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We are assured that God is not mocked. Psalms 2 and 3 are terrific rants by David and many know Psalm 2 as part of Handel's Messiah. God indeed is still sovereign. Let's pray for our leaders and work like crazy … We are to pray for our leaders, are we doing that? We are to humble ourselves, are we doing that? And we are to be as wise as serpents and yet as innocent as doves. Beefing here doesn't change the minds and hearts of your uninformed neighbors who voted for Kerry, deceived into empowering the Democrats to nip at our heels as we march forward in the war for America's heart, mind, soul and future. YOU are the person best able to convince people you know--of the truth. Get the news out, don't just be an info-sponge, SHARE the news with others! ... blurblogger

I taught an adult Sunday school lesson this morning on Matthew 10:27: ' … what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs!'

I wish I had read your essay before preparing the lesson – I would surely have excerpted it, with your permission.

Thank you for a passionate and eloquent essay that so beautifully reflects scripture, and exhorts us to not simply ‘preach to the choir,’ but to wear out some shoe leather and seek out those who may be uninformed, yet willing to listen.

~ joanie

I didn’t want to post this as a thread of its own, but want to share this personal story with a few FR friends:

A local radio station, in conjunction with a local fitness center, conducted a (first annual) weight-loss contest to benefit the Make-a-Wish Foundation in which area companies were to field a team of ten employees who would garner sponsors (both corporate and personal) who would commit themselves to paying to their sponsoree either a flat amount or an amount per pound lost.

All money collected was designated to benefit, through the Make-a-Wish Foundation, a local seven-year-old boy, who is suffering from Batten disease -- a fatal, inherited disorder of the nervous system that begins in childhood, and whose early symptoms include seizures, vision loss, and behavioral changes. The symptoms gradually worsen and the child eventually becomes blind, bedridden and demented, and generally succumbs to the disease in his late teens. The funds collected by all teams were to be pooled to grant this stricken boy’s wish: to send him and his family to Disney world and to swim with the dolphins at Discovery Cove in Orlando. Any excess funds were designated to be used solely to fulfill wishes of other local children enrolled in Make-a-Wish. Also, each member of the winning corporate team would be awarded a year’s membership at the local fitness center.

Each ten-member team was to submit an essay describing why they believe their team should be chosen to participate in the contest. The twelve teams that were chosen would then, through a combination of exercise and safe diet, attempt to lose the most total weight, while also attempting to collect the most sponsor money.

At the end of the five weeks, all twelve teams would then compete in a series of athletic events including: (1) ice hockey goal shooting, (2) planking (lying on the stomach and placing the forearms on the floor under the chest, then raising the entire body into a pushup position, holding the body in a straight line for as long as possible), (3) basketball foul shooting, (4) soccer goal shooting, (5) tossing a medicine ball for distance and (6) a 10K team relay race.

Our daughter was the captain of her company’s team – several of the team members did not necessarily need to lose weight but wanted to compete anyway. They all worked very hard to obtain sponsors (many even going door-to-door), held a bake sale to raise funds, applied to the corporate charitable donations department for a corporate sponsorship, and sent e-mails to all company executives, asking for sponsorship or donations from them as well.

Each of Mandy’s ten members obtained significant personal sponsorships from family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers, but they were told by the charitable contributions department of the (large international) corporation that the corporation had already reached its annual giving quota so could not help. Of the e-mails that were sent to the many corporate executives, only one responded at all, with a twenty-dollar donation.

Note: this team composed of ten corporate employees would be competing under the corporate name and, if successful in winning, would be publicized over the radio station, and in local newspapers, as ‘the Corporation X team’ … and yet corporate sponsorship turned out to be miniscule, at best.

Among the other teams competing, there were those who had received thousands of dollars in corporate/executive money (Wal-Mart, in particular), so Mandy’s team entered at a distinct disadvantage, but still managed to accumulate a very respectable monetary sponsorship through individual donations from friends, family and co-workers, and through their own fundraising endeavors.

Today marked the end of the five-week competition. This morning, when the total weight loss and total sponsorship monies were announced, Mandy’s team appeared to be about average (quite an accomplishment, when you consider that support from the company itself was virtually non-existent). The monies collected, the total team weight loss, and the results of the six athletic events would be combined to determine the winning team.

When this morning’s events began, Mandy’s team was determined, to a person, to go all out in this effort that depended solely on their own abilities and determination – not on any outside influences or corporate/executive financial largesse (or lack thereof).

With the six events behind them, all 120 entrants were simply lying around on the indoor soccer field, physically drained, and recuperating from the rigors of the morning. Then came the moment of truth, as the top five teams were announced. Mandy’s team was hoping to at least know the satisfaction of placing somewhere in those five, but, as the winning corporate team names were announced, their hopes dimmed significantly the closer the announcer came to divulging the actual winner.

When the winning team was announced, along with the uplifting commentary, ‘Today’s winning team overwhelmingly won this day’s critical events and showed a spirit that absolutely earned them the championship – let’s hear it for [Mandy’s team]!’ … ten 20-to-40-year-olds erupted into unrestrained euphoria – screaming, hugging, and jumping up and down like teenagers ranked the dark horse underdogs who had just won some state sports championship.

They all know that their accomplishment wasn’t earth-shaking. One unfortunate little boy and his family will appreciate the efforts of the 120 people and the sponsors who took part, but no one outside of a fifty-mile radius of this area will ever know it even occurred … nor should they. Yet it is the hundreds of seemingly insignificant sacrifices or symbolic ‘victories’ that occur every day in this country that, despite these troubling times, help us to feel as though we still have at least the ability to affect some difference, to the degree that we are willing to strive to do so … in our own backyards … communally committed with others of like mind and purpose. I see it in our churches, in our charity and civic organizations, and simply in individuals banding together with a shared, worthwhile goal.

It is the sense of 'neighborhood', the local cultivating of our own garden (a la Voltaire), or the sweeping in front of our own door (a la the English proverb) … in combination with the powerful hand of Providence .. that has always made this country unquely prosperous, and uniquely good.

~ joanie