thanks dad!

My Dad just bought me my dream bike. I have wanted this motorcycle since the first time I saw it with him in High School. The conversation went something like this...

"Please Dad, can you get it for me?"

"When you turn 18 you can do whatever you like."

The only time he ever said this was when I wanted a motorcycle or my ear pierced.
Funny enough he also recently bought me a gold earring.

I am blessed beyond measure.

the only math I ever loved

my friend Drew worked out on paper what I knew all along. I wish someone had a math equation for why I still liked them. Blessings

10:00 am

Air raid sirens begin to wail furiously from every hilltop in Israel. As they wind up to an alarming scream every man, woman and child stands in silence, unwilling to move. It is holocaust remembrance day.

As the sirens started I slowly lowered my head to the ground. The unseen images of horror began to run through my mind and the chills ran up my spine.

The Hasidic boy on a Warsaw street stands in silence. He too looks painfully at the ground as his Nazi tormentors mock him, sacrilegiously cutting his long locks of hair that trail from under the sides of his tall black hat. My eyes move up to the street to the old man that could have been my father, his legs too weak to hold him up. He is beaten down and spit upon. His subhuman punishment holds no merit to him. He looks up to heaven, whispers, with bleeding mouth "Shema Yisrael, Adonai elohinu, Adoni ehad." He forcefully breathes his last breath with an unwarranted kick to the stomach.

They all line up in front of me at Auschwitz. Their frail bodies sickingly jaundiced, their eyes large and fearful, look up at me and I hesitantly look back into them. They are deep and they speak silently to me. I can't seem to remember, but I have seen the look before. I soon remember as my own eyes filled with tears. Their eyes are filled with more than just the hopelessness of death that awaits them, they are filled with unanswered questions as to why them? Why for so many years have they been tormented? I watch them as they are led away to the showers, they are not fooled, they have not showered in months. Their tormentors mock, and yet the silence of the Jew is deafening.

As the siren ends I raise my head and relief comes over me in waves. They were not my friends being led away. It was not my family being beaten and shot. It was not my neighbor out there on the street being humiliated. It is easy to disconnect myself from this grim reality.

We must take time to remember so that we never forget. One day it may be our family that is persecuted. You say it could never happen? It already did, twelve years ago, and the world ignored it.

God made dirt, so dirt don't hurt

Today I went on my first archeological excavation. We dug under the City of David in the water system known as Warren's shaft.

A summary of my experiences: We moved dirt.

I don't have the attention span to move dirt.

(Picture courtesy of Bible Places.com)

if only complaining could fuel a vehicle

I just read a headline on cnn.com that said “Gas Prices Shoot Up 3 cents!” It got me thinking...

I would like to take this opportunity to say that Americans complain too much. Forgive me for my rant, but wasn’t it you, the complainer that bought that enormous vehicle in the first place? Didn’t I see you bragging about how BIG it was compared to your neighbors puny SUV?

May I ask why you drive to “go workout?” Then you drive to your weight loss program. Perhaps you may drive to your doctor and act surprised when he tells you that you are unhealthy and that you should exercise more, so you quickly reach for your Gold’s Gym membership attached to your keychain. That is when you notice attached to your keychain is an enormous key that belongs to your enormous gas guzzling vehicle that explains your whole dilemma in the first place.

Here is an idea. Walk! You get your exercise and save money! Take public transportation; you may meet someone worthy of talking to or learn a new language. If all else fails, ride a bicycle, look what happened to the Wright brothers...

It would be idealistic to think that everyone has the luxury of walking. So this week as you are driving to work, or school, or to go work out- think about how blessed you are in the first place. Then thank God for the miracle of a vehicle and the comfort of driving. If this doesn’t satisfy your complacency then remember the other 90% of the world who doesn’t even have enough money to buy a gallon of gas, let alone a car. Blessings.

diagnoses: salty blood and land-locked prosthetic legs

I know it is drawing near. I can feel it in the depth of my being. I am beginning to awaken to a salt taste in my mouth. I catch myself singing Jimmy Buffet while using the head. I start saying things such as “I’ll be dining in the galley this evening,” or “shiver me timbers!” In only 18 days I will be smoking my “so long cigar” as I have so many other ports I bid farewell.

It draws nigh, I dream about it. Sailing along on a starboard tack, a fresh breeze blowing across my shoulder as I sheet in and pinch up into the wind. A rogue wave slams my starboard bow and sprays my face. I grit my teeth and wash the salt from my mouth with a rum and coke.

The sea beckons me back: the rolling black water, slow flashing lighthouses, stationary stars under my rolling deck, shirtless days and shoeless nights.
A dear friend of mine is leaving the Bahamas to his stern as I write; he will ride the gulf stream north until we meet in less than 3 short weeks.

I look forward to a summer with him and his family filled with blue crabs steamed in beer, loud children sucking the marrow out of life (and coincidentally out of me), a hundred new sailors born on the waters of the Potomac and a girl by my side enjoying the life God so graciously blessed us with. Blessings.

true sacrifice

"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship."
Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him."

Jesus, speaking to Samaritan woman is questioned as to the place of worship for her people. Samaritans sacrificed on Mt. Garazim, not in Jerusalem as the Jews did.

There are 500 Samaritans left in Israel today. They are the only ones who continue to keep the tradition of killing the Passover lamb as seen above.

It is important for us to remember the timeliness of Christ's death this passion week. He came up to Jerusalem to die. The sacrificial lamb, once and for all who choose to believe.

I struggled this morning during my quiet time believing that God actually loves me, that he forgave me and continues to forgive me. I don't think I will ever be able to comprehend this kind of love. Even still, His love is here. His pain takes away my shame. His death and resurrection truly is good news.

This week and in the year ahead let us continue to remind one another of the sacrificial love of God. As believers, reflecting on this sacrifice should never get old, but continue to bring us joy today and 10,000 years into our eternal life.

the weather and other reasons why you should read your bible

"Wow, look at that squall line" I remarked to a couple of friends who repaid my curiosity with sarcasm. I was looking north on the Sea of Galilee when I saw the huge storm brushing us as it passed by. "If I was out there on a boat, I would be running for a harbor." The hecklers continued to make fun of me and walked off as I stared at the stormy beast.

A couple of days later I read this!

Jesus answered them, "“When it is evening, you say, '‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.' And in the morning, '‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.'’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times." Matthew 16:2,3

What is my point? I am not really sure... I think it lies somewhere between eschatology, meteorology and a sailor saying "I told you so".

palm sunday

Today begins Passion week. Here in the Holy land passion week is not officially recognized, but instead it is a "pagan" holiday. I forget how much we take our faith for granted in the west.

As Jesus decended from the Mount of Olives, men, women and children layed their garmets and palm branches on the ground and cried out "Hosanna", meaning "Save us!" Jesus stopped on his journey and wept over the city.

When was the last time we wept over our city? When was the last time we went into the closet and prayed, not on our own behalf, but on the behalf of those who need salvation?

This week, would it be too much for us to look beyond our own selfish passions and set our eyes on His passion to which he came for, to seek and save the lost?

a hike that will cost you an arm and a leg.

Only in Israel can you find a hiking trail leading you through a mine field.

For your information, someone is killed or injured by a landmine every 15 - 20 minutes. According to the U.N. there are between 105 - 110 million landmines buried in over 64 countries. A low estimate states that some 24,000 men, women and children are killed by landmines every year.

It has been said that the leading cause deaths among children worldwide is not starvation, but landmines.