Here is the video from the first Obama/McCain presidential debate. I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts about how you think the debates went.

Google turns 10 this week. What began as a research project at Stanford University for Ph.D. candidates Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were just 24-years-old and 23-years-old, has now turned into a company that has become the envy of the world. Did you know that "googol" is the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros? The term was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularized in the book, Mathematics and the Imagination, by Kasner and James Newman. The story goes that Page and Brin misspelled the word when they first named the company and thus ended up as "Google." Here are some other Google trivia for your entertainment.

1. Google hosted its first data center in a rented 7' x 8' room.
2. Google's original logo ended with an exclamation point.
3. Microsoft briefly considered offering to buy Google.
4. One quarter of Googlers work outside the United States.
5. The word "Google" is listed as a verb in the Oxford English and Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
6. Click HERE for the official Google Turns 10 page.
7. Click HERE to see all Google logos for holidays and special events.
8. Click HERE for a list of all of Google's April Fools pranks.

May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may live from deep within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of God's creations, so that we may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless us with just enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in the world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done: To bring justice and kindness to all our children and all our neighbors who are poor.

Amen.

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Who Was St. Francis?
by Leonard Foley, O.F.M.

Francis of Assisi was a poor little man who astounded and inspired the Church by taking the gospel literally—not in a narrow fundamentalist sense, but by actually following all that Jesus said and did, joyfully, without limit and without a mite of self-importance.

Serious illness brought the young Francis to see the emptiness of his frolicking life as leader of Assisi's youth. Prayer—lengthy and difficult—led him to a self-emptying like that of Christ, climaxed by embracing a leper he met on the road. It symbolized his complete obedience to what he had heard in prayer: "Francis! Everything you have loved and desired in the flesh it is your duty to despise and hate, if you wish to know my will. And when you have begun this, all that now seems sweet and lovely to you will become intolerable and bitter, but all that you used to avoid will turn itself to great sweetness and exceeding joy."

From the cross in the neglected field-chapel of San Damiano, Christ told him, "Francis, go out and build up my house, for it is nearly falling down." Francis became the totally poor and humble workman.

He must have suspected a deeper meaning to "build up my house." But he would have been content to be for the rest of his life the poor "nothing" man actually putting brick on brick in abandoned chapels. He gave up every material thing he had, piling even his clothes before his earthly father (who was demanding restitution for Francis' "gifts" to the poor) so that he would be totally free to say, "Our Father in heaven." He was, for a time, considered to be a religious "nut," begging from door to door when he could not get money for his work, bringing sadness or disgust to the hearts of his former friends, ridicule from the unthinking.

But genuineness will tell. A few people began to realize that this man was actually trying to be Christian. He really believed what Jesus said: "Announce the kingdom! Possess no gold or silver or copper in your purses, no traveling bag, no sandals, no staff" (see Luke 9:1-3).

Francis' first rule for his followers was a collection of texts from the Gospels. He had no idea of founding an order, but once it began he protected it and accepted all the legal structures needed to support it. His devotion and loyalty to the Church were absolute and highly exemplary at a time when various movements of reform tended to break the Church's unity.

He was torn between a life devoted entirely to prayer and a life of active preaching of the Good News. He decided in favor of the latter, but always returned to solitude when he could. He wanted to be a missionary in Syria or in Africa, but was prevented by shipwreck and illness in both cases. He did try to convert the sultan of Egypt during the Fifth Crusade.

During the last years of his relatively short life (he died at 44) he was half blind and seriously ill. Two years before his death, he received the stigmata, the real and painful wounds of Christ in his hands, feet and side.

On his deathbed, he said over and over again the last addition to his Canticle of the Sun, "Be praised, O Lord, for our Sister Death." He sang Psalm 141, and at the end asked his superior to have his clothes removed when the last hour came and for permission to expire lying naked on the earth, in imitation of his Lord.

