"To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns."

Because of the extreme nerd content of the previous post, i deemed it necessary to begin a completely new post in order to change subjects. Actually, i realized just now that all my posts are full of nerdy things. If you don't like that, i'm sorry. But you don't have to read it, after all. i mean, truly, the beauty of the self-publishing world is that i don't have an editor that has a different identity than myself. And so here you are, reading what flows mostly simultaneously from my heart and my head directly through these Dutch hands of mine and into cyberspace. i can think of few things that are cooler. Thank you for reading, dear reader.

Now, onward.

visit this link and make a shoebox:
https://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/Pack_A_Shoe_Box/

i'm going to keep posting that link, so don't think you're off the hook when you finish reading this post. Seriously, make a shoe box. Put some thought into it. Giving to someone in need is the essence of healing, the center of the Truth of Jesus, and the beginning of amazing change in our own lives. Basically the deal is if you're reading this, you're rich. Filthy rich. What that means is that you may have worked hard, or your parents may have worked hard, or whatever, but when the credits roll, the question still is, "What did you do with all that money?" Because you working doesn't mean you deserve to be rich. If the world followed that logic of fairness then it certainly wouldn't look the way it does today. Let me try and give you just a little perspective. The kids receiving these gifts most likely don't even have a conceptual grasp on what a gift actually is. Why? Because truth be told, they've probably been in positions where they've had to take things just to survive. And so a gift to them is not even something that crosses their radar. The amazing thing about Operation Christmas Child is that you get to be the giver of what could quite easily be a child's first gift, and even more, to provide in that shoe box perhaps the first presentation of the Truth of Jesus that they've ever encountered.

Think about it. Embrace problems and do what you can to fix them. "We have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only one short hour before sunset in which to win them."



photo by jwil