Higher Up and Further In

What is your favorite animal?  For Kay it’s the Giraffe.  She loves to watch them at the Zoo (until they stick out their ultra long dark tongues).  While we were shopping in Little Rock this past weekend, we wandered into a toy store.  As we were about to leave, Kay spotted the Giraffe.  I tried to get a picture with my cell phone, but it wasn’t clear.  I think you can still make out how she feels about Giraffes.

The stuffed animal had price tag of $100.00 and I would have bought the thing in a heart beat if she would have wanted it!  She gave it one final hug before we left.

Do you have a favorite animal?

Does this have any appearance of Hypocrisy to anyone other than me?  Some of the loudest voices being heard from The Hill are shown highest on the above list.  The top two shouldn’t be harping about putting the AIG execs in the hot seat; nope, they should be getting the hot seat treatment themselves!

On March 22, 2007, Kay recorded in her prayer journal that we had prayed against the drug culture in our small city.  We specifically prayed that “hidden things”, dealings done in the darkness of deception, would be brought into light.  We prayed that if any law enforcement personnel were involved with the drug dealers, their dealings would be discovered and brought to light.

This past week a local policeman was arrested for his involvement with drug dealers.  The guy was the drug dog handler and gave speeches to the kids in the local schools .  As one of the primary officers involved in busting drug dealers, this man was in a prime position to warn dealers of impending action against them.  And warn them he did!  “Did” is past tense, cause I figure he’s “Done” with police work.

This leads to the Prayer Questions.

Did our specific prayers, from two years ago, have any connection with the recent arrest?

Once a prayer is spoken, does it have time frame in which God will answer?  I’ve heard many times people say that God answers, as soon as we pray, with either a “yes”, a “no” or a “wait”.  Do you think this is true? 

I encountered a new thought a few months ago while listening to Leonard Ravenhill.  The concept was prayers can have an eternal nature about them; that is, once a prayer is uttered, it enters into the realm of God and stays there until it is answered.  Which made me wonder if perhaps a prayer can be answered more than once?  If prayers have an eternal nature, can I pray that the Lord would activate, in our area, the many prayers that Leonard Ravenhill prayed for revival; as in, “Lord, send us the revival that Ravenhill prayed would come”?

What do you think gentle reader? 

(Do you think I fell out of the turnip truck onto my head?)

The Cornbread Sequence occurs from two to four times a month.  Here’s how the Cornbread Sequence goes.  It starts when I cook Southern style cornbread; one cast iron skillet plus five minutes to mix the ingredients followed by about 20 to 25 minutes in the oven produces the Southern staple shown below.

Ideally, I’m aiming for a somewhat light, but not fluffy, texture with a crusty bottom.  The key to the crust is heating about two tablespoons of oil in the skillet.  There should be sizzling and frying when the batter is poured into the hot skillet.  Pop into the oven and check back in twenty minutes for the beginning of browning of the top.

The trick to the right texture lies in the amount of buttermilk added to the two cups of cornmeal, two eggs and oil.  Too much buttermilk causes the cornbread to fall apart, while too little results in a heavy dense cornbread like the horrid stuff served in many restaurants.  Cut the cornbread and check the texture - now is the time to add butter.

Hot buttered cornbread leads to this:

Which is often followed by this (a dessert of cornbread and buttermilk):

Which makes me like this shape:

Unless I ate too much, making me more like this:

Causing me to avoid these for several days:

Kay was hot.  She was steaming hot last night.  When we got ready to pray together with a friend of ours, Kay started telling us about a guy who had come by the bank that day.  As he was cashing or depositing an unemployment check he got to talking about his situation.  The major local manufacturer recently laid off somewhere around 300 people and this guy was one of them.  He comes from a Christian family we have known for years, so Kay assumed he had principles and a good work ethic.  Not so, not so!

He started bragging about how he was getting his unemployment check every week by going into the required number of businesses to “put in an application” for employment.  He said that he was being very careful to go to places where he knew they wouldn’t hire him, but they would confirm that he had “applied”.  He’s not interested in getting a job, just in getting an unemployment check.  He said that he planned on “milking the system until the money runs out”.

The real kicker is this - he was bragging about doing a good bit of working on a local farm where they were paying him “cash that he didn’t have to report”.  That really inflamed Kay.  To make matters even worse, Kay’s coworker got to telling about how she wouldn’t get married before she recently had a baby.  She said the government was footing the whole bill for the C-section.  The government was paying for everything?  Last time I checked, the government was in the business of taking money, not making money.  Businesses make money.  Labor, that “sweat of the brow” stuff, makes money.  Where does the government get their money?  From businesses that work and those who work for the businesses that work and from one Ms. Kay who is working two jobs and is not pleased that her hard earned cash is being used to support people who are “working the system”.

It was like taking the car in to the mechanic and then the car wouldn’t make the funky sounds it had been making for the past few weeks.  The mechanic gives you that funny look.  That look with the hidden question of, “Just why are you here?  Don’t you understand that I’ve got work to do and you’re wasting my time with your imaginary problem?”

Of course the mechanic doesn’t say this; what he comes out with is “I can’t find and fix a problem when there is no problem.  Please bring your car back when you have a problem.”

Yesterday, the orthopedic specialist gave me that same look as he reviewed the test results.  Blood clot?  Negative.  Broken and dislocated bone?  Negative.  Flexibility limitations?  Negative.  MRI search for torn tendons, ligaments, cartilage?  Negative.  Hmmm…  Patient’s imagination? Positive!  (Possible inner thoughts of doctor: “This guy’s a big cry baby!”)

Short diagnosis is my knee may have been inflamed during January and that I may have dislocated my knee cap a couple of weeks ago when my knee popped.  Treatment: one steroid shot under the knee cap, anti-inflammatory meds and 4 weeks of physical therapy.  I like the sound of that much better than the knee surgery or knee replacement discussed during the first visit. 

And Princess Ruth laser eye surgery?  Well, I got to watch the procedure from a remote room.  I’m certainly glad I was there with her, because my little 23 year old girl was so scared that she was trembling for at least 20 to 30 minutes after she got out of the operating room.  It seemed rather strange to see her so scared.  She’s an ER trauma nurse and has seen things that would curl your toenails.  We had a great time for the next 4 days while I nursed the nurse.  Lest I lead you to believe I bore a heavy load of care, I should mention the Kay drove over the next day so she could nurse the nurse’s nurse.  All patients are recovering well.