But this morning, as I sit at my desk attempting to get into my work after a short weekend (worked all day Saturday), my mind and attention is continually drawn to the world’s biggest event of the day, one that will go down as one of the most significant events in history. And I feel that if I don’t get this out, I’ll be thinking about it all day, and I won’t be able to work. So here it is – you can either appreciate my catharsis, or ignore it – I’ll end up relieved either way.

Osama bin Laden is dead. Have you heard? If not, you’re probably like this guy from the Geico commercial who lives under a rock:

Do you live under a rock?

My first reaction was that of good ol’ fashioned Amerr-can patriotism. My heart swelled with red, white and blue pride, and I felt the nearly irresistible urge to hoot and holler, jump up with a mighty fist pump and break out into a random chorus of “God Bless the USA”.

Then, in a swift moment, my heart was saddened as I heard the news anchor indicate his “delight” to bring us this long-awaited news. And my mind stopped, as a car into a brick wall. Delight? Really? As in, squealing like little girls at a birthday party who just discovered that there is in fact a real pony in the back yard, that kind of delight? (I have daughters, forgive the analogy) And as I watched my friend’s reaction across Facebook – what a crazy development in society, to see this little window into the hearts and minds of hundreds of your acquaintances, in real time, without the benefit of reflection time – I saw quite a mix of reactions. Celebration. Glee. Joy. Patriotism. Cynicism. Skepticism. Sadness. Self-righteousness. Anger. (really!) And much more.

So with a night to sleep on it, and a brain that needs to release this before I can move on with the day, I offer my thoughts. Not all of them are original; I have some very thoughtful and otherwise wonderful friends who have expressed the same things I feel. I also will not claim all of them to be right, or myself to be the beacon of truth and justice in how to react – I only react the way I think is right based on what I believe and know to be true, and let that be that.

My first reaction was one of patriotic pride. For many Americans, I expect this to be the first and most sincere reaction, and without a worldview that requires viewing thoughts and events through a lens of Godliness and Biblical truth, it’s the reaction I expect to be taken to its fullest extreme. These are not the people to whom I’m referring in most of this piece. I’m more concerned with how we, as Christians, should respond.

I’m proud that our troops did their job. This job was remarkably hard to do – it took nearly ten years, and I choose to recognize the persistence and determination that ultimately led to a successful mission. I’m proud that the troops have done, and continue to do their jobs on a daily basis, in most cases with results far less newsworthy than this, but no less important. I recognize that the Bible teaches justice. That our God is ultimately a God of justice. It’s that justice that requires His infinite grace, because faced with justice alone, we are hopelessly damned. So in that light, it’s appropriate to feel satisfied in the delivery of a just conclusion. While I’m not convinced it is the case, my hope and prayer is that the soldiers involved, and our world by extension, are safer as a result.

That being said – the reaction I see of pure glee and unbridled joy at the death of the world’s #1 villain over the past decade is simply disgusting. Do we really believe in that mercy I spoke of earlier? Do we really believe that no matter what a person has done, God’s grace and mercy is sufficient, and that when He carried the sins of the entire world on his shoulders he meant EVERY SINGLE sin, and that given the opportunity, if he were to accept it, God would gladly give His grace and mercy and eternal life to even the most vile of criminals? Celebrating his death with joy and dancing communicates that we are glad a soul is in hell, eternally separated from God’s presence. It communicates that we are happy with his demise, and even if God could have and would have saved him, we’re relieved and satisfied that he DIDN’T.

That’s a dark place in our souls, indeed. Who among us wants to see bin Laden (or Stalin, Hitler, Saddam, et al) in heaven, worshipping at the feet of our God? As humans, we don’t. I certainly don’t. But as children of the living God, what greater joy than to see the darkest criminals come to Him, confessing that He is Lord?

So it’s a mixed bag, to be sure. Glad he’s gone? Yeah, I suppose I am. I’d be lying if I said otherwise. Happy he’s dead? I can’t bring myself to it. There’s just a nagging voice that keeps reminding me that while death is gain for those that know Him, death is the beginning of eternal separation from God for those who don’t. And that is not to be celebrated.

I won’t even bother to get into the quagmire of political ramifications – will he become a martyr to be rallied around? Will there be a clash of those taking credit (Bush started the hunt, he was found on Obama’s watch, blah blah)? Is the world really any safer? It’s an accomplishment, but doesn’t signal the end of the fight, right? I guess I’ll only leave with this – it’s the one sentence version of this really long post that I left on Facebook this morning: It’s a fine line between celebrating justice and celebrating the eternal death of a man’s soul. I pray we don’t cross it.

