Pearl Harbor Day

It was 64 years ago on this date that we, the United States, were brought into the Second Great War, thus making it World War II. I had a chance to see Pearl Harbor this past May, it is a somber sight, seeing all of the names of the servicemen that died on all of those ships that day. Four years after the war started, do you think that we had war protesters? No. Did we have people questioning whether we should have gone into attack Nazi Germany, since it was the Japanese that attacked us? No. Instead, we did the right thing, we went after those who where oppressing people, nations of which we fought for and in which fight against us today. Fast forward 60 years from the attack on Pearl Harbor to 9/11. It was the first devestating attack on America since Pearl Harbor. This time we were attacked by a nationless people, cells of terrorists that are spread throughout this world. Again, we have a president that wants to do the right thing, go after the people responsible. Perhaps Iraq isn't the exact place where all the terrorists are, we know that there are some in Afganistan, but by bringing a war to Iraq, we bring the terrorists there instead of here. Further, we are making headway in that country by establishing a free people. Sure, I would love to know where the WMDs are, but the best we can say is that they are gone. But, it's interesting that Dems. are attacking the President on this issue, yet they saw the evidence of these weapons...hmmm. Or, what about the intelligence we had from France, Germany, and Russia that agreed with our own and the intelligence we had back from the Clinton era? Very interesting stuff. But, I think that we need to take a look at how our country supported our troops and government during World War II and perhaps take a page out of that time's history and do our best to serve our country.

Speaking of wars and our country...I must agree with Bill O'Reilly that we do have a culture war going on in our country that has been going on for decades, which has only hit mainstream over the past 10-15 years. This Christmas, somethings just seem completely out of hand between secularists and traditionalists (to use O'Reilly's language). I'm obviously pulling for the traditionalist side of things, being one myself. And I'm happy that Target has finally agreed to use the "Merry Christmas" phrase in their advertisements...should we ban stores that do not use this phrase, not necessarily. But I will say that if stores and other things in our culture do not want to use Christmas during this time of season, perhaps they should rethink how they market and also remember that Christmas shopping accounts for nearly 50% of all of their sales. But on that note, do we/have we Christians succumbed to society when it comes to the commercialism of Christmas? I think so. I do include myself in this judgement as well, even though I am becoming less and less about the gifts and becoming more and more about the "reason for the season." It shouldn't be about gifts or any of that crap, it is about Jesus Christ- the Son of God, that was born to die for all of humankind! Heck, get rid of all of that happy, joyful, whatever crap...not that those things are bad, but that's not exactly what Christmas is about. People want to make Christmas a "family day," or a time to be joyful for anything...that's a load... A true telling of the times is that there are tons of churches around our country that aren't going to be opened on Christmas day, which is on a Sunday. They say that it's a "family day," or "we have too many volunteers and we don't want them to work." Talk about allowing the culture to dictate the church! It's like those churches are saying, "We'll let you have your day off, because our culture has the day off too." Or, "Because we are already a hyper-individualistic culture; you do your thing, I'll do mine." Seriously, what the crap has happened? Now, I must add to that that my home congregation has never had Christmas day worship...which is sad. I've gone once, to Our Savior's Lutheran in Excelsior, MN for a Christmas Day service. But this year, I get to preach on Christmas Day at my church here in Florida! I'm actually excited for the day. I think that where ever I end up, I'm going to make sure that there is a Christmas Day service. Oh, and I like the idea of an Easter eve service too...but that's something for some other time.

Have you ever felt like you were coasting? I've felt that way all week long. I'm unmotivated to write my sermon for Sunday, actually, that's why I'm writing here, hopefully I can get the wheels turning. I think that I'm going to try to get a head start on my Christmas Day sermon as well, perhaps that will give me the necessary inspiration. But of course, it's the Word that inspires me, but perhaps looking at different texts from the Bible, will increase productivity for a sermon output for this coming Sunday. Oh, what's the bad part about coasting, is the attempt to do other things deminishes as well. Which is just sick. All that can be done is just asking God to git'r'dun (in Blue Collar terms). One thing that I do know about times of coasting is that you need to just push through it, even though the emotion might not be there, it will come back. Thank you Dr. Biermann for that. He's a seminary prof., that said that we should help out our people in churches to know that even though they may not want to go to church because they don't "feel" it, they should, because emotions will come and go and we shouldn't rely on our emotions to carry us to and from church, but the Word of God should be what leads us to want to go to church, the love that we respond to what God has given us, and and the fact that Christian fellowship is key for a Christians life. (Some of that is what he said, some of that is me adding on.)

Best Idea today: I'm on day three for consistant getting up, it's going well, so well, in fact that I forgot to set my alarm last night and woke up 2 minutes after 7, 7am is my get goal. (Even though I don't have to be at the office until 9.)
Worst Idea today: Coasting...I've already expressed myself on this issue. I also hate the feeling of being hungry too...I've had that all morning, even though I ate a good breakfast (yogurt, toast and OJ).