Michael W. Smith, fashion icon

My dear friend D.Lake has informed me that Michael W. Smith may have borrowed from Debbie Gibson. I would hate to think this is true, but you can't argue with the evidence. I think he at least borrowed her hat:

She loved her hats.

But did she ever rock the argyle t-shirt WITH THE ARGYLE BACKGROUND?

Game, set, match. Well played, Mr. Smith. Well played.

Go West, Young Man

Ah, Michael W. Smith. Your horrible 80's fashion and cheesy synth sounds cannot quell the fount of eternal wisdom that lies within you. After a thorough listen to the album "Go West Young Man", in particular the title track on repeat for several hours, my wife and I have decided to return to California. OK, we decided a couple of months ago, and I don't have that song or album. Thank God. We just need to save up enough money for the move and to cover the bills for a couple of months until we find employment in the fertile job market of Modesto. Yeah, that's sarcasm. We'll be renting a home from my parents, which is a total God thing, but everything else is as of yet undetermined. If you wanted to go ahead and pray for us, I wouldn't hold it against you.

By the way . . .

I'm gonna try to start blogging more regularly again. I took some time off, for whatever reason, but I'm back. Not daily, but at least a couple of times a week. You know you need it.

Why Obama?

Why am I supporting Obama? Since I've been inundated with this question (OK, no one has asked, but in my mind . . .), I figured I would let everyone in on my thought process. So here they are, the top 10 reasons I'm supporting Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential Election:
blush. Plus, I don't get Fox News anymore, so I have to endure unfair and unbalanced coverage.

10. The liberal media finally got to me. You gotta admit, the media loves this guy. They can't get too much B.O. The speeches, the hope, the ears. It's enough to make Wolf Blitzer blush.

9. I'm a closet Muslim, just like him. Let's elect Barack Obama for Allah (PBUH)!

8. I believe he is the greatest hope to destroy our nation the quickest. It's all right there in the book of Revelation. The United States is the great whore, and Obama is most likely the Anti-Christ. Bring on the end-times - daddy needs a new crown!

7. God has punished my move to Texas by melting my brain, thus making me a liberal. A lot of you know this - I used to be veerrrry conservative. Like Rush Limbaugh conservative. A card-carrying member of the "religious right". Wait . . . I never got a card. And Jerry Falwell's gone now. Damn.

6. This Texas heat has made me crazy. You know, Dallas is actually really conservative - so much so that we have the "George Bush Turnpike." You know, just north of "LBJ Freeway" and "Ronald Reagan Freeway". I'm not kidding. So I guess the Texas heat is no excuse. If anything, support for Obama would be a big fat proverbial finger to this God-forsaken city and state.

5. My "liberalization" is in reality rebellion against the Church. Because we all know the Bible tells us to vote Republican.

4. My wife has corrupted me. Well, I have married been just under a year, so sorry folks - this process began before my relationship with Jennifer. Can't blame her, I guess.

3. Going to college in Santa Cruz, even if it was a quite conservative Christian school, dragged me from my Republican mountaintop down to the dregs of society - the Democratic party. You know, this might be true . . .

2. I have unresolved psychological issues that are manifesting themselves through intentionally bad life choices. Like Ann Coulter, the most brilliant political mind the world has seen, says, liberalism is a mental disorder. It should logically follow that there is some yet-undiscovered Freudian root to this troubling symptom.

1. I actually believe he is the right candidate at the right time. Millions of people, myself included, are disillusioned with the American political process, and serious reforms, and yes, even inspiring speeches, are desperately needed to encourage those of us who haven't cared for years, to get involved in our country. Barack Obama seems to understand that politicians are not the key to the American success story - people like you and I are. If you don't like your government, change it. If you don't like your life, change it.

A Finite God?

