HOLD TIGHT!

HOLD TIGHT because we live in challenging financial times that feel out of control.

Our attempts to spend our way out of this sluggish economy didn't' work. We owe 18+ trillion.  The young cannot get jobs.  The (ahem) older retirees feel their savings hedge on the future melting because savings accounts no longer deliver interest payments.  There is more governmental dependence and less free enterprise.

Into that scenario, what can help us dig out of our hole?  Can you think of any economic success story these days?  If there were one, wouldn't it be in all the news?

Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin has a comeback model that has proven results.

The Governor's conservative policies saw considerable opposition.  He is a "red" governor elected in a "blue" state.  Wisconsin is strong in public teacher unions and they came against him with guns blazing.

The unions intimidated loudly and imported protestors, flooding the capital.  That didn't work.  They tried to recall him and funneled more than $80 million into the recall election (as compared to $37.4 spent on the 2012 election).  There were threats against the Governor and his family.

But Scott Walker stood firm throughout.  And the people in Wisconsin who had voted 52% for him the first time... voted 53% for him in the recall election.

Now the state has a $1 billion budget surplus and an unemployment number far below the national rate.  As of December, it was 6.2% and is falling.  He is proposing a $504 million dollar property/income tax cut to return some surplus to the people.  HIS POLICIES HAVE WORKED!

If you didn't know about this, ask yourself...why?  Why wouldn't the media pick up this bit of good news so it can be celebrated and copied?  Don't we need financial solvency?

Ask yourself something else.  Why was this good man (and his family) threatened during this whole process?  What is WRONG with opposition that tries to destroy "the other side" because of differing political views?  Is their position so indefensible that it can't stand or fail based on its merits?

Conservative values WORK.  But there has not been a conservative able to articulate our position since Ronaldus Maximus, The Great Liberator.

Next weekend a meeting is scheduled at Amelia Island in Florida to gather Republicans (John Boehner, Eric Cantor,  Kevin McCarthy and 25 other members of Congress) to collaborate with a group dedicated to defeating conservatives in Congress.  Shame on them.

Conservative principles founded the Republican party and conservatives are not the ones who have left the tent.  We need policies from grown-ups like Governor Scott Walker, not more watered-down Republicans.  We are desperate for leadership and a firm hand on the tiller.

This VIDEO offers a breath of fresh air and the possibility that (as Bob Dylan would have said) "the times they are a'changin".

ROSANNE

Mike and I can finally agree on a Cash!

Friday night we went to see Rosanne Cash at the Walton Arts Center and the show was a delight!  We LOVED her...and her strong voice that filled the room.

Rosanne sure got her Daddy's love for telling a story in song.

How would we describe Rosanne's music?  Her style is more varied than just country; we heard everything from blues to rock-n-roll to slow ballads.  Her band had some of the best guitarists we've seen and it was fun to watch her guitar war with her talented husband and with another band member on the lap steel guitar.

At 58, Rosanne Cash seems to be at a "making peace with the past" place.  She and her husband, John Levanthal, chose a tour through the South and wrote songs about their impressions.  Here is a LINK to the CBS Sunday Morning segment which explains her journey.

The evening's first set played through her new album called "A River And A Thread".  Here are words from one of the songs:

I'm going down to Florence

Gonna wear a pretty dress

I'll sit on top the magic wall

With the voices in my head.

Then we'll drive on through to Memphis,

Past the strongest shores

And on to Arkansas

Just to touch the crumbled soul.

Rosanne has that pathos that she inherited from her Daddy, eh?  When she introduced that song, she said she couldn't wait to sing the word "Arkansas" IN Arkansas.  She had the crowd eating out of her hand and they roared their approval.

Another thing we particularly liked was the way Rosanne set up each song.  When she introduced "The Sunken Lands" (her song about the Delta where her Daddy was raised) she made reference to the 1811 New Madrid earthquake which caused the Delta to drop and the gumbo soil to be filled in.  Their homeplace in the Delta near Dyess, Arkansas, is where Rosanne is working in conjunction with ASU to redo her Daddy's small frame home.  This is the front porch of the Cash house.

If you saw the movie WALK THE LINE, you know that this little girl was raised in California after her parents divorced.

As an adult she lived in Nashville, but remarked that city felt like a fishbowl.  She and husband now live in New York City.

Everyone knows that Johnny Cash had his roots in gospel music.  John Leventhal told Rosanne that a collection of songs about the South would not be complete without a gospel song.

Rosanne told her audience "the two of us are not traditionally religious". But they wrote the song "Tell Heaven", a song full of "spiritual" and emotional words sans good news.

