That’s the name of my boy’s blog. Okay, he’s not so much a boy anymore, but he always will be to me! Anyway, he’s got this ambitious plan to walk every street in Manhattan, snap some photos along the way, and document his journey in blog-like fashion. That’s a lot of miles! I wonder if he’s taking a pedometer along with him…maybe he could put some kind of mileage counter on his blog.

I’m not sure how he manages to find the time, what with his career and all, but I was just over there, and in a short time he already has a fair amount of content. Hmmm…I don’t seem to recall him being such a prolific writer back in the “push-him-to-get-his-homework-done” days…ah, but I digress. Anyway, he’s got some great shots of the city (from the inside) - you’ll definitely want to take a look…

Okay, so, what are you still doing here? That was your cue to go check it out!

Well, as great as the concert was, the HIGHLIGHT of our Nashville extravaganza was a visit with our friends Ron and Denise Wallace. Ron does it all - he’s a pastor, songwriter (he co-wrote “Bread of Life” with me), worship leader, musician, the list goes on and on…we were so sorry to see him and his family move away from Texas. But I suppose it’s not all about US, is it…

Anyway, we had a GREAT visit. By the time it was over, I was just about ready to pick up stakes and move out there! So nice to see *real* trees and hills again… So, if you get a chance, stop by and see Ron and check out his music!

Last week, I posted the The Ant vs. The Grasshopper story and, as I expected, it became quite a conversation starter with various family members and friends. What I didn’t realize was that quite a few people actually thought that I was promoting one “side” over the other - namely, the position of the ant. I guess I forget that not everyone knows me as well as I think!

I realize now that I should have elaborated a bit more on what I was thinking. Maybe you think because I’m a Christian that I’m some sort of right-wing nut job conservative Republican bully - when nothing could be further from the truth. For the ant’s part, his self-reliant, uncompassionate selfishness is just as bad as the grasshopper’s demand for entitlements.

You see, the truly sad part about the two “sides” of the story is that somewhere, there is a balance between the two extremes. Unfortunately, “balance” doesn’t sell newspapers.

Sometimes, as I talk to friend and associates, I begin to wonder if I’m the only one who thinks that it’s so easy in this day and age to get caught up into a two-dimensional view of the world: right vs. left, Republician vs. Democrat, conservative vs. liberal, and on and on it goes. But these are essentially nothing more than extensions of the original sin - eating from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”.

So many of my fellow-Christians (a.k.a. The Ant) are proudly conservative Republicans, railing against the evils of liberalism that they have no idea what God’s grace and mercy truly is - they want to put us solidly back under Old Testament Law. And of course, we have the other end of the spectrum: the truly God-less walking among us, saying “everything goes” with no consequences, and expecting to be entitled to everything their flesh desires.

Meanwhile, TRUE evil (call him “Satan” if you’d like) just looks on, using politicians and the media to encourage the fanatacism in both camps until it’s not even about the issues anymore - it’s simply “the other guy said it so it must be wrong”. And its so sad that such a huge majority of people simply accept that they have to associate with one side or the other, playing along like puppets on strings.

So this begs the question: could there be a world that IS more like what Jesus intended? If we could rewrite the fable with more of a New Testament world view, what would it look like? Maybe something like this:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. The ant, however, being concerned for the grasshopper’s well-being, takes time out here and there to teach the grasshopper with parables that illustrate the foolhardiness of his course of action. But most of the time the grasshopper just shakes his head and goes back to partying.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, and curses the ant out of pride and bitterness. But despite all of this, the ant - even though he TOLD the grasshopper there would be consequences - invites him in, out of the cold, and shares what he has with him. Yes, the ant may not be as comfortable as he would have wished, but that’s a small sacrifice in light of the good he is doing. And who knows? With the grasshopper now a captive audience for the whole winter, the ant may yet be able to instill some sense into his green friend - so that maybe next year he won’t end up in the same predicament.

Just a pipe dream? Maybe….but what if it’s what we ALL strove for….?

I’m afraid I can’t resist posting this little twist on a traditional story that I got in one of those emails that came from so-and-so who got it from somebody else, and on and on down a long convoluted email chain. So, apologies to the originator for not being able to give you the credit. Anyway, I’d like to know if I’m the only one who doesn’t think this is very far from the truth…

Traditional Version:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
Moral of the Story: Be responsible for yourself !

Modern Version:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. CBS, NBC, and ABC & Cable show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, “It’s Not Easy Being Green.” Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome.” Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake. Tom Daschle and John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Peter Jennings that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his “fair share.”

Finally, the EEOC drafts the “Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act,” retroactive to the beginning of summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients. The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he doesn’t maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

I hope y’all don’t mind, but I’d like throw a bit of a challenge your way by pointing you to an online book written by Andrew Strom entitled “The Secrets of the Early Church“. What’s the challenge you ask? Well, it’s two-fold actually. The first is that it’s a lengthy read - definitely not for those who are distracted easily. But you who aren’t afraid to study a bit will find viewpoints here that you may be unaccustomed to - particularly if you’ve been walking out your Christian faith for any length of time. And therein lies the second challenging aspect: your preconcieved ideas about what “church” is will be called in to question.

Now, I’m not the sort of guy who jumps onto every bandwagon that comes rolling into town. And the truth is, I’m still in the process of wading through this document. So, despite the fact that much of what I’m reading so far really strikes a chord deep within me, I’m not going to try to “sell” you on all or even some of Mr. Strom’s views. But I will encourage you to simply take a look. Study it out for yourself. Allow yourself to be exposed to some teachings you don’t usually hear during today’s mega-Sunday-morning-multi-media-extravaganza-broadway shows. Then, see if the Holy Spirit just might bear witness…