It was just a few short months ago that our Toyota minivan failed on us in Memphis, and we replaced it with a quickly and cheaply obtained Ford minivan.

Well, driving hoopty-vans is nothing a little drive up over the mountains won’t cure… said Ford didn’t quite make it over the mountains. In fact, the transmission burned out for good as we were passing through the Eisenhower Tunnel. Thankfully, it’s downhill all the way to the next town, where we were able to coast in on nothing but momentum and gravity (thank you physics!). After a harrowing day of tow trucks and rental cars, we finally made it home. And after another harrowing day of dealerships and loan applications, we finally found a credit union willing to take a chance on this motley bunch and finance us for a new (to us) Honday Odyssey – it’s a 2004, with 83,000 miles – which is approximately 150,000 less than either of our other vans had.

So, our streak of 7 years without a car payment is finally over… but hopefully so is our streak of leaving cars wherever they happen to die.

So without further ado, I’m pleased to introduce to you our fancy-schmancy new automobile:

PS: I still hate cars. I just hate this one a little less.

So when I noticed on his Facebook page that he  a) had recently relocated to New Mexico and b) was looking for shows this spring, I immediately jumped on it. So after a few weeks of conversation and working out some details, we are excited to announce that we’ll be hosting Bill and his wife Muriah here in the Denver area on April 7th at Forza Coffee Company. We’re putting on this show out of our own pockets – because we appreciate Bill’s art and want to support him as an artist – but it’s not like we’re rich or anything, so of course we have to sell tickets to this show to defray the cost as much as possible. In addition, we’ve invited Tim Bruns of Denver-based up and coming band Churchill to open the show with a solo acoustic set. It’s going to be a really fun night, and if you’ve heard Bill before, you know you’re in for a treat. If you haven’t heard Bill before, then don’t miss this chance to see him in such a cozy, intimate venue. I’ve played at Forza before, and they really go all out to make artist and audience alike comfortable.

You can purchase tickets online here – or you can call me at 303.720.6564 to order by phone. Forza isn’t exactly a huge coffeeshop, so if you think you’re going to come, order tickets ahead of time to make sure there’s room. Plus, if you buy them at the door, they’re going to be a tad more expensive.

So now that we’ve established that, let’s talk a minute about a couple peculiar laws regarding stores that sell alcoholic beverages here in the great state of Colorado.

Currently, only licensed liquor stores can sell anything with an alcohol content of greater than 3.2%. This excludes pretty much everything, except that many beer manufacturers distribute a special “3.2″ version of their beer – “near beer”, I’ve heard it called.

Any single owner (person or company) can only own one such store in the state. So this means that while Safeway can’t sell full-strength beer and wine, they can set aside and license one store in the state. So there is one location of each major chain that has its own full-strength liquor section.

Up until a couple years ago, these stores were mandated by law to be closed on Sunday. This was changed, and now these stores can choose to open on Sunday or not. Most do.

So that’s how things are in Colorado. When I first moved here, having to go to a separate store for my beer or wine (I rarely buy other liquors – which in Washington required a special trip as well, unlike California where a grocery store can sell anything and everything) was quite irritating. But I quickly learned that the trade-off is well worth it: selection. Because Colorado has created an internal industry of stores that specialize in beer, wine, and liquor sales, the competition has brought forth tons of stores that carry more than a few garden-variety beers. Where grocery stores are loathe to dedicate valuable shelf space to yet another obscure microbrew, stand alone stores thrive on it. It’s even paved the way for stores like Total Beverage, mentioned above, and Daveco – just a few miles from here, certified as the world’s largest liquor store. It’s like a Walmart of beer, wine, and spirits. I wouldn’t have it any other way – let the grocery stores carry everything, and soon the stand-alone stores will start closing, and before long we’ll have to make special trips to the few remaining out of the way stores to find the wealth of microbrews we can currently choose from.

So naturally, being a budding wine lover and an established beer geek, I’m on the mailing list for the Total Beverage store in Westminster. Today, we get an email about proposed changes in Colorado’s liquor laws. This happens every year – someone lobbies to change the system. And of course, the liquor store owners fight it tooth and nail. But rather than just tell us the truth – the truth we already know – Total Beverage wants to fight the changes because it will keep alcohol out of the hands of minors. The argument being, it’s easier for a minor to obtain alcohol when it’s more readily available in convenience stores or grocery stores than just the state-approved liquor outlets. Which is 1. ridiculous and 2. dishonest. Kids will get it where they can get it – most kids that are drinking are not out knocking off 7-11s and stealing the malt liquor. They’re getting it by way of fake IDs, or older friends, or careless parents.

