The Gospel According to Chuck

Gospel: literally,  "Good News". Generally refers to the biblical message concerning the kingdom of God, Salvation and the Messiah.

Chuck: One of our favorite Television shows ever about a computer geek who turns secret agent after a computer database is planted in his head and a gorgeous CIA operative is sent to be his handler.

Thanks to the wonders of Netflix, Diane and I have just finished watching the T.V. series Chuck for about the fourth time.

Full of unforgettable characters, such as Adam Baldwin's "John Casey", "Morgan Grimes", "Jeffster", "Awesome and Ellie" and a host of guest characters from Brandon Routh to Scott Bakula. Timothy Dalton, Chevy Chase, Mark Hamill and Morgan Fairchild to John Larroquette, Richard Chamberlain Lou Diamond Phillips and Bo Derek and many others.

The final episode of the series leads up to a scene where Chuck, the main character, is trying to remind his counterpart Sarah, who has had her memory of the previous five years erased by the most recent villain, that she had fallen in love with him, and he with her.

In this final scene, the words Chuck says to Sarah echo the message that the Almighty has for each of us. We, like Sarah, are broken, and have forgotten that their is one that loves us more than any other, and wants us to trust him.

Chuck says to Sarah:

I'm asking you to trust me.

... I don't I don't want anything from you.

I-I just need you to know that wherever you go, I'll always be there to help you.

Someone you can call.
Whenever.
Trust me... I'm here for you always. 

     Chuck vs. The Goodbye. Season 5, Episode 13 (27 January, 2012)
 
That sounds just like The Gospel - Its rare that I find something on TV that resonates with what God says to us. But that is the Good News that God speaks to us, in a few short words - "You don't have to do anything but trust me. I'm here for you and always will be."

So, what should we watch next?

Here's the segment:



And, just for fun, here's a little JEFFSTER

That Kind of Day

July 11 seems to be that kind of day. It had held import for me for some time because it was the day I joined the Air Force, and the day they finally let me out. It is also the birthday of a couple of my buddies from the war days.

It is also the last day I spent with my Dad.

Seven years ago, on the 11th, we were visiting my parents in the Denver area. Both of my brothers came over for dinner, and my Father was so pleased to have all the boys together with all of their families. He went to bed a little early that night, because he felt tired.

Some time in the middle of the night, my mom came in the room where Diane and I were sleeping and let me know that my dad had fallen out of bed and she could not wake him up. I immediately thought that this didn't sound good.

I went in the room and attempts to resuscitate him by myself, and by the paramedics after that did not work. He was pronounced deceased that night.

Fortunately, some friends of my parents came over to sit with my Mom and I am glad that we were able to be there with her when it happened. My Aunt and Uncle that also live in town were also great. They cooked up a bunch of food and made sure we were set.

The hardest part of the ordeal was first thing in the morning when my brother Michael and I had to go let our younger brother Kevin know that Dad had died so unexpectedly. 

So, I never really forget July 11th and always wonder what, if anything, will happen on this day. I don't think I am superstitious, but it often turns out to be that kind of a day.

I miss you Dad!

Explosive!

Here are some thoughts for your Independence Day Celebrations, and a picture from our celebrations last year:

"I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women to the practical recognition of the old Revolutionary maxim. Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God."

~Susan B. Anthony

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

~ Nelson Mandela

"America was founded by people who believe that God was their rock of safety. I recognize we must be cautious in claiming that God is on our side, but I think it’s all right to keep asking if we’re on His side." 

~ Ronald Reagan

A Fistful of Feathers and the Bill of Rights

The First Amendment to the Constitution starts off by saying, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...".

Fortunately for the Feds, this doesn't seem to apply to the myriad of regulations that can be applied, at will, by the myriads of agencies that we have created.

Take, for instance, the case of Robert Soto, a religious leader of the Lipan Apache. He recently had his eagle feathers returned by the Feds after they were confiscated during a pow wow in 2006. The issue was that he didn't have a permit for these feathers. These feathers have been used by his people for quite some time (both this particular set and ones like it) and the eagles are never killed to collect the feathers.

