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"Re nd your heart  and not your garments. R eturn  to the  Lord  your God,  for he is gracious and compassionate,  slow to anger and abounding in love,  and he relents from sending calamity." (Joel 2:13, NIV) How true? How often do we symbolically rend our garments, offering a show of sorrow though our hearts remain unchanged? God doesn't care if we tear our clothes or not. He cares about the condition of our hearts. Do we repent? Do we confess and turn to Him? Our outward actions ought to align with our inward posture.

Where's the American media when you need them to report on REAL news? SRN News -- no mention of 141 killed in a Peshawar school yesterday. NPR -- leading off with the latest gossip about the Sony leak and eventually getting around to discussing whether the Taliban leader behind the massacre is insane or not. These are real lives, real lives that will never walk the face of our earth again. These are humans, like we are humans. Where's our humanity?

While John's been TDY ( temporary tour of duty meaning traveling for work) this past week, Miriam and I have generally been enjoying our time together. I've been a little low on sleep owing to some late-night podcasting, facebooking, and hard-copy book reading. Last night was no different. (I started reading No Hero yesterday afternoon.) Fast forward to this morning and I determined to do only what HAD to get done before heading to Miriam's 18 month doctor's appointment. I ran through a mental checklist: 1. the bed did not HAVE to get made, 2. I did HAVE to put on clothes, 3. I did not HAVE to put on underwear, those were already on, . . . 131. Miriam HAD to have her coat on the right way instead of backwards. Thankfully I'm feeling slightly more alert now, at 2pm.

To put this blog in context, following is something I shared at our Thanksgiving Eve service at church. If you're going through tough times, I pray this encourages you. The first Thanksgiving celebration is traditionally considered to be the Pilgrims' feast in 1621. They celebrated their first harvest in the New World with THREE DAYS of feasting! Consider this giving of thanks for God's provision against the backdrop of what led to this point in their history. After years of religious persecution in Europe wherein they fled from country to country, they escaped to the New World and arrived at the beginning of winter in 1620. Most of the Pilgrims spent that winter on the Mayflower . Only half of the Pilgrims who embarked from Europe disembarked in March, 1621 onto the soil of the New World. The other half had died. And still the survivors gave thanks. The next Thanksgiving celebration occurred is 1623. Once again, the Pilgrims faced dire circumstances as drought threaten...