On the Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout for the Kinect, occasionally Trainer Bob will say, “Remember, if you start to lose your balance and tip over, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here waiting for you to get back in position.”

Thanks, Virtual Bob. You’re such a help. 🙄

_________________________________

I was thinking about a more substantial post for today, but at this point in time I don’t think it is going to happen. 🙂 It’s a busy week and already this morning my mind is spinning. Having tummy troubles was nowhere on my agenda for the day, but, alas, unwelcome visitors must be dealt with.

I’ve been wanting to review Goforth of China — hopefully I’ll be able to next week. Meanwhile I think I’m just going to go veg for a while and plan to be back for Friday’s Fave Five tomorrow.

• I don’t know if I mentioned that my son, Jason, had a second interview for one job possibility, then they called him back for paperwork, drug testing, and began a background check, which all pointed to the likelihood of being offered a job. But then the management declared a hiring freeze until they could work out some budgeting issues. 😦 The man interviewing Jason said they were just about to offer him the job and he’d put his paperwork on file to call him as soon as the hiring freeze is over — but who knows how long that will be. Its frustrating and disappointing — sometimes I think, “Can’t these kids just catch a decent break?!” But I remind myself that God knows what He has in store for them. One person Jason interviewed with for another job said they had over 70 applicants….so that’s the kind of thing he’s up against.

• I’m having very conflicted feelings about the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death. There is relief, on one hand, but fear of retaliation on the other. But I am even more conflicted by the reaction of fellow Christians on Facebook. The first response last night was cheering.  It just didn’t seem right to me that we’d rejoice over anyone’s death. The verse that came to mind was Ezekiel 33:11: “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” Then someone posted this morning Proverbs 24:¹⁷ Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth,” and verse 18 goes on to say: ^“Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.” But then, I thought, there was rejoicing when Pharoah’s army was killed when they were after Israel at the Red Sea and when David killed Goliath. I don’t know how to square that with Prov. 24:17, except maybe the proverb is talking about a personal enemy, and the rejoicing in the other passages refers to God’s enemies. Then several people posted Proverbs 11:1o: “When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth: and when the wicked perish, there is shouting.” One friend said, “We don’t rejoice in death, but we rejoice in justice.” May be….some people were sure rejoicing in death! I don’t listen to talk radio, but my son said some people were saying things about being glad bin Laden was in hell. Those weren’t necessarily professing Christians, though — I haven’t seen any Christian going that far. A couple of people on FB reminded us that except for the grace of God we’d all be headed there. But it is a little hard to feel sorry for one soul going out into eternity facing not the 70 virgins he thought he’d see but rather the God of judgment when that soul was responsible for so many others going to their deaths. I’m still wrestling with all of this.

• I still haven’t seen all the royal wedding — I taped it, but I can’t just sit and watch for four hours unless I am doing something else at the same time, and my cross stitch project is at a point that needs concentration just now. So I am watching it in biys and pieces. But overall I’ve enjoyed it so far. Gorgeous music. There was a lot of truth being presented in both what was said (that I’ve heard so far in the service, i.e., the Biblical reasons for marriage) and the music, if anyone had “ears to hear.” I think we realized with the outcome of Diana’s wedding that there is really not such a thing as a fairy tale wedding in real life. Yet because her boys have been in the public eye and suffered such tragedy, I think we all wish them well. I thought Katherine was beautiful and loved her understated elegance. I like hats, but I thought some were outlandish and/or worn at odd angles. I liked the simplicity of Queen Elizabeth’s hat, though I am not fond of yellow.  Though I wouldn’t want to live amidst such protocol personally, I did enjoy the “pomp and circumstance” involved. Ceremony is nice sometimes. I also enjoyed the deep sense of history — the commentator on the station I was listening to kept bringing up the history of various items and customs. And it was nice to have happy news for once on TV!

• But, alas, there were naysayers for the royal wedding as well. Some griped about the privileges of royal birth, getting such an expensive wedding and a dukedom when he hadn’t done anything to earn it. I pointed out that royalty has its particular stresses and pressures as well as its rewards. but the individual didn’t want to hear it and said if the royals didn’t like their lot they could just step down from royal life. 🙄 True, I suppose, but I think that reveals a lack of understanding of what the monarchy means to Britons. The commentator I listened to pointed out how many acts of duty various ones of the royal family had performed that year, and the word “duty” came up often. Sure, I prefer democracy, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the culture of other countries. Then some people commented on the young couple’s having lived together before marriage. Yes, that is fornication, and yes, that is wrong in God’s eyes. but who knows whether the prayer they wrote themselves that they “keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important” might be answered like Cornelius‘s was and lead them to know God in a real and personal way?

