The Good Clean Funnies List

In the summer of 1995, I changed jobs and there found my first computer with a thing on it called a "browser." It was NCSA's Mosaic, and DARPAnet had just been opened up to the public as the Internet. So. Cool.

Shortly thereafter, I have no idea how, I ran across a little site called the Good Clean Funnies List (GCFL): A web and email site that would send one good, clean, funny joke a day into my inbox. It's been part of our morning routine pretty much ever since. Here's today's:

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A young couple moved into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they were eating breakfast, the young woman saw her neighbor hanging the wash outside.

"That laundry is not very clean," she said. "She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap."

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband, "Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this?"

The husband said, "I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows."

Received from Doc's Daily Chuckle.

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The funny part is, this thing originates from right where I used to live, near Huntsville, Alabama. But what a great example of shining some light into people's worlds, one day at a time. Oh, and the verse at the top of the website? Proverbs 17:22a: "A cheerful heart is good medicine..."
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Churches with walls...and without

Andrew Jones is this amazing global blogger who goes everywhere and seems to find the most interesting things. Here's one that catches my eye, and heart, from the good folks at churchfromscratch.org, provocatively titled "It's time to stop starting with church!"

They come or we go? from Incarnate Network on Vimeo.

Mike Yaconelli video mashup

I've mentioned Mike Yaconelli before...here's a great video mashup of some great Yac talks. Too many to list...but one that was part of my choosing a way-early retirement (read: a lot less income for a lot of years) was his description of how you can tell a Christian: "They're the ones that have time for you." (Whew...how many of us just got zinged on that one?) Was it important to me? You bet; no one else has been mentioned in this blog three times, here, here and here.  Enjoy!

New Prices for "Between the Lines: Christianity for Misfit Christians"

There's just something about "The Dollar Store." (When I was a kid, it was the Ben Franklin store; when my mother was a kid, it was the five and dime. Inflation. But I digress...) It kind of draws us into the wonders of what you can do with just one George Washington.

It would be nice to be a huge-selling author and get rich. (Well, since by the standards of most of the world, and a good chunk of Americans we are already "rich," maybe I should say richer? Although I'm looking with dismay at our economy and future inflation... But again, I digress.)

The point of my first book was always to get a message out. Some hope and light; some encouragement to every reader to let God use you in radical and wonderful ways, without any regard to the numerous pre-scripted roles and expectations around us. Breaking even would be nice. (Not even close yet.) Turning a profit - and doing interesting things with that profit - would be even nicer. But it was never the main objective. The deal was, I always wanted to write this book, and one-too-many people (you know who you are, Perry) had said, "You should write a book!"

So. All that to say, new prices for the book. The ebook versions, on Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook, are now 99 cents. My thought is that that price makes it an easy impulse buy. In the strange and wonderful economy of ebooks, I still make a few cents. The new price for the paperback version via Amazon, when it percolates through their system later this week, will be $5.99.

I hope you buy. Even more, I hope you read, are blessed, comment, interact, and of course tell all your friends.

Peace,

JC

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A passion for compassion?

In English, "passion" is the root of the word "compassion." If only we were passionate in our compassions, and perhaps less passionate in our angers.

The Latin origin means "to suffer together." Now there's a high and holy calling.

The disease of leprosy actually doesn't make your fingers and toes fall off. At least not directly. What it does do is kill nerves; you gradually lose more and more of your sense of touch. You can't feel it when you bump into things, or even other people. You can get hurt and never know it, bump into other people and never know that you've hurt them, either.

Leprosy in the Bible is a symbol of sin. It's as though sin deeply involves numbness, often by choice, sometimes by circumstance, but never by God's design.

I think maybe in America we've become a nation of emotional lepers. It isn't that there aren't some people doing "compassionate" things; it's that mostly our culture disallows the whole idea of suffering together with someone else. I mean, I'm talking tears and wails. Protracted, not temporary. Perhaps if we shared suffering, we might delve further into God's assignments to us, redeeming the whole world one soul at a time, like the rabbinical idea of tikkun olam.

Lord, give me passionate compassion.

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"Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.'"  (Matthew 9:35-38)
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