I Vote for MORE Government!!

Let me explain.

I am not a very smart person. I don't know who will be the best person to be president of our GREAT country. I don't know how NASA figured out how to put a missle in the falling satellite yesterday. I don't even know what time of day I am supposed to have my trash can out by. I mean, about half the time I miss those guys. I guess they show up at 4 am to pick up the trash. I'm sorry back to the point.

I saw a story on Yahoo that was created by 60 minutes (and you know 60 minutes is on top of it). If you are like me you don't spend a lot of time thinking about pennies and nickles and apperantly our government doesn't spend enough time on it. Here's the deal!

Each year the U.S. mint creates 8 Billion pennies and 1.3 Billion Nickles. That translates into $80 million in pennies and $65 million in nickles. That's a lot of value for something I don't even bend over to pick up. Maybe I should rethink that. Anyway, even though I don't have an idea why they still make pennies, my indifference to them is not the problem.

The problem is that our brilliant government spends $134 million per year to create $80 million worth of pennies and $124 million per year to create $65 million dollars worth of nickles. GOOD LORD!

Now that I think about it, why should we be surprised when candidates raise and spend well over $100 million to get a job paying $400 thousand per year. Not that I'm bitter.

Singles @ NorthStar

Every Sunday at 9:30 am @ NorthStar Church you will find around 70 singles meeting in our conference room. Today I was able to hang out with them for about an hour during their class.

They are all single for different reasons but it was obvious they were together in that room as a group of people seeking God's direction for their lives. They are seeking to serve God as they learn the gifts He created them with and how they can use them.

I am so glad that they have Greg & Julie Jones to lead them as they travel on their journey. If you are a single and want more info on what our singles are doing, go to www.northstarchurch.org

The 5 People you meet at the Ballpark

You may have heard of the book "The Five People you meet in Heaven", I was thinking about that as we started the softball season for real today with a "Friendly" tournament for Sierra.

If you think about it everyone has a story, their own experiences whether they have created them for theirselves, someone has caused it for them or it just happened. Everyone has a story and here are the ones I saw today.

Person 1: A great guy works hard has 3 kids a great job, etc... Somehow finds himself in the middle of a bad divorce situation. It doesn't really matter who is at fault it is what it is, but he will never be the same.

Person 2: A great lady has 3 kids a great husband. One of the children has a dibilitating disease. They obviously love him as you see how they work with him at the park. Her life will never be "normal".

Person 3: A great guy has 2 kids works hard. Gets involved in an auto accident caused by someone else, ends up having his leg amputated. Comes to the park to watch his girl. He will never be the same.

Person 4: Anyone else on the team. Have a relatively normal life. No real apparent drama. I guess the key is apparent. I know they deal with things everyday that cause anxiety. They will never be the same.

Person 5: Me. Great wife, kids and job. I live a realtively easy existance. Nothing overly exotic or stressful happening in my life. I have never been concerned for much of anything that I can remember. Being with these people week after week I will never be the same.

At NorthStar we are in the middle of a series called BraveHeart. We are talking about tragedy and how to deal with it. One of our staff guys (CA) coined the phrase that we are using (What Marks us Makes us). That is a great statement.

I am so grateful to know the other 4 people that will be with me in Heaven.