Daily Grit by Wes Thorp

Getting my heart ready for church

I can easily go through the motions in going to church. I've watched myself do that more than I care to admit.

That's why I try to check myself and spend some time before going and see where my heart is at that moment. It's too easy for me to be distracted when I walk through the church door.

To get ready, I meditate or give serious thought to the daily devotions from two sources, Our Daily Bread from Radio Bible Class, and Portals of Prayer from Concordia Publishing, the publishing arm of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.

Today's devotion from Our Daily Bread is based on Philippians 2:12-18 is about our attitudes as we live life from day-to-day and why they are important. It says:

Every day, people are watching us. As followers of Christ, we are guided by Paul’s challenge to “become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15).

It's scary to think about the people who might be watching me for how I deal with daily living. My personal catalog of habits, traits and attitudes that people could find off-putting is long I'm sure.

The Apostle Paul's instruction to "become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault . . ." seems downright impossible for so many reasons.

So, am I defeated before I start this day? Is that an impossible to obey and follow?

No I'm not. Hopefully, those who watch this week how I conduct myself can clearly see the grace of God operating in my life. It's not me, but him.

Our son, Justin, shows off his Kindle 2 from Amazon on Washington D.C. television

Our 25-year-old son, Justin, is a reader and that's why he got one of Amazon's e-book readers, the Kindle 2, for his daily one hour commute each way for his job with Clearspring Technologies.  His Kindle holds 1,200 books and it gives him access to newspapers and magazines.  He loves it.  He was on Washington D.C.'s TV-9, WUSA, yesterday talking about it.  Here's the clip (of course, it starts with a commercial) and here's their written version of their story:

What does Ford's quarterly profit of $2.3 billion mean for Michigan?

It's been a long time since I've seen the words Ford Motor Co. and profit go-together in a Detroit Free Press story and that's why I was surprised this morning.

The story says that Ford had a quarterly profit of $2.3 million in the quarter that ended June 30. Its balance sheet was positively affected by one time gains from debt restructuring.

So what does this mean? Is Ford better managed than General Motors and Chrysler? Is it because they didn't take a government bailout?

Is it time to get out the good coffee in the morning and celebrate a little?

Answer to Michigan's budget problems might come from growing marijuana

Read this Detroit Free Press story about how medical marijuana has changed California's state economy. Then think about Michigan's budget struggles.

Is this what we have to look forward to in the Great Lakes state?

God help us!

Michigan needs Sim City-type game to let citizens trim state budget

Our state is spending way more money than it takes in and our state lawmakers can't agree about what to do.  There's a lot of sentiment that more can be cut, but there are very few volunteers who agree to have their program cut.

The city of Washington, D.C. if facing a big budget deficit and the Washington Post has put together a Sim City type exercise where participants can decide where they want to make more than $600 million in cuts.  Check this post from the blog WeLoveDC that describes the deficit and the newspapers challenge to readers.