If having fewer kids drinking is a result of Colorado’s current laws, fine. I’m ok with that. And Total Beverage, in spite of your ridiculous plea, I understand and support your position. I want to maintain the selection that comes from a more restrictive set of laws. So if you’re going to lobby against these changes, by all means, do so. Just don’t insult my intelligence by trying to tell me your motivation is so that “fewer kids drink alcohol”. It’s a lie, and lying liars really irritate me.

Now if you’ll pardon me, I have a sudden hankering for a hefeweizen.

For the record, Matt was really great. We heard about the event just a couple miles from our house 15 minutes after it started. So we grabbed our stuff and drove down quickly, waited in line in the cold. The event was supposed to end at 6pm, and he agreed to stay and sign for everyone who was in line by 6pm. He could have left at 6, many athletes over-value their time in this way. But he stayed, he was happy, gracious, and polite. He shook hands with Sam and me, and as I thanked him for doing this, he said “No problem”, in a tone of voice that almost sounded incredulous that I was thanking him.

He left a great impression – and we’re now bigger fans than ever. You never know if the pro athlete is going to break a kid’s heart by being rude. Sam was very excited to meet him (as was I), and a little part of me worried that he’d come away disillusioned. Instead, we walked away with signed hats (and my Duchene home jersey!) and a few copies of the above photo – but mostly we walked away with smiles that this kid (yeah, he’s only 20) might be a millionaire pro athlete – but his home is in Colorado and we get to cheer him on.

Perhaps those more seasoned than I in the ways of javascript already know this – but I just spent 2 hours trying to fix a javascript problem that ended up having a very easy solution. My google searches came up fruitless – partially because I was using search terms to describe symptoms that I thought were related to a completely different problem – but fruitless nonetheless.

Here’s the issue. I have a simple javascript form on a hotel website – you fill in your check-in date, check-out date, number of adults and number of children, and rather than process the data and actually search, the form just builds a simple URL string and passes it off to their main corporate site (in this case, Doubletree) to use their massive internal booking engine. Easy right? All I have to do is come up with a URL string, put together with variables from the form, in a function that runs with the onClick event on the submit button – the form never actually submits. Take that URL string, throw it into a window.location, and off we go. Elegant? Notsomuch. Effective? Youbetcha.

Here’s the javascript:

function res_form() {
       
    	var rdir = "http://secure.hilton.com/en/dt/res/choose_dates.jhtml?ctyhocn=DENCHDT&arrivalDay="+document.resform.arriveDate.value+"&arrivalMonth="
+document.resform.arriveMonth.value+"&arrivalYear="+document.resform.arriveYear.value+
"&departureDay="+document.resform.departDate.value+"&departureMonth="+
document.resform.departMonth.value+"&departureYear="+document.resform.departYear.value
+"&numAdults="+document.resform.HowManyAdults.value+"&numChildren="+
document.resform.HowManyChildren.value;

window.location = rdir;
};

Simple, right? Problem is, the adults field and the children field were not getting their values passed through. Well, that’s not accurate – Firefox/Safari/Chrome were putting the values for number of adults and children in the correct places – in other words, document.form.adults.value was coming out correctly. However, in IE – (oh, boy, here we go) – this was not happening. These values were empty, which pretty much killed the URL string and the Doubletree site didn’t know what to do with it and just threw a blank screen back at me.

After much consternation and googling and bad words rattling about in my head, I decided to pick apart the form itself, piece by piece, since most of this code was something I inherited from another firm. What I found was that while non-IE browsers will take the actual value in a field and store it as document.form.field.value, IE needs a more explicit kick in the teeth, and requires that the ‘value’ attribute in the HTML<option> element be set.

So what I had was:

<select name="HowManyAdults" class="month" id="HowManyAdults">
        <option selected="selected">1</option>
        <option>2</option>
         <option>3</option>
         <option>4</option>
         <option>5</option>
         <option>6</option>
         <option>7</option>
         <option>8</option>
        <option>9</option>
         <option>10</option>
</select>

Firefox and Chrome likey, IE no likey. What I needed was:

<select name="HowManyAdults" class="month" id="HowManyAdults">
        <option value="1" selected="selected">1</option>
        <option value="2">2</option>
        <option value="3">3</option>
        <option value="4">4</option>
        <option value="5">5</option>
        <option value="6">6</option>
        <option value="7">7</option>
        <option value="8">8</option>
        <option value="9">9</option>
        <option value="10">10</option>
      </select>

Everyone’s happy.

