40 Days of Prayer

A few months ago I read about THIS. It's a brochure called 40 Days of Prayer Supporting Women Everywhere (except the womb). I added the last part, for accuracy's sake. Planned Parenthood published this list of 40 short prayers they're encouraging their supporters to pray through. It's one of the saddest things I think I've ever seen. I went through each of their 40 prayers, and then I wrote 40 of my own prayers which I will be praying instead of the ones they wrote.

Day 1. Today we pray for women for whom pregnancy seems like bad news, that they know it is a blessing from God.

Day 2. Today we pray for compassionate religious voices to speak out for the dignity of the unborn, who cannot speak for themselves.

Day 3. Today we pray for our daughters and granddaughters, that they will always know the power of doing good instead of evil.

Day 4. Today we pray that a knowledge of the truth will penetrate the hearts of those who provide abortions and that they will repent of their evil actions.

Day 5. Today we pray for a change of heart and mind in those medical students who want to include abortion care in their practice. May you, O Lord, place godly men and women in their lives who will teach them your truth and keep them from embarking on such a terrible endeavor.

Day 6. Today we pray for women who are introduced to abortion alternatives. Guide them to those alternatives and not to abortion clinics.

Day 7. Today we pray for the 50+ million lives that have been taken as a result of legal abortion. Have mercy on those who have willingly participated in this horrifying massacre.

Day 8. Today we pray for elected officials, that they will fight bravely to overturn laws that support the killing of the unborn.

Day 9. Today we pray for women who are afraid of their abusive lovers. May they find the confidence to turn away from abuse and take care of themselves.

Day 10. Today we pray for women who are joyfully expecting a child but have learned that there are complications with the pregnancy. We ask for your healing hand of comfort to be over them, and that the lives involved will be kept safe.

Day 11. Today we pray for our society which has come to see sex as an impersonal way to receive a quick pleasure fix with no further significance or consequence. Draw us back to you, Lord Jesus.

Day 12. Today we pray that women know the power of your story, Father. May they hear your voice and learn your truth.

Day 13. Today we pray for men to act like men, that they will take responsibility for their actions, and fight for life.

Day 14. Today we pray for Christians everywhere to stand firm in their faith, knowing that they will be scorned by the world for believing in Truth.

Day 15. Today we pray for parents whose teen daughters are pregnant. May they help their daughters through this difficult time with godly guidance, wisdom and truth.

Day 16. Today we pray for the counselors in abortion clinics, that they will work diligently to provide life-supporting alternatives to abortion.

Day 17. Today we pray for increased moral and social support for low income women so they can know your design for human sexuality.

Day 18. Today we pray for all the staff at abortion clinics around the nation. Lord, convict them by your Spirit of the deadly practice in which they are involved, and give them the courage to repent and turn to you.

Day 19. Today we pray for all pregnant women. We thank you for the gift of life you have entrusted to their care, and may they be surrounded by loving voices - most of all yours.

Day 20. Today we pray for women and their families who still regret and mourn the loss of siblings and children due to legal abortion.

Day 21. Today we pray for women in developing nations, that they will know the dignity and worth they have as created beings in your image, and that they will have access to the support necessary for raising their children.

Day 22. Today we pray earnestly for an end to all violence against your beloved creatures simply because they exist in a womb.

Day 23. Today we give thanks for the strong women in our lives who have given us examples of what it means to value life.

Day 24. Today we pray for an end to the selfishness and pride that leads humans to eliminate the lives you have entrusted to their care.

Day 25. Today we pray for women who have been deceived into thinking that killing the defenseless is somehow powerful.

Day 26. Today we give thanks for the intelligence, talent, wit, and wisdom you have given the females in our lives, and we pray against the ignorance and power that some use toward evil ends.

Day 27. Today we grieve the wretchedness of abortion and pray that the lack of concern for unborn girls be turned around.

Day 28. Today we pray for the women who have been taught that traveling hundreds of miles for an abortion is an acceptable (even desirable) response to pregnancy. May you open their eyes to the beauty of life and to your word of truth.

Day 29. Today we pray that all women will know that they are created in your image, just as the life you've placed inside them is.

Day 30. Today we pray for women to know your forgiveness and that your redemption gives freedom from all sins, past and future.

Day 31. Today we pray for all discrimination against the unborn to cease.

Day 32. Today we pray for a spirit of conviction and repentance to wash over women who have had abortions, and a spirit of forgiveness and peace as well.

Day 33. Today we offer a prayer of remembrance for aborted children who lost their lives because of the selfishness of the "strong."

Day 34. Today we pray that people will see the irony of ensuring the safety of women who enter abortion clinics only to end a life once inside.

