Which Thief Are You?

(Luke 23:39-43)

When pondering the Cross and that Good Friday scene, did you ever pause to wonder why God allowed His Son to be publically displayed not alone (for greater attention perhaps?) but with two others...common criminals? Do you think it was an accident, or could there have been some design--a plan? I don't pretend to know the answer unequivocally, so just consider it a question that can be asked, and an answer in search of meaning.

On that day,  it says,  that "one of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him, saying, 'Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!'. But, said, the other, 'Don’t you fear God,'...since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.'"

So, a portrait of two men whose lives were about to end. And two men faced with a choice for their last day on earth. And that choice is the choice of EVERY man or woman, and is the choice that will ultimately seal our destiny.

It's easy to understand how the one man could spit out insults. After all, he was about to die, and certainly if Jesus were truly the Messiah, he could save both of them this agonizing death. But he didn't appear interested in saving anyone that day, least of all himself, and this galled the man, and he was left in the end only with insults and derision--the natural consequences of the choices that led him there that day.

The other man was just as guilty as the first, and in just as much pain. But he chose "wisely" and, despite what appeared to be a man hanging there in weakness and defeat, he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

"Your kingdom"? What a surprising statement! What person there that day could have said as much? Even His own disciples had to be in some doubt. But somehow this man saw more, and made the good choice that sealed his fate, and to whom Jesus turned and said, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

So, which thief are you? Where have you cast your lot? What have you done with the Man hung for you?

To me, this is the choice of every man, of every one who stands at the foot of the Cross...or, rather, who hangs on either side of the Man who knew no sin. You see, we cannot just be onlookers. No, God took care of that.We are not just part of the crowd.

We cannot walk away from our own mortality. We will all face death one day; and, in facing it, will live in eternity with one of the two choices made that day. Do we doubt and curse, or hope beyond hope in the one who, though not saving himself, could still save us?

Curing the Seven Year Itch

After seven years of scratching the same itch, I finally got the balm that did it. What, pray tell, am I referring to? Well, it's a NEW computer by golly! Yes, due to a slight thaw in my domestic budget freeze, and to issues that were really getting out of hand with my aging home computer, I finally took the plunge and bought a very decent HP desktop complete with Windows 7 Home Premium. With my HP employee discount (okay, only 10% but it's something), and a "quick ship" (preconfigured) discount, it was only $564 plus tax. See the details here (public prices only). It was $100 less than the same model at my local Office Depot.

Am I happy? Are you kidding? Honestly, just about anything new would have been a noticable improvement, but this one is "pretty darn good" and, given my tendency to let things itch, it will have to do for about another 5 to 7 years. So, I couldn't go with too much "yesterday" in the technology.

Now, moving from Windows XP after so long to Windows 7 was obviously a case of "how do I do what I knew how to do?"--just like when I moved up to XP from Windows 98. Had I not had a little experience overseeing a Windows Vista computer at my church, I'd have been more lost. Still, I'm finding that there's a LOT under the hood in Vista/7, and ultimately it's a good move.

Now, what is there I could still want? Well, from everything I've heard, Windows is VERY noticably faster when you use a solid state hard drive (aka SSD). So, while I'm very happy with my snappy new PC (pretty hard not to notice the difference given the comparision), another $100 in a year or so will probably put me into an SSD. But of course the price point is much higher per GB of storage ($3/GB vs. 20-30 cents/GB for a regular drive). But my plan is to replace only the BOOT drive with SSD technology and use my existing 1 TB (!) drive for my Documents (etc). So, 80GB is just fine. Sure, this isn't quite the performance boost of a pure SSD system, but I got a budget you know! So, that's my next step. What about yours?