A very simple HTML solution to what appeared to be a javascript problem. I was convinced that those form elements were getting pushed through as null or something – but they weren’t, they just didn’t have a valid explicit value set to them, so IE had nothing to assign to them, whereas Firefox took the intuitive step of actually taking the value within the <option> tag, and making that the value.

So there you go. Probably a “duh” moment… I’m ticked that it took me two hours to figure it out, but hopefully my little odyssey helps someone else.

I don’t normally rant against products and services in my blog. I’m just not that kind of guy.

This one bears a bit of a rant though. Now, I know that even though people in our country are rabid consumers of television programming, it’s a given that most people really dislike their chosen provider. It’s like choosing between Comcast, DirecTV and Dish Network is choosing your favorite dictator from the Axis Powers.

Let me start with this – I know that I could grab HD local programming off the air, and that there are copious amounts of options for digital delivery of programming, including but not limited to Hulu, Netflix, and so on. And I use those options – I like Hulu, and I’m head over heels for Netflix. But my big product for consumption is sports programming – specifically, live coverage of local sports. I want to watch the Colorado Rockies, currently carried by FSN. I want to watch the Avalanche, on Altitude Sports. I even wouldn’t mind having access to the Nuggets. Football is less of a deal, because the local network affiliates carry the Broncos every week, being the local team. I have no use for the NFL Sunday Ticket package. So my real deal is that I want the local sports teams, and after an expensive outing with Comcast digital cable (now rebranded as “Xfinity”, aka the stupidest name EVER), I chose Dish Network, mostly due to the most channels for the lowest price, and the availability of FSN and Altitude in HD.

Little did I know that Dish Network hates local sports fans, and aims to make their lives miserable. It started during the first season watching the Rockies on FSN in HD. About every third or fourth game, I’d turn to the HD station, and find that the Rockies game, though being broadcast by FSN in HD, available in standard definition only while the HD channel sat unused, until 30 or 40 minutes into the game, then the HD feed would kick in. The same process repeated all season, and the same practice occurs on Altitude for Avalanche hockey games. I didn’t keep a log, but I figure roughly 3 innings of 20 games or so were not broadcast in HD. That’s 60 innings, or almost 7 complete games that Dish chose not to broadcast in HD. The feed was available, just not delivered.

At first, the Dish customer service people (@DishNetwork on Twitter) tried to tell me the feed wasn’t available. Then, it was ‘overlapping with another game’. Finally, they admitted that due to bandwidth limitations, they shut down HD broadcast of certain events until they could free up the bandwidth from another station. A little bit of further research and I found that this happens all over the country, on many different regional sports networks.

Essentially, it boils down with this. Because they are unwilling to take on the extra bandwidth, Dish Network need to throttle some of the content. They don’t allow you the choice, they decide that they’ll carry all manner of HD programming, but will randomly cut off the RSNs to save bandwidth. I don’t know the technical details, I don’t know if it’s a hard bandwidth limitation, or if they are simply unwilling to pay for the capacity – though I suspect the latter. Either way, I’m paying for Dish Network specifically so that I can get what was advertised – HD content, particularly FSN and Altitude. Consistently, the content I am paying for is being restricted, and I can say nothing about it. So for three innings, or one period of hockey, I get to watch a grainy, partial screen version of that which I KNOW is available in HD. Of course, I get no relief in my bill for this. My cash flow is as limited as their bandwidth, to be sure, but I pay full price for partial product.

Dish Network: You fail. Big time. I’ve always said that as soon as online delivery of sports content is made available, I would bail entirely on cable and/or satellite service. Now, I’m looking for other options again. DirecTV doesn’t have this issue, at least as far as I can tell. Comca– er, Xfinity doesn’t have this problem. In fact, cable might be expensive, but guess what Dish – you’re not the value you claim to be. Cable doesn’t freak out with a couple clouds in the area. As much as I dislike the Comcast company, at the very least they continue to deliver the product they advertise.

Sports Fans: if you watch Regional Sports Networks, Dish Network by their actions display disdain for you. Your programming isn’t important enough to earn its own bandwidth. The extra money you pay for those networks isn’t enough to sway Dish. Heck, you’re under a 2-year contract, they can do whatever they want.

