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I have read too many reviews lately.  I decided to look up a quote I vaguely remembered from Theodore Roosevelt regarding critics.  I choose to enter the arena and will make every effort to spare my criticism of the valiant men and women who are also in the arena.

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.

~ Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

…the man who really counts in the world is the doer, not the mere critic – the man who actually does the work, even if roughly and imperfectly, not the man who only talks or writes about how it ought to be done.

(1891)

Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger.

(1894)

Take a look around and it is easy to see that we are an overweight nation. I always knew there was a cost to being an overweight society, but not how much. “What if no one were fat?” is an article that attempts to estimate the cost.

Personally, I think the benefit would be far greater than the article indicates. Granted, genetics, plays a part in why people are overweight, as well our environment and psychology. But I believe these are more symptoms of a society that is sick than causes for the sickness.

Continue reading ‘The Cost of Being Overweight’ »

I’m looking forward to taking the family to see Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. It is a documentary film that blows the whistle on the suppression of Intelligent Design by Darwinists.

Here are a couple of links for further reading.

Stein & Ham

Expelled on Wikipedia

From my perspective, it is clear that Darwinism is not science, but a belief based on interpretation of scientific data. Intelligent Design is the same thing. As is Young Earth Creationism. These are all beliefs based on our interpretation of the data. None of the views for the origin of life can be proven, but some sure seem more reasonable than others.

As Darwinism falls, so does secular humanism and the naturalistic worldview. God speed to this movie.

We recently hosted a gathering of about seventy friends of Paul, Wayne, and Brad (author and publishers of The Shack.) I personally enjoyed the book and my relationship with God was and continues to be edified by what I read.

I have read many of the reviews of this book published on the Web and thought a few of them were quite off the mark. Wayne responds to those reviews on his blog. It’s a wonderful response that directly, and eloquently rebuts some of the unwarranted and erroneous criticisms that The Shack has received.

At times I find myself discouraged after reading what the truth police have to say. How can people who claim to love the truth so misrepresent the Truth in their conduct with others? Then God speaks softly to my heart and reminds me of some of the things he taught me about myself when reading Chapter 11 of The Shack. How often we do sit in the seat of judgment. Papa is especially fond of those critics.