Luke Goodrich, of the Beckket Fund for Religious Liberty pointed out in the Indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com article linked above that: "The government allows hundreds of eagles, if not thousands, to be killed every year for non-religious reasons. Yet it won't allow these Native Americans to possess even a single feather...”.

Although the feathers were returned to Soto in March, they have a stringent set of regulations attached to them. Soto must carry paperwork showing that he is allowed to have them, he cannot pass them on to anyone else, even upon his death.

So, while he is allowed to perform his religious ceremonies as he sees fit, I am not sure how anyone can argue that this is not "prohibiting the free exercise.." of his religion or show any compelling reason the state needs to protect already dead eagles from having their feathers used in religious ceremonies.

If you believe the Federal government is primarily concerned with upholding and protecting the principles and words of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, then consider this situation.   

Endless!!!

A recent trip to the bookstore and a poster for some book called Peanut Butter and Cupcake led Diane to remark that they just keep making books! It made us wonder how there could continue to be a market for these arrangements of words on paper.

I then reminded her of what King Solomon wrote some 3500 years ago; "...there is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body." If that was the case then, imagine what he would feel now, with 3500 years more worth of books in the mix.

That being said, here are a few I have pulled off that stack to look at in the last few months:

   

Nebraska

A little too late to help this man out, but yesterday, Nebraska's Unicameral (the only one body legislature around) voted to repeal the death penalty.

Had they done so some 47 years ago, perhaps this fellow would still be hanging around.

Charlie Starkweather, accompanied by his 14 year old girlfriend, killed eleven people, including his girlfriend's mother, stepfather and little sister, in a spree that ended when they were finally caught in Wyoming. Charlie gave up after he was cut by glass and convinced himself that he would bleed out if he didn't get help.

A little over a year later, he was executed by the electric chair in Nebraska.

On a side note, Charlie's girlfriend,  Caril Ann Fugate, went to school with my mother. My mom remembers Caril and I think she knew her family too. We will have to ask her.

For more information about the tallest Capitol building in the U.S and the country's only unicameral government, head over here: Nebraska's Capitol

 For more info about Charlie and Caril, and their gruesome killing spree, head over to the Wyoming history page here: Charles Starkweather

Freedom?

We were recently shocked to learn that Aaron Hernandez, the football celebrity, would be receiving life imprisonment without possibility of parole after a conviction on a murder charge.

In addition to his personal freedom, Hernandez sacrificed millions in contracts, endorsements and salaries.

How could a guy that, literally, had it all, throw it away for a stupid angry act?

Indeed, this sort of stupidity seems epidemic in our country. We have about 4.4% of the world's population, and 22% of the world's prison population, giving us the highest incarceration rate in the world.

How is it that our country, whose citizens enjoy freedoms unprecedented in world history, can find themselves so often incarcerated. Are our laws out of control? Do we punish far too many people? Do we create a system of recividism?

Maybe, but I think this speaks more to our foundational framework than it does to our justice system. Our framework does give us freedom to do, quite literally, nearly anything we want to. It is designed to let us get away with whatever our own moral compass does not forbid. And, the justice sytem is there to pick up the pieces when human nature takes over and a person's moral compass lets them delve into areas of behavior that society has decided are detrimental to us all.

In short, our system is designed so that the vast majority would follow the dictates of decency, while the laws were designed to bring consequences to those that exploited their freedoms.

But, with more and more people losing an understanding and a sense of morality, more and more are in need of the correction that the law brings. Without an understanding of right and wrong, the real freedoms we have can lead someone to start to think they can do whatever they want without consequence.

Therefore, I think someone who "has it all" might find it even easier than those of us that don't to think they really can do whatever they want and do it without consequence. After all, they've been able to do whatever they want before. Why wouldn't they be able to keep doing whatever they want?

There seems to be a fine line between the freedom to do whatever we want and the consequence of a life in prison.