Tuesday, October 7, 2003

11:06 PM Earlier this year Josh got into digital photography in a big way. Bought two cameras and some professional-qualitylenses. Has taken some really nice shots. Now he has his own website. 11:05 PM Cubs couldn’t quite pull it off. We’ll get ’em tomorrow. 10:31 PM Got back from an elder board meeting about 20 minutes ago. Cubs trailing 8-6, middle of the ninth, looked hopeless. Sammy hits a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth onto Waveland Avenue. All tied middle of the tenth, 8-8. Mark called at 5 PM to say that he and a group of Moody students were going to go to the Cubs game. Didn’t have tickets. They were going to ride the el, take a small grill with them so they could join the crowd on Waveland Avenue, grill hot dogs, and enjoy the game. I guess he was in that wild crowd that chased after Sammy Sosa’s homerun ball. 5:00 PM Go Cubs! Beat the Marlins! 4:58 PM Updated Legacy Campaign commitment total: $1,404,000. 4:54 PM Had lunch today with Greg Thornton, Bill Thrasher and John Hinkley of Moody Publishers. We talked about my upcoming book, “More Than You Can Ask or Imagine: How to Pray Like Paul,” coming out in April 2004. We ate at McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant on Chestnut Street in Chicago. They describe the setting as “casual elegance,” which seems about right. I thought it was an excellent choice for lunch. 7:20 AM Dennis Prager explains the vital connection between the culture war in America and the war on terrorism. Please read the whole article. Here’s an excerpt:

That is why this battle is a battle of civilizations. One civilization believes in liberty and one does not. The problem is that the civilization that has liberty has not produced anywhere the depth of belief in liberty that the opponents of liberty have produced. That is why most Europeans (and their supporters in America on the Left) see dying or killing for almost anything as pointless. When you don’t believe in anything except not dying, you don’t really believe in anything. For this reason, European civilization is in peril. The great question mark is America. America is already in the midst of a civil war, thankfully still non-violent. It is between those who fervently believe in America and in Judeo-Christian revelation and those who fervently believe in neither.

7:05 AM The renovation at church continues to inch forward. We need to get some important inspections done by the Village of Oak Park so the workers can continue with various parts of the project. 7:02 AM Our thoughts and prayers are with Bob Johnsen who is undergoing open heart surgery at Loyola Hospital this AM. Marlene and I went to see Bob last night and had a good time talking and praying with him. Bob reads this weblog every day and often talks to me about what I post here. Please say a prayer for him for this morning… . While we were at Loyola, we also stopped in to visit Jim Rak who is recovering from complications after his angioplasty. Jim was in great spirits and hopes to come home in a couple of days.