Wisdom, LTD

A Little Potpourri

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 10:18:16 -0600

A little potpourri to close out the year:

Item # 1: AP – Dateline Yuma, AZ│ It was worse than Hitchcock’s “Birds.” A canopy at a Shell station in the foothills east of Yuma came crashing down on a Beemer and Hummer. The cause? It was…uh…pigeon residue. The recent rains apparently soaked the four to five inch buildup of said pigeon residue. No one was hurt. I hope the owners of the BMW and Hummer are laughing – I mean what else are you going to do? I’m sure the folk in claims had a chuckle or two.

Item # 2: Ladies, next time you’re out and about and have an overwhelming desire to get over to Burger King, blame the dude who just walked by. He’s probably wearing BK’s new eau de cologne, “Flame.” According to the press releases it combines “the scent of seduction with the hint of flame-broiled meat.”

Can’t find it? Just duct tape a flame broiled patty under each arm – you’ll be good to go.

Looking for something a little more “earthy”? Check out Demeter’s “Dirt” – “the smell of plowed fields in early spring combined with a touch of last season’s corn stalks.” Your main squeeze a big NASCAR fan? Check out Demeter’s “Rubber” – it’s “funny and naughty at the same time” and takes “a very particular person to wear it.” I’ll bet.

I am not making any of this up! Personally, I’m holding out for Hodgon’s “Big Bore” – the aroma of spent gun powder with subtle undertones of Hoppe’s # 9.

Item # 3: ’Tis the season of college bowls. This year there are approximately a bazillion college bowl games (give or take). With a little planning, DVRing, and watching two games at once, I can get most of them in.

Back in the day it was the “Cotton Bowl.” Now it’s the “AT&T Cotton Bowl.” It used to be the “Sugar Bowl.” Now it’s the “All State Sugar Bowl.” It used to be the “Gator Bowl.” Now it’s the “Konica Minolta Gator Bowl.” Even the granddaddy of them all the “Rose Bowl” is now the “Rose Bowl Game Presented by Citi.”

Reckon we could get congress to label their seats according to sponsorship?

It never hurts to look on the lighter side. Like The Book says, “A cheerful disposition is good for your health; gloom and doom leave you bone-tired.” (Proverbs 17:22 The Message)

© 2008 David Overman

Expect the Unexpected from God

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 13:25:15 -0600

Officially, today is the first day of winter. It got a running start. And if the weather guessers are right, on the first full day of winter another teeth chattering Canadian Clipper will blow through.

A week or so ago, Garrison Keillor wrote a commentary on the Christian “conquest” of the pagan Roman festival of Saturnalia which was supplanted by Sol Invictus and thus our celebration of Christ’s birth in December. Somehow he wound up writing a lot about New Yorkers telling you exactly what they think.

From various corners and in sundry ways we are admonished to “remember the true meaning of Christmas.” But what, exactly, does that mean? For a child, Christmas means the excitement of opening presents. For parents it is the joy of watching their children’s excitement. For a merchant it means increased profits.

All of those are “true” in the sense that people truly experience such meanings. But is that all there is? If we limit our understanding of Christmas to the merely human plane, we will miss the deeper meaning of Christmas; the meaning assigned by God Himself.

Entire theological libraries have been written trying to exhaust the meaning of the incarnation and still there are insights to be gleaned. Let me briefly focus our attention on just a couple.

Christmas means that God keeps His promises. For hundreds of years Israel looked for the promised Messiah. By the time of the first century, some no doubt wondered if God had forgotten His promises. Christmas says God doesn’t forget. We shouldn’t either.

Christmas means that God keeps His promises in unexpected ways. Think again for a moment of the conversation between Gabriel and Mary. Most of the Jews were expecting a military-political leader; God sent a baby. Some folk expected the Messiah to condemn the world; Jesus came with redeeming love. Still others expected an ascetic; Jesus went to parties.

Our constant attempts to domesticate God (to define what He can and can’t do and how He can and can’t do it) must surely grieve Him. I am convinced that we miss much of God’s activity precisely at this point.

I believe the most profound joy and deepest meaning of this season is dependent on our openness to the unexpected from God. In fact, this season I’m personally trying to expect the unexpected from God.

© David Overman 2008

God’s Orchestration

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 12:30:04 -0600

We’re in a time of political transitioning. While economic news dominates (our economy has all the tensile strength of a bowl of Jell-O), foreign policy and international issues share space with economic issues and tax policy.

The news on the world front is as troubling (maybe more so) than here on the home front. Bombings in Mumbai, unrest across Africa and riots in the streets of Athens remind us that the world is a mess.

Politics, power and economics played a significant role in salvation history. Tired of being at the mercy of enemies with strong central governments, Israel clamored for a king – an idea that irked ol’ Samuel no end. In a perfect example of “be careful what you ask for, you may get it,” Israel got Saul. David followed and shaped Israel into a regional power. Solomon, for all of his wisdom, let his ego run wild; his tax policies (carried on by his son, Rehoboam) became a grueling burden on his subjects; and in the end his willingness to play footsies with the idols of his many foreign wives led to the disintegration of Israel at his death. Both Israel (northern part) and Judah (southern part) began a long slide toward oblivion.

