bierkergaard

Kevorkian has died naturally....no assisted suicide in his case. Kevorkian relished the renegade role of Dr. Death and it is quite easy to demonize him as an an end of life assassin. I think that too often Christians can paint individuals in the darkest light imaginable in a way that distorts their humanity and makes them monsters. Monsters are easy to hate and doing so resolves the tension of dealing with such grave issues of life and death in an in-depth and thoughtful manner. Although I disagree with any notion of suicide being acceptable (more than once growing up, I wanted to end it all and the only thing that kept me from doing it was the conviction of suicide's inherent wrongness). Yet, we really need to be much more realistic about trying to prolong life when it is clear that we should step out of the way and let nature take its course. Extraordinary efforts to prolong life in the face of indisputable degeneration is cruel in a different manner. Both premature ending and ...

When my first Homebrew bottle, in the second fermentation/carbonation phase, blew up the other day, I thought "big deal." Since then, 4 more Jihadi Brews have exploded. "When will the carnage end?" I keep asking myself that question. Something in quality control went awry...and the frustrating part is I don't know what. I have brewed three times previously, same bottles. No explosions. We all expect to have problems in life. And, I know as far as problems go, this is just a gnat versus a snarling dog or a 100 mph locomotive ready to ram me to heaven in a trillion pieces. I just heard today that a friend of mine has been diagnosed with cancer. So, no need to call Crisis Intervention. However, what I struggle with problems great and small is the inability to solve them....the chronic reappearance of the same issues over and over again, just change the date. The same old battles, same old struggles, same old failed strategies. Just waiting for the next bottle to ex...

This Polar Bear certainly looks like he's chillin'...and not just because he resides in the Arctic. I used to envy my cat Barnabas. I would come home from work and I'd see him sleeping in the windowsill taking in the late afternoon sun. He would have to nap, it seems, to recover from a nap. Generally, when we are under stress, it can be from three sources: Relation (with God and Man), Location (where one lives), and Vocation (what one does for meaning and money). When all three mount an attack simultaneously, people's stress levels go into the danger zone. Kind of being assaulted from the air, land, and sea. Nowhere to run and hide. So an individual has negative relationships--or no relationships, lives in bad environment--dangerous, abusive, or just plain boring, and has a crappy job--or no job. We can envision a person experiencing all three at once. What's the remedy? A pill? The bottle? Suicide? No, God is our source of help in times of trouble. If a perso...

What do you say to a mother, daughter, and son, about the sudden loss of their husband/father? I had the opportunity to think about that today at the Viewing of two of my students' dad, a brother and sister. The man was a year younger than myself and I found out about it first thing on Tuesday when the mom came in to tell me. It is really a privilege to serve students and their parents. Being there in the good times and the bad--and the in-between amalgamation of the two--school counseling spans the emotional spectrum. In these situations of tragedy, I try to avoid saying things like "I understand" (I don't), "Things will get better" (often they won't). Instead I acknowledge it for what it is (a tragedy), that the loss will be with them a lifetime (to some degree), "I am sorry" (I really am), and "I'm here." As I looked at the pictures of he and his kids and his wife, I saw the love he had for them...I can just tell. Hanging out w...

I bottled my Belgian Wit homebrewed beer on Saturday. I made sure the gravity ( density of the liquid, essentially how much alcohol exists as a percentage of the overall liquid ). Too soon, and fermentation is still too forceful to tame. By the hydrometer's reading, I was safe to bottle. I thought. Today, I discovered, one of the bottle's had its bottom blown off (see Exhibit A with the cap still on). I had prepared for this as a possibility. The bottles were in a cooler upstairs in the closet, I removed the clothes and coats in the unlikely case of spray (I had the cooler itself in a larger container), and warned the wife it could happen. No causalities except for one bottle. Turns out, the upstairs is just too hot right now. The heatwave, I surmise, has the upstairs too far above the required 70 degrees. I knew I was pushing my luck. This Belgian Wit is tricky...it has three different phases of fermentation, all requiring a differing temperature. It started in the basement, ...

Here Rests In Honored Glory An American Soldier Known But To God I have been reading a book about the American Civil War called April 1865: The Month That Saved America In it, it is clear that the seeds for the Civil War were sown in the American Revolution and came to harvest 85 years later. Without getting too in-depth, issues of succession and secession were to be resolved not in debate but on the battlefield. Slavery, seen as a property right in the South, was the powder keg. There seemed to be no other way to solve the dispute but by arms. Neither the North or the South ever anticipated at the onset of how bloody, brutal, and long, the Civil War would last. " If war were not so terrible," Robert E. Lee observed as he watched the slaughter at Fredericksburg , "we should grow too fond of it." Lincoln said in his second Inaugural Address: "On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. Al...

Logos Bible Software is offering a CD collection of John Calvin's writing . The price is dropping fast now that the 500th anniversary of his birthday has come and gone. Suffice to say, the French/Swiss Reformer was prodigious. That is what makes this Tweet comic so dang funny. Technology can be a blessing or a curse. It is tool. Like a hammer can pound nails or pound someone's head. How it is utilized determines its ultimate goodness. I have dedicated my fave technology, my iPhone, to the Lord as Hannah did to Samuel. To use it for godly purposes and not wickedness. In an age of the sound bite and here today, gone tomorrow, God is still using the work of John Calvin to call His people to Himself. His work is for the ages and it would be wise to become as familiar with Calvin as possible. I wonder if I can get the CD collection on eBay?