A nice idea

I'm a little fascinated with the ideas in this article:
http://www.baptiststandard.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8723&Itemid=53
Any thoughts?

He said what?!?

I'm going to attempt to do something quickly here...share a few political thoughts during my lunch break. I always get myself in trouble with these spur of the moment blogs. Not quite as bad as the middle of the night revelations we sometimes feel compelled to share only to wake up the next morning horrified at those previously…seemingly….almost divinely-inspired thoughts. But it’s too late, before you can even remove your latest post, the damage has been done. Your mother’s boss has already posted her remarks….”interesting,” and that Aunt Wilma is already on the horn to your grandma saying, “do you know what your grandson did/said/didn’t do last night?” You’re not quite sure what interesting comment means, but you’re pretty sure you’ve just stuck your foot in your mouth in variety of ways and there it is…those thoughts…out there for the whole world to see…I often wonder why I’m so eager to share these thoughts sometimes. Never mind the fact that we change our minds sometimes. Sometimes we get more facts, or we become informed in the first place concerning a given view and we recant. Sometimes we realize the haziness of the night before produced thoughts that lacked not only cohesion, but tact and all those other good things momma taught us. We’re human.

The candidates must also feel this way, but magnified times 300 million-give or take a billion or two in other countries. They know every word they’ve ever said to anyone at anytime will potentially come back to haunt them. “Bomb bomb Iran!” or “…they cling to guns or religion.” And a million others. That’s not the point.

We each have our preferred candidates and ideologies and whenever someone on the “other side” slips up, we jump all over it. Our eyes glisten and our mouths water as we think of more fuel for our argument with a friend over (place your issue here).

I shudder to think of the words that came out of my mouth, even less than 10 years ago. “I don’t need this job because God is about to do something really big, I quit.” “I don’t love you.” “You need to get your life right with the Lord.” “Stupid fundamentalists.” I can’t even type out the ones that came out of my mouth while driving, even as recent as last month.

I’ve been sitting here thinking about what dirt the media would produce on me if I we’re in the spotlight. A thousand thoughts flash through my mind a second, that distasteful video a coworker shared and I didn’t speak up, or that time I almost ran into a guy on the interstate b/c he passed me, (seriously, 2 inches from his bumper, I was gonna kill him), the woes of my freshman year(s) of college, throwing a brick through the office window of someone that made me mad (actually I didn’t do it, but I thought long and hard about it…so long in fact, that I had secured a source for the brick and ran through an escape route in my mind). That’s right folks, I’m guilty of a pre-meditated drive-by bricking. How’s that for dirt?

The company I work for has a ton of ethics videos they make each worker watch. One quote that has stuck with me is “don’t do anything you wouldn’t be comfortable reading about on the front page of the newspaper.” Of course, the company makes us watch this stuff because they could be help liable for our stupid actions-actions that could potentially bankrupt a multi-million dollar company.

I never really had a goal in this post , outside of listening to these thoughts and writing them down. I apologize for you poor souls that have to read it. I guess I could wrap it up by saying, cut others some slack. Don’t jump on the band-wagon when you hear the failures or flubs of those with whom you disagree. Reach past your own bias and try to see people for what they really are deep down…human. They screw up, their ideas aren’t always right, they change their mind, blah blah whatever. This obviously applies to politicians, since we’re right in the middle of crunch-time on the election…but I would encourage you to extend this same level of understanding to all areas of your life. It’s amazing what you learn about people when you find out their reasons for saying something or you learn more about their situation. Extend the same level of grace that’s been extended to you, you jerks.

Finally, I can stop being a jerk!

I've been on this rant lately and it's about time to get off that horse. (You know, the high-horse). I'm not quite sure what that means but I think the average reader can follow me.

I've been very interested in social justice issues and I will always be because I believe that Christ was very much in tune with such issues. In my own efforts to better educate myself on some of these issues and Christian response, I've come across the ONE campaign and Sojourners. Bono and Jim asked me to specifically mention the websites because they know how much traffic my blog generates. Ha. Anyway, somewhere along the way I really began to hunger for justice more than ever. Along with justice comes accountability and that's where I began to harp. Before I knew it, I was condemning everyone around me by their actions. I wasn't condemning out of hate or dislike, but I think it was because I allowed my eyes to be opened in a new way to valid social issues.