And since I’m sure Dish Network has no desire to resolve this issue or offer any sort of appropriate relief, I will soon (and for the second time in my life) be an ex-customer of Dish.

With apologies to Spinal Tap, of course.

I don’t always do a year in review post. But as I sit soaking in the sounds of college football, I found myself thinking about 2010. On the outset, I started with a Year in Review that looked back on the epic nature of 2009 for our family – then fell off the blogging map until October. I blame Facebook entirely for this. My expectations for 2010 were rather subdued. We had seen significant growth in business, to the point that Mad Lab Media became our sole source of income for the first time. We had seen a couple of ginormous family vacations, and a year of really settling into Colorado as home. I only expected to have a year of further settling, less travel, and I really wasn’t anticipating anything huge of note.

As usual, I was wrong.

The early portion of the year was just as described – settling in, enjoying Colorado, and deepening our roots here. We didn’t plan on any vacations, at least not of the out-of-state kind. But as fall approached, we started to dream of a trip that’s been on our minds for a while now. So we packed up our minivan and starting venturing east to visit some dear friends in Memphis. We made it unharmed – our van however did not. As the transmission began to fail, we bought up another cheap van, and left ours to sell on craigslist. The new van became our new family ride, and became the biggest souvenir ever. Shortly after that, we attended a family wedding back on the Oregon coast. This time we flew the friendly skies of Frontier Airlines. So our year of no travel turned into 16 days on the road, to places old and new and all of it tons of fun.

This year, the business grew by 50% – from an entity that barely keeps us afloat to a legitimate, growing business that not only pays our bills but allows us things like vacations. We’ve been truly blessed.

This year, we discovered a house church network that has resulted in some new friends, and a new fun adventure in church planting. It seems to be the year we’ve finally released the dreams of typical “church planting” and embraced the path of living as the church. Don’t get me wrong, we have a lot to learn and a long way to go, but we’re at least on the track.

So that’s what 2010 brought. I do not intend to predict 2011, but I have a feeling it will be as unpredictable and exciting as any year has been up to now. Here’s to a year of family, friends, growth, and love. And a distinct lack of drama would be a nice addition to 2011.

Coming next – a bit of a turn in subject matter in which I rant about why Dish Network is an enemy to sports fans everywhere.

I spent most of the last few days trying hard to soak in the sun, at least when I could afford to get out of the office. It’s been a sprint to get some things wrapped before we leave tomorrow morning. Not entirely successful, the late nights and long hours resulted in getting a fair amount done, but left some things undone. I hate that feeling, but I rather enjoy the feeling when the time has finally passed to do anything useful. I hit send on the last of my emails about an hour ago, and now I’m just letting go for the night. I’ll be doing some emailing and other correspondence from the road, and maybe even some full-fledged work, but that’s ok. This was not an anticipated vacation. And it’s the second trip in 2 months.

Early tomorrow AM we board a plane headed back to the land of grey and wet. We’ll be at a wedding down on the southern Oregon coast, visiting family, then we’ll head back up to Portland/Vancouver for a quick couple days of seeing family, consuming good coffee, and then back on the plane. It’s going to be a fast trip, with nowhere near the quantity of visits we’d like, but it’s something of a bonus trip and getting to see any family near the holidays will be fantastic.

I’m also excited about the idea of flying with kids who are no longer toddlers. I just feel so much less stress about the trip knowing that everyone will largely be able to entertain themselves, and the odds of a full on meltdown on the airplane are slim to none… unless of course I forget to charge up the ipad, then I might be the one melting down…

Anytime we take a trip, I look forward to the down time, to the time for introspection, the time to evaluate what’s happening in this inordinately busy life of ours. Business has been amazing the last half of this year – I’ve done almost double the volume from last year. But a growing business comes with a price, and that price is less free time. One of my big goals in the coming months is to find a way to sustain this level of business and free up the parts of my schedule that need to be freed up.

But no matter what happens, we’re always grateful for a chance to get away and visit friends and family. PNW, here we come! And a little time at the beach is always nice too, even if it is ridiculously cold.

This post is from the archives of my deleted database… Last year, I got into some interesting conversations about the whole Black Friday/commercialism issue, and I wrote this article. I just got an onslaught of Black Friday advertisements in the email this morning (Black Friday starts today… its’ a whole WEEK now), so I thought I’d pull out an old post and put it out there today.

