The quest to make myself happy, an impossibility, leads to a dead-end street; not a pleasant cul-de-sac. At the end of the dead-end street is death; a toxic dump.

The word meme is relatively new as words go. It was first used, invented, by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976 when Dawkins was still best known as an evolutionary biologist. Dawkins is now best known as one of the most rabid of the “new atheists.” As an evolutionary biologist, Dawkins wanted to describe ideas, styles and behaviors that spread through a culture by non-genetic means. He borrowed an old Greek word and made up a new word, meme, to describe the phenomenon.

More recently the word has come to be used mostly in relationship to ideas spread via social media – Facebook or You Tube posts that “go viral.”  In particular, users of Facebook and other social media platforms recognize memes as those images with a message that get “liked” and “shared” thousands of times. If you don’t use social media, think of a poster or a billboard.  That’s a meme. Continue reading →

I’ve checked the settings on my iPhone and I cannot find one that will show acceptable time.

One of the morning Psalms in the daily office for today is Psalm 69.  The Psalm was written by King David and in it he laments his sad situation and pleads for God’s help.  “The waters have come up to my neck,” he cries in the first verse. “I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold,” he continues. No one knows exactly what episode or circumstance in the king’s life, the sweet psalmist of Israel’s journey with God, prompted the psalm. The picture of water up to the neck and deep mire where there is no foothold, however, describes episodes and circumstances common to the lives of all people whether they be prince or pauper.

As the psalm unfolds, David defends his cause against unknown accusers. He has acted righteously, yet he is mocked by those from whom he might expect high regard and due respect, “I am the talk of those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me” (verse 12). Continue reading →

“Every time we draw a line between us and others, Jesus is always on the other side of it.”

Yeah, that cross in my pocket. If you were with us at LPC for Ash Wednesday worship, you may have taken one of those pocket crosses home with you. On Ash Wednesday we talked about Jesus’ definition of discipleship as cross bearing (Mark 8:34-38), and then we were invited to take one of the pocket crosses and to bear it during the Lenten season. We were warned that this little piece of tin might become very heavy as we make our way to Jerusalem. Continue reading →

We live in a Bitcoin age. Things are true not by their inherent qualities or their tested outcomes, but because we want to believe they are true.  Truth at the whim of fad and feeling. Value because we think it has value.

I have been trying to figure out Bitcoins. Well, just because I might be at a party where someone wants to talk about Bitcoins. Sort of the same reason I check in on the 76ers every so often. I am not a big NBA fan, but I suppose I ought to know. Ouch! That bad?

Among the helpful sites in my education were Wikipedia, of course, but also this from CNN, and I particularly liked this short video from the Wall Street Journal. “Gold for nerds” is one way to describe Bitcoins according to the Journal. Continue reading →

As I make my way through life, I am in constant danger of hitting potholes – and often do, of having my alignment knocked off true and my daydreaming self jarred back to its sinful reality.

Potholes. They are everywhere and no respecter of persons. They appear in McMansion developments and on urban avenues. They torment drivers in the suburbs and center city alike. 2014 has surely begun as the year of the pothole.

We could probably conduct a poll to name the most vexing pothole for LPC people. In fact, if you are reading this via LPC email, send a reply email naming what you consider to be the worst pothole around. I will compile results and get them back to you. Continue reading →