Monday, July 17, 2006

Thankful Monday

My mood deteriorated over the weekend, mostly for no external reason. I've been dreading this week, because of what's hanging over me at work. Then I start the day after a not-perfect sleep, I stumble here and there, the house-fan cools the house one whopping degree because it's already warming outside (at 4:30am), I step on one of the kitties crouching invisible in the dark, and at 5:45am it's already warmer than I like it to be at noon. And mostly, inside, I just feel immensely unimpressed with myself on any level, most especially on the level of spiritual anything I demonstrate after 33+ years of praying and striving.

(Stepping back.) Okay, let's see... yes, yes that should be just about enough whining for the moment.

So I apologize profusely to the cat (after I chase him down; after all, for all he knows, I've finally snapped and am trying to kill him), make sure he's okay, walk more carefully, pray, and try to look up.

Towards that latter end, here's a (mostly-dead-serious) list of things I'm thankful for:
  1. God's immutable character and commitment to keep His good and bright promises to me in Christ
  2. The fact that #1 depends entirely on Him, and not one bit on me, no matter what a hopeless, clueless loser I am in myself; that Jesus is my Savior, not my co-redeemer; that He elected me, He didn't co-sign for me
  3. I have a spectacularly capable wife
  4. I have terrific children
  5. Great sermon in church yesterday by Pastor Andrews
  6. Then there are the kitties
  7. I have my health -- not bad for an old guy
  8. Bill Clinton still isn't president anymore
  9. Algore and Kerry never were
  10. I have a good job, terrific manager
  11. I work inside, in an air-conditioned building
  12. I don't ever have to make pedobaptism or amillennialism make Biblical sense to anybody!
  13. There still is, on average, only one Monday per week
  14. I have an opportunity to speak to people I'll never meet this side of eternity, both here and at Pyromaniacs
  15. I'm associated with excellent people, in my family, at Pyro, and at work
There. That's better!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

God-centered gratitude.....aaahhhh
the cure for everything bad!

ChosenClay said...

"I don't ever have to make pedobaptism or amillennialism make Biblical sense to anybody!"

Yes Dan, but you still have to try to make biblical sense of Premillennial dispensationalism!

Chosen Clay

DJP said...

Easily. "Sola Scriptura."

candy said...

105 in Sacramento is like hell on earth. It was 102 and we took two of the grandsons to Donner Lake for a swim and a small hike.

Kim said...

You're not old.

You're just mature.

And with your karate (it is karate, right? I can never keep those martial arts straight) you could probably beat the living daylights out of a lot of younger guys.

We had a hot day like that yesterday, too.

DJP said...

Thanks, but do make sure you have the math right; the striving and praying only starts at conversion, and that was at age 17.

And I couldn't even get the house down one degree, today! At ~4am!

Yes, karate. Where I'm the oldest geezer on the floor.

Mike Y said...

Dan,

My weekend of self-loathing was the one prior. Fortunately, it doesn't take too long before I recognize what an ungrateful idiot I'm being.

I see from the pic that you changed your mind and killed your cat. I'm sure he was a good cat :), but probably didn't stand a chance against your superb martial arts. LOL.

Thanks for sharing this. It isn't always easy to share our vulnerabilities. But I do believe it's helpful. And your list is great-- especially numbers 8 and 9.

DJP said...

I knew people would think that, Mike! So I captioned it: hover your mouse over the picture. (I usually caption my graphics, since Phil showed me how. Some people have miss some [I thought] pretty funny stuff over at Pyro since then.)

Mike Y said...

You're right, I don't usually hover for the captions. Blogger wasn't letting my wife post her pictures, yesterday, so I surprised her and manually did all the links. It was a picture of her with Nick Swisher of the A's. I put a caption there calling him Nickipoo. She too missed my little gift :)

On a side note, I was on one of my bike rides a few weeks ago, when I rode past what looked like a cat's tail. Haven't got a clue where the rest of the cat was. I'm pretty sure they don't do that lizard getaway thing, though.

I do like it when they roll over like that. We had one that would do that when she wanted to be scratched. I loved that cat. Every morning she'd come join me for my early morning bible reading. I haven't seen fit to get another one since.

Mike Y said...

LOL. Now I understand what Lisa was refering to on Pyro about the sloped forehead.

DJP said...

Now you'll have to go back over ally my Pyro posts. I had some I thought were hysterical, that NOBODY commented on.

Mike Y said...

:) Will do!

Robert said...

Any more cat pictures?

Ray said...

I hear you about the heat -- I am in your part of the world this week (sort of), East Bay... Man, it's hot out here, and I was hoping for a break from Texas...

4given said...

8 and 9 made me fall out of my chair. And Mike Y., if I ever post a comment that makes no sense, realize it either has to do with one of their photo captions... or, well, that I just don't make sense. But remember not to mess with homeschool mothers. :-)