1993

1993

No, its not a date.

And its not money.
Or an address.
Its not a phone number.
Give up?
Well, it’s probably the most important number I can think of.
It is printed on two bracelets.
My sister wore one of them and the other…
belongs to Ethan William Johnstone!  Born last night, it must have been just a little before midnight.  
Mother and son are doing well and we are all very, very thankful.
For pictures go to:

Contentment

I found myself checking the financial news quite a bit this last week as I watched the markets completely tank (the last few months haven’t exactly been stellar either). And yeah, I felt like tanking too. I guess you never really know how much something is a source of security until it is taken away…


The Bible has a lot to say about money and its real value… as though humans might have a recurring problem in this area. Here are few that have been a challenge to me,


“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. ‘Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. ‘Give us this day our daily bread.  ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  Matthew 6:9-12 

 And some soldiers were questioning him, saying, “And what about us, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages. Luke 3:14

 No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”  Luke 16:13

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal . But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Matthew 6:19-21

But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.  1 Timothy 6:6-8

 Two things I asked of Thee, Do not refuse me before I die: Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, Lest I be full and deny Thee and say, “Who is the LORD?” Or lest I be in want and steal, And profane the name of my God.  Proverbs 30:7-9

 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”  Hebrews 13:5-6

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.  1 Timothy 6:10-11

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?  Matthew 6:25

But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.  Deuteronomy  9:1

Trust and contentment… they are elusive things. To be content with little or much, to be thankful for daily provision’s and to trust God with the future.

Fear Fear

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself…

…our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.

Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.

-from FDR’s first fireside chat

How did this evolve?

In bio class today we got into glycolosis. It is an incredibly complex process that I don’t understand at all… see chart!

At the end of class, after having described this incredibly complex process, the prof asked us a question.
“I want you to think about this and consider, How did this evolve?”
Good question!
I was looking forward to hearing his explanation but he just left it at that and moved on.
I wonder how many of my class mates actually did stop to think about it. We have spent quite a bit of time already on chemical and biological evolution and sadly, I think most have accepted it as an incontrovertable fact. Certainly that is the way it is has been presented so far.