December 28, 2012
December 08, 2012
Some sharp one-liners...
'I never forget a face, but in your case I’d be glad to make an exception.' - Groucho Marx
'Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon.' - Woody Allen
'My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger.' - Billy Connolly
'Start every day off with a smile and get it over with.' - W.C Fields
'My wife sent her photograph to the Lonely Hearts Club. They sent it back saying they weren't that lonely.' - Les Dawson
'Chopsticks are one of the reasons the Chinese never invented custard.' - Spike Milligan
'I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down'. - Bob Newhart
'I saw that show, 50 Things To Do Before You Die. I would have thought the obvious one was "Shout For Help". ' - Jimmy Carr
'I have kleptomania. But when it gets bad, I take something for it.' - Ken Dodd
'Never trust a man with short legs… his brain’s too near his bottom.' - Noel Coward
'The English country gentleman galloping after a fox is the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable.' - Oscar Wilde
'Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.' - Mark Twain
"I remember my staff asking me when I was going to retire. I said when I could no longer hear the sound of laughter. He said: "That never stopped you before". - Bob Hope
'Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry.' - Bill Cosby
'I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.' - Mae West
'Politics is just show business for ugly people.' - Jay Leno
'I wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup.' - Jerry Seinfeld
'Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon.' - Woody Allen
'My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger.' - Billy Connolly
'Start every day off with a smile and get it over with.' - W.C Fields
'My wife sent her photograph to the Lonely Hearts Club. They sent it back saying they weren't that lonely.' - Les Dawson
'Chopsticks are one of the reasons the Chinese never invented custard.' - Spike Milligan
'I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down'. - Bob Newhart
'I saw that show, 50 Things To Do Before You Die. I would have thought the obvious one was "Shout For Help". ' - Jimmy Carr
'I have kleptomania. But when it gets bad, I take something for it.' - Ken Dodd
'Never trust a man with short legs… his brain’s too near his bottom.' - Noel Coward
'The English country gentleman galloping after a fox is the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable.' - Oscar Wilde
'Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.' - Mark Twain
"I remember my staff asking me when I was going to retire. I said when I could no longer hear the sound of laughter. He said: "That never stopped you before". - Bob Hope
'Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry.' - Bill Cosby
'I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.' - Mae West
'Politics is just show business for ugly people.' - Jay Leno
'I wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup.' - Jerry Seinfeld
November 11, 2012
An alternative to 'I told you so'...
"Love imagines a sorrowful yet peaceful alternative to 'I told you so', before it happens." - John Piper
Little Mark and Mr. Mark
Our good friend from Australia, Mr. Mark got to meet our little Mark when he was visiting Cambodia.
The passing of former Cambodian King Sihanouk
The former king of Cambodia, King Norodom Sihanouk, passed away this past October 15. There is continued mourning throughout the country for him. These are some pictures that Seda took at the riverside in Phnom Penh.
November 09, 2012
Words to live by...
"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than speak and remove all doubt."
- either Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, or Samuel Johnson drawing on the Bible
- either Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, or Samuel Johnson drawing on the Bible
Rape, God's will, and the campaign trail
A few days ago at work, a few of my colleagues were discussing/mocking a candidate that had made inflammatory comments about the connection between rape, God's will, and abortion. To paraphrase, the candidate in question had said that if a woman gets pregnant after being raped, that outcome is God's will for that woman/child/situation. While I am someone who believes that God does have a hand in every single thing that happens on this planet (it is the only thing that gives me sanity at times), it is so hard to look at such an evil act as rape, and feel that anything associated with it could be God's will.
I did not say anything in the conversation at work because, to be honest, I wasn't sure what to say. I realize how ridiculous the statements that the candidate made sound, and I didn't feel like opening my mouth only to be grouped in with someone that I do not know. Nevertheless, the question has bothered me lately. As one of the few people that I know that believes in the absolute providence of Jesus over the world, I realize that I not only have a responsibility to living out the ramifications of that truth, but also to presenting it to others with compassion... which this candidate (whatever his beliefs) did not. The Scriptures do categorize many terrible evil acts as the effects of God's will... Christ's death on the cross for our salvation foremost among them. Does that make Christ's torture and death morally right? Since I am not God (*sigh of relief*), I can not look at it or understand all of it outside what He has made known to us in the Scriptures. But if I was there at Golgotha looking at the blood and flayed flesh, I would have screamed, cried, wailed and seen moral evil as never before.
But as I read the Scriptures now (with the distance of 2000 years) it is easier for me to try to see moral evil from the perspective of 'God's will'. We know from a moral perspective that God does not want a woman to be raped any more than I or my work colleagues do. But does that help the pregnant woman that was raped? In most cases, probably not. What would help her?
Before I finish, I just want to say that there may not be a good way to deal with the situation that the candidate for office created for themselves. They created an unwin-able argument for themselves in this discussion. Trying to differentiate on the campaign trail between what God deems morally right and what He permits in this world is the equivalent of political suicide. I have begun to think that there is no real way to solve the problem that they created for themselves, so I will not try to come to their defense. But what I will say is that maybe everyone (myself, my colleagues at work, this candidate, all those inflamed by the comments) are trying to look at it from an angle that we can not see around... namely God's perspective... and the way that I should I be looking at it comes from a hopefully less inflammatory direction.