Heavy hearts in empty rooms

Tell heaven

The empty sky will never 

take our burdens

Something good will someday 

come our way

Tell heaven

This daughter of the South talks about being a "Buddhiscopalian", saying  "The Buddhist because I actually studied more about Buddhism than I did any other religion, and it makes the most sense to me - self-awareness, compassion, nonviolence, etc.  And Episcopalian because my girls went to an Episcopal school and I loved the church.  It's in Greenwich Village and they do a lot of outreach to gay, homeless, young people.  So that's a progressive church; they're very ecumenical."

People find it easy (as we did) to fall in love with this passionate woman who is so talented.  Rosanne says people write her all the time with concern about where she will spend eternity.  They ask "Don't you want to be with your Daddy?"  For whatever reason, this poet-from-such-pain hasn't found the Healer.

One of Rosanne Cash's songs is called "The Long Way Home".  I'm praying that her journey will end at home.

  

WHAT'S IT WORTH?

How do we determine what something is worth?  Yesterday was a good reminder of the value of things that are bartered, bought, or given freely.

I did a ridealong with Mike as he delivered something he had sold on Craig's list.  It was a carrying case for a bow/arrow that he bought so many years ago that he couldn't remember what he paid for it.

Yesterday he sold it for $30.  The buyer couldn't have found a case for anything close to that price, so the convergence of value, benefit, and price caused BUYER/SELLER BLISS.

Then we stopped by the Jeep dealership to pick up a part Mike had ordered when a carwash knocked the old one off.  See it over there in the white wrapper?  It was a piece of plastic formed in Mexico...just a black plastic disc about 2.5" in diameter.  It cost $27. REALLY?  I looked at it all the way home.

It put into perspective how much money will buy and inflation will steal.  Our recently acquired $30 flew away in a rather unequal exchange.  NO BUYERS BLISS.

Last night Condoleeza Rice spoke at UofA's Barnhill Arena.  It was FREE, but we didn't go because we didn't want to slosh/slip on the ice.  The Hogs were in town (beating Ole Miss on Seniors Night) and they drew 16,000...so Ms. Rice only drew 3,000.

We read in the paper this morning that she was paid $170,000.  I love Condi and I'm glad she commands that fee.  But isn't it crazy how much things cost?

According to the newspaper article, the former Secretary of State spoke on various subjects relevant to the  student's future/finding a match to how they were made.  But she also made remarks about Russia and about what an "intimidating and ruthless" man Putin is.  She said in their 2005 meeting, the Russian leader abruptly stood up.  So Rice instinctively did the same.  "I'm 5'10"; he's 5'7", Rice said.  "So at that moment, there was a little bit of a standoff.  He's an intimidator.  It's important to let him know you're not intimidated."

In this dance between what something is worth vs. what it costs, the University of Arkansas set value on ideas.  I hope those college students (and adults) who landed on a rare free opportunity...were challenged by this accomplished woman.  I wish we had heard her.

What do you value?  Won't we take ideas over plastic any day?  The best things in life ARE free.

One day when this earth is done, the plastic will melt like snow.  The two preeminent ideas...the ideas that God the Father loves us fully and has the next destination prepared...will rule the day.  Amazingly, that assurance is free (to us) for the asking.  It is pure BLISS to consider amazing grace.  Are you familiar with this older verse from the song "Amazing Grace"?

THE EARTH SHALL SOON DISSOLVE LIKE SNOW

THE SUN FORBEAR TO SHINE;

BUT GOD, WHO CALL'D ME HERE BELOW

WILL BE FOREVER MINE.

OUTSIDE THE BOX

It must have been the late 70's when Mike and I first heard of Fellowship Bible Church.  It was a new church in town and I can remember being curious because it seemed to do church differently. People were engaged and "gung-ho" as if their lives depended on it.

Church for us had been a predictable order of service which could actually be timed (to the minute) when we would stand and repeat the same words.  But Fellowship didn't sound predictable at all.

One day our little kids came home from playing with neighbors, asking "can we go to the Orahood's church?" That was Fellowship. We heard of a class that met in Steve and Shay Freeman's house where you could find out more about Fellowship and what they believed.  Finding the Freeman's house on a dark night was way more proactive than just showing up on Sunday morning.  But we wanted to know more and we began to feel like this was the tip of something big.  Here's what we discovered:

MODUS OPERANDI
Fellowship met in Pulaski Academy's gym, and then later in a movie theatre.  It was fun to be exiting the movies while people with popcorn were arriving.  We began to understand more clearly that a church was not a building.  The pastors were paid, but everyone else volunteered.  Teams of men pitched in to pack/unpack trailer loads of furniture and curriculum into a rented space every week.  All that effort floored us.

