Dr. Seuss and Ethics - Repost from Buzzfeed

As a child I was captivated by a short Dr. Seuss cartoon tape we had at our home. It had Cat in the Hat, The Sneeches and The Zax stories on it. And the past couple of weeks I have been telling my son bedtime stories and he loves the Sneeches and the Zax. 

In a news amalgamator I use, I came across this little post in which Buzzfeed renamed some Dr. Seuss classics. 

I did not want to lose these and so I posted them here to share with all seven people who run across this blog. 

Enjoy.

What time does worship begin?

As an ongoing struggle to combat the enslavement many American are in to the power of the almighty clock, worship is a protest against this constant master. Why?

Because no matter what local church you are at, no matter what time is noted above the "attempt at humor but often highly inappropriate and offensive" sign outside your church building (can we get rid of this please!), worship does not begin at 11am.

Worship began eons ago and we just happen to join in that ongoing worship at 11am on Sunday.

If we were to meet at the river at 11am and jump in for a swim, our actions did not "start" the flow of the river. Rather the river has been there long before and will be there long after our actions.

We just join into the flow of it for a time.

"A veneer of sincerity"

The following conversation snip-it came out of a much larger conversation I had with a very interesting fella who trains professional baseball players here in Fort Worth:

 "Fort Worth seems to have a veneer of sincerity." he said as I took a sip of my coffee.

"Really, in what way?" I responded as the cup landed on the saucer a bit harder than normally expected.

A smile came across his face.  "Fort Worth is a place where I have gotten the sense that someone will look me in the eye, tell me that they are glad that I am here and even listen to my opinions, all while thinking, 'Bless your heart! You are a total dumb ass and you are probably going to hell.'  The sincerity is just a veneer to reality."

 ---

I could not help but think about his comments and the Church.

It is said of many worshiping communities that they are friendly but not hospitable.  The Bara Group has put out a couple of books that talk about the Church and young adults.

I wonder if the friendliness in the church is any different from the veneer of sincerity that has been this guy's experience of Fort Worth?

What can Christianity do to ensure that we are building disciples that are more like:

this and less like this?

Sleeping continued...

Recently I posted about surrendering to sleep and I just came across a series of pictures of sleepers from around the world.  Below are a couple of my favorites to ponder.


Have you ever been this tired?  Where can you or where do you find rest? 

A young Chinese couple wait as their baby sleeps on a display bed as they shop at a department store in Beijing on August 15, 2011. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

Man asleep in public transport, Lao © Romain Philippon

A baby sleeps while Palestinian women attempt to pass the checkpoint on their way to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque on the second Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on August 12, 2011. (Bernat Armangue/AP)