Maybe I should have paid better attention to my history teacher in high school, but I never realized the tremendous amount of awesome "stuff" there is in the National Archives. And now, with the internet, a lot of the stuff in the Archives are now available online. Here is a description of what the National Archives is all about, as written on their website:

"Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government, only 1%-3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept by us forever. Those valuable records are preserved and are available to you, whether you want to see if they contain clues about your family’s history, need to prove a veteran’s military service, or are researching an historical topic that interests you."

I am a closet, aspiring, amateur historian. I don't know about you, but I love history! I love learning about the significant people and events that shaped the world into what it is today. There is so much to learn from our past. So recently, I was googling to find some more information about World World II, more specifically, D-Day, when I stumbled my way into the National Archives website. And I was immediately hooked! I spent most of my lunch hour looking at photographs of significant documents like the Magna Carta, Emancipation Proclamation, Apollo 11 Flight Plan, and, um, Elvis's Letter to President Nixon. Don't ask! I listened to the audio of Herb Morrison's live coverage of the Hindenburg disaster, and read through Dr. Robert King Stone's court testimony on treating President Lincoln right after the assassination, as transcribed by the court reporter. There is also a recording of President Kennedy recapping highlights from his meeting with the security counsel on what to do about the Cuban Missal Crisis where he says that he was leaning towards the naval blockade rather than an all-out invasion. Very cool stuff!

So, if you are like me and slept through most of your American history class, you owe it to yourself to check out the National Archives! If you know of any other great resources online, please share!

Click here to go to the National Archives Website.

Joe Esztherhas was a Hollywood screenwriter with popular B-movies like "Basic Instinct" and "Showgirls" to his credit. (Not the kind of movies you want your kids to watch, or anyone, really, for that matter!) Apparently he was diagnosed with throat cancer and this led to some soul searching on his part. And he found God! The doctors said that he was "cured" of the cancer and that there was miraculous regeneration of tissues in his throat. He wrote a short piece for the Washington Post in which he describes, quite vulnerably, his journey from despair to healing. I've posted the article below.

I would also recommend, for your reading pleasure, the 200+ comments posted by his readers. I enjoy reading people's comments because it is one of the places where people seem to be most honest (and rude, a lot of the times) about their feelings and what they really believe. Something about being anonymous seems to reveal the "raw" heart of a person. A bunch of Christians wrote saying how wonderful the article was, while a bunch of atheists wrote in saying he was ignorant to give credit to "God." And of course, there is always that one weird person who seems to have been reading a completely different article, in another world.


My Base Instincts and God's Love
by Joe Eszterhas

Seven years ago, I sat down on a curb near my home, sobbing, and asked God to help me.

I had just had surgery for throat cancer. I still had a trache in my throat. I had been told that if I didn't stop smoking and drinking immediately, I'd die. I desperately didn't want to die. I adored my wife and children.

But I knew I couldn't stop. I'd started smoking when I was twelve and drinking when I was 14. I was now 57 years old.

I cried and begged God to help me . . . and He did. I hadn't prayed since I was a boy. I had made fun of God and those who loved God in my writings. And now, through my sobs, I heard myself asking God to help me . . . and from the moment I asked, He did.

I didn't at first understand why He did. I didn't deserve His help, I thought. I was unworthy. I ignore Him for forty years and then suddenly I ask Him to help me and He does? It took me some time to understand that God helped me because He loves me. Because even though we don't deserve God's love, God loves us - all of us.

Not only did He give me the strength to be able to defeat my addictions, He saved my life. My throat surgeon, Dr. Marshall Strome, told me seven years after the surgery that I am "cured." Not that I am in remission, but that I am cured. That my throat tissue has regenerated so remarkably that even a doctor examining my throat wouldn't be able to tell that there was ever cancer there. Dr. Strome, who had removed about eighty percent of my larynx, called this "a miracle."

I call it that, too. Why did God save the life of a man who had trashed, lampooned, and marginalized Him most of his life? Why did He take the time and the trouble to save me? It certainly wasn't because I had written Basic Instinct and Showgirls, right? Was it because my wife and I had four little boys we were trying to raise? Possibly.