This was especially evident in my driving. On the one hand, I try my best to be courteous and defensive, always looking out for others. I switch lanes when I pass a pedestrian or cyclist as a way to show them courtesy...and just to be safe, because you never know what might happen that would could cause me to hit them or them to fall into my path. After thinking about someone other than myself, it just made sense to me to practice courtesy behind the wheel-and always be mindful of how others perceive my driving...especially from a safety prospective.
On the other hand, I was quick to tell many other drivers where they have erred. One time, this kid passed me on Sayles Blvd. in Abilene. I was doing 35, which was the speed limit and I guarantee you he was doing 60+. I took it into my own hands to follow that idiot. Now, being from Abilene, I'm familiar with the cruising scene enough to know that he was probably headed to Sonic on N. 1st. I didn't speed, and I followed all traffic laws on the way to Sonic...so as not to spoil my own driving "witness." I spotted the kid at Sonic...already sipping on his Cherry Vanilla DP, or whatever(I just wanted to show you how long he had been there before I arrived to bring home the point about how fast he was driving). I blocked in his truck and dialed up the APD. Yep, I was going to teach that punk a lesson. He came over to the car and I began to lay into him about how he could have killed someone and if I ever caught him doing it again I would...then I remembered that I was on the phone with the dispatch officer from APD...so I finished my threat with a stern "...well, you'll be sorry."

I've had similar reactions toward fat, rich, ego-centric Americans in general, except I called God directly to point out their gluttonous ways. Some of my study caused me to latch on to Campolo and Sider and I've yet to look back. Though I still haven't finished Sider's book because I've been sidetracked by this one and this one. As my eyes were being opened to my own short-comings, I was also becoming more aware of the common sins of the average Christian. I guess I wasn't becoming more aware of them, I mean we've been pretty blatant as Christians with our sins against culture and humanity as a whole, so much as I was becoming fed up. I wanted to be different and I was tired of being identified with a bunch of un-loving, self-seeking, so-called God-lovers. I wanted so much to be my own Christian, to break free from the mold of American Christianity and show the world that "we're not all like that." I was ready to do this one mercedes and 3 lb. hamburger at a time.

The problem is that I became the very thing I was trying to fight against...a hateful Christian, basically. I didn't hate the homeless or poor or homosexual, in an ironic change of heart I actually loved those people...I hated the self-righteous and self-seeking Christianity that seems to plague our churches today. I tried to compartmentalize and love the "sinners" while hating those who I felt were tearing apart the message of Christ, but called themselves believers. I literally could extend more love and compassion to Saddam Hussein than my baptist brother who happened to fall a little further right than me on the scale.

In the last week, I think I've finally realized how much of my life was effected by this "quest for justice." I had become so bitter, so anti-system and "stick it to the man" that I totally glossed over the fact that I was basically hating my brothers and sisters.

In addition to all that, I began to take on a victim complex and my cynicism grew out of control. I trusted no one and anyone that had previously been the object of my "justice thoughts" was removed from my circle of friends. After all, they had wronged someone in some way and sold out to money or power or whatever the case may have been. Hate continued to grow.

I have to tell you, I never said "I hate so-and-so," that would be too obvious and my mind was able to distinguish that using the word hate was just going too far. But by continuing to doubt these people, I was essentially hating them because I just wouldn't...I just couldn't give them another chance because of their narrow-mindedness or their abusive actions, whatever the case may have been. In my mind, justice had no room for such failures. Were these people wrong? In most cases, yeah, they were wrong. But I was wrong too because my silent crusade (that means I condemned them in my head and secretly wrote off everything they said from that point on as BS) sowed a bitter spirit that in turn began to overflow into all areas of my life. I didn't want to extend a helping hand to the poor, because I already did more for the poor than 99% of people I know. You follow me here?

Well, like I said earlier...I'm coming out of that stage. I'm realizing while my concern for the poor and for justice to be served and offenders to be held accountable is a noble and worthy task...I could never achieve anything with my former approach. There will always be another careless teenager driving way too fast and there will always be another judgmental Christian condemning people right and left. It just makes me so mad sometimes to see how we blatantly neglect the most obvious needs of our fellow citizen for our own agenda. My new approach is to try and extend love to the offender and the victim. I have to act out of love to all people. I must extend the same amount of love and grace to the fundamentalist as I do to the rapist, if I don't, then I believe my love that was extended to one is nullified by the hate I've so willingly given the other.

