I am dizzy, my mind is foggy, I have had chills and then sweats and I hurt all over. Wednesday I had my second COVID-19 shot. This is far worse than the first shot. I have decided I would not go to the office. I can hurt and chill and sweat at my desk and there are those who say I am always foggy, but I am having a hard time walking from the computer to the kitchen. The rooms swirl around me. Driving the seven miles to the church scares me. It should scare you, as well.

         I do not want to be totally useless, though. I have tried to write my blog twice now. I finally gave up. And then, I had a wonderful idea! Back on January 11, 2017, I wrote my first blog. Actually, it was a test blog just to see how the system worked. I always intended to get back to it and publish it, but I just sort of forgot about it. I started this whole thing at the insistence of several in the church, so now you get to see the original and see what you started. So, from 01/’11/2017, even before Donald Trump took office, my first blog effort, which you have never seen. Except Mary, who said it was 'well, OK.'

        So, this is a blog. I have read blogs and I have read about blogs. I have never really considered doing a blog. However, when we did the 40 Day Prayer Guide e-mail at our church I added my own two cents in, usually in the form of a thought and a story. Several on our prayer chain e-mail asked if I could continue with the writing and this seemed to be the easiest way to accomplish that task. I would like to thank Mary Earle for her help in setting this up. She, herself, is a blogger and she has shared her expertise with me. I had no idea how to do this. I would invite all who read this to read Mary’s blog, “Mary’s Moments.” That blog address is http://mary-marysmoments.blogspot.com/    I am sure she will be tickled you dropped by.

            I have done a little research on what is a blog. The word ‘blog’ is a shortened version of the word ‘weblog.’ Basically, a log of one’s activities and thoughts published on the internet. My first encounter with the idea came back in 2001. At that time I wrote a weekly article for our church’s newsletter. The newsletter went out to hundreds of postal addresses and one of those addresses was a religious organization based in Illinois. They contacted me with the idea of doing a weblog. That was interesting and so I asked what I would need to know to produce this weblog. I was told that I would need to know the basics of HTML and computer programming. Actually, I did have some experience in these things, but when I worked on programming it was the early 1980s and you had to have these huge notebooks to take you step by step through the cyber minefield. Even though the technology had changed somewhat, back in 2001 I didn’t want to be bothered with it all. Now, however, it has changed to the point to where most people can do a blog if they want. It is easy, and that appeals to me!

            Which illustrates how technology has advanced even in my short lifetime. Well, maybe not so short. I was born in Eisenhower’s first presidential term. But still, the changes have been incredible. For instance, when was the last time you heard a kid talking about their pen pal? No one has pen pals any more. You would send off a letter, wait a couple of weeks and get a letter back. The process would then repeat. Now, if you are old fashioned, you do e-mails. If you are more up to date you use various social media. I only ever had one pen pal, and she wasn’t really a true pen pal. We merely exchanged letters for a while. Now, 45 years later, we are friends on Facebook. She is a funeral director in Missouri. Television is another thing. I well remember the rabbit ear era. The concept of pulling a signal directly off a satellite with your very own satellite dish was completely unthinkable. As was the idea of having your own computer or a phone you carried around in your pocket. I remembered how amazed I was, as an adult, the first time I used a pocket calculator. I actually know how to use a slide rule! And, I can write in cursive. Now I understand that in just a year or two there will be a pocket translator on the market that you can set for one of a dozen languages and then speak into it in English and the language you choose will come out the other end. There will be no need to learn new languages. It would seem that there are no technological barriers any more.

            Everything changes, it seems. What used to be a family unit, a Mom and a Dad and the children, is no longer the only family unit. There have always been single Moms, for one reason or another, and even once in a while a single Dad. But now a child can have two Moms or two Dads. Now when I have do weddings, it is quite often the biggest problem is where do you sit the step parents and the step grandparents. Schools can no longer control the students and parents can be arrested for spanking their own kids. While technology gets better, family life worsens and society seems to be in chaos.

            Even in religion there are huge changes. Parts of the Bible are now considered hate literature. Religion has become a gooey, watered down mess. We can’t teach Christianity or Judaism in schools, but Islam can be taught. Religion has become thought of as a big money enterprise with pulpits filled with hypocrites and pews filled with simple minded folk. So much has changed in so short a time.

            Except for the wonderful and blessed story of Christ and His ability to change lives. Christianity is under attack, but it has been attacked before. Communism, socialism, fascism, Islam, paganism, various religious groups who have sought to take Christianity and bend it to their own wants. Oh, yes , Christianity is under attack. But it will survive, and the same creature who is behind this attack and all previous attacks, Satan, will lose.

            This blog illustrates the huge changes that have taken place during my life time. But it will always represent that one constant that will never change; Jesus Christ, sacrificed for our sins, living now on the right hand of the Father and coming again!