What I've Learned

Lord you know me,
My every thought, passion, and desire.
My cares are your cares.
You do not need to be told what matters to me.

You love me and take care of me.
You defend me and comfort me.
No man on Earth can be,
what you are to me.

You know me, O Lord,
Every action, every movement,
All my hopes and dreams,
My accomplishments, my failures.
You know every piece of me.

You are there for me.
In times of sorrow
and times of celebration.
During shame and glory,
my constant support.
You know me.


Response to Psalm 139

Endangered Species?

So I just looked up an article on how researchers found 125,000 gorillas in the Congo, because I was bored and remembered hearing some morning radio djs making fun of the find. The reason it's so shocking is because that is more than twice what they thought was left of the species. The article mentions that the number they thought was left was based on a survey from the 1980's and projected loss due to poaching.

This makes me wonder how many other "endangered species" are based off old numbers and flawed projections. We trust these environmental groups without even questioning their methods.

Here's the link to the gorilla article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/science/05apes.html

And here's another article about how the list of endangered species is being added to: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/0502_060502_endangered.html

The reasons they cite for population decrease? Hunting and global warming.
How they reached the numbers they did? "the IUCN took a close look at sharks and rays" What does that even mean? The entire article has the same ambiguous wording.

Here's a quote that really bothers me:" "Here you have an unbiased, objective account," he said. "There's no guesswork and no political pressure. … The listings tend to focus conservation energy." " Really? It doesn't sound unbiased (global warming) and there definitely appears to be a lot of guesswork.

Just some thoughts.

Praise the Lord for Kind Commuters

So I drove to California today. The drive was mostly uneventful and the roads were clear until about an hour outside of our destination. We hit some traffic but it wasn't bad. Then, about a half hour outside of our destination traffic suddenly stopped. I hit the brakes as hard as I could, but skidded a little at the last second and hit the car in front of me. We got out and decided to move to the right, we had been in the carpool lane. That is an experience I would like to never repeat. Once we got out on the other side, he said he had to call the CHP (california highway patrol). I said ok and we both went to our cars while he called. I don't know what changed his mind, but when Rusty got out to check the damage and started rubbing the scuffs off my car the man changed his mind about calling CHP. He asked who's car it was and when I told him it was mine he said he didn't think we needed to call because there really wasn't any damage.

Rusty and I both said the same thing when we returned to the car, "Praise the Lord". When things like that happen you start to think over the events and how they could have gone and I'm always left amazed by God's grace. For instance, we were in the car pool lane, which meant when traffic stopped, there was no one behind me. Second, people were kind and let us over to the right side of the highway. After we drove off we saw a worse accident just a little ahead of us, probably caused by the same sudden stop, or possible the reason for the sudden stop. I was very thankful that that wasn't us. We were starting to run out of time to reach our destination.

Another praise, we made it on time to the boat dock. Oh yeah, I'm in Long Beach waiting for a boat to go to my friends wedding on Catalina.