Winter weather

So I am either crazy or downright insane as I write this post, but oh well. I am sitting at my church because I am caroling in between our Christmas programs. Now what makes this crazy is that snow is blowing and drifting and it is in the single digits outside and we are in a blizzard warning area. Like I said I may be a bit crazy. Oh well. That's just life when you live in Michigan.

Obama in Michigan

Well I have to confess that I did something I'd never done before and that is go to the rally of a political speaker. More to the point going to hear Barak Obama speak. The Van Andel was comfortably full. At about 5:45 they must have closed the doors because we didn't see that many more people trickle in. Also about that time Dad called Lisa saying that John Edwards had just landed and was going to endorse Obama. It started about 6:30. I've got to say Obama is a good motivational speaker. He's really motivated the young adults of this country to actually get out and vote. Topics of interest for the night:

Cutting Poverty in half if he were in office Question how??
Troops coming home in 2009 -- ideally maybe reality not likely. Perhaps starting to bring them home by the end of 2009, but complete removal???? It all depends on what the situation is.
Universal health care -- not so bad an idea.
Jobs no tax breaks for companies who move to Mexico.
--NAFTA was a bad idea in the first place

A lot of good ideas, but no thought as to how he'd implement them. Part of my concern with Obama is that he's an inexperienced, but that could be a good thing, as Lisa pointed out, because he's not corrupt.
All in all it was an enlightening evening.

Getting Ready

Well it officially feels like I'm doing this missions trip. I just got the package of information from HCJB. I've been complaining on the lack of hours from work, but perhaps that is just God's gift of extra time to start preparing letters without feeling exhausted. Even though the trip is six months away it will go by in no time. I even found myself looking at travel journals in Barnes and Nobles as I won't be taking my computer with me.

The Jesus Problem

At dinner we were talking and Dad mentioned that a lot of people were in an uproar over the fact that on American Idol gives back they sang, "Shout to the Lord". I don't watch American Idol because frankly there are a lot better things to be watching. However when something like this comes about I'll pay slightly more attention. If you haven't seen it here it is for you to view.


The very fact they sang "Shout to the Lord" was surprising because the song is overtly Christian even for American Idol. The kicker was when he said they changed "Jesus" to Shepherd. Qu'est-ce que HUH??? This is why everyone was making an uproar (well that and people of different faiths were making noise that they chose a Christian song). So I watched it and it was just as Dad said. What really irritates me is this mentality, "we can sing about God so long as we don't mention the name of Jesus and by changing it to something else people won't really know. Even though this song is sung in practically every church it North America." Not to mention the rest of the song screams CHRISTIAN. I mean I've read some posts that think it's awesome that American Idol was singing a Christian song and yeah it is, but this reminds me of what Pastor Paul talked about back in the fall. People don't have a problem with God, but as soon as Jesus enters the picture people have a problem. Some people have argued that Shepherd is just another name of Jesus. But the problem is we live in an age where Jesus isn't welcomed. The only reason it would be removed is because they didn't want to offend people. I think it's rather disingenuous for the downloadable itunes version they left Jesus in. Personally I would have rathered they either left Jesus in for both versions or left it out for both versions.