I stumbled across (via a Google search) some kind words about my commercial site which sells Powerpoint background slides for church. A really large site called eBibleTecher.com does a lot with Powerpoint and electronic projection in general. The fellow who runs it took a look at his favorites in various categories–favorite children’s teacher site, favorite free Powerpoint backgrounds, favorite Bible study site, favorite Holy Land photos. And:

“OUR FAVORITE COMMERCIAL POWERPOINT BACKGROUNDS – This is a hard pick. There are LOTS of great sites selling PowerPoint backgrounds. Our favorite is the “VideoScriptures” set available from Churchmedia.net. Our second favorite is Steve Dennie’s material at: www.RandomPokes.com.”

Well, that kinda made my day! You can read his words here.

Today, grown adults across America are examining each other’s clothing for traces of green, and pointing out people who aren’t wearing green. The same scene is occurring in every grade school classroom in the country. Ministers in pastoral meetings are doing it. We did it this morning in our office. Amazing.

I’m wearing bluejeans, and a maroon sweater with a maroon shirt underneath. I am green-less, and unapologetically so. What a spoilsport.

I’m supposed to cut back on caffeine and salt. Both can aggravate this condition I have that causes vertigo. I used to drench french fries in salt, and dump salt on spaghetti and everything else in sight. But during the past two years, I’ve learned to eat french fries and other foods without adding salt. It’s been difficult. Not exactly equal in difficulty to, say, overcoming the loss of a limb or dealing with epileptic seizures, but for a wimpy guy like me, it’s significant that I conquered my magnetic attraction to salt.

Salt was do-able. Even in the past few months, when I had to take my salt-avoidance to a new level. I’m learning that joy can exist even in the absence of excessive amounts of salt.

But caffeine…how could I possibly live the abundant life God desires for me without consuming vast quantities of caffeine-saturated liquids? Well, I’ve made progress. My morning ritual has been to stop at Starbucks on my way to work. That’s the only coffee I would drink all day, with rare exceptions. I learned to stop drinking coffee throughout the day. I guess Starbucks is strong enough that the buzz would sustain me without periodic injections of additional caffeine.

But with this latest bout of vertigo, I realized the need for more drastic measures. Even that one cup, on a regular basis, was too much. But this cross seemed too much to bear. Help me, Jesus. For I am weak and helpless and in need of feeling the jitters.

Well, turns out it’s not so difficult after all. I tried Starbucks decaf–and liked it. I really didn’t notice the difference in taste, though I certainly did notice the buzz-lessness. However, it’s been a pleasant surprise that I can continue my daily pilgrimage to the Starbucks Temple. I even discovered that you can get all the other drinks–lattes, machiattos, etc.–in decaf. I tried a couple lattes that way–and liked them, too.

So, God has provided. Life will continue to be worth living.

Pastor Tim talked from Matthew 6 today about worry and anxiety. Let me tell you what gives me an anxiety rush, because it happened on the way to church this morning. Again.

We cross two railroad tracks enroute to church. One of them is hidden by trees that come up to the road, so you can’t see down the tracks until you’re pretty much on the tracks. What always freaks me out is getting onto the tracks and then seeing a train parked right there–not moving, just parked. There was one this morning. It’s big light in front was ablaze. This never fails to freak me out. Just the idea that a big train is right there on the tracks, pointed at my car.

Imagine an engineer sitting in the parked train. He’s feeling a bit ornery. As my car drives onto the tracks, he hits the train horn. I’d keel over right there in the car, and my next sight would be the pearly gates.

Trains are parked on these tracks very often. You’d think I’d get accustomed to it. But now, even if I’m expecting a train to be there, it still freaks me out. I’m such a wimp.