Monday Musings

{{{ALIGN:right;THUMBNAILWIDTH:220;CAPTION:John Adams;}}}Scattershooting here and there …Have you been watching the John Adams miniseries on HBO? Marlene and I watched the first two episodes and were hooked. We thought last night’s fourth episode was terrific.

Over the weekend I received the news that Irene Tuggle passed away at the age of 81. We knew Bob and Irene very well during our years at Northeast Bible Church in Garland, Texas. Bob died a year or so ago and now Irene has joined him in heaven.

And on the subjet of friends going to heaven, I received a note saying that Rusty Farabaugh died yesterday morning five years after being diagnosed with Stage 4 liver cancer. Shortly thereafter he saw one of my books and was drawn to it because, as he wrote me later, “I was married to a Pritchard.” He said that he saw God’s hand at work in his life and that whether he lived or died, it didn’t matter because he was a winner either way. Only a man who truly believes in the sovereignty of God can talk like that. His friend Ken Ross wrote yesterday with the news of his passing. Ken’s note ended with these words … “If Rusty could say anything to us right now it would be “Keep Believing…it’s worth it!”

I happened to watch the last few minutes of the Davidson-Kansas game on Sunday. Davidson is a true “bracket-buster,” a ten-seed trying to make it to the Final Four. It came down to one final shot that missed the mark. After the game Davidson coach Bob McKillop put things in perspective this way: “My father was a New York City cop. He used to always tell me to polish the backs of your shoes, because that’s the last thing people see of you.’’

In our little corner of the world, things are very busy. Marlene is working on our taxes this morning. She sdds up the various categories and then I put the return together using Turbo Tax. Getting that done is one of our major goals for this week. I am working on a book manuscript on Samson that needs to go to the publisher soon. And we are getting ready for a trip to Chicago April 10-14.

Meanwhile I have two basset hounds in my office this morning. Dudley is on the couch and Gary is on the floor next to him. They aren’t worried about anything at the moment. It’s a dog’s life.