*********
(From Novermber 2009)

After a couple different exchanges on various Facebook profiles, I feel like I should be a little more complete on this issue. The issue is “Black Friday”. As one of my friends noted, just a few years ago nobody used the term “black friday” as a sales pitch… it’s been an unofficial name for years, and it was just commonly accepted that the day after Thanksgiving would be a peak day for retailers. Now, it’s part of advertisements. How long before printed calendars show it as an “unofficial holiday”? So what’s all the fuss about? It’s not like Black Friday is the one day of year that we go all consumerist and greedy on each other, right?

So let’s start with this: first, I in no way set myself above anyone else in terms of dealing with materialism and the fallout from wanting more stuff. In fact, it’s as big a deal for me as anyone else. That I’m aware of it doesn’t make me better, only aware. I want a better phone. I want a bigger TV. I want a newer car. And I have to face the reality that because I don’t have a ton of money doesn’t make me more spiritual, it’s just easier to not be materialistic when you can’t afford stuff. I shudder to think how much harder it would be if I had more money to spend.

I guess my objection is that on this one day – this single day in the entire year, we are expected and encouraged to spend inordinate amounts of money, because the SALES ARE SO GREAT… you’ll never beat these deals. And on that day, consumers spend enough money to make the year profitable for retailers. That’s why it’s called Black Friday – so it has a name. It’s not just another day of spending, it’s a day where the entire economy focuses on how much is spent, and if Black Friday is slow, retailers panic. It’s because of this that I can’t simply call it “another day”. It’s because the final tally at the end of the day is a magnified look at how much wealth is pushed around inside the borders of this country, in the name of “giving”. Add on top of that what we all know – most of what we “give” and “receive” could be classified as junk. Gadgets that will sit in a box 6 months from now, clothes we won’t wear (or won’t fit into), toys that break or lose the interest of the kids… I don’t need another coffee mug. I appreciate the thoughts of the person that buys me another mug to enjoy coffee from, but I have lots of mugs. I could probably use a different mug every day until Christmas.

See what I mean? It’s not just another day. It’s a day of hoarding. Yeah, we’re giving away all the stuff to other people, but it’s still hoarding, we’re just relocating the mess.

The estimated cost to alleviate the problem of unclean drinking water in our world is $10 billion. Some estimates say more like $20B, and I’m sure it’s an ongoing problem that wouldn’t be solved today and forever at that price tag. But when you realize that Americans will spend by some estimates $20B today – that’s twenty. billion. dollars. – that doesn’t count the rest of the shopping season, that’s just today, and that’s in an economy where people within our own borders are losing houses and going hungry at alarming rates – you at least have to stop and think. If every American who is shopping today spent half of what they planned on spending, then took the other half and dedicated it to the water issue, there would be a global impact unlike anything the world has ever seen, economically speaking. Would it solve the problem? Doubtful. Would it make such a major impact that the world would be forever changed for it? Absolutely.

So my point is not that we shouldn’t spend. I’ll be buying Christmas gifts this year. If you take this as a reason for feeling guilty, then you’re sorely missing the point. Only a fool turns away God’s blessings – feeling guilty about what He’s given us is a slope we’ll never stop slipping down. It’s why I don’t live in a hut on the prairie. How long before I feel guilty that there is a clean stream flowing by my hut, and lots of wildlife to subsist on? The point is that if we balance our viewpoint, and understand that all our resources, though given to us, are God’s, we can then approach life with a global perspective. This perspective says that we do live in a wealthy society, and by global standards we are all wealthy. It says that we can enjoy the blessings of being in this place – we can enjoy technology, abundant food, and clean water. But it also says that we have a responsibility not to turn our backs on “the rest”. The poor, the afflicted, the marginalized. We do a great job in our country of simply ignoring the unseen – and if it’s not right in our faces, it’s unseen. So is it possible to enjoy what we have? To buy nice things, to eat well, to give Christmas gifts, and to still willingly shoulder the burden for someone who can’t carry it on their own? I say yes. I say that if we look at things with balance, and not get caught in one extreme or the other, we can make a difference. I know that sounds like a cheesy PSA on network TV, but it’s true. That’s why I believe in what Advent Conspiracy is doing. Not because I think celebrating the Advent of the Christ needs to be repackaged, or that I think anything substitutes for sharing the love of Christ and God’s unmatched sacrifice with all who will hear – but because I think living with the entirety of God’s creation in mind is our responsibility.

Spend less – don’t stop spending. Go ahead and keep our economy spinning. But take time to consider whether there are better ways to allocate the resources we’ve been given.