While it is easy to decry the evil of the rape (which I wholeheartedly condemn), it is so much harder to see that God might have something very good in mind for this child. I am not trying to minimize the real pain that the woman is going to have, the real anger, the real resentment and the real damage that has been done to her physically, mentally, emotionally, and psychologically, because all of that is real moral evil. But, I am trying to say that all of that does not make the child evil. I do not think that it should automatically determine that the child has no right to live. Honestly, the rapist may not have a right to live, and in some countries might justly have his genitals removed, but I don't think that should carry over to the child. Is it a terrible way to come into the world? Definitely. Does the child automatically deserve death for a crime that it did not commit? I can't go there. Jesus has redeemed more lives in the history of the world than anyone else. Does the rape determine that He could not redeem something for this woman and child? I can not answer that question, but I know which direction I lean.
So what does this woman need? She needs me to show her love in every situation. If she keeps the child, she needs me to come alongside her and help her love and care for her child. If she aborts the child, she needs me to come alongside her and love her and comfort her as she deals with real emotional and psychological scars. She needs me to stand in the gap with her when she can not function because the anger has welled up so deeply inside her that the only think that she can think of is murder. She needs me to come alongside her when she is so depressed that she can not get out of bed and can not do anything for herself. She doesn't need my words or determination of what is or is not God's will. She needs to be loved, and that is where I (and candidate for elected office of every stripe) need to be. In being loved, she will see what God's will for her is.
I did not say anything in the conversation at work because, to be honest, I wasn't sure what to say. I realize how ridiculous the statements that the candidate made sound, and I didn't feel like opening my mouth only to be grouped in with someone that I do not know. Nevertheless, the question has bothered me lately. As one of the few people that I know that believes in the absolute providence of Jesus over the world, I realize that I not only have a responsibility to living out the ramifications of that truth, but also to presenting it to others with compassion... which this candidate (whatever his beliefs) did not. The Scriptures do categorize many terrible evil acts as the effects of God's will... Christ's death on the cross for our salvation foremost among them. Does that make Christ's torture and death morally right? Since I am not God (*sigh of relief*), I can not look at it or understand all of it outside what He has made known to us in the Scriptures. But if I was there at Golgotha looking at the blood and flayed flesh, I would have screamed, cried, wailed and seen moral evil as never before.
But as I read the Scriptures now (with the distance of 2000 years) it is easier for me to try to see moral evil from the perspective of 'God's will'. We know from a moral perspective that God does not want a woman to be raped any more than I or my work colleagues do. But does that help the pregnant woman that was raped? In most cases, probably not. What would help her?
Before I finish, I just want to say that there may not be a good way to deal with the situation that the candidate for office created for themselves. They created an unwin-able argument for themselves in this discussion. Trying to differentiate on the campaign trail between what God deems morally right and what He permits in this world is the equivalent of political suicide. I have begun to think that there is no real way to solve the problem that they created for themselves, so I will not try to come to their defense. But what I will say is that maybe everyone (myself, my colleagues at work, this candidate, all those inflamed by the comments) are trying to look at it from an angle that we can not see around... namely God's perspective... and the way that I should I be looking at it comes from a hopefully less inflammatory direction.
While it is easy to decry the evil of the rape (which I wholeheartedly condemn), it is so much harder to see that God might have something very good in mind for this child. I am not trying to minimize the real pain that the woman is going to have, the real anger, the real resentment and the real damage that has been done to her physically, mentally, emotionally, and psychologically, because all of that is real moral evil. But, I am trying to say that all of that does not make the child evil. I do not think that it should automatically determine that the child has no right to live. Honestly, the rapist may not have a right to live, and in some countries might justly have his genitals removed, but I don't think that should carry over to the child. Is it a terrible way to come into the world? Definitely. Does the child automatically deserve death for a crime that it did not commit? I can't go there. Jesus has redeemed more lives in the history of the world than anyone else. Does the rape determine that He could not redeem something for this woman and child? I can not answer that question, but I know which direction I lean.
So what does this woman need? She needs me to show her love in every situation. If she keeps the child, she needs me to come alongside her and help her love and care for her child. If she aborts the child, she needs me to come alongside her and love her and comfort her as she deals with real emotional and psychological scars. She needs me to stand in the gap with her when she can not function because the anger has welled up so deeply inside her that the only think that she can think of is murder. She needs me to come alongside her when she is so depressed that she can not get out of bed and can not do anything for herself. She doesn't need my words or determination of what is or is not God's will. She needs to be loved, and that is where I (and candidate for elected office of every stripe) need to be. In being loved, she will see what God's will for her is.
November 08, 2012
October 27, 2012
Fun at Pizza Company!
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| I love this picture... Ro's explanation that this is the best pizza place in Cambodia, and Mark's anticipation... almost palpable... love, love, love it... |
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| My son, the cornflake... |
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| Why are we all leaning to the left? |
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| Look at that... that is a really happy boy... |
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| Seda's favorite picture from this set of shots... |
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| We just love these three kids... |
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