I want to learn to love people again, to truly love them.
I want to give them the benefit of the doubt.
I want to love them when I disagree.
I want to shut up because making my point in an argument is not more important than a person.
I want to feel the hurts and pains of others so I can better understand them.
I want to always be willing to see something from another's point of view.

Less 4 teeth

Mike finally had the teeth removed late last week. They were able to remove all four teeth during the surgery! Mike is recovering well.

Leading up to the surgery, they took him off Coumadin and started Lovinox shots. After the surgery, they put him back on Coumadin, and though his levels were a little low, they should be back within the preferred range.

The oral surgeon has released Mike from his care and is confident that there will be no infection. Once he is healed completely, he will have the heart surgery.

The insurance company is denying payment right now...they're saying that his stroke due to a pre-existing condition. I assume they'll peruse his medical records to try and find anything that they could use to prevent them from having to pay their portion. That's a big surprise.

That's the short update. I'll try to post more soon.

Debt Reduction Progress

Last night, I reviewed our debt situation in detail to see how far we've come in the last couple of years. This morning, I started an email to a couple of friends and family members about how well we've been doing. I also found an MS Excel calculator for debt reduction and wanted to send to a few people. Anyway, I started writing the email and it just kept getting longer. After I finished, I kept adding more friends and family that might benefit from our story. All this to say, I've decided to post the email here for you all to see. If you want a copy of the debt calculator, just let me know and I'll email it to you.

Hello friends and family,

I found a super-handy debt calculator for excel and I’ve attached it to this email. Just enter your debts, the rate and payment. Then, enter your total monthly payment including any extra you can pay towards those debts and it spits out some sweet, though depressing data. I’m no Dave Ramsey disciple, in fact, I think he’s a cocky punk, so don’t worry about me going all militant on you to get of debt. I just found a useful tool that I wanted to share.

Here’s some motivation for you:

Me and Danyel decided to put some effort into getting out of debt about 2 years ago, actually, a little less than two years. We have a huge amount of school loans, so much that I’m embarrassed to say. Anyway, we made a conscious effort to pay down our debts. We created a budget to get an idea where our money was going and we were shocked how much we waste. We made room to pay $500-$1000 a month more than our minimum payments and the results have been huge. I’ll outline some of the facts below:

-We’ve reduced our debts by $25,000 in under two years

-We still buy just about anything we want (bikes, cameras, etc.), but we think about each purchase more and credit cards are NOT an option.

-We still go out to eat (too much, in fact)

-We don’t alienate our friends by playing the “budget card” when we go out together

-We do suggest more cost-effective entertainment options

-Our only debt now is school loans

-Some debt was eliminated by getting rid of car payments

-We have a $8000 Honda that’s paid off

-We’ve saved between $5000-$10,000 dollars in interest charges

-If we stick to our 5-year plan, we’ll save $25,000 more in interest.

For those of you who know me, you know that I’m no budget Nazi, in fact, I’m very much the opposite. I don’t believe in a one-plan-fits-all mentality. I DO believe that we each have to find our own way and create a system to curb our spending and pay some stuff off. If it’s not your system and your approach, then I doubt you’ll be able to stick to it. So, use good resources like this calculator, maybe read Dave Ramsey’s book, whatever you need to do. Then formulate a plan and try for a little while…it’s quite liberating and it’s easier than you think. Realistically, we’ll have those school loans paid off in 5 years, but our goal is 3 years. Neither one of us make a lot of money, but we’re committed to freeing ourselves from huge, useless debt and freeing up that cash to do what we really want to do. Imagine having $2000 extra per month to spend on the house or invest, or vacation or whatever.

I love running the numbers through these calculators and saying, “what if I pay x amount of dollars per month…then when will I have it paid off.” I think you will too, when you realize that paying things off is actually in your reach. I know of very few people who have more debt than us and we’ve been able to achieve a respectable amount of reduction in just two years. I promise, you can do it. I’m willing to sit down with any of you and help you with a plan, even show you ours…I promise, your jaws will drop when you see our debt!

