There are two ways to let people know you’re starting a new paragraph.
1. Indent the first line of the paragraph.
2. Leave a space between paragraphs.
But don’t do both–leave a space, AND indent. Unless we’re talking about a bulleted or numbered list. It’s wrong. It’s redundant.
And it looks stupid.
I needed to get that off my chest.
How about naming your baby “Messiah”? It’s been steadily growing in popularity, rising from about 900th place in 2005 to 387th place in 2012. Apparently, there are a lot of Messiahs running around. As it was in the time of Jesus.
I just read something very disturbing. For men, shorts that come only part-way down the thigh are now trendy. Some call this the “John Stockton” look, after the famous Utah Jazz point guard who kept wearing short shorts long after NBA fashion had moved on to much longer fare.
On the positive side, the real long shorts extending halfway down the shin are falling out of favor.
I’m a knee-length (or slightly longer) kind of guy. Those types of shorts will (I hope) remain a valid fashion option for many years to come. The trendy fluctuations will be at the long/short end. At age 56, I’m not real interested in being trendy.
My heroes have always been missionaries. I grew up in United Brethren churches where United Brethren missions was emphasized, and names of missionaries from the 1960s and 1970s are firmly implanted in my memory. Working at our national headquarters, I’ve crossed paths with nearly every United Brethren missionary during the past 35 years, and have interviewed and written about a number of them.
One of the names from my childhood was Ruth Benner, a single missionary who served in Sierra Leone 1965-1972. Ruth passed away last week. Her funeral is tomorrow, August 6, in Port Colborne, Ontario.
Ruth, a Canadian, served a number of years in leadership with the denominational Women’s Missionary Fellowship and on the Global Ministries leadership team. In those capacities, she came through Huntington, Ind., (where I work) many times. I didn’t know her well, but I was around her quite a bit.
Ruth is one of those persons who always seemed to be in a cheerful mood. She had a distinctive voice, and a ready laugh. Observing her relationships with other persons, especially former missionaries, it seemed she excelled at friendship. I can’t think of a single even slightly negative thing I ever heard about Ruth. She always struck me as a genuinely good person with a pure heart and an enviable sunny disposition. Ruth served just six years as a missionary, but those years very much formed who she was and what she was passionate about.
Ruth made the world a better place, and she will be missed.
We all know Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. Few people remember the astronaut who was a few steps behind (it was Buzz Aldrin).
But with the momentous first airplane flight, I’ll bet few people know which Wright brother flew first. Was it Wilbur, or Orville? Don’t know, do you? The brothers totally share the glory.
Wilber and Orville Wright flipped a coin to determine who would get first crack at flying their airplane. Wilbur won, but stalled the flyer and it dived into the sand.
Three days later, Orville got the flyer airborne. In the famous photograph, that’s Wilbur running alongside the plane.
Randy Fennig, a former United Brethren pastor and missionary, sent me a link to an interview with a nephew, Andrew Fennig, who is developing a product for online discussion. The interview includes some great theological insights. And there was also this excellent paragraph in answer to the question “What makes a good/healthy online debate?”
“Any healthy debate requires humility and respect. These are different, but are connected. HUMILITY to acknowledge that, even though I may have strongly held opinions, my thinking is fallible and another perspective may be closer to the truth than is mine. Or, even a less-true perspective may challenge mine sufficiently to lead me closer to the truth. And RESPECT to believe that despite our differences, that perspective may be held by anyone with whom I interact.”
I can’t imagine that that pertains in any way to Facebook discussions.
We rut-bound Christians tend to focus on the same details of every Bible story, without looking between the lines for other twists on the tale. So I always enjoy poking around where ministers, for whatever reason, don’t bother to tread.
After feeding the 5000, Jesus went off somewhere by himself. John 6:16 says the disciples climbed into their boat and set sail for Capernaum. That’s when the storm came, and Jesus did his water-walking thing.
But I’m wondering: Why did they take off without Jesus? I’m sure it wasn’t an oversight. The Bible says, “It was dark and Jesus had not yet joined them.” So, they just abandoned him?
Perhaps one of the disciples (probably John) argued, “I think we should wait for Jesus.” To which bullheaded Peter responded, “No, we’re leaving. He should be more conscious of time. We told him when we planned to head back to Capernaum but he hasn’t shown up, so tough. He can take a cab.”
When Jesus finally climbed into the boat after scurrying across the waves, I’m guessing his first words were, “Hey guys, what’s the deal? Why did you leave without me? What were you thinking, huh?”
My Bible reading last night was about the feeding of the 5000 in John 6. We kind of idolize the boy who contributed his five barley loves and two fish. But I’m wondering–did he actually volunteer them?
Scripture says Andrew comes along and says, “He’s a boy with five loaves and two fish.” Did he just commandeer them? Did the boy give up his food willingly? Did they ask his parents? Where WERE his parents?
You know, inquiring minds and all.
On this Canada Day, I want to honor my Canadian friends whose find country provided many indispensable inventions for the world. We’re talking more than Justin Bieber. And we’re talking more than obvious inventions like hockey, snowblowers, snowmobiles, and the hockey mask.
That’s only the beginning. Canadians have also furthered intergalactic civilization by giving us insulin, paint rollers, garbage bags, plexiglass, pagers, peanut butter, the Blackberry, Superman, the sport of basketball, AM radio, Smarties, foghorns, sonar, Trivial Pursuit, lacrosse, Easy Off oven cleaner, alkaline batteries, caulking guns, the wonderbra, and numerous comedians.
So a big thank you from your friends to the south. We promise not to annex you until we absolutely must have all of your oil.
I grill a lot. Especially love doing ribeyes. So I was drawn to an article which addresses 7 myths about cooking steaks. I learned a lot.
One myth is that it’s bad to cut into a steak to see if it’s done. I’ve heard this numerous times, but flagrantly disobey it. It just so much easier than, say, using a thermometer, to just make a cut into the side of the steak or hamburger to see how much pink remains.
I will now do so with reckless and unrepentant abandon.
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Copyright © 2013 Steve Dennie | All rights reserved
