Thursday, December 14, 2006

Praise Habit


Lots of interesting tidbits on the web today. HT to Lisa Samson for this great essay on Jesus and Christmas. Lisa also has a link to this, which has to be the worst rendition of any Christmas song ever. Molly and I were nearly in hysterics listening to this.

Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel & Dimed and Bait & Switch, (two terrific books about the state of the American worker) and sometime contributor to Time Magazine wrote this terrific essay about how we celebrate Christmas.

I have a small beef with the laundry detergent industry. Recently Cheer released a new detergent called True Fit. They also have kinds that protect your blacks from becoming gray and your colors from fading. What if I want my blacks to stay black, but I also want them to keep their fit? And if I want the clothes to smell nice, does that mean that I give up on my clothes keeping their color or fitting well? I understand the proliferation of brands; that's part of the free market system, which I thoroughly endorse. But why do we have to have so many varieties within each brand. I can buy Free versions with dyes or scents. Or with color-safe bleach or with regular bleach. I can buy them with oxygen power boosters or with fabric softener or Febreeze. What I really want is one single detergent that will protect the colors and the fit, include color-safe bleach, oxygen power, fabric softener, and I want it to have a nice scent. I'd pay a little more if I only had to buy one bottle instead of four bottles (detergent, bleach, color-safe bleach, and fabric softener) and one bucket (Oxi-clean). Ok, rant over.

Praise Habit by David A. Crowder is a nice devotional about finding God in everyday places where we don't normally look for him. Crowder does a terrific job of reminding us why it's so important to praise God in all things. Each chapter starts with a Psalm from The Message Bible. The language is very modern; it can occasionally be off-putting, but for the most part brings new depth to the verses. After the Psalm, Crowder gives the reader a short anecdote, usually humorous, about events in his own life. Where the book stumbles is in the connecting of the Psalms to these stories. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. I didn't connect with this book the way that I like to with a devotional, but it was still an enjoyable read.

There's no special reason for the picture today other than it's Pooh, and who doesn't love Pooh?

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