If you get an e-mail forwarded to you with a quote from Colin Powell to the Archbishop of Canterbury, know that it is almost accurate.

According to Urbanlegends.About.com:

Although U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell did utter words similar to the above, he was not in England at the time, nor was he addressing the current Archbishop of Canterbury, nor was he responding to a question about "empire building."

Just so you know, ya know?

I got some "feedback" after whining about the counseling class I took last quad. Just to prove that I'm not completely anti-counseling let me say that I am getting a lot out of the grief counseling I'm taking this quad. I read J. I. Packer's book "A Grief Sanctified" which is a presentation of Richard Baxter's tribute to his wife, but as Packer says:

This is a book for Christian people about six of life's realities--love, faith, death, grief, hope, and patience. Centrally, it is about grief.

There are a ton of great quotes but two that helped me a lot were:

The idea, sometimes voiced, that because Christians know death to be for believers the gate of glory, they will therefore not grieve at times of bereavement is inhuman nonsense. (p 10)

and

But grief counseling, like marriage counseling, is not magical in its effects. Counseling can only offer understanding of what is actually going on inside and suggest what might be done about it. Just as it cannot bludgeon an estranged couple into marriage renewal, so it cannot jolly grieving persons back into cheerfulness. (148)

Man, these are two powerful truths that we need to remember.

A parting quote that had nothing to do with grief but I thought it was great:

Richard?and Margaret, his wife, were Puritans. That means they were gloomy, censorious English Pharisees who wore black clothes and steeple hats, condemned all cheerfulness, hated the British monarchy, and wanted the Church of England and its Book of Common Prayer abolished?right?
Wrong?off track at every point! Start again. (p17)

Michael Card is on campus this week. This is his first visit to Trinity, long overdue if you ask me. I listened to him speak at chapel yesterday and my family (minus the youngest) went to his concert last night. The man is amazing. He's won many music awards, written a bunch of books (I bought two), built a log cabin, and has taught astronomy and physics! Shew.

Last night he told a story of his grandmother's maid, her name was something like 'Betty'. She was a woman who loved Jesus but her husband was an abusive drunk. Michael said that before Betty would buy a bed, she'd make sure she could fit under it. One night Betty's husband Henry came home drunk and angry. Betty was under her bed praying. When Henry reached the top of the stairs he slipped and fell all the way back down. He lay there unconscious. Betty said "Do you know what my sweet Jesus did? My sweet Jesus pushed Henry down those stairs!" After that story, Michael confessed that he was terrified to speak in chapel because of the professors here. D. A. Carson was sitting a few chairs away from us and everyone turned and looked at him. He smiled pleasantly. Michael confessed that it was his friend Don Carson who had him the most worried. "Do you know what my sweet Jesus did?" Michael asked. "He gave Don Carson a stomach flu for the past two days!"

The trees are melting. Monday we got hit with snow and freezing rain. After that the rain turned into a thick mist and the temperature dropped. That left the snow preserved beneath a thin, crisp sheet of ice, protecting against light foot prints. The trees (and my truck!) became encased in crystal. When the sun rose and shined on it, it was magical.

This morning, the temperatures are rising and the trees are releasing their cache of rain they've been hoarding for the past few days. They weep at the loss it seems. The snow-covered ground is rejecting the cast offs from the trees and power lines. Ice cubes sit on top of the snow.

Funny, I thought da' Nile was in Egypt, not Iraq! "If we pretend like the American troops aren't here..." Updated: 4/5/03