Does God know the future? Seems like a pretty simple question. God is omniscient - He knows everything, so of course He knows the future. But there are those that believe that the future is as yet undetermined, and thus unknowable by God or anyone else. The main issue is that whole freewill thing. We obviously determine, in a sense, at least part of future with the decisions we make. And God certainly appears to change His mind at times. He bargained with Abraham regarding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. He regretted creating mankind and all but wiped them out with a flood. That whole Adam and Eve doesn't seem to have gone all that well.

First of all, let me reassure those of you reading that, yes, I do believe God is all-knowing. And I understand the concept of anthropomorphism, that we often attribute human characteristics to God for the sake of our puny human understanding, and so did the authors of the Bible. And there is certainly plenty of scriptural evidence that God knows the future; i.e. a buttload of prophecies that went down exactly as foretold. But do you think that somehow, God is (and I use this term veeerrrrry loosely, for fear of lightning strikes) limited in His view of the future? I've always believed that God lives concurrently in the past, present, and future, but does that mean that the future is already determined? Then what of freewill? Can God be both omniscient and have limited knowledge of the future? Any thoughts? Hello?

I am not a heretic, so put down those torches.

No, life is not fair

Today marks the 15th anniversary of my brother's death. Sean Douglas Rhinehart was 21 years old when the boxtruck that he was driving rear-ended a tractor-trailer, likely a result of Sean falling asleep at the wheel. He was survive by a wife, Starla, a son, Colton (2), and a son who was to be born just two weeks later. My brother and I were never close. He was five years older than me, and we were quite different. Sean took crazy risks, like jumping off of our roof into our above ground pool with a depth of about four feet. I do have some great memories of him (like when he was 15, chasing a potential home intruder down the street with a screwdriver), but I mostly have regrets, regrets in not taking advantage of the opportunity to have a brother. I miss Sean, but more than anything, I'm sad for all that he missed out on. What would he be like? What kind of father would he be today? Could we have been close after all? How would his kids' lives be different had he not been killed? Would he have provided them with the stability that their lives have sorely lacked? I don't know. Sure, he's "in a better place." But I can't help but wonder about the man he would be, the brother he would be, and how we would all be different. It's true--life is not fair. If it was, the world would never have suffered this loss. But God is faithful, and His grace is sufficient.

"The Wounded Healer"

I've decided recently to take a break from reading new Christian books, and take some time to connect to some of the classics, because basically, Truth hasn't changed. I love Brian McLaren and Donald Miller and Rob Bell and such, but for the most part, they aren't saying anything new. So I'm starting with The Wounded Healer, Henri Nouwen's 100-page answer to the question, "What does it mean to be a minister in contemporary society?" It's a little dry and heady at times (Nouwen was a professor at Yale Divinity School after all), but it's a great view of the future from 1971. Nouwen was a Catholic priest, but his works continue to have broad appeal to Protestants and Catholics alike. I really loved this quote about a pastor's vulnerability being the key to his ability to help others:

"Pastoral conversation is not merely a skillful tool of conversational techniques to manipulate people into the Kingdom of God, but a deep human encounter in which a man is willing to put his own faith and doubt, his own hope and despair, his own light and darkness at the disposal of others who want to find a way through their confusion and touch the solid core of life."

Of course, I believe this applies to all of us in the Church, but that a pastor should be open and vulnerable is a message come should here. Many believe that the pastor is an untouchable, unapproachable person, because, well, some of them are. Some prominent Christian personalities teach that it is their purpose to hear from God for their flock, and they are simply not to be bothered with the tedium of such tasks as washing their own cars or cleaning their own houses. The problem with this is that if you want to lead people, you should be able to relate to them. But enough about that. I'm trying to be more positive these days . . .

We so often make the mistake of underestimating the power of our own vulnerability. I think being able to be open and honest about our struggles as well as our triumphs, our messes as well as our successes (OK, I swear I didn't mean for that to rhyme. That would be lame. And that's no game.) is the one of the keys to effectively living in community. Not to mention it keeps us humble if we bear in mind how thoroughly we screw things up sometime.