What do you mean--Write it on the back of your envelopes

I got this email forwarded to me twice at work:

WRITE IT ON THE BACK OF YOUR ENVELOPES
You may have heard in the news that a couple of Post Offices in Texas have been forced to take down small posters that say"IN GOD WE TRUST." The law, they say, is being violated. It is something silly about electioneering posters (is God running for office)?

Anyway, I heard proposed on a radio station show, that we all write "IN GOD WE "TRUST" on the back of all our mail. After all, that is our national motto, and it's on all the money we use to buy those stamps. I think it is a wonderful idea.

We must take back our nation from all the people that think that anything that offends them should be removed. If you like this idea, please pass it on, and DO IT. The idea of writing or stamping "IN GOD WE TRUST" on our envelopes sounds good to me.

It has been reported that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, I have a very hard time understanding why there is such a mess about having "In God We Trust" on our money and having God in the pledge of Allegiance.

Could it be that we just need to take action and tell the 14% to sit down and shut up?

If you agree, pass this on, if not delete.

I need to rant about this. I would assume anyone searching the web for this feels like I do, otherwise they just dumbly forwarded it or ignored it.

The people who sent this to me are agnostic at best. They will never, ever write "in God we trust" on anything. Yet they will blindly forward such a message that has to be insulting to the 14% of Americans who feel differently. If they had an honest political or social position (or an original idea), perhaps.

I could go on about protecting the rights of the 14% the email wants to tell to 'sit down'. Perhaps having our institutions demonstrate our faith in God take that burden off of lazy americans, the same way they want prayer in public schools. It insults those who don't believe, proves nothing for those who don't care, and the truly faithful will pray at other times that day. Can't people see that by removing the God from our institutions encourages them to develop their own faith and religious outlets?

Now that the rant is done, what do I do about the senders? I love them both and would happy to see them move closer to God.

Figurative Juggling

This article on Figurative Juggling describes the harried life that Rick Warren tries to get us to leave behind.

Figurative juggling is the spiritual opposite of the real thing. It's the burden of inescapable, unending chores, errands, and obligations, a drain rather than a suffusion of energy.

The author suggests five strategies to help:
Outsourcing
Bundling
Technology
Alternating
Simplifying

After a vacation that felt more like F.J. than restful (no offense Tim), I feel the need for another to do some 'real juggling', but my temptation is to just take the extra time off to take on some projects.

To me 'real juggling' would be playing my harps all day. The local paper ran an column by John Douglas showing him on vacation sitting on the porch of his vacation cottage playing banjo. Ooh--thats what I want! Others may see boats or campers and be filled with similar vacation lust...me, I just want to sit and play.