Here’s the trailer for Pixar’s next summer movie. My kids are excited! You should be too.

A facelift is in progress.

Welcome to the new theRamblings.org website.

If you have my site bookmarked, you will need to change it (sorry) . All of the posts have been transfered. The blog continues with no interruption.

Same service. Same sarcasm. New look. More changes to come. Thanks for being here.

Today I begin something new. I’ve been transitioning towards it for the past few months, but today is a new day. At work, I’ve got some new shoes to fill. I’m stepping into the role of director over Arlington Youth Dynamics. Today is the first day I can use the ‘d’ word when referring to my job title.

Yes, it’s more work. Yes, it’s more responsibility. But I’m excited to see what God is going to do in the lives of youth in this little town. As overwhelming as it may seem, I was comforted in my quiet time this morning. I read this passage and it seemed to fit exactly what I’m experiencing.  It’s the advice the Lord gave to Joshua as he took over for Moses.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1:9

[Painting by Carol Aust]

I’ve been feeling bogged down lately. Partly it’s from stresses and burdens I’m carrying. I know that I shouldn’t be carrying them, but here I find myself again with an aching back feeling weighted down and restless. There’s those things in our livesthat seem to plague us. At times we forget they exist, then we get hit again. I let the worries of the world begin to get to me and before I know it, I’ve forgotten who I am. I let myself become defined by my burdens.  Ha! They’re not even my burdens, they’re things like worry, and a lack of faith. They haunt me, they stalk my every move.

Yet I am reminded in Psalm 55:22 “Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” How often to I find myself feeling like a Bond martini - shaken, not stirred. You’d think I’d get it right every once in a while. I think I need a tattoo: “rely less upon self and more on God, stupid!” Or maybe I’ll just settle for it on a t-shirt.

I find myself asking, “Why oh why God, do I think I can handle life on my own?“ Then I am reminded that we’re all taught to never show weakness. We must always project excellence and competence. The only problem is I’m so often not excellent or barely competent and just hoping no one else notices.

Then 2 Corinthians 2:10 hits me with, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” So what now, I’m choosing to be weak? Oh great, feeling weak is what got me here in the first place. So I’m tired, weary, weak, worrisome and faithless. I’m also lacking in excellence and competence. So where do I go now God? And that’s the question I should have been asking in the first place.

You know that feeling? The one when you take a hot shower - it seems to wash off everything that’s dirty and give you a new out look on life. I think that this is as close to heaven as we get here on earth. It may only be for a brief second, but you know it. In that instant, we know what it is like to be truly clean and new.

“Behold, I make all things new” Rev 21:5

Indy 4 Script is Ready?

I can’t wait for it!

Fedora. Check.

Whip. Check.

Adult-sized diapers. Check.

George Lucas has just finished the script (stop laughing!) and Spielberg says it could happen sometime in 2007.

It’s been over 16 years since the last Indiana Jones movie. Harrison Ford (64) is now the older than Sean Connery was in The Last Crusade. You can’t chase bad guys using a walker!

Com’on guys, you just have to sometimes let it die. I mean the first 3 Star Wars movies were great and you didn’t go and make prequels of those? Oh Crap, wait. Never mind.

Pull the plug now! (from the movie, not Harrison Ford’s oxygen tank)