Random

• HAPPY New Year! Today, the first Sunday in Advent, is also the first day in the Western version of the church-year calendar. Advent means "coming" and in the four Sundays prior to the Feast of the Nativity (aka Christmas) Christians are encouraged to focus on the coming of Christ -- first as an infant 2,000 years ago and in the future as the returning king who will wrap up history as we know it.

• MY favorite Advent song is one that Cheryl wrote in 2004 -- "Come, Messiah, Come!" It's also one of my favorites of the songs she has written.

• KIRK is on the road heading toward his home in LA. Betsy flies out early tomorrow morning so she can get to her noon class at Cal. And now that Daisy has moved out of our spare bedroom and into her place it is going to be amazingly quiet around here. I go to Chicago on Wednesday for a couple of days of Ministerium related meetings. The other project for this week is to make progress reworking the PIU Spiritual Formation class which I'll be teaching online during the spring semester.

• APPARENTLY in some places the term "youth" is considered disparaging and needs to be replaced with a more correct term such as "young person." ~ link

• THIS Tuesday, December 1st, is World AIDS Day ~ link

• I don't do lutefisk and most modern Scandinavians don't seem to know what it is. However, there are some North Americans of Scandinavian descent who get excited about this time each year about the smelly lye fish dish that Swedes and Norwegians ate in the 16th-19th centuries. They can have my share. ~ link

• BORDERS Books appears to be closing down their stores in the UK. ~ link

• 16% of Australia’s greenhouse emissions come from agriculture, so scientists there are trying to breed sheep that burp less. Really. ~ link

• THERE were more shoppers this year on the Friday after Thanksgiving -- but they spent less than last year. In someways it is a good sign. People were feeling more confident so they went shopping. People were being more reasonable so they spent less money. Personally, I spent more this year than last year because I ventured out on Friday night to buy a $2.19 pack of night light bulbs . ~ link

• THE least churched cities in America? Only God definitely knows -- although there are lots of opinions among the mortals. ~ link