Receiving honor

ByHal Hammons

When Balaam stubbornly refused to curse the people of God, Balak was furious. He was prepared to pay Balaam big money — and judging from the number of meetings Balaam took with Balak, Balaam was more than willing to accommodate him.  But, as Balaam told Balak, that’s not the way inspiration works — “Did I not tell your messengers whom you had sent to me, saying, ‘Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything contrary to the command of the LORD, either good or bad, of my own accord. What the LORD speaks, that I will speak’?” (Numbers 24:12-13).

Flag

ByHal Hammons

A best-selling author in the Seattle area was curious why a Confederate battle flag was flying in her neighborhood — not a hotbed of the KKK, historically.  So she contacted the local paper, and they sent a reporter to investigate.

       Turns out, it was the Norwegian flag — which, if the wind is not blowing and you are of a mind to jump to conclusions, bears a vague resemblance to the notorious Southern Cross.

Discomfort

ByHal Hammons

Discomfort is the price of admission for a meaningful life, I was told recently. I wish it weren’t true, like we all do.  But it is true, and I choose to accept it and embrace it instead of denying it.

        Anything significant is not only going to be worth pain, it is going to cause pain. 

Praying for Parkland, and For Us All

Praying for Parkland, and For Us All

ByHal Hammons

Without trying to take sides in the gun vs. anti-gun argument, allow me to cautiously make the following observations: one, a gun tragedy is guaranteed to bring people out of the woodwork, quoting outrageously misleading statistics and claiming that all gun advocates are essentially guilty of murder; two, gun advocates will try to “put things into perspective” by saying the problem isn’t actually as gigantic as it is made out to be, and essentially come off like jerks who think a dozen or so dead children is not that big a deal. In short, everyone still believes what they already believed, they’re just louder about it. 

I find facts a lot less argumentative than rhetoric, so let’s look at some facts.

Bringing Down the Wall

ByHal Hammons

The Berlin Wall has now officially been down longer than it was up.  That’s astonishing.  I remember 1989 quite well.  The Cold War that had dominated my childhood was officially over.  The dreaded symbol of oppression had been toppled.  It was the end of an age.  For my entire life I had thought of geopolitics entirely in terms of the United States vs. the Soviet Union.  And suddenly, it wasn’t.  The tearing down of the wall was the biggest symbol of that transformation. 

 

Longevity

ByHal Hammons

What is the key to longevity?  How could an older person best ensure that they continue converting oxygen into carbon dioxide?  “The results will surprise you,” the researchers always say in such situations — but this time they are right.

Don’t Blame the Dice!

ByHal Hammons

Most games have some element of luck to them.  Random elements make the game somewhat unpredictable.  It forces the players to be adaptable in the event of unforeseen circumstances.  One of the most common of these elements is dice.  Rolling a pair of dice does not produce a completely irregular pattern; a seven has exactly one chance in six of coming up, while a two or a twelve each have one chance in 36.  Considerably worse, obviously.

Daylight

ByHal Hammons

So now I have Taylor interested in hunting.  And the deer get absolutely no credit.  The two of us sat in a cold blind (not as cold as my previous outing, thankfully) for three hours.  We did not so much as point a gun at a mammal.  A few piglets dashed in and out of our vision at one point.  Did they bring Mama out to play with them?  No, they did not.

Flossing

ByHal Hammons

I don’t floss.  Never have.  I have been told my whole life that flossing helps prevent tooth decay.  All I knew was, it hurt my gums.  And my fingers.  Plus, it’s gross. Do I regret it?  Stare into my complete absence of dental work while I say, “Nooooooooooooo.”

Ducks

ByHal Hammons

The deer, birds and squirrels weren’t enough wildlife for my mom and dad, evidently.  Now the creek behind their house is a duck habitat.  With the waterways full again, ducks seem to have found their way to the Texas Hill Country again.  (Calm down, all you hunters out there; my mom’s back porch is a…