Empires rose and fell – Syria, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persian, Macedonian, Seleucid, and Roman. With only a brief respite under the Maccabees, Israel was a vassal state, if a state at all.

Herod, because his father was good at sucking up to the Romans, was made “king.” An Edomite, Herod had to keep both Romans and Jews satisfied – not an easy task since everyone suspected everyone else. Caesar Augustus needed money and ordered a census for taxation. Thus Joseph and Mary, Galileans, ended up in Bethlehem. Now stir in the internal politics of Israel (Pharisees, Sadducees, and the ultra-nationalistic Zealots) and you have a political stew that makes contemporary politics look like a Sunday School picnic.

Through it all, the Sovereign God of the universe and Lord of all history orchestrated the “fullness of time.” Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, was born, crucified, and raised from the dead fulfilling the ancient prophecies. He promised to come back.

So this Advent season we celebrate, not just the fullness of time in history, but we also await God’s orchestration of the consummation of all history.

...And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Sun, 7 Dec 2008 11:10:52 -0600

It’s the first week of December so it’s time to check in with the good folk over at PNC Wealth Management to see how much your True Love will have to cough up to cover the Twelve Days of Christmas. Hope he or she got more than a COLA! The cost of True Love went up significantly this year. Since PNC Wealth Management has a lot less wealth to manage these days, I’m sure they had plenty of time to check and re-check their figures.

The Christmas Price Index is considerably more than the Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index. This year the Christmas Price Index is up 8.6% (10.8% if all 364 gifts are purchased) while the Consumer Price index is up 3.7%. While the cost of gold as a commodity is up, jewelers are heavily discounting their prices. And swans are always a price killer.

If you were to buy one of each the tab comes to $19,407. To buy all 364 the total is $86,608. You can probably find some online bargains, but shipping can be a killer (even with lower fuel prices). Plus, dancing ladies, lords a-leaping, et. al., don’t take kindly to getting boxed up.

PNC Christmas Price Index

Item 2007 2008 % change
Partridge $15 $20 ↑ 33.3%
Pear tree $150 $200 ↑ 33.3%
2 Turtle doves $40 $55 ↑ 37.5%
3 French hens $45 $30 ↓ 33.3%
4 Calling birds $600 $600 ↔
5 Gold rings $395 $350 ↓ 11%
6 Geese a-laying $360 $240 ↓ 33.3%
7 Swans a-swimming $4,200 $5,600 ↑ 33.3%
8 Maids a-milking $47 $52 ↑ 11%
9 Ladies dancing $4,759 $4,759 ↔
10 Lords a-leaping $4,285 $4,414 ↑ 3.3%
11 Pipers piping $2,213 $2,285 ↑ 3.3%
12 Drummers drumming$2,298 $2,475 ↑ 7.7%
Total Christmas Price Index$19,407 $21,080 ↑ 8.6%
Total Cost of the Song $78,100 $86,608 ↑ 10.8%

Of course, the whole thing is an exercise in whimsy. But these days with our hourly dose of bad economic news, whimsy is something we need to exercise every chance we get.

Let me remind us of something we all know but are prone to forget: Dollar signs aren’t a good measure of a gift – some gifts are priceless regardless of the numbers on the tag.

The Accumulation of Stuff

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:09:00 -0600

Since we’re on a short week, I’m writing this well before “Black Friday,” but by the time you’re reading this, the first reading of the holiday economic tea leaves will have taken place. The numbers will have been run through various and sundry economic Veg-O-Matics by economists of every stripe and hue and the talking heads will be filling the air waves with their latest economic analysis. At this point, the indicators are not in favor robust holiday spending.

While the economic news isn’t good, the 24/7 punditry really doesn’t help. The folderol of the pundits (including now, yours truly) only compounds the problem. Alas, it’s what happens when you give a guy some space and access to a word processor.

Historically, economists have told us we have to “spend our way out of a recession.” Hard to take’em seriously when it is now painfully evident that profligate (i.e. leveraged) spending from top to bottom was what got us into this mess in the first place.

What economists generally don’t tell us is that what’s good for “the economy as a whole” isn’t particularly good for individuals. Individuals (generally speaking) can’t spend themselves out of a recession they can only spend themselves into a hole – as it turns out, so too can major corporation, investment banks, insurance companies, and the government.

I don’t want to discount or make light of the current economic problems which are many, varied, and may prove inordinately stubborn. But we may actually learn a few things in these tough economic times. To whit, life really isn’t about the accumulation of stuff.

Jesus told us so some two thousand years ago: “…a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15b NIV)

For perspective, we need to get beyond the day-to-day, quarter-to-quarter or even year-to-year economic pulse taking of the chattering class. Here’s a word from Eternity: “Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track.” (Proverbs 3:5 – 6 The Message)