Saying “No”

The fool has said in his heart there is no God (Psalm 53.1).

Some commentators I have read say that this verse can be translated as The fool has said in his heart, “No, God.” To me, that means we have all been fools at one time or another. Every time we do not do what God commands, we say “No, God.” Every time we act un-Christ-like, we say “No, God.” When we offend our brothers and sisters in the Lord, we say “No, God.” If we try to do things our way, we say “No, God.”

Let us repent and say, “Yes, God.”

Lest we forget.

May we never forget what happened eight years ago, 9/11/2001.

In September, 1983, I took my lovely bride to New York to meet my relatives (grandparents, uncle, aunt and cousins). We went up the World Trade Center, even though she was afraid of heights. I convinced her to go up to the observation deck on the roof. It was very windy up there, but the view was wonderful. I asked a ranger how high we were. He said 1365 ft. above sea level, or 1354 off the ground.   I was awed by the smallness of everything below, even the Empire State building just a mile or two away.  We could not look straight down from the roof, as the deck was some 30 feet or so from the edge.  But the 106th floor had a museum of commerce with indoor observation windows.  One could sit on a bench and look almost straight down from there.  Other than being on a mountain top or the rim of the Grand Canyon, I have never been on land and seen such a view.   As seen from there, the people were smaller than ants.  The cars on the streets below were miniature toys. 

Too bad I cannot take my children there. We went to New York City in 1990 with them, but did not have time to go up the towers. I wish now we had, because the next time we went was in March, 2002. All that was left was the hole in the ground and a lot of rubble.

It doesn't happen often

It only happens twelve times per century, to be exact. I am referring to the date and time stamp on this post. It happened on morning of January 1 of 2001, then again on February 2 of 2002. Then, every 13 months and one day since then. The last time will be early afternoon on December 12, 2012. Have you figured it out? Look carefully at the date and time stamp. September 9, 2009 at nine minutes, nine seconds past nine o'clock in the morning.

Okay, perhaps is not as obvious to some: 09/09/09 09:09:09, or the moment when the month, day, year, hour, minute and seconds are identical. I say in the morning, because on the 24 hour clock, 9:09 PM is 21:09. 12:12 AM is 00:12.

If I were in that union...

The news today reported that the Rhode Island governor wants to have state employees go on 12 days of unpaid furlough in order to save the state some $17 million. But the union representing the state workers says no, because that effectively would be a 4.6% or more pay cut. The union has joined in a lawsuit to stop the furloughs. So the governor may have to lay off 1000 workers, starting with the most recently employed. Seems to me the union is not serving those 1000 workers very well, is it. Now I know unions usually take care of their members when they lose their jobs, but does it cover more than 96% of their salary?

Were I one of the chosen 1000, I would be on the phone with the union representative: "Excuse me? Would you mind asking us workers what we want? I think I would rather take the pay cut than lose my job."