Or was it God's divinely impish sense of humor? "Who, you? You're praying? After
everything you've done to break my commandments and after every nasty, unfunny thing you've written about Me and those who follow Me - now you're sobbing? Praying? Asking Me to help you? Hah! Okay, fine, I'll help you. But if I do, know this: My help will obliterate the old, infamous you. You'll wind up turning your life inside-out. You'll wind up stopping all of your excesses. You know what will happen to you? You'll wind up telling the world what I did for you. You'll wind up carrying my cross in church. Yes, I make all things new - and you will be new, too."

Well, I thought I heard God saying all those things to me . . . and then all of the things God said would happen . . . did. My life has turned inside-out. I have stopped my excesses and replaced them with prayer and long walks. I am carrying the cross as often as they'll let me at Holy Angels Church in Bainbridge Township, Ohio. And I have written a book as a thank-you to God. Not just for saving my life, but for saving me.

I am witness to and the beneficiary of God's love for all of us. Am I am witness, too, to the fact that His love is so strong that it was even able to open my rusty old closed heart.

I will thank Him forever because He gave me new life and a heart which is truly able to love for the first time in my life. His love is mine.

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Joe Eszterhas is the author of a new memoir called "Crossbearer." He has written the screenplays for sixteen films, totaling over $1 billion in box office revenue. His blockbusters include Basic Instinct, Jagged Edge, Flashdance and Showgirls. A former senior editor at Rolling Stone, he is the author of five previous books - the second, "Charlie Simpson's Apocalypse," was nominated for the National Book Award.

Have you ever struggled with sexual temptations? If you are breathing and reading this, I’ll assume that you are nodding your head. I came across this article by Alan Medinger in the Journal of Biblical Counseling (Volume 16, Number 2, Winter 1998) who argues that there is a direct correlation between sexual temptation and ingratitude. His arguments are derived mostly from his personal experiences, but I do believe that there are substantial Biblical basis for them as well. It’s a very quick read, so take a few minutes and dive in. Medinger is director of Regeneration, a Christian ministry to homosexuals.


Q: Why are struggles with sexual temptations stronger at some times than at others?

Do you ever wonder why your struggles with lust seem to come in cycles? For some reason you seem to struggle mightily with lust for a number of days or weeks and then, for no apparent reason, the struggle subsides. You go through a relatively easy time, but then, almost inevitably the powerful temptations return and the struggles start all over again.

When I was acting out homosexually—before I was a Christian—I used to wonder about this. I remember even thinking, maybe it has something to do with the phases of the moon. At times it seemed that regular. I knew that this phenomenon was not unique with me because I heard others talk of it and I read of it—even the phases of the moon suggestion.

With women such heightened feelings of sexual desire could correlate with their monthly cycle. There is some evidence of this, although this is probably not the whole answer. But what about men? We don’t have anything that corresponds to a menstrual cycle. The closest thing to it would be that there is a build-up of semen that creates a physical desire for release. But, if this were so, then masturbation would release it and the pressure would go away. In actuality, the opposite seems to occur. Give in to masturbation today, and you are more likely to masturbate tomorrow, not less. In fact, for many men the times of intense struggle can go on for days, even weeks. “Release” does not change the cycle.

With what then can we correlate these cycles? What goes on inside (or outside) of us that causes us to go through periods of intense struggle with lust? And if we find out, is there something we can do to make the struggles less intense or their occurrence less frequent?

There is probably no single answer to these questions, but in examining my own struggles with lust, I have come up with a correlation which I believe may have some fairly broad applications. Very briefly, my struggle with lust seems to intensify when I have an ungrateful heart. Certainly this will take some explanation.

Let me begin by commenting on the basic nature of lust. Lust is not the same thing as sexual desire. We are apt to feel sexual desire at any time. Lust occurs when we decide to take our sexual desire and apply it to fantasies or memories or specific images. I believe that almost always, at the very instant that we have a sexual thought, we are presented with the choice of either entertaining that thought or of rejecting it. This is the critical point as regards lust. One time we’ll say, “I’ll pursue this pleasure, maybe just a little bit.” Of course the “little bit” is in reality a big bit of self-deception. Once we invite lust in, it becomes a very difficult guest to get rid of. At other times we say, “No, I’m not going to do that,” and the desire is gone without any real struggle. The fact that we can respond in such totally opposite ways indicates that something different is going on inside of us in the two situations.

