Please Don't Make Me Swallow A Sword

Today was a weird day.

Tired tapped on my shoulder last night and wrapped itself around me like a cloak that refuses to come off. So I’ve been tired. And sluggish. And sort of out of it. But not out of it enough not to be able to learn a couple of things today:

1) The first cloned sheep was named Dolly because she was cloned from a mammary gland. For some reason, this makes me laugh.

2) Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics, twice failed the certification exam to become a high school science teacher.

3) I could never be a sword swallower in a circus act. Just watching the act on video made me gag and feel like I was choking.

4) Looking at someone’s vocal chords is gross…especially if the chords are swollen from not enough water, too much throat clearing, and too much vocal strain (which is a hazard of teaching).

5) There truly are good people in this world, people who look at you and say, “I have seen a lot of things in my life. There [isn’t] anything you could [say] that would make me run.”

I read a newsletter article earlier in the week that presented two fundamental differences in views on God. One view holds God to be a holy God whose holiness will not allow God to be in the presence of sin. The other view holds God to be a forgiving God whose grace allows each of us to remain in God’s presence as we are still developing holiness. The article stated that a person’s view of God influences how he/she lives out his/her faith. Persons who hold the first view tend to focus heavily on morality and living in contrast to “the world.” Persons who hold the second view tend to focus heavily on journey and living with love in “the world.”

I tend to lean toward the latter.

And so, friends, with a weird head full of random knowledge from the day, I look now at you and say, “I have seen a lot of things in my life. [And] there isn’t anything you could say that would make me run.”

…except maybe that I have to swallow a sword for you. I could handle looking at your vocal chords if I had to. But I’m not sure about the sword swallowing…so how about you not ask :-).