Day 35. Today we pray for girls everywhere, particularly those who have not yet been born - that they will be spared from legal homicide.

Day 36. Today we repent of the same sin Adam & Eve committed in the garden. Every day we seek to take your place, God, by choosing who lives and who dies.

Day 37. Today we claim, on behalf of those who can't do it themselves. the right to life of the unborn.

Day 38. Today we pray for a cloud of uneasiness to surround every abortion facility. May everyone at these facilities feel the need for regret and repentance.

Day 39. Today we pray for a contagious love to overflow from our spirits into those who are not yet born.

Day 40. Today we weep and mourn that abortion is still legal, and we recognize that it is, by definition, the most unsafe thing an unborn child can possibly face.

A time capsule full of people

The folks at BathroomReader.com are giving away an Uncle John's Bathroom Reader book every day in June on their blog. You simply have to comment on their blog with an answer to the day's question, and you're entered to win.

Today's question was, "You are in charge of filling a time capsule to be opened 500 years from now. What items (up to 10) would you put in it to tell the future about the world in 2012?"


Here's what I wrote:


More than items, I think people would be able to better communicate life in 2012 to people alive in 2512. Therefore, I would make the time capsule a cryogenic freezer and include:
1. Justin Bieber
2. Ken Jennings (they need someone really smart to balance out most of the rest of this list)
3. Bill Maher (because at least that’d get him out of OUR lives; he can try to screw up a different generation)
4. Brian Regan (so they could get a glimpse of good humor from the past)
5. LeBron James
6. Albert Pujols
7. Tom Brady (these three would give an idea of what our athletes are like)
8. Bill Gates (in case there’s been a global apocalypse and someone needs to reinvent the computer)
9. Aaron Sorkin (someone’s going to have to write good television)
10. Perez Hilton (mostly for the same reason as #3, but also to find out if he could make a living in a world without Beyonce and Johnny Depp)


How about you? Any other items or people you'd put in a time capsule?

"So what's the sitch?" - Kim Possible

I'm sick. I almost never get sick, but this week I definitely am. I took a sick day yesterday -- which is the first one I've taken since beginning this job more than three years ago.

Being sick apparently means being home. Without much to do. For a much larger chunk of the week than when you're not sick. So I read The Hunger Games the other day, which we borrowed from a friend. It was good (although I was expecting at least a little competitive eating to be involved). Now Elizabeth's reading it. Which means I have plenty of time to write this blog post.

We're moving. Kinda. Sorta. But not really. But maybe.

A little over a month ago I found out that I passed my comprehensive exams for my MA program. That was a huge relief. After taking the exams I did not feel confident that I had performed well enough to pass. Thankfully, the Biblical studies faculty at Denver Seminary disagreed with me.* So now I'm completely done with all course work and all exams. Literally the only thing left for me to do before they'll give me a degree is write a thesis. I know, I know, writing a thesis is no small task. But here's the thing: it can be done in evenings and on weekends and it can be done from anywhere that's somewhat near a decent theological library (technically, it could probably be done from a mud hut in the Gobi Desert, but it'd take longer and be much more difficult). So, Elizabeth and I have started the job search process which we hope will lead at least one of us to full time employment in our area of interest. We also hope that this employment will be somewhere in the midwest closer to some family. We've both applied for numerous positions in numerous locations and although we have our own preferences, we will be following God's call and we'll go wherever he wants us to (but I really hope it's not a mud hut in the Gobi Desert).

I'm currently in phase 2 of the selection process for a job at a Christian high school here in Denver, so it's certainly possible that we'll remain here at least another year. I've also submitted applications for jobs in the Quad Cities, Des Moines, and the Twin Cities. Elizabeth has applied in some of those places too, but also has the option of staying at her current position for the next school year if we stick around.

SO, we could be moving as soon as a job shows up, or we could be remaining here. Both of us have a fairly strong desire to be back in the midwest. It's an exciting time for us, but it can also be very frustrating when we get rejected from jobs we've applied for, and it's a little tough not knowing how much longer before we'll be heading into something different.

And there you have it. I figured if I'm not good enough to post something regularly here, the least I could do was give both of my faithful readers an update on the lives of Jake & Elizabeth.

*Though I can't shake this nagging feeling that the Seminary's Biblical studies department just wants to finally be rid of me, and they knew that passing me was their only hope...

Some statements

After more than two months of blog silence, here are some statements I'd like to express publicly (to both of you).

