define: Jared Barden

After recent trip to the Dumpling House, my favorite Chinese restaurant, I opened a fortune cookie with the following saying…

Today is the Tomorrow We Worried About Yesterday

I thought this was a simple but profound statement. Over the last few months I’ve dealt with a lot of worry, anxiety, etc. - mostly over things I can’t control. It’s been quite frustrating, to say the least, especially when you know that there is no reason to worry about those things. It gets even more frustrating when you read things like, “cast your cares on the Lord, for HE cares for you.”
Or, “do not worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition, present your requests to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” I could go on and on.

My anxiety has gotten much MUCH better lately, and I thank God for that. I think it’s probably due to a combination of things, but it’s almost kind of strange to not have a perpetual feeling of worry/anxiety, as bizarre as that might sound.

Anyway, sometimes we waste so much energy TODAY worrying about what we can’t control that’s just around the bend TOMORROW, and 9 times out of 10, when TOMORROW rolls around, it’s not nearly as bad as we thought it would be.

Hopefully this helps someone out there who stumbles on this post.

Over the last few weeks I read Ted Dekker’s Sinner and Saint. Both were great reads, as is typical with Dekker books.

The books are a continuation from an older book, Showdown. In a nutshell, some monks come across some “magic” books that have the power to turn whatever is written in them into reality. The start Project Showdown as a well-meaning attempt to raise completely innocent children - free from evil.

However, the project goes horribly wrong when one of the students discovers the books and creates a man who embodies pure evil. This man goes on to wreak havoc on a small town in a struggle of good versus evil. But I digress.

The premise in Sinner reminds me an awful lot of the world we live in today. Tolerance is the buzz word of the day in the book. People have to be tolerant of anything and everything, except that is, of Christianity. Eventually a woman with supernatural powers of persuasion convinces the US government to make a change to the First Amendment to the Constitution in order to make it illegal to defame someone’s race, religion, etc.

The catch comes when it’s discovered that claiming Jesus is the only way to Heaven is actually a crime, because you would be saying that all other religions are wrong. A very interesting concept to say the least. Just as in Showdown, the struggle between good and evil comes to a tension-filled end.

It’s funny how many people who preach “tolerance” today are not tolerant of people who feel or believe differently than they do. Christians are many times labeled as “narrow-minded” and “judgmental.” So, we end up tolerating everything except Christianity, because it’s not “tolerant” because it chooses to call a spade a spade - to call sin sin.

Jesus taught His followers to love others, but loving and tolerating are not the same thing in my mind. It’s been said a million times that God, “loves the sinner, but hates the sin.” I think that’s a good way to describe the difference between loving and tolerating. I’m called to love people I don’t agree with, but that doesn’t mean I have to tolerate the choices they make.

I know it sounds confusing, but it makes sense if you take the time to think about it.

I just looked at my last post date, and it read, “August 30, 2008.” So, I just wanted all my loyal readers (that would be Dennis, Danielle, and whoever else pokes around here), that this blog isn’t dead.

What’s happened since I last wrote? Let’s see…

1. I turned 28.
2. We made our annual trip to the PA Renaissance Faire.
3. We attended lots of soccer games at New Covenant Academy.
4. We went through some of the most turbulent economic times in recent history.
5. The first African American was elected to the Presidency.
6. I got Rock Band 2 (and finished tour mode with our great friend, Mara)

A whole host of other things have happened in that time frame, but there isn’t space enough to cover them all here. Suffice it say, I plan on keeping this blog updated more regularly. I’ve said that in the past, and haven’t done a very good job of sticking to it, so we’ll see how I do this time.

The old saying goes, “Politics makes strange bedfellows.” Nowhere was that more evident this past week than at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO.

Of course I’m talking about the speeches of both Hillary and Bill Clinton during the convention. They both gave good speeches highlighting how ready Obama is to be President, how great he is, how he’ll change our country, etc. etc. etc. Funny thing is that just months ago they were pounding away at the fact that he was inexperienced and not ready to be President. Even his running mate for Vice President, Joe Biden, pounded away during the primaries on Obama’s inexperience, but now he believes everything is fine?