SHARED PULPIT
Pulpit leadership as a plural responsibility?  All we had ever seen was a "senior pastor/associate pastor" hierarchy.  Fellowship's concept came from a desire for the balance and safety of mutual submission to the Spirit.

COMMUNITY
There was a friendly and engaging reception the minute you stepped into the building.  In fact, it felt like everyone was on the greeter committee.   In those smaller days, there was an early time for donuts/coffee in the back.  Often there was a sharing service where people stood with a mic and told how the Lord was answering prayer or how they had applied the teaching in their lives.  All these things built community and we liked that feeling.

NITTY GRITTY
Home groups were another new thing to us.  We found when you've been in one another's homes and have "done life" together, it helps you belong to one another.  Often people have said "Oh, I don't like a large, impersonal church and I would never feel a part."  That would be true if not for small groups.

Of course, church is just like anything else...you get out what you put in.  If you push past a Sunday drop-in and make yourself go into homes, your circle of friends expands.  Jesus is the thing you have in common and He is greater than any differences.

WORSHIP
Can we "amen" that the worship style and music are huge?  We were made to worship and worship is the vehicle which takes us to God.

Perhaps you have known of churches who have split over the hymnal vs. praise music conundrum.  This is just my opinion, but I think music is the biggest dividing wall in the church hour.  People call it the "segregated" hour, but I don't think the separation is over skin color, but rather music style.

The Lord made us all differently and some worship seamlessly with Southern gospel, some with hymns, others with praise, and others with the more soulful sound of black churches.  Surely the Lord is less concerned with the "how" and more concerned with the "want to".

There are people of every stripe at Fellowship....and the worship team is always trying new things.  One Sunday they might have a hymn which morphs into a praise chorus.  Another day they were just as likely to have a string quartet as a banjo ensemble.  We used to say the music at Fellowship was like Arkansas weather...you just wait.

LEADERSHIP

Our church experience went from a fifteen minute sermon (with an added Bible verse)...to a forty minute line-by-line expository teaching that made the Bible come alive.  Mike and I love these three fine men who taught together for over 25 years...Robert Lewis, Bill Wellons, and Bill Parkinson.

There's just something to be said for the person who brings you closer to the Lord, marries your kids, and buries your parents.  

Robert and Sherard Lewis and family

Bill and Carolyn Wellons and family

Bill and Ann Parkinson and family

Later Dan Jarrett and Tim Lundy were added to the teaching team.  What amazing Bible teachers!  Dan stole my heart when he met with our son for early morning discipleship times.  Mike loves Tim because they worked together closely on FBC's new building.

Dan and Kathy Jarrett (and their five children) now serve at ChangePoint Church in Anchorage, Alaska. 

Tim and Lea Lundy who now serve at Venture Christian Church in Los Gatos, California.

Mike and I were spiritual babies "raised" at Fellowship Bible Church for over thirty years. Fellowship was where all the pieces of the life puzzle fit together for us, bringing heaven to earth.  Now we WANTED to go to church rather than feel guilty if we DIDN'T go to church.  My life today depends on this communion, so I guess now I'm Ms. Gung-Ho, too!

P.S.  All the glory goes to God for His good plans for us and for His impeccable timing.  And I'm also proud of my husband.  Mike counts one of God's best gifts to him as his post-retirement, ten-year job at Fellowship as their liason between the church and their constant construction.   The new building construction (see pics below...with three venues, each designed for a particular worship style) was completed in May of 2009.  Then our move to Fayetteville was two months later.

Main Worship Venue

The Warehouse

The Chapel

VOICES OF AMERICA/GERALD HOLLAND

Mike brought the paper to show me a  letter to the editor of our paper by a Mr. Gerald Holland from Bella Vista.  We do not know Mr. Holland, but I found his words worth repeating.

Gerald Holland was answering an atheist professor here at the university who had written a letter about how bothered he was that 30% of Americans believe the Bible literally.

I'll not name the professor, but he is just one example of the full court press against biblical thinking in today's colleges and universities.

Here's Mr. Holland's letter...IN HIS OWN WORDS:

"This 30% (of Biblical literalists) bothers the professor a lot and he would be less concerned if those people didn't take the Bible so literally.  The prof is also scared of Islamic terrorism, but to be on the safe side, he wants all to know that he loathes Christian conservatism just as much.

