April 30,2007 National Day of Prayer this week

Every where I have gone this week I have seen mundane injustices. At Garden Ridge, the store was hot and I waited over an hour to get help finding an item I was supposed to pick up. Then after standing in line fifteen minutes, the register went down and a new line opened and all the people at the end of the line were moved to the front.

Made me think of the parable of the early workers who begrudged the latecomers their wage. Grumbling ensued and I quietly placed my item on the shelf and left the store. I don’t need anything that bad.

At Kroger I saw a man fly into checkout rage- when an older lady tried to let someone else up in line. Yelling and cursing ensued.

At another store I was looking at the Vanilla Wafers when a shopper crowded in between me and the cookies to retrieve a box of crackers. When I backed up a kid came pushing a shopping cart with two other children in it and ran over my heel.

Tomorrow is the National Day of Prayer and one thing I will be praying for is civility to return to the vocabulary of our nation.

Earnie has been studying Spiritual Warfare on the mission field and after long hours of discussion I am more convinced than ever that our fetishes and talismans are as real as any found in the third world. We are high technology enabled, but still suffer from poverty of Spirit in our own ways. Our great sin is that of autonomy and theirs is more corporate, perhaps, yet the poverty is just as real.

We attended our local gathering for the National Day of Prayer today. About 150 of us gathered in the rain and strained to hear the procedings which had to go on without audio support. It was a time of confession and supplication to the Lord. I got to see some familiar faces and re-meet Mom's new pastor, whom I am looking forward to getting to know. Interestingly, last year was an election year and there were MANY more politicians evident then. Only three showed up today and two of them were on stage.

Speaking of politicians on stage, we just finished watching the Republican "debates" tonight, which they were not. In a question and answer forum such as this, there really is no repartee at all. As much as I admire the man, I thought McCain looked and sounded like McCain and that was no boon in the context of the "Great Communicator"'s library. Giuliani waffled on abortion, Romney seemed calculating and overprepped. Congressman Paul had distinctive ideas, which set him apart and at the same time may make him unelectable. I thought he was a Libertarian, not a Republican???

Fred Thompson seems to be causing more buzz, and from the lack of charisma evident tonight, I can see why. Looks like we are in for a long ride to November '08...