RUMINATIONS OF A REVEREND

 This past summer I bought a new car. I’ve always enjoyed shopping for a new vehicle. In college, a friend and I would go around test driving vehicles just for the fun of it. I enjoy viewing the styling of different vehicles, driving and experiencing the performance, and I don’t even mind visiting with sales people either. I can find out a lot of interesting insights about people and sometimes the small talk can lead into spiritual conversations. I know it's not for everyone, but I enjoy car shopping.  And w hen I find a car salesman who owns the brand he's selling, my confidence in the brand is bolstered. It’s one thing for the sales person to say a vehicle is great and a whole other level of sincerity if he personally owns that brand. I went to a Honda dealership and visited with one of the sales reps there about a Honda Civic. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any on the lot, but the salesman showed me his personal Civic that he had bought recently. That told me a lot about

TWO TRAGEDIES Last week I read a tragic story of two family pets (pit bulls) that turned on the children (a 2 year old and a 5 month old) and killed them. The mother frantically tried to protect her children but was mauled in process. She survived the horrific attack but will likely be scarred for life, suffering bite marks all over her body. It is unknown what precipitated the attack. The dogs were euthanized after the attack.   I can’t even begin to imagine the grief and emotions flooding the hearts of this couple. As I shared the story with my wife, I said it almost seems demonic. Please don’t misunderstand me here. In no way am I making any kind of assessment about the spiritual state of that family. All I mean is that such a horrible attack on these two children and their mother seems like something Satan and the demonic realm would delight in and instigate.    And then I read other stories like the slaughter of 37 people, 23 of which were children, by a madman with a knife at

SITCOMS AND SEX I rarely watch television these days except for some sporting events, but once in a while I enjoy a good comedy, whether that might be a movie or a sitcom. Unfortunately, in our culture today, the phrase “good comedy” is an oxymoron. Trying to find a good, clean comedy feels as probable as winning the lottery. An article in the Gainesville Sun noted that the top four sitcoms on CBS had 53 sex jokes between them. Let’s break that down a bit. A half hour sitcom is actually about 22 minutes long minus the commercials. That means on average these sitcoms had a sex joke every minute and 40 seconds. Now here’s the kicker—this article is from 2012! I couldn’t even find data from the past few years. I wonder if sex jokes and sitcoms are so synonymous today that no one bothers counting. It would by like counting how many news stories are in a newscast. But so what? Does it matter that sex has been denigrated to sitcom humor? DOES GOD ENJOY A GOOD JOKE?   First let’s consider G