If you really believe that Hillary and Bill Clinton truly 100% support Obama for President, I think you might getting the wool pulled over your eyes. Here’s why. If Obama wins in November, Hillary can’t run for another 8 years. Unless he totally screwed up his first term, I highly doubt she would run against him as the incumbent President, so that puts her next opportunity at 2016. That puts her at 69 years old at that point, which is still 3 years younger than John McCain.

Seems to me that while the Clintons publicly profess that they want Obama to win, I can’t help but wonder if they would secretly like McCain to win, which gives them another shot in 2012, where Hillary would be the favorite due to Obama’s failed Presidential bid.

Either way, it’s going to be an interesting couple months.

Almost anyone who knows me knows that one of my favorite restaurants is the Outback. If I could, I’d eat there a few times a week, but that would be disastrous for my wallet and my waist.

During our family vacation to Ocean City, MD this year we made it a point to swing by the Outback on one of the nights where we experienced some less-than-perfect weather.

Before we dug in, we snapped this photo of quite possibly one of the most beautiful Bloomin’ Onions we’ve ever been served.

Check out the following video to see what it’s like when your second movie at the drive in catches on fire. This was shot about 15-20 minutes into Get Smart, which was our second movie of the night, after watching The Dark Night.

Get Smart caught on fire around 12:15 or so, and seeing as how we were leaving for vacation at 6:00, we decided to just go home instead of waiting it out for the staff to splice the film. You’ve got to love the cars honking at the end, as if that will help get the movie running any faster.

Enjoy!

Here’s my video I shot during the finale of the 2008 Fourth of July fireworks at Ives Run, PA, hosted by Bob and Donna Blake from Northeast Fireworks. Enjoy!

I saw the following on ESPN.com today, and it made me chuckle:

Penguins sign Fleury, agree to contract with Satan

Now, the Penguins didn’t make a deal with the Devil himself. Miroslav Satan’s last name is actually pronounced “Shatan,” but the link did make me chuckle. Hopefully it makes someone else laugh too.

Tonight Danielle and I went out on a date to celebrate our anniversary. It’s the first time the two of us have been out alone in I can’t even remember how long.

The date started with a trip to my favorite Chinese place - The Dumpling House in Wellsboro. After a scrumptious dinner of Chicken with Curry sauce, we headed over to the Arcadia to get our seats, which were unfortunately located in the Dinner and a Movie theater, which is my least of the 4 screens.

Before I get into my “review,” I must say that I had reservations when I first heard about / saw trailers for WALL•E. It looked like a bold departure for Pixar, and I thought it might be their first movie that would flop. While I don’t think it’s going to flop, I still think it’s going to be one of those movies where you really like it, or you just don’t quite get it.

The move started out pretty slowly, following WALL•E around his daily tasks of cleaning up the mess that humans left on the Earth (they just had to get their Green plug in there). Don’t worry though. We’ll have to be around a lot longer to pile up all the trash left for WALL•E to pick up. But I digress…

As I said, the beginning was slow, but we do get to see glimpses of WALL•E’s personality, and see why he is so lovable. Then EVE shows up to search for vegetation, and WALL•E falls in love. However, EVE doesn’t return the feelings at first, in fact, she tries to blow him away several times. However, she does warm to WALL•E over time.

Fast forward and WALL•E and EVE are back on the ship Axiom where thousands (millions?) of humans are located deep in space. Apparently they all got lazy and suffered from bone loss due to gravity, because EVERYONE is obese, and all they do is float around in their little hover chairs all day long, while robots wait on them hand and foot. Kind of like a 700-year long cruise, except nobody is doing any sort of physical activity.

I won’t get into all the nitty gritty of what happens next, but this was the part of the movie that really hooked me. During the whole movie, there were little kids making comments, as they are prone to do, but there was a scene close to the end of the movie where you could have heard a pin drop due to its dramatic nature.

So, WALL•E had a little bit of everything - comedy, very little dialog, personable / lovable robots, a trigger-happy love interest, drama, and amazing animation. Definitely one of my favorite movies of the year. Go see it!

In my last post I promised some pictures from our trip to Indiana. Enjoy!

This one just struck me as funny. Seems to me that “prepay” would have to happen in advance. Maybe it’s just me.

My brother-in-law, Derek, playing some hard core Super Mario World before the wedding.

The photographer in action.