Does the professor think the Islamic terrorists would be good if 30% of Americans quit believing that the Bible is literal?  Would he be content if 15% were literalists?  Or would he need 0% Biblical literalists in order to sleep well?

If it's true that 30% of Americans are Biblical literalists, nearly all of them are peaceful, law-abiding, working, self-supporting, charitable citizens.  The fact that many of them don't vote should soothe the professor's nerves.  The presence and influence of his dreaded 30% in the press, entertainment, education, Congress and the White House is virtually nil.

However, fundamental, conservative Christianity does have a legacy.  It includes hospitals, orphanages, schools, charities, disaster relief, feeding the hungry, valuing human life, patriotism, financial responsibility, faith, comfort and spiritual guidance."

Mr. Holland goes on to say "I will credit the nonbelievers.  They have managed to hide their legacy "under a bushel", as Jesus said.  Communism, fundamental atheism's first monster child, reigned for 70 years in the bloody twentieth century.  This twisted utopia that the left and atheism now softly censure publicly (while privately admiring) starved, tortured, shot, and worked to death 100 million people in "peace time".  Add to this America's fifty million babies killed in the womb, which, at the core, is the atheistic concept that human life is just a mass of pulsating flesh.

Christian conservatives should keep in mind that the professor is typical of higher education's teaching establishment that tries to tear down everything your children learned at home and at church...just as soon as they get the power of passing or failing them.

He and his comrades disdain others as ignorant, backward bigots and believe their life-work is to remold our youth into liberal secularists and atheists.  Check carefully the institutions and faculties before turning your children over to smug atheists who despise our values.

Think of it also when the public colleges regularly raise fees and complain about needing more taxpayer money while taking five-six years to grant worthless degrees and put our kids deeper into debt."

Thank you, Mr. Holland, for speaking up.

MONUMENTS AND PEACE TALKS

MONUMENT'S MEN was a good popcorn movie.  It was a "true" story with exciting moments and inspiring moments which allowed the swell of patriotism.  How welcome!

The premise was a little hard to swallow when it asked us to believe that seven men could accomplish the mission.  In fact, history records that over 300 undertook the assignment.  But we can handle that tweak because Monument's Men gave us a lot that is right to celebrate.

Besides, with a limited number of characters, girls can gaze into Matt Damon's eyes and they can study Bill Murray's face, a canvas that records amazing emotion.  And then there's George.  It struck me as I watched the movie that George Clooney is our Clark Gable.

And for the guys, there's shoot-em-ups and explosions.

Yesterday Netflix delivered THE REMAINS OF THE DAY.  It was nominated for 8 Academy Awards and was a period piece, true to detail.  But oh, it was like paint drying.  The only explosions in that one were within Anthony Hopkins, whose face only barely gave them away.  Very British.  Hopkins was the "Mr. Carson" of an English estate before WW2 and the story was about how his employer, the Earl of Darlington, was completely duped by the Germans.

While the honorable Lord Darlington carried on high level peace conferences at his estate (pushing for German appeasement), the Germans were accelerating toward war.

Late in the movie, a German contingency arrived at the manor and were put in his study, where they peered intently at his art.  And under the cover of their own language, the German ambassador coldly told his assistant to "mark the Renoir down for later".  Monument's Men helped us understand that reference!

It's hard not to see history repeating today as Secretary of State John Kerry now goes about to conferences singing "give peace a chance" while our adversaries have quite another agenda.  They SAY they want to kill us; they DEMONSTRATE they are killers.  Other world leaders warn us.  Yet we are smitten with promises from Syria to remove chemical weapons...and from Iran that they have peaceful use for their nuclear arsenal.

More alarming still is yesterday's news from Secretary Kerry.  Speaking to Indonesian college students on his tour, he oddly remarked "Climate change can now be considered another weapon of mass destruction, perhaps the world's most fearsome weapon of mass destruction."  

What?  We stare down Iran's REAL nuclear acceleration, Syria's REAL chemical weapons, the REAL intentions of Russia and China, the Arab Spring's REAL terroristic volatility, and nuclear North Korea's coldblooded boy-leader's REAL malevolence.  Yet Secretary Kerry would have us believe that sparkly thing out in left field (the unsettled science) is settled science which is a weapon of mass destruction.  Really, Secretary Kerry?  While declared intentions have no connection to reality?

Methinks if the weather will get us, the weather will have to get in line.  Good grief!  Flat Earth Society, indeed.

