I love Donald Miller, especially "Searching for God Knows What" Perhaps I appreciate him because he speaks in a rambling manner much like me, only he's smarter and funnier. He has a not-so-secret crush on Katie Couric and imagines how things would go when he meets her for the first time and how poignant his interview would be and how she would fall in love with him by the end of the interview. People are attractive from far away and then when we get to know people all our junk and baggage comes through.
I personally would like to be Alyson Felix's running partner. Her dad is a pastor and she even listens to his sermons in the car while she is driving to practice. She's real gracious and endearing in all her interviews. I think we'd get along rather well. She does have a hitch in her running stride, but so do I. Even our running strides are compatible. She's still the second fastest woman in the world. I'm sure she has lots of issues, but she sure seems beautiful, genuine and caring coming from Beijing to my television set.
I personally would like to be Alyson Felix's running partner. Her dad is a pastor and she even listens to his sermons in the car while she is driving to practice. She's real gracious and endearing in all her interviews. I think we'd get along rather well. She does have a hitch in her running stride, but so do I. Even our running strides are compatible. She's still the second fastest woman in the world. I'm sure she has lots of issues, but she sure seems beautiful, genuine and caring coming from Beijing to my television set. We have such a tendency to create people in our own image. We even prefer to keep at a distance so as not to mess things up and to preserve the image of them that we protect in our head. Shane says that God created us in His image and we turned around and returned the favor. Part of it is about fixing people, and part of it is about trying to get for ourselves what we want.
After I read Barack Obama's books and read a few speeches and decided that I would be excited to vote for him, my tendency was to not pay attention to him in the media. I didn't want anything to taint my view of him, I want to think that he believes like me and to do too much research and investigation will only disappoint me. This doesn't have anything to do with political preference, people do the same thing with athletes, authors, friends, significant others, movie stars, musicians and the like. We exist in the messed up part and so I embrace the baggage because until we get through the mud of our issues, we aren't truly freed to be all that we can be.
Interestingly enough, Barack asked Donald Miller to give the invocation at the DNC and he prayed a rather nice prayer.
Father God,
This week, as the world looks on, help the leaders in this room create a civil dialogue about our future. We need you, God, as individuals and also as a nation. We need you to protect us from our enemies, but also from ourselves, because we are easily tempted toward apathy. Give us a passion to advance opportunities for the least of these, for widows and orphans, for single moms and children whose fathers have left. Give us the eyes to see them, and the ears to hear them, and hands willing to serve them. Help us serve people, not just causes. And stand up to specific injustices rather than vague notions. Give those in this room who have power, along with those who will meet next week, the courage to work together to finally provide health care to those who don’t have any, and a living wage so families can thrive rather than struggle. Help us figure out how to pay teachers what they deserve and give children an equal opportunity to get a college education. Help us figure out the balance between economic opportunity and corporate gluttony. We have tried to solve these problems ourselves but they are still there. We need your help. Father, will you restore our moral standing in the world. A lot of people don’t like us but that’s because they don’t know the heart of the average American. Will you give us favor and forgiveness, along with our allies around the world. Help us be an example of humility and strength once again. Lastly, father, unify us. Even in our diversity help us see how much we have in common. And unify us not just in our ideas and in our sentiments—but in our actions, as we look around and figure out something we can do to help create an America even greater than the one we have come to cherish. God we know that you are good. Thank you for blessing us in so many ways as Americans. I make these requests in the name of your son, Jesus, who gave his own life against the forces of injustice. Let Him be our example. Amen.
After I read Barack Obama's books and read a few speeches and decided that I would be excited to vote for him, my tendency was to not pay attention to him in the media. I didn't want anything to taint my view of him, I want to think that he believes like me and to do too much research and investigation will only disappoint me. This doesn't have anything to do with political preference, people do the same thing with athletes, authors, friends, significant others, movie stars, musicians and the like. We exist in the messed up part and so I embrace the baggage because until we get through the mud of our issues, we aren't truly freed to be all that we can be.Interestingly enough, Barack asked Donald Miller to give the invocation at the DNC and he prayed a rather nice prayer.
Father God,
This week, as the world looks on, help the leaders in this room create a civil dialogue about our future. We need you, God, as individuals and also as a nation. We need you to protect us from our enemies, but also from ourselves, because we are easily tempted toward apathy. Give us a passion to advance opportunities for the least of these, for widows and orphans, for single moms and children whose fathers have left. Give us the eyes to see them, and the ears to hear them, and hands willing to serve them. Help us serve people, not just causes. And stand up to specific injustices rather than vague notions. Give those in this room who have power, along with those who will meet next week, the courage to work together to finally provide health care to those who don’t have any, and a living wage so families can thrive rather than struggle. Help us figure out how to pay teachers what they deserve and give children an equal opportunity to get a college education. Help us figure out the balance between economic opportunity and corporate gluttony. We have tried to solve these problems ourselves but they are still there. We need your help. Father, will you restore our moral standing in the world. A lot of people don’t like us but that’s because they don’t know the heart of the average American. Will you give us favor and forgiveness, along with our allies around the world. Help us be an example of humility and strength once again. Lastly, father, unify us. Even in our diversity help us see how much we have in common. And unify us not just in our ideas and in our sentiments—but in our actions, as we look around and figure out something we can do to help create an America even greater than the one we have come to cherish. God we know that you are good. Thank you for blessing us in so many ways as Americans. I make these requests in the name of your son, Jesus, who gave his own life against the forces of injustice. Let Him be our example. Amen.
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http://donmilleris.com
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