2013–Good Riddance

I’ll start off with the good news!  I got to see my son Cory TWICE this year!  Unfortunately, both times were because he came all the way from Florida to be with us during surgeries.  Some parents will do anything to get to see their kids, huh.

Seriously, 2013 provided lots of opportunity for Cathy and me to really appreciate our adult kids and realize (we already suspected this) what awesome people they are.  Although technically two of my 3 cancer surgeries were at the end of 2012, it seems like they were all in 2013.  I also had a heart attack in 2013 just to spice things up a bit.  Talk about getting way too familiar with health care providers and local hospitals.  Good news:  It all happened before Obamacare fully kicks in.  Let’s hope that I won’t have government run health care hassles to add to my crises in 2014.  It’s a shame that the government thinks they need to take the best health care system in the world and muck it up by presuming they can run it better themselves, but that’s as political as I’m going to get in this post.

Cathy decided she needed to compete with me by having a cancer crisis of her own.  She’s doing extremely well though and is about halfway through radiation treatments after undergoing a successful and minimally invasive lumpectomy a couple of months ago.

I am resolved to get fit and get healthy in 2014.  During the last month I’ve done something I’ve never really done my whole life; take deliberate steps to exercise.  The Cardiac Rehab team at St. Anthony’s North hospital are wonderful and take personal interest in each person who comes to them for coaching and guidance in setting up a routine.  Now that the insurance deductibles start over in the new year, I’ll be looking for cheaper ways to work out, but will miss the kind and caring people at the Cardiac Rehab Center.  Westminster has a great Swim and Fit Center just a few blocks from the house, so I’ll probably get a membership there and take advantage of their great facility.

This year saw much smaller projects for me at the office.  It was probably just as well since I missed a lot of time and thus wasn’t as sharp at hitting deadlines as I pride myself on being.  Among the projects completed or in the works this year are:

A second campus for Flatirons Community Church.  FCC purchased a vacant church building up the I-70 mountain corridor in Genesee, Colorado that had gotten over their head in debt and had some other internal troubles.  The building was about the right size but didn’t really suit the look and style that fits Flatirons.  So, the project involved a lot of paint, stripping out of what many churches would consider to be attractive elements, and changing a few walls around to work better with the way FCC likes to see people flow.  Oh, and install a killer sound and lighting system.  It was a privilege to work again with the awesome folks at Flatirons.

Calvary Bible Church.  This Boulder church with a long history has started other churches before and is well along the path to establishing a permanent presence in Erie, Colorado.  They’ve been meeting in the Erie High School for a few years and will now have their own building to call their own.  Another of the churches that they actually started many years ago was…Flatirons Community Church.

We are currently in the process of producing the drawings for a 3rd expansion at Mission Hills Church.  This time we’ll be expanding the Worship Center and Lobby.  It was less than a year ago that construction finished up on the Children’s Ministry expansion.

In the midst of all the craziness of the year, we took just a little time off to have some fun and went to Florida with my mother and sister to unwind.  Not sure that you can really do much unwinding when winding your way through the miles and miles of Epcot Center, Animal Kingdom, and Sea World, but it was fun never-the-less.

2013 saw another fabulous year for the Denver Broncos and as I write this, we’re all on pins and needles hoping that they won’t choke again in the playoffs.  Maybe Peyton Manning will be able to get another Super Bowl ring to add to his unbelievable achievements this year.  Wouldn’t that be something.

Fires and more fires

In our beautiful state of Colorado, we rarely get the devastating monster tornadoes that Oklahoma and other mid-west states get.  We’ve yet to see a hurricane for obvious reasons.  Earthquakes?  At most a tiny little vibration a couple times a decade. Floods?  Nothing like what those who live near the major waterways of the country.  Maybe an occasional, locally fast-moving flash flood will hit a canyon and continue on out onto the plains.  Blizzards you say?  Well, not as often as you might think.  At least not in the front range area where most of the population lives.  Volcanoes?  Not yet.

But wildfires…oh my goodness.  Every passing year seems to get worse and worse.  Last year the most notable and worst in Colorado history was the Waldo Canyon fire in and just west of Colorado Springs.  Who would have thought that it could get worse than that one.  This year, the Black Forest.  An gorgeous, forested area north of Colorado Springs.  It’s not completely out yet and it already has surpassed the devastation of the Waldo Canyon fire last year.  It’s hard to imagine the agony of living in one of those threatened neighborhoods for hours and days waiting to find out if your entire life’s possessions will be going up in smoke or not.  At least with most natural disasters, they happen quickly but with these fires, the people are often on pins and needles for days not knowing if they’ll be spared or not.

