Good news! Friday the 15th has been relocated to Monday, the 18th!

Good morning folks. I feel like the Energizer Bunny this morning, all wound up, but my batteries are running on empty. Joking only. I've never had the same success out of those batteries as that bunny. They work fine but it's that part about them going and going and going that I seem to have missed out on. But I will go to great lengths to keep from having to change them out. Know what I mean? I will point that remote at every angle possible to try and get that station changed when I could just pop in some new batteries in maybe 20 seconds or less I would be flipping through channels like there's no tomorrow. It's a guy thing mostly and I really don't know why we are that way. To put yourself in all kinds of weird positions trying to get one more channel out of the remote versus taking the time to change out the batteries, well, we can be a funny lot, don't you think? The good news is that we find ourselves right smack in the beginning of a brand new day, and we look at the calendar and find even better news, it is Friday, April 15, 2011, and we don't have to pay our taxes today. See, I told you, it is good news! There's a local holiday in Washington, D.C. today, therefore, the filing deadline has been moved to next Monday, the 18th. I know there are huge numbers of people who are so happy that this year Friday the 15th has been moved to Monday. And, come Monday there will be cars lined up at the post office to drop off their returns. I suppose it makes some sense for folks who do this as a ritual, but I have never really seen any merit in joining a traffic jam to drop off an envelope that I could have mailed two or three days before. Maybe it's the idea behind it, a statement being made, but to me, I could use that time to change out batteries in the remote. See what I mean, Vern?

I've never denied that I have issues. One of the big personalty testing techniques has to do with choosing colors. You can find these out on the web. They have to do with you selecting the colors you like the most versus those you do not like as well. When you finish the series of selections they give you feedback on your personality. Here's my problem. I'm not always sure which color I like the best in a particular series and I even have trouble figuring out which ones I like more than others. These tests work by correlating the colors that you typically favor to established personality profiles. But I am a blended hue person and my clothes and stuff around me is mostly dull, therefore, I'm not sure exactly which color I am, and now I am upset about it and because of that it's making me angry because I can't decide. Woe is me! It's okay. Joking only. The way I see it is that if there are statistical matches that indicate color choices based on certain characteristics, there would have to be some exceptions. Therefore, I rank myself in the exception category. My favorite color is to not have to choose a favorite color. My least favorite color is to not have to worry about having a least favorite color. No. Please don't send me the number of someone who would put me on a couch and try to figure me out because I happen to like that 'exception' category and maybe next time I will write in rainbow when they ask what my favorite color is. Uh-huh, that's right, all of the above, none of the above, and one I like even more, no answer given. I just might be like a chameleon where my choice of color depends on where I am and what I am doing. Put that in your personality evaluation pipe and smoke it, good buddy.

If nothing else, surely you can feel better knowing you don't have to be me. I almost identify with that statement and that may well reflect part of my problem. It could be some of that blue or green leaking out. But enough of that nonsense. Last Tuesday evening at our Crosstrainer Bible Club for inner city kids, the young woman who taught the lesson shared with the children something about the importance of choices they will be making and how those choices impact them staying on course with God. This Bible club ministry has been going on for some fourteen years and while she didn't call any names, she shared with the children some of the choices made by previous clubbers. One young man is in prison for murder. Several have been arrested for drugs. Others have been caught stealing. Several had become injured as a result of being involved in gang activity. One young lady is doing time for her role in a killing. She stressed how that all these young men and women were at one time learning their verses and singing the songs at Crosstrainers. The room was very quiet and these testimonies very chilling. Choices. We all make them and we are all prone to make wrong choices. Her message to them was how they cannot wait until the moment of decision, they need to do the things every single day that will keep them on course before having to face those choices. It's an every day commitment to do life with God's help, God's way. Her message was powerful. We counseled with a room full of boys as a result. It was a powerful word to them and it is a powerful word to you and I today, no matter who we are, or how many years we have lived here on the planet. They need the Lord. We need the Lord. Living without Him leads to tragic results. It is a truth well noted for those former club members, for our present club members, and for you and I today. One of the ways to stay on course with God is to become an active part of a local fellowship of believers. That's why I always encourage everyone to show up at the meeting place on Lord's Day Sunday. May God help us all in the choices we make. Amen. See you next time and may God bless.              .......More later.