Here's how crazy our world has become:

The other day, my wife and I are watching our local news (which really isn't that local for us) and the lead story was about a murder investigation, or was it.  Basically, what happened was two women got married (which is illegal in our little part of the world).  One of these women was pursuing a sex-change operation and for all appearances was a man.  These two had some sort of disagreement and the "husband" shot "his" "wife" and killed her.  The story, however, was much more focused on how two women could get married when the law is certainly against it.  There was very little as to the tragedy of the murder. 

It just seems to me that this is an example of our society not focusing on what is most important.  Come on people, a life has been taken in a most tragic and violent way.  Why continue to talk of the sexual identity of the people involved which seemed to have nothing to do with the murder itself.  I'm just wondering what lessons we can learn from this.  I guess we (or at least the producers of this particular news channel) love to exploit the lifestyles of people rather than show concern and love for the actual people involved. 

I think it's interesting how easily we generalize here in this little cyber-world.  Few of us really know one another, and I think fewer of us know members of the groups we attack.  Let's be honest and admit that we really don't know that much about the people we argue with over issues of religion, philosophy, and politics.  I posted this a while back, but that it timely to put it up again:

to know

do not think assume or believe

that by the simple fact that your eyes

can see these words

and your mind

can comprehend each one individually

and compile them into a coherent

thought    & nbsp;   &n bsp;  or form

that you know me

words are only a taste

of a much larger

and more diverse meal

a word or phrase

only a signpost

on a larger and greater journey

that until you have traveled

for many miles

can you begin to know much

of the journey at all

until you’ve gripped my hand

in sweat and struggle

until you’ve look on my reaction

when I see my daughter laugh

until you’ve been close enough

to feel the weight of my anguish

until you’ve believed you could almost taste

the frustration I feel

you don’t know me

only words

only sounds

only

Still working through the Church thing, but here's another thought to chew on:

The Bible speaks of "rewards" in heaven (Matthew 16:27, Luke 6:23, Ephesians 6:8 ).  These rewards seem to be based on the lives we live, therefore each reward is different.  So how is that possible if we are equal in the Kingdom?  Do we get more stuff, just because we were more obedient to God than someone else?  Here's what I think:  Our reward is our seeing God's joy in us.  We get to see in his face how much we have pleased him.  I believe that is the only thing that can be unique to all of us and that we would care about for eternity.