Psalm 34 is a chapter that I find comfort in, and I hope that those who find themselves in harm's way in Colorado Springs yet again will as well.

4 I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

5 They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.

6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

Let me get this straight…

So let me get this straight (pun intended).  Our self-righteous Democrat led Colorado House was in a tizzy to pass a "Civil Unions" bill.  There is no doubt in my mind that no sooner than the ink dries on the paper, they'll be screaming bloody murder at how unjust civil unions are and how essential it is to allow homosexual marriage. But at least you'll be able to cheat on your same sex spouse, because the hypocritical House has also shown it has such a low regard of marriage that laws that treated it like an actual honest to goodness contract were antiquated, silly, and had to be abolished.

There’s no debate that adultery laws as they were called are unenforceable, but that’s not the point.  In our society today, we can cheat without consequence or stigma.  We can divorce for little or no grounds.  Let’s further cheapen the definition of marriage so that anyone and (someday) anything can be married.  No commitment marriage, no fault divorce, and no morality society.  We can’t "legislate" the latter so maybe we should just get out of the business of legislating the others as well.

55,000,000

I see a number like 55,000,000 and my heart either breaks or is enraged (depending on the day).
55,000,000 abortions in America alone in the 4 decades since Roe v. Wade.

Imagine completely filling up Broncos Sports Authority Stadium every weekend for nearly 14 years. Imagine every single one of those individuals --- dead.  76,000+ seats, 52 weekends per year, 14 years.

Let's make the following assumptions.  (I think I'm being VERY generous with these):

For the sake of argument, let's say 90% of those 55,000,000 abortions were done in the first few days before the fetus was anything more than a few hundred thousand rapidly dividing cells.

Let's also say 90% of the rest were done prior to their being a beating heart.

Finally, let's say 90% of the rest were legitimate cases of life-threatening endangerment to the mother or the result of rape or incest.

That still leaves 55,000 lives taken for no other reason than the parent's (mother AND/OR father) refusal to take responsibility for their choices, even though the life that was taken was the one life in the whole messed up situation who was unquestionably the one life that was completely innocent of any wrongdoing.  The baby was NOT the one who was immoral, irresponsible, selfish, made a bad choice, or lacked self-control.

There is such a thing in a civilized society as right and wrong. The innocent among us should be protected. If a child is +1 minute old, they have all the rights of any other human being.  A child who is -1 minute old or -1-month-old deserves those same rights.  They are just as much a living human being as those who are a minute old.  The only difference is whether they are receiving their oxygen through their lungs or through their umbilical cord.

55,000 potential doctors, lawyers, scientists, teachers, politicians, missionaries, athletes, engineers, inventors, etc.  27,500 young men of all races and 27,500 young women of all races who were given NO CHOICE and who's RIGHTS were irrevocably, inhumanly, and unconstitutionally DENIED --- permanently.

You will not find more than a handful of liberal democrat politicians who will compromise on even one restriction on abortion.  Those who do claim to have a conscience about such matters don't have the guts to stand up for it.  Yet it's conservative republicans who are blasted for being unyielding, uncompromising, dogmatic, partisan, and anti-women's rights.

Years ago, pro-choice candidate for Governor of Colorado Roy Romer said - and I'll paraphrase: "When it comes time when a woman has to make that terrible choice, it's already a tragedy."  Although I agree with that statement, I could not disagree any stronger with his conclusion - that because the pregnancy was already a tragedy, abortion was an acceptable remedy.  One tragedy does not justify a second tragedy.  Science is continually showing that pre-born babies are viable and capable of surviving outside the womb earlier and earlier during their gestation. I prefer President Reagan's analysis much better.  Again paraphrasing: "Until science can prove beyond any doubt exactly when "life" begins as a person; the benefit of the doubt should go to the one whose life is in question: the baby."

55,000 children. Over 40 years, that's approximately 26 children per week.  Can you imagine the justifiable outrage if we had to endure a Sandy Creek every single week?  Don't 55,000 deaths create any outrage at all?  Add 3 more zeros.

Here's my "pro-choice" position.  Choose to keep your pants on if you can't or won't choose to be responsible for your choice.