Okay, I’m off my soap box now. I’ll shut up.

-br

PS-If you’re wondering why I sent you this email, I just started adding people from my address book.

Are those teeth ever coming out?

Mike was scheduled to have his first round of extractions today. However, after having his blood drawn yesterday, his coumadin levels are too high and his blood is too thin to proceed with the surgery-once again. Mike will be seeing the Abilene hematologist here soon. He will be working on regulating the levels of coumadin in Mike's blood so that they can eventually proceed with the extractions. We're hoping that having a team of local doctors will help get the ball rolling on Mike's surgeries. I'll keep you updated.

Oral surgery postponed again

Mike was scheduled to have his first wisdom tooth removed this morning, but that appointment has been canceled due to his blood test from yesterday. Leading up to each of these surgeries, Mike has to have his blood drawn the day before to test the clotting. I forget the name of the test, but his levels were too high. This is another way of saying his blood is too thin and the risk of bleeding is high.
If you remember from last week, the Rx wasn't ready causing Mike to miss his appointment. This morning, they originally told mom that they couldn't reschedule until November 6th. However, with a little prodding from mom, the nurse is "checking into it."
On another note, Mike's family doctor here in Abilene suggested that Mike see a hematologist here to help ease the communication between the doctors in Abilene and those in Dallas. Additionally, he thought it was a good idea to have a hematologist in town in case Mike were to have complications with the tooth extractions. Mom asked the family doctor what his opinion was about Mike's clotting disorder (prothrombin mutation type II) and the family doctor wasn't even aware of the condition. I don't understand why it's so hard for the doctor's offices to communicate. They don't send records to one another, even after we request it. The lose records, they all tell you something different, they force you into appointments on their schedule, they charge whatever they want...Anyway, how can you have faith in these doctors when the medical system in America as a whole is so screwed up?!? It's utterly ridiculous. I obviously have my opinions on the matter, but I'll save the rest of those for later.
Hopefully I didn't forget anything on this update. I'll keep posting as I get information.

Mike still has his teeth

The wisdom tooth extraction has been rescheduled for Wednesday October 24th. After arriving at the doctor today, Mike was informed that he would have to have the mouthwash Rx filled before they proceed with the extraction. After calling the pharmacy, they were informed that the supplies would need to be ordered and the mouthwash will be mixed when they receive the order. Mike said that the oral surgeon plans on getting two of the wisdom teeth next Wednesday. That's about all I know.

Oh, Mike called me to give the update and acted like he had just had the extraction. It was funny and I fell for it, especially considering all the drugs they give you at the dentist! Anyway, Mike got one over on me, but I couldn't stop laughing at him because I really thought he was loopy.

First Wisdom tooth being removed

Mike is scheduled to have his first wisdom tooth removed this morning at 10:45a. His appointment went well on Tuesday, they were able to complete the fillings. Today, he goes to get blood work done first, then if the coumadin levels are within the specified range, they will proceed with the removal of the tooth. Mike is still taking the coumadin (blood thinner) and that is the major concern about today's surgery. They are giving him a special mouthwash that they expect to stop the bleeding. We're a little anxious about this mouthwash and hope it performs up to it's ridiculously expensive price tag!

Provided Mike's body handles this extraction well, he'll be scheduled to have the other teeth removed. At that point, he'll have to wait at least 6 weeks before the heart surgery can be performed. Please join me in praying for Mike this morning. I'll post an update as soon as I know something.

4 fillings today

Mike is going in to the dentist for 4 fillings today. I'll keep you updated on that. Also, he is scheduled for the first extraction of that abscessed wisdom tooth on Thursday. If that one goes well, they are going to pull 2 other wisdom teeth and one more tooth that is next to the wisdom tooth, I'm assuming that's a molar?
The reason they are doing all of this dental work is twofold. One, they have to take all precautions necessary to insure that they minimize the risk of infection leading up to the heart surgery. Any form of infection in his teeth could have adverse effects on his recovery from the heart surgery. Two, he will not be able to have additional dental work done until at least 6 months after the heart surgery, so they want to do it now.