I am young.
I am well educated.
I am intelligent.
I am a Christian.
I am not a pacifist.
I believe in helping the poor and disadvantaged.
I am unlikely to vote for President Obama in November.
I am not racist.
I can and do think logically.
I do not despise the notion of church or denominations.
I oppose the legalization of same-sex marriage.
I am not a bigot (nor am I Bigfoot).
I believe in absolute truth.
I believe all people are sinful.
I believe abortion should be illegal.
I believe Americans should be free to own guns.
I believe that the U.S. Constitution is important.
I believe in both heaven and hell, and I do not believe that everyone ends up in heaven.
I love Jesus Christ and seek to serve him in all I do.
I fear for the future of religious freedom in America.

I understand that many people don't believe all of these statements can be true... but they are.

Moneyball

I've seen a lot of comments online in the last few days about the movie Moneyball. I can only assume it's because of the movie's recent release on DVD. Whatever the reason, I thought it might be a good time to give you some of my thoughts on this movie. Spoiler Alert (if something that has already happened historically can be considered "spoiled").


I'll start with this: Moneyball is a very good movie. It's witty and very well-written (to be expected from Aaron Sorkin). It's much funnier than I anticipated. Brad Pitt's fantastic. Jonah Hill and Philip Seymour Hoffman are also great. The story is engaging and entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the movie, and would recommend it to others.

BUT. I find the movie to be factually inaccurate and historically misleading. Now, before you roll your eyes and tell me how every "based on a true story" movie is inaccurate, let me make my point by pointing out some other "based on a true story" sports movies and their relation to reality.

Movie: Miracle
Main point: The United States hockey team pulled what is probably the biggest upset in sports history by defeating the Soviets in the 1980 Olympics.
History tells us: Exactly the same thing.

Movie: Remember the Titans
Main point: A newly integrated Virginia high school must overcome a racial divide; the school's football team comes together as friends and wins the state championship.
History tells us: Exactly the same thing (well, I guess I can't confirm that anyone on the team was friends with anyone else, but they did overcome their racial differences to win state).

Movie: Rudy
Main point: A small, athletically and academically limited young man works his tail off to get a spot on one of the greatest college football teams in the country: the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
History tells us: Exactly the same thing.

Movie: The Rookie
Main point: A high school math teacher & baseball coach in his 30s tries out for the major leagues. Against all odds, Jim Morris's arm gives him the opportunity to fulfill his dream of playing professional baseball.
History tells us: Exactly the same thing.

Obviously, each of these movies takes liberties with the truth. Reality was probably not as dramatic, or as funny, or as entertaining. But the main points of each of these movies is absolutely in line with historical reality. On the other hand, you have...

Movie: Moneyball
Main point: The GM of the low-budget Oakland A's changes the game of baseball when his team succeeds after he employs new techniques for evaluating players & finds a way to put together a winning team with one of baseball's lowest payrolls.
History tells us: Not really.

The film opens at the end of the 2001 season, as the A's (who had gone 102-60 that year) lose in the first round of the playoffs. In the offseason the A's lose a couple of their stars to big-money teams, and GM Billy Beane is forced to fill those gaps with very little money. He teams up with stat-keeping nerd Peter Brand and together they go against all the team's scouts and its team manager and hire misfits & nobodies who, they determine, are undervalued but can help them win. At one point in the 2002 season, the A's win something like 22 straight games to set a major league record (which is true, by the way). But then near the end of the movie, you watch as the A's (who had gone 103-59 that year) lose in the first round of the playoffs. So what did the "moneyball" strategy accomplish? Well, the A's won exactly one more game with it than without it. And they got just as far in the playoffs.

Of course, then the Red Sox try to hire Beane because they're so impressed with what he did with his Oakland club. So maybe in the long-run the "moneyball" strategy is the way to go? Well, Beane stayed with Oakland and here's what went down over the next decade:

2001 (year before Moneyball): 102-60, lost LDS

2002 (year of Moneyball): 103-59, lost LDS

2003: 96-66, lost LDS

2004: 91-71, no playoffs

2005: 88-74, no playoffs

2006: 93-69, got swept 4 games to 0 in ALCS

2007: 76-86, no playoffs

2008: 75-86, no playoffs

2009: 75-87, no playoffs

2010: 81-81, no playoffs

2011: 74-88, no playoffs

So, perhaps "moneyball" isn't the silver bullet the film makes it out to be?

Tellingly, the movie never mentions the fact that the 2002 Cy Young winner, Barry Zito, played for Beane's team. It also doesn't highlight that year's league MVP, Miguel Tejada, who also played for the A's. It focuses on the undervalued "misfits" like Chad Bradford and Scott Hatteberg, who were far less instrumental in the A's success than Zito, Tejada, and two other great pitchers, Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder.

