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<p>"The bird does not sing because he has an answer; he sings because he has a song."</p> <p>Peppermint Patty, of Peanuts cartoon fame, can be impatient at times. You Peanuts fans may recall one of those times. School was about to begin, and Peppermint Patty went shopping. She entered the store, and proceeded directly to the counter, and said, "Sir, I need some school supplies some pencils, some paper, a loose-leaf binder, and some answers. I need a lot of answers."</p>

<p>Over the years I have heard a multitude of spoken prayers. Some flowed poetically from the speaker's tongue, some had the overtones of a sermon, and others resembled conversation. I have also heard another type of prayer, though never in a church or chapel. Its usage is universal in the English language, even being used on occasion by atheists. The prayer is most often spoken during times of anger, frustration, or used to display extreme displeasure with a given situation or individual. The vast majority of the English-speaking population would not recognize it as a form of prayer, but rather view it as a form of swearing. Some would regard the invocation as "taking God's name in vain." Both are true and credible; however, at the core of the expression is a request by the petitioner for God to damn something, someone or some place. Several years ago, while stationed on Okinawa, I joined my battalion for a "best ball" golf tournament. My foursome was composed of individuals I had played with often, so I was somewhat aware of how our day might develop. One individual, who usually played an outstanding round of golf, was having a horrendous day on the course. Nothing was going right. His whole game was off, and he knew it, and continuously reminded the rest of us about it. On our seventh hole of play, and after overshooting the green, he threw his club as far as he could hurl it and exclaimed for the umpteenth time: "God !#%! It!" I walked over to my friend and said, "You know God is just answering your prayer." He looked at me somewhat puzzled, and as if I were insane. I reminded him that since our first hole of play he asked God to damn his club, damn his ball, damn the green, and even damn his shoes. So why be upset? God was simply answering his prayer. When I concluded, he looked at me and said, "Chaplain, I like that and you're right. It hurts, but you're right." For the rest of the day, neither the others nor I heard another request for God to damn anything. (Though he did bite his lip an awful lot.) As I mentioned earlier, most individuals recognize this prayer more in line with the idea of swearing. However, I think there is a valid case to recognize it as a prayer. That being so, it is bewildering why people would pray it. Could it be that they are not aware of what they are saying or of its significance? Or do they really want God to damn the one they love, their friends, work associates, or acquaintances?</p>

A friend lowered a microphone so the Rev. Tim Vakoc could address attendees of the award banquet at Benilde-St. Margaret's, his old high school, from his wheelchair.For 20 seconds, only the gymnasium lights hummed in the quiet."Thank you," Vakoc said.Silence returned as he labored for breath."And," he whispered, "God … love … you."The friend, Mary Makowski, smiled as the crowd applauded Vakoc and his new place in Benilde's Hall of Honor.A year ago, Vakoc breathed with the aid of a tube cut into his throat. Talking seemed impossible then, and doctors believed Vakoc had peaked in his recovery from a...

WASHINGTON - Senate Chaplain Barry Black has canceled his scheduled appearance at a Christian evangelical conference after he was pictured with columnist Ann Coulter and other prominent conservatives in a brochure promoting the event. Black told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., he wouldn't be addressing next month's Reclaiming America for Christ Conference because his appearance wouldn't uphold the Senate chaplain's "historic tradition of being nonpolitical, nonpartisan, nonsectarian," Meg Saunders, a spokeswoman for the chaplain, said Thursday. Saunders said Black, a Seventh-day Adventist and a former Navy chaplain, had received "a very generic invitation" in the...

            DOING WELL WHAT OTHERS MAY NOT SEE In the New Testament scriptures, the Apostle Paul talks about the importance of striving for excellence. He writes, "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (Philippians 4:8) Allow me to share with you a story about striving for excellence. On one of the arches of a magnificent cathedral in Europe is sculptured a face of great beauty. Yet it...

            GOD WILL NOT LET YOU FALL My family and I went camping this past summer. We took several hikes down the little river bed as it flowed through the Cuyamaca State Park near our home in San Diego. We stopped for a picnic lunch, and ate with our feet in the cool running water. As I ate my sandwich, I started tracing a trail through the rocks that shot up into the air in front of us. It was an old habit from days gone by of rock scrambling: no ropes, no hardware,...

A U.S. Navy chaplain who prayed "in Jesus' name" as his conscience dictated is being ejected from the military service "in retaliation" for his victorious battle to change Navy policy that required religious rites be "non-sectarian." "This fight cost me everything. My career is over, my family is now homeless, we've lost a million dollar pension, but Congress agreed with me and rescinded the Navy policy, so chaplains are free again to pray in Jesus' name," Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt told WND. "My sacrifice purchased their freedom. My conscience is clear, the fight was worth it, and I'd do it all...

FORT HUACHUCA — There were times when a man whose job was to comfort people wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan lost his composure and cried. Chaplain (Col.) Glenn Woodson doesn’t hide those times, because so many of the tragedies he saw while serving two tours at the Landstuhl Army Medical Center in Germany and his one-year deployment to Iraq brought home war’s reality of being emotionally horrendous on many levels. One event hit him particularly hard when he stopped in one of the rooms at the Landstuhl hospital and there was a New Zealand special forces soldier who had lost...

        EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS   When in sorrow, call John 14 When men fail you, call Psalm 27 If you want to be fruitful, call John 15 When you have sinned, call Psalm 51 When you worry, call Matthew 6:19-34. When you are in danger, call Psalm 91. When God seems far away, call Psalm 139. When your faith needs stirring, call Hebrews 11. When you are lonely and fearful, call Psalm 23. When you grow bitter and critical, call 1 Corinthians 13. For Paul's secret to happiness, call Colossians 3:12-17. For idea of Christianity, call...

