The Austrians have their own kind of marathon!
I’d not be surprised they have one of these 
in Minnesota.
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Very few have given a life to Youth the way Marko has, and so I’m urging you to read his new youth ministry coaching program and consider it.
Did you see this? With This Ring … I thee show compassion.
Dave Gibbons on hopelessness.
Lynn Cohick: interview about women in the earliest churches.
Dan Reid: correcting errors.
Unedited gospel. (HT: KH)
This one by Owen Youngman isn’t a blog post; it’s a literary essay and done exquisitely.
Depression and internet linked. (HT: CH)
Many of us are following the story about Matt Chandler and praying for him.
Ed Stetzer gets it. (HT: DK)
Where to find Christian hipsters.
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Bob Smietana, at The Tennessean, writes an excellent piece on some trends in the Churches of Christ. [Sometimes when these articles get archived at this newspaper, the address changes; so you might look up “Churches of Christ drop isolationist view”.]

The new head coach of the LA Clippers is Kim Hughes, a high school friend of mine. Way to go Kim! (To the left, but he sure looks like his dad, Glenn.)
Meanderings in the News
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1. Christianity Lite: an indication of its end with Mary Eberstadt: “If this is so, then the implications for the future of Christianity itself are likely to be profound. If it is Christianity Lite, rather than Christianity proper, that is fatally flawed and ultimately unable to sustain itself, then a rewriting of much of contemporary thought, religious and secular, appears in order. It means that secularization itself may be fundamentally misunderstood. It means that the most unwanted and unfashionable traditional teaching of Christianity, its sexual moral code, demands of the modern mind a new and respectful look. As a strategic matter, it also means that the current battle within the Catholic Church between traditionalists and dissenters must go to the traditionalists, lest the dissenters or cafeteria Catholics take the same path that the churches of Christianity Lite have followed: down, down, down.”

2. Tamim Ansary on the Taliban and Afghani future.
3. Anthony Stevens-Arroyo on Mary Daley.
4. This Toyota problem concerns us: we’ve got a Camry and a RAV4.
5. The Land, of Africa, is an issue: “When European powers sliced up the continent in the late 19th century, they thought of Africa as an empty mass free for the taking. Colonial rulers brought along the notion of private property. Suddenly, the land system changed. In the old system, an entire community owned land, managed by the elders. With the advent of private property, history meant nothing next to paperwork: Title to land trumped tradition. But as is often the case with indigenous groups around the world – including in the United States – those who walked away with legal deeds for the land and those who lived and worked on those lands for generations were usually not the same people.”

A break for a song:

6. From coca beans to cacao beans… Yes!

7. The new media’s impact on politics. One can call this emerging politics.
8. A glimpse at the private life of J.D. Salinger.
9. Whether accurate or not, there is perception that President Obama is out of touch with ordinary folks. These lines are part of the patch:
On life in Washington: “It can drive you crazy.” 
On one of the good things about the White House: “You live above the store.”
On his relationship with the mayor of Elyria, Ohio: “He and I shared a burger at Smitty’s.”
On the media: “People with the pens and pencils.”
On his reason for visiting a machine company in Baltimore: “I just like gettin’ out of the White House, and then I like tooling around companies that are actually making stuff.”
10. Those Bidenisms. Which is your favorite?
Meanderings in Sports
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Well … yes … it’s just a couple of weeks away: Spring Training! The Cubs train in Fitch Park in Mesa, AZ; their game park, HoHoKam Park, is just up the street from Fitch Park.
I’m being asked about my predictions for the Cubs this year: it’s obvious.
This is the Year of the Cubs!
While some folks are watching hockey and the NBA (wrestling) and others are watching the Super Bowl and then will go into a funk until next September.
Not us: We’re rooting for the Cubs here and we put up with the other sports as pasttimes during the offseason.
Except for golf. That’s a year round sport.
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