The Monument's Men had noble loyalties while Lord Darlington's loyalties were misguided.  Was Darlington's understanding based on a high IQ, but low common sense?  Either way, his good sense did not serve him well.  With a ruined name after the war, Lord Darlington was ostracized as a traitor and died alone.

But we should not be confused.  Lord Darlington was a character in a movie, but the real British appeaser was Neville Chamberlain (pictured below).  In Chamberlain's day, the Nazi threat was just as real as today's terrorism threat.  Lord, give us leadership who realize that.

THE IMPERIAL, THE RED-FACED, AND THE VITALS

THE IMPERIAL.
Guess who's been tweaking again?

The President has imperiously messed with his own law, delaying non-compliance punishment for a business with 50-99 employees until 2016.

That makes 27 times he has either delayed a deadline or given a waiver or postponed consequences. This arbitrary decision politically manipulates the law to affect the piece of time leading up to an election.  (Translation: the Democratic boat is taking on water over Obamacare and the President has to protect the electorate from his punitive plan.)

Sage Steele

A lady on "The View" may have stumbled onto some truth about Obamacare during their DISCUSSION about the new CBO numbers.  A disappointed Barbara Walters opined "I can't remember a president who hasn't tried to implement universal healthcare.  Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter...all unsuccessfully pushed for a national healthcare act.  We know that Bill Clinton and Hillary tried and failed.  This is the mountain they can't climb."

Then Sage Steele said "AND MAYBE THERE'S A REASON...MAYBE THIS IS THE PROOF POSITIVE THAT THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO DO IT."

I don't know Ms. Steele, but her mother named her well; Sage must be a sage.  She joins others, who from the beginning have said they hoped the country would not have to suffer through the trial of such an ill-fated plan.  We can literally watch Obamacare take our country down month by month.  How can it be possible to spend a projected two TRILLION and not have ANYTHING but chaos to show for it?  This president is proving it can be done.

                                                                                                                                                                         

George Tsunis, Ambassador to Norway

THE RED-FACED.
Know what's embarrassing?  We had several ambassador nominations (Norway, Argentina, and Hungary) just approved.

This LINK shows an astounding cluelessness from them all.  The new ambassador to Norway spoke of the Norway's president (they have a monarchy), the new ambassador to Argentina has never been there, and the nominee to Hungary is a soap opera producer.  What do they all have in common?  They were big bundlers for the president.

Political rewards aren't new and if these people care to do a good job, they can learn.  Still, the stunning lack of foreign policy expertise (or even a cursive glance at the Wiki page for Norway) is cause for a red face.

THE VITALS.
The embarrassing things won't kill us, but tinkering with big things can.  The economy, healthcare, and our protection from terrorists are all vital.  Plus one more.  Americans are also concerned about a thuggish IRS.  All these things are serious because they come directly into our homes.

We see HEALTHCARE side effects and are appalled.  If this thing was as wonderful as advertised, people would be begging to join.

The ECONOMY has stalled for five years, and the recession is still blamed.  HOW ABOUT DOING SOMETHING THAT HELPS?

We desperately need jobs.  Disincentive not only steals jobs, it kills the human spirit.  So the biggest help would be to get rid of the jobs killer, Obamacare.  That's what is squashing new enterprise, holding back the addition of employees, and making impossible business' future plans.  How could anyone budget their employer requirements for the next year?

Stonewalling is dragging out THE IRS INVESTIGATIONS.

There are six on-going investigations about what the IRS has done.  The President has said there's not a smidgen of corruption, but unless he has a crystal ball, he doesn't KNOW what the outcome of the probe will be.

(Ummm...unless he put a person in charge of the probe who had maxed out campaign contributions to him.)

TERRORISM exists with actual people who want to kill us and then control the world.

So then why has it taken the President so long to even SAY the word "terrorism"?  Why did he say AlQaeda was on the run?  Why have we entered into an agreement with Iran, giving away the cookies and getting nothing but unkept promises?  What about Syria's promises to remove chemical weapons?  They've removed 4%.  Who actually thinks Iran/Syria will keep their word?

Our military stands vigilant between us and the uncivilized.  Yet the military is reduced and compromised with ridiculous rules of engagement and social engineering.  In the last five years, every tinhorn dictator on the planet has poked us in the eye.  Every "spring" in the Arab world has sprung.  And countries who have been loyal allies for decades have left our side.

We need a leader (not a king) who understands the way forward.  We need informed public servants whose desire is to serve their country.  And we can tell Barbara Walters that there were several good presidents she forgot...ones who knew not to mess with the vitals.  Lord, give us another one.