        *Happy Chanukah to all of our Jewish Troops and friends around the world. Be safe and Blessed! The Chanukah StoryLink provided here. The Chanukah Story         Yefet, the son of Noah, had seven sons. The fourth son was Yavan (Greece). G-d bestowed upon the Ancient Greeks the trait of aesthetics. For 1700 years the Ancient Greeks played a relatively minor role in world history. But by the time Greece had conquered the Persian Empire, Greece had become a significant contributor to the annals of world civilization, culture, and philosophy. At the beginning of...

        DON’T BLAME CHANGING TIMES Most of us have learned to cope with, if not exactly embrace, the technological revolution that has completely restructured our world over the past two decades. Words like "Internet," "e-mail" and even "distance learning" may not be in your dictionary yet, but they soon will be. And that dictionary probably won't be paper like the ones most of us learned to use; instead, it will be part of the "spellchecker" on a computer hard drive, or perhaps on a single "CD-ROM" that contains thousands of pages of information. Despite my RELATIVE...

        YOU ARE SPECIAL "I don't know why I was even born," the young sailor confided! "I'm ugly. I'm not talented. I've never been what you would call smart. I don't really have any friends. And I can't seem to do anything right. I feel like I've spent my whole life letting people down. Sometimes I wonder if even God could love me!" That conversation took place more than a decade ago, but I still remember it as if it were yesterday. That one and a lot of others over the years with the same message:...

      CATCHING A SECOND WIND Cross country runners and other long distance runners have all relied on a "second wind" to finish their race; the longer the race the more "second winds" will be required. This physiological wind source is a timely aid in propelling an exhausted runner onward to the finish. The phenomenon of the "second wind" has a spiritual principle, too. When the purposes of God seem too distant to continue, God provides a "second wind" to propel his people onward to finish the cause in which they are engaged. Indeed: "They that wait upon...

FORT HUACHUCA ? The United States is at a critical point in its history, and the war in Iraq ?is not going to stop any time soon,? as the nation heads for its equivalent of a cinematic ?Perfect Storm,? the Army?s No. 2 senior chaplain said. Quoting Army Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker, Chaplain (Brig. Gen.) Douglas L. Carver said the Army?s top uniform officer has said, ?We?re not in the middle of the war, we?re at the beginning.? The United States must be prepared for a perfect storm, a gathering of incidents that will test the mettle of the...

        ISN'T IT OBVIOUS? This warning label (among about a half dozen warning labels) appears on my son's baby carriage: Do not fold carriage with baby inside! It may seem funny to state something so obvious, but I suppose to cover themselves against lawsuits from people who couldn't figure out to first remove the baby, they put on the warning label. The Prophet Micah gives us easy-to-follow instructions for a good life that seem so obvious and elementary we wonder, is that all we have to do to live happily and peacefully? The answer is YES!...

        WHEN YOU NEED TO SLOW DOWN The Lord is my pacesetter; I shall not rush; He makes me stop and rest for quiet intervals; He provides me with images of stillness, which restore my serenity; He leads me in ways of efficiency through calmness of mind, and His guidance is peace; Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day, I will not fret, for His presence is here; His timelessness, His all-importance will keep me in balance; He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity By anointing my...

When Lt. Cmdr. John Dickens, a Navy chaplain at Camp Pendleton in California, was assigned to offer a prayer at a change of command ceremony recently, he knew the parameters of his invocation. He asked for God's blessing on the outgoing Marine officer and for God's help in providing guidance to the new battalion commander. But Dickens, a United Methodist chaplain who recently served in Iraq, was careful not to mention Jesus Christ specifically, the way he frequently does during his Sunday services for Protestant troops. His goal, he said, was to lend a spiritual tone to the otherwise secular...

        CONFLICTING LOYALTIES An interviewer once asked the late Senator Sam Ervin, Jr. how he had developed such insight into human behavior. "I had a good teacher, Henry Horace Williams," replied Ervin. "He said the things that try people's souls do not consist of choosing between good and evil. The thing that tries a person's soul is having to choose between conflicting loyalties." Ervin went on to say that understanding that concept had not only helped him to make better decisions, but to judge other people more fairly as well. Sometimes unwise choices were simply the...

PATERSON - For Father Joseph Orlandi, a U.S. Army chaplain recently stationed in both Afghanistan and Iraq, the potent declaration "War is hell" is no hollow cliche.  Over the past year, this tough-as-nails Army colonel, who also is pastor of St. Michael Parish here, lived in real time the horrors and stresses of war that TV cameras can't begin to capture adequately. While tending to the spiritual needs of U.S. troops in the deserts of the Middle East, Father Orlandi witnessed unspeakable images - like the carnage strewn across a Baghdad street after a car-bomb blast.  In both war-torn nations,...

Marines and sailors of 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, enjoy coffee outside He-Brews Coffee, Sept. 23, 2006. Navy Lt. John G. Anderson, the battalion's chaplain, started the coffee shop to provide quality coffee to servicemembers deployed here. Anderson is from Anoka, Minn., and is currently serving under Regimental Combat Team 5 which will be conducting operations in the Habbaniyah area for seven months. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Ray Lewis U.S. Navy Lt. John G. Anderson Chaplain Makes Waves with Coffee Shop in Iraq By Lance Cpl. Ray Lewis 1st Marine Division CAMP HABBANIYAH, Iraq, Sept. 29,...