I probably should wait and go over this in the morning — I’ve been distracted and this isn’t as coherent or neatly written as I’d like. And I’m thinking there were a couple of other things I was going to mention, but I can’t think of them now….but I think I am going to go ahead and post it in it’s “off the top of my head.” state.

Edited to add: two other viewpoints on the rejoicing over bin Laden’s death (for the record, I don’t have a problem with war and I am not a pacifist and I appreciate our military.)

Is It Wrong To Celebrate Bin Laden’s Death? from NPR.

Some Thoughts on the Death of Bin Laden by Denny Burk.

If you’ve watched the news much this morning, in-between segments on tomorrow’s royal wedding, you’ve probably seen coverage of horrific storm system that hit the Southeast yesterday and last night. Here in eastern TN we had severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings off and on from late afternoon through the evening, but thankfully our area wasn’t hit hard. As I took Jesse to school and then went to see Jim’s mom, the usual spontaneous lakes and ponds that spring up after heavy rains here were there, but not quite as high as I’ve seen them after other storms.

But it made for a pretty tense few hours, hearing the thrumming storm and seeing nothing but storm coverage on the three major network TV stations — and Jim was away last night as well! At one point Jason said the sky was green — I didn’t look. We got out flashlights and lanterns and batteries, and the lights dimmed a few times, but thankfully we never lost power.

I had gone to see Jim’s mom around 4 yesterday afternoon, which happened to be right when things were starting up. The skies were dark and it was just starting to rain, and as I got to her assisted living place, they were bringing all the residents out of their rooms into the hallway due to the threat or tornadoes. You can imagine what that was like. Some understood what was going on and were taking it patiently, some were fidgety. They were just bringing Jim’s mom out as I came in, but they left her with her walker, and she can’t stand even with her walker for very long, so I dashed into her room and got her a chair (then she told me to have a seat in it. I convinced her I brought it for her. 🙂 ) I didn’t stay long since the weather seemed more threatening. I wondered through the evening how many times they’d had to bring the residents out. And then I thought of that kind of thing going on in assisted living places and nursing homes all across the South. One particularly poignant photo I saw in the morning’s newscast was someone pushing a lady in a wheelchair with storm debris behind them.

Of course, if you’ve seen the coverage, you’ve probably seen one of the videos of one of the massive tornadoes. I saw this one this morning on The Today Show with an interview with the man who captured it on video — wish I could get that to embed here but their code won’t cooperate with WP. The video just of the tornado is here:

I just can not imagine being near something like that. As tense as it was just with the possibility of a tornado, I can’t imagine living through that or some of the “jaw-dropping destruction.”

There are news reports of damage and even deaths here in TN as well as GA, but by far the worst is in AL. I know all involved would appreciate prayer as they try to recover from this disaster.

Often yesterday the hymn “Keep Me Safe Til the Storm Passes By” came to mind. I wouldn’t say it’s a favorite — in one church we were in it was a favorite of the song-leader’s and we sang it about every other week, and I am sad to say I got tired of it. But it certainly ministered to me yesterday.

I was surprised to find when we moved to eastern TN that there were a lot of rivers, streams, and creeks throughout the area. Both on the way to church and to Grandma’s we see a lot of waterways of varying sizes.

That combined with a lot of low spots I mentioned a few days back meant that the rainfall yesterday resulted in a lot of areas being flooded. It was a pretty harrowing drive to Grandma’s and then to Jesse’s school, with several roads having water across them, some having a lot of water across them.

I don’t know these folks and this is in Knoxville proper, which is not where we are, but I found this searching through YouTube to give you an idea what it looked like.

A news video here shows more. It wasn’t quite as high in our area as it shows there.

The worst was when we thought we were home free after getting Jesse from school. The end of the road just before our turn had a field next to it, and water from the field was cascading like a waterfall across the road and onto the other side of the street. Standing water was bad enough, but moving water was pretty scary. I knew one other way home had been badly flooded in places when I first went that direction to see Grandma an hour earlier, and there are a lot of little side roads, but I wasn’t sure if they would be any better — they all have dips in them that were going to collect water. Thankfully traffic both ways was letting one car through at a time, and we made it home safely — skipping the grocery store visit for the day! I was pretty unnerved for a while. Thankfully our home and neighborhood weren’t flooded at all. I am so grateful God saw us home safely.

It finally stopped raining in the late afternoon, and this morning the sun has been shining brightly. There was one spot on the way to school this morning where the water was pretty high, and traffic alternated one car at a time again. One road just outside our subdivision was still closed, and I’ve been hearing the steady hum of traffic being rerouted through our subdivision all through the night and morning, but it seems to have stopped now, so hopefully the water has receded or evaporated enough to reopen the road. One school is closed and one food bank lost a lost of its wares.

So March is coming in like a lamb after February went out like a lion!