What I am saying is that our battle with lust depends to a great extent on how we respond when temptation first hits, and that something inside of us helps guide that first response. This is where I believe having either a grateful or an ungrateful heart has its impact. In ministry, as well as in my own life, I have seen two sinful attitudes creep into strugglers that precede giving in to lust; two voices, if you will. One says, “I deserve something.” The other says, “I shouldn’t have to go through this.” The names of the two voices are pride and self-pity. They are the antithesis of a grateful heart....

Pride exalts the self. Pride tells me I deserve good things. Pride tells me I have earned good things. Pride tells me that I am the real judge of what is good for me. “Sexual pleasure is a good thing. I deserve some sexual pleasure. With what I have been doing recently, I have earned it. Really, I am the one who should determine whether or not I should have this good thing.” These rationalizations may be what can cause temptation to come on so strongly after we have experienced a significant success. In my life, if I have given a talk that went especially well or completed a project that came out quite successfully, a voice inside sometimes tells me that I deserve a reward.

Self-pity is the other side of pride. Self-pity tells me what a poor thing I am. Self-pity tells me that I haven’t received a fair shake in life. Self-pity tells me that I deserve some comfort.

“I deserve the right to comfort myself considering what I have to put up with in life. I shouldn’t have to deal with sexual struggles along with everything else that’s laid on me. God, it just wouldn’t be fair to deny me this little bit of pleasure.” This type of thinking may be what causes us to especially want to retreat into lust when we are angry or have experienced rejection.

A grateful heart, on the other hand, knows that really we don’t deserve anything. All that we have, including our talents, are gifts from God. I do not need to reward myself because God has already given me so much more than I deserve. In a grateful heart, there is no room for pride.

A grateful heart is not going to pity itself or need self-comforting. Facing troubles or difficult times, it is able to put its problems in perspective. Out of a grateful heart comes a view of life that recognizes that we are not entitled to a life free of problems. Self-pity doesn’t even enter the picture.

Most of us seem quite able to bounce back and forth between pride and self-pity, giving ourselves all kinds of justification for plunging into the polluted pool of lust. The heart is deceitful, and to win the war against lust, we are going to have to find some ways to change our hearts.

Seeking to develop a grateful heart is something far more profound than seeking an antidote to lust or finding a new way to resist temptation. It requires a major change in our heart, one that is so deep that it will change the way we live. Such change will cause us to respond very differently when we are confronted with the temptation to lust. Such a change is so deep that it is only going to be experienced in a life devoted daily to seeking a closer walk with the Lord.

The means whereby we can gain a more grateful heart are fairly obvious if we think about them. Here are just three that anyone can try:

1. Let prayers of thanksgiving be a central part of your quiet times. When I am down or irritable, sometimes I will thank God for every blessing that I can think of: every part of my body, every gift that I have, every relationship, every possession, and of course the most precious things of all—life, salvation, Jesus Himself. Words of thanksgiving have the power to change us.

2. Expand your intercessions to include prayers for some of the neediest people wherever they are. I just received an e-mail message relaying a request from a bishop in Rwanda asking for prayers for the terrible suffering that is going on among people in his area. How can we not gain a truer perspective on life when we pray for people whose sufferings are so much greater than ours!

3. Prayerfully seek to uncover your attitudes of self-pity or pride and repent of them. For me, discovering my deeper sins and repenting of them has probably done more to change the person I am than anything else I have done.

The Holy Spirit will cooperate with you on this. God wants you to have a grateful heart because He wants each of His sons and daughters to have a victorious life. And He has revealed to us that our sacrifice of thanksgiving is pleasing to Him.

An ungrateful heart draws us into ourselves and therein lie our difficulties. A grateful heart connects us with God, our source of all things that are good.