bierkergaard

It has been interesting to experience that as my blog gets more attention, there has been correspondingly (and logically) more scrutiny to what I write. This falls into the "Duh File" of mental notes. I include in this scrutiny Facebook, as the same dynamic applies. When I was writing for two years, and few people were reading, it follows that my words were going uncontested. Probably one of the intrinsic dangers of writing for one's own reasons, besides a larger audience. Although, if one merely wishes to have an on-line diary, it would be better to make it private. Sometimes it is shocking to read what people reveal about themselves on-line. Now, particularly in the last several weeks, I have been getting much more comments. And, although some of the feedback has been very affirming, a good part of it has been corrective and sometimes even somewhat critique-oriented. I guess everyone wants an audience until someone in the audience starts to boo. The feedback has unifor...

I have been a little too serious recently in my blog posts, so I am writing another "Fluffy Friday" piece. I hate shopping. When I was a bachelor, not married until 43 years old, I shopped about once a month. I would get up real early on a Saturday morning and head to the grocery store Redner's. Like a mole, my goal would be to get back home before the light. Even though I could eat two meals a day at school, breakfast and lunch, I still needed food at night and over the weekends, plus other stuff. Ironically, I had a fetish for buying furniture polish but I never dusted. By the time I moved out of the townhouse into our married home, I had amassed 15 or so cans of Pledge. In cleaning out the townhouse, and its years of dust (literally), I used almost every can. So, it all came out even in the end. I think the dust reminded me of a serene snowfall. With grocery shopping, if I waited until later, I inevitably got stuck behind a leisurely cart pusher and a gaggle of screami...

Ex 5:18 "Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks." As is now becoming my morning habit, I listened to the Daily Audio Bible broadcast early in the morn. The broadcast basically takes a methodical word-by-word and page-by-page approach to reading through the Scriptures. There is great value in doing so. Even things like the endless genealogies and the Levitical law readings show the complexity of human ancestry--cause and effect, decisions in one generation, for good or for ill, rippling out like a rock in the lake of time--and how law is ascertained and administered. Those who dismiss the lessons of the Old Testament as merely primitive myth-making quite honestly are unwise. The Bible presents these stories as actual real history. And, they are. In the end, a myth can be dismissed. History has to be dealt with. Back in the 1970's and 1980's Miller ran a series of commercials of Lite Beer "Great ...

Psalms 90:12 "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Last night around 9:30, I received an email from two students who head up the student Ed. Psych. group down at Temple. In the subject line, I saw my Advisor's name. I knew what it meant even before opening the email. My Advisor, Dr. Glenn Snelbecker, had passed away (Sunday morning). When I had last met with him in the Fall down at the Ambler campus, he had some serious issues with coughing...asthma-related. He would cough and wheeze for a good bit, then be able to speak some more. I was worried about him; that he would come to work and meet with me was a testament to his character and work ethic and tough Pennsylvania Dutchness. His condition continued to not improve and on New Year's Eve, he had to be taken to the Emergency Room. From there, he never recovered, even though his last email to me less that a week ago said that he was on the road to recovery. I am going to keep that...

Matt 21:12 "And Jesus went into the Temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the Temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves." Yesterday morning I was praying that God would take out the idols of my heart. What made it odd is that I actually meant it. We all pray for something we don't really want at times, thinking somehow God is pleased with such a tepid request. We think God says, "Well, it is better than nothing. I can work with this."In fact, it would be better not to pray about something unless we are serious about it. Although God has time, I am sure He does not have the patience for such trifles. Yes or no, and maybe is a no. Better to say, in a way, that I like my sin and really don't want to part with it. And, then ask God to give us the power to renounce it. At least we are being honest. I tell my students at school that until they can be honest, there is nothing I can do for the...