I was thinking that after World Missions Summit I am going to post my top five - ten moments of 2008 and I have to say looking at this year so close to it's conclusion scares me a little.  I remember being at SALT in January and it kind of feels like the rest of the year has flown by.

Here's this months random question: What makes your top five moments/ events/ activites of 2008?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

(The style of this post can be attributed to JR.)

Today was a unique day at Lemstone. About 11:20 in the morning a female in a wheelchair comes up to the door. As the gentleman that I am, I decided to walk over and hold open the door for her (since we do not have automatic sliding doors). As she was wheeling in she said that she was looking for a guest book that she could use at her late husband's funeral that is tomorrow. I showed her where books along those lines can be found in our store, and was about to do the typical thing at Lemstone (where you show the customer where something is, then let them decide and walk away), then she commented on wanting something to place in the coffin with her husband. At this point my brain was not really wanting to do much, and my co-worker started to assist her. She then started wanting to locate other things in the store, and started to ask questions about some books we have for people that had lost their loved ones. Then my co-worker started to talk with the store owners and our manager (and the sales rep. that she was talking with). By the time the lady left the store, every person that was working had helped her in some way.

Later in the afternoon I was talking with one of the store owners, and she said the lady in the wheelchair had been through a lot in her life. The thing that got in the wheelchair was a spinal cord injury. Then she was diagnosed and overcame ovarian cancer. Within the past few days, her husband passed away. Then my boss shared with me that this customer stated that she never said, "Why God? Why me?" during all of those instances.

For the first time since working at Lemstone (that I can remember that is) this customer affected us all in some way. I have this feeling that I will not forgot her, simply because she held strong to her faith during some of the hardest things that I can think of to have happen to a person.

She got me to think that I often time take the relationships I have in life for granted. I want to apologize for the times when I could have said 'Thank You' and did not. I am sorry for not always showing that I care for you, but in all honesty, I do.

Earlier today I was reading through Hebrews 3 and I came across an interesting verse.  The Bible I read it out of was the New International Version, I like how The Message has it worded as well:

"So watch your step, friends. Make sure there's no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God. For as long as it's still God's Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn't slow down your reflexes. If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we're in this with Christ for the long haul." - Hebrews 3:12-13 

At times I have wondered where the idea of accountability came from... I think I know now.

Below is a passage from Greg Boyd's The Myth Of A Christian Nation that I found interesting.

"... If we are to take America back for God, it must have once belonged to God, but it's not clear when this golden Christian age was.

"Were these God-glorifying years before, during, or after Europeans "discovered" America and carried out the doctrine of "manifest destiny" - the belief that God (or, for some, nature) had destined white Christians to conquer the native inhabitants and steal their land?  Were the God-glorifying years the ones in which whites massacred these natives by the millions, broke just about every covenant they ever made with them, and then forced survivors onto isolated reservations?  Was the golden age before, during, or after white Christians loaded five to six million Africans on cargo ships to bring them to their newfound country, enslaving the three million or so who actually survived the brutal trip?  Was it during the two centuries when Americans acquired remarkable wealth by the sweat and blood of their slaves?  Was this the time when we were truly "one nation under God," the blessed time that so many evangelicals seem to want to take our nation back to?

"Maybe someone would suggest that the golden age occurred after the Civil war, when blacks were finally freed.  That doesn't quite work either, however, for the virtual apartheid that followed under Jim Crow laws - along with the ongoing violence, injustices, and dishonesty toward Native Americans and other nonwhites up into the early twentieth century - was harldy "God-glorfying."  (In this light, it should come as no surprise to find that few Christian Native Americans, African-Americans or other nonwhites join in the chorus that we need to "Take America Back for God.")

"If we look at historical reality rather than pious verbiage, it's obvious that America never really "belonged to God..."