I was riding the bus today.  I nearly never do, but I was today.  So I used the time to listen to a podcast.

The fellow was speaking about wealth and generosity and more.  He shared a few statistics about wealth: If your household income is over $40 000, you’re in the top 4% of the world.  If it’s over $50 ooo, you jump right into the top 1% of the world, the richest people on the planet.

Yet we never FEEL rich.

How does that work?

He proposed a very simple theory–we never feel rich because most of us spend a lot more time thinking about what we don’t have than about what we do have.

And that leads us away from contentment.

And that isn’t the direction I want to be walking.

A friend gave me a listen to the new David Crowder album (Church Music).  If I were writing a review, I’d just say, “Oh baby!”  Take that as a “thumbs up”.

One of the songs that just grabs me is called “The Nearness”.  Below is a basic video of just album cover and lyrics to go with the music.  If you’ve never heard any of it, here’s a chance.  Enjoy!

Last Sunday, this video was part of our morning. I’ve had more-than-usual people comment about it since then.

Where I initially found this video online, a pile of comments were below. Many of them were people expressing dislike for the video because of the lack of closure that it ends with. But on Sunday, it served as the ideal illustration for the fact that life is tough and DOESN’T always wrap up with neat little bows.

From there, we moved on to discuss how we cope in such times. But I’m being reminded recently that many people bear much weight and that burdens come in all shapes and sizes. It’s little wonder a video like this connects with us.

But as we said on Sunday, the task before us in the life of faith is to allow the truth of “Life is tough” to be re-framed and outweighed by the greater truth that “We are the Beloved”.

That doesn’t reduce the weight. But it steadies our feet and it strengthens our shoulders.  And when you’re under a load, that can make all the difference.

Credit where it’s due.  Blair first showed me this.

For some reason it came storming back into my mind over supper tonight.  A quick re-viewing confirmed its blog-worthiness, though after you watch it, you may be questioning the worthiness of such blogs.  I leave you to your own questions.  For now, I give you a real piece of work and this small piece of advice: Watch his eyebrows.

A segment of Sunday’s lesson will refer to Song of Songs.  Along that line, my time online led me to this…

I was making my lunch for work, and it turned out looking beautiful.  Good enough to eat, for sure.  Then it dawned on me… the secret to a great sandwich.  After years of faulty technique, I’ve corrected the error.

I used to put the mayo on the bottom piece of bread, then cover it with the veggies, meat, cheese, and mustard, in that order.  But in a moment of enlightenment (or laziness), I just slapped both mayo and mustard together on top of the pile.

That, my friends, is the secret.

Mark this down: Mustard and mayo must mingle.

(Note: If you don’t like mustard and/or mayo on your sandwich, then I can’t guarantee you’ll ever have a good one.)

As I pointed out my brilliant observation to my lovely wife, she turned to me and said, “You should blog about that.”

That was apparently her way of saying, “That’s a great idea, Honey.  Go tell the world.”  It also could have been her way of saying, “Thanks for nothing, Dumbo.  Go tell someone who cares.”  But I’m going to go with the first theory.

Now you know.  You are most welcome.

A funny bit from Rod Pedersen’s blog this morning…

Immediately after returning from Vancouver on Saturday, I found myself pinballing between school gyms at Ruth M. Buck and Winston Knoll Collegiate watching junior girls volleyball.

I’ll tell you something….

Last weekend I was in Commonwealth Stadium with over 60,000 fans and this Friday I was in B.C. Place with over 31,000.

But NOTHING is as flipping loud as a gym full of teenaged girls cheering their teams on in a volleyball game.

JEEPERS! I almost ran out to get ear plugs. These kids made the ACDC concert sound like a librarians convention.

Only funny because it’s true!

Steve posted this Covey quote today.  Chew on it all day, and it won’t be nearly long enough.

“Anything less than a conscious commitment to the important is an unconscious commitment to the unimportant.”

A friend sent me this beauty.

Gandhi has always inspired me.  Often the inspiration comes in the form of a knock right between the eyes.

Like this one…

“You Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilization to pieces, turn the world upside-down, and bring peace to a battle-torn planet.  But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of good literature.”

I don’t know what to say after that, so I’ll just leave it hanging there for you.