The biggest problem I had with the stretching of the truth, however, came at the film's closing when a written sentence on the screen claimed that two years later (2004) the Boston Red Sox won the World Series "using Beane's philosophy." The claim is a boldfaced lie, and it disappointed me. The 2004 Red Sox had the second-highest payroll in the league (behind only the Yankees, who basically swim around in gold coins like Scrooge McDuck). Their roster included big-timers like Derek Lowe, Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield (and that's just the pitchers), Jason Varitek, Orlando Cabrera, Nomar Garciaparra, Kevin Youkilis, Johnny Damon (one of the stars the A's lost to the Red Sox after the 2001 season), Manny Ramirez, and David "Big Papi" Ortiz. If that's the "moneyball" strategy, then the movie does a pretty poor job explaining it.

I know I sound like a "scrooge" of some kind myself. But like I said above, I would recommend this movie for anyone who likes to be entertained, or anyone who thinks Brad Pitt is good-looking (*ahem* Elizabeth *ahem*). Its success, however, seems to play largely on the general population's unfamiliarity with the truth about recent Major League Baseball history.

A few books you should read

I think I read more books from October thru December of 2011 than I'd read in quite some time. Here are the ones I liked:

Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager by Buzz Bissinger.
Bissinger, the author of Friday Night Lights, spent much of the 2003 baseball season in the clubhouse of the St. Louis Cardinals, where he got to know the atmosphere of the team, its players, and its coaches. Three Nights in August chronicles a 3-game series from that season against the Cardinals' arch rival Chicago Cubs. The games are viewed through the eyes of Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa. It's a detail-packed book that gives new insight into baseball strategy. I'm a life-long baseball fan and still I learned things I never knew about how far ahead of the game a mind like LaRussa's is constantly working during a game. You don't have to be a Cardinals fan to enjoy this book, but you do need to enjoy baseball. (I was particularly engrossed in this book because I began reading it the day before the 2011 World Series, which the Cardinals would win a few days after I finished.)

Free to Choose: A Personal Statement by Milton & Rose Friedman.
I discovered Milton Friedman (by accident) when I came across some youtube videos of some of his lectures from the 70s & 80s. The Friedmans (Friedman & Friedwoman?) are economists who have championed free-market capitalism more influentially (perhaps) than anyone else in the last 50 years. Having never read anything on economics before, I found Free to Choose to be quite accessible. It basically makes the case for a small-government free enterprise system. If you're not already an economic conservative, these two might make you one!

Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard.
No matter what you think of Bill O'Reilly's politics, you won't find them in this book. It's worth reading for anyone remotely interested in the events of April, 1865. Even though I was pretty sure I knew the climax of the story (Lincoln gets assassinated -- sorry for the spoiler), I felt suspense all along, like I was reading a thriller or a murder mystery. I also learned a lot. Maybe I was just completely ignorant before picking it up, but all I really knew was that Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth. This book will take you behind the scenes of the conspiracy that unfolded in the week prior to the assassination, including the last few days of the Civil War itself. When I finished, I picked up another book on Lincoln, because it got me interested!

How, then, shall we raise kids?

It seems that everyone these days knows exactly how to raise kids... even if they don't have any kids of their own. I'm not talking as much about more specific things (should you spank your children? should you allow your kids to drink pop?), but more about bigger-picture things.

Secularists think that raising kids religiously is akin to child abuse. They call it "brainwashing" to teach your children that going to church and obeying God are important things. Abortion supporters believe that an unborn child's life should be ended if they are found to have (or even have a chance of having) mental or physical disabilities. Many would also support the abortion of an unborn child who is likely to be born into a family with few economic resources, and who might be raised in an impoverished home.

So why aren't there outcries against more things that could lead to discomfort in life? Cubs fans are allowed to teach their children to root for the Cubs without objection, even though the last 104 years has shown us that such children are likely in for a lifetime of sports-related hardship. Or what about Raiders fans? At a Raiders preseason game last August, two people were shot! Isn't it dangerous to raise your child to be such a monster? Aspiring artists and actors and musicians tend to not make very much money (a very small percentage succeed in hitting "the big time"). Should we forbid parents from allowing their children to sing in choirs, or major in art in college?

Just curious.

Top Posts of 2011

It's common this time of year for bloggers to write some kind of "year in review" post, usually highlighting their most popular posts of the year. In that spirit, I present to you the most popular posts (by number of comments) from 2011 here at The Cliffs of Insanity.

100 or more comments:
(none)


50 or more comments:
(none)

25 or more comments:
(none)

10 or more comments:
(none)


5 or more comments:
May 18: How Swift Am I? (5 comments, 3 of them consisted of 1 word or less, 1 of them was my own)
October 13: Probably the most political I've ever been on this blog (5 comments, 2 were my own)


Here's hoping for an even better 2012!