow, I'm no longer short on cash. I can't explain it to myself any other way but to say the Lord is finding ways to taking care of me. Feel free to try and explain it another way to me.

There have been many lessons God has taught me in the past month. Lessons on humility, lying, turning the other cheek, but I think the one thing I've been able to latch onto is completely turning my life over to God and trusting Him to see me through the little things that pop up. I don't mean I've been born again... again. I mean I have learned to TRUST God and his plans for me. Believe me, life has gotten a thousand times less stressful knowing God will see me through. It's best not to worry about whatever It is 'cause It will get taken care of by Him.

I've been reading from the Old Testement alot lately. Working my way through the "historical books" and mainly focusing on King David and King Solomon. I started with 1 Samuel and I'm somewhere in 1 Kings and I'm noticing more than ever how history is repeating itself. While David and Solomon are regarded as heroes for various reasons, they committed some really big sins - polygamy, idoltry, adultry, murder.

David lusted after a married woman, Bathsheba, and got her pregnant while her husband was off at war, fighting for the King who knocked his wife up! David had him killed in battle and married Bathsheba, adding her to his many wives. He later was rebuked and repented. Even as he was running from a rebellion, a man was cursing him and David told his men to let the man keep cursing him. For all his sins, he took this as a sign from God to be humble.

For all his (God granted) wisdom, Solomon decided to build a palace for himself approximately three times bigger than a temple God had him build and took three times as long to build it. Something struck me funny about that. You'd thing someone as wise as Solomon would be humble enough not to make his house bigger and better than God's. But, as his wealth and power grew, his love for God began to fade. Isn't it interesting to see how even way back then how greed and power corrupts the wisest of hearts. How ever David and Solomon's morality may have waivered, their faith in God never did. That's really what I'm learning about - what it takes to live a moral life and having faith in God.

When I think about all of the evil in today's world, I can help but think we've (as humans) have dealt with this before. I believe it stems from the loosening of our morals as a society. You see it in the "historical" books of the Bible. Stories of murders, rape, sexual depravity, thieving, adultery, idoltry all ulimately leading to pain. Yet, the people change their ways and regain God's grace. I keep harping on it, but it's the choice of the pain of discipline over the pain of regret. It's the choice to live a moral life as opposed to making immoral and, ultimately, hurtful decisions. It's about controlling our urges that make us slaves to sin. And they can be controlled. We just have to choose to.