And my wish for the new year for you, and for me is from Psalm 27, my father’s favorite Bible Passage:

” The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

My dad was one of the strongest people I have known.   In the shadow of every adversity, he showed calm, faith in God, and good humor.    I can hear his voice now saying in simple, clarion  ways:

“… things will turn out okay. “

William C. Foulk

I think we need to read this.

Either this fellow is a nutjob, or he saw something.

Decide for yourself.   His account is a little long-winded, but it is extremely interesting.

There’s word from the UK that the basic code that keeps your cell phone call private has been cracked.  Read here.

I have spoken with the Great Foulkaroni, the human Magic Eight Ball, the teller of vague truth and fortune, the one who unlocks the mysteries of the future, and here is his prognostication for 2010:

Politics:

Greg “Lumpy” Lambert named director of Homeland Security to replace whatzzername.  At least we know the commissioner is willing and able to put a cap in your behind.

Commerce:

Louie’s Restaurant will discover a heretofore untapped market for “Lasagna On A Stick”

Medicine:

ORNL will develop a new imaging machine which will be immediately re-called because patients will complain they are always waking up with their heads pointed to magnetic north

The IRS will announce it has developed a new method for retrieving swallowed coins from youngsters

Government:

Kentucky will announce its sale to the State Of Tennessee, for $40 billion, and two recruits from UT

The Federal Government will announce that by 2013, every single citizen will have been named to a study committee of some kind

Sports:

Indian Knife Fighting will become popular

Sports medicine will develop new ways of suturing wounds

Law

The Knox County Sheriffs Department will purchase a de-commissioned Naval Destroyer

Economics:

Thousands will cash in their retirement portfolios to invest in Lemur farms,  Gnu futures will plummet

Media:

Pee Wee Herman will be named ABC Evening News anchor

Reality show popularity will soar to even greater heights with a new show based on barber shop quartets , left on a deserted island with only a pitch pipe and a hatchet

The new wave of radio station formats will be based on “Polka-News-Talk”

These predictions are based on past performance and do not reflect future performance, income, advice, or mileage.  Your results may vary.  Always consult your physician before starting any program of exercise.  For external use only.  Place on ground, light fuse, run away.  For outdoor use only.  Not suitable for pets.  Do not climb.  You break it, you bought it, and shoplifters will be prosecuted.

Happy New Year.

-Foulkaroni

Here’s the ABC story on the attempt to blow up a plane on Christmas.

I am so very weary of launches.

Mess up big enough in government, and your boss will launch an investigation.

Mess up big enough in the private sector and you will be launched out the door with your desk decorations  in a cardboard box.

I heard it again today:  Your tax dollars will pay to launch another investigation, this time into how a terrorist got past security and nearly caused a calamity on board a plane bound for Detroit.

I can save us a lot of money.

Instead of investigating, do something that won’t take months of time and piles of money.

And we need to start with the dismissal of the Director Of Homeland Security, who said first that the security system worked, and then later that it didn’t.  Pick your answer.

Launching is a bi-partisan form of political mind candy.  It’s supposed to make us feel better- knowing that two years from now there will be a two hundred page report to place in The National Archive.

Less launch, please.  Or at least, less baloney.

Good story and some great pictures:

No court in the land could convict me of being a theologian.  I was an abject failure in Sword Drill in the Juniors Class at McCalla Avenue Baptist Church.  And to this day, I need index tabs to navigate my way around The Bible.  I know the neighborhood, but have always found it difficult to see the street numbers.  When a preacher moves quickly from verse to verse, I’m the person in the congregation who shuffles the crisp pages of the Bible to make those little whiffing noises going page-to-page.

But I hope you will take just a moment this season to consider something that may be a radical thought to some of you:

A laughing, smiling  Jesus.

I started thinking about this years ago, when quite a few contemporary artists began portraying Jesus in a different light.

It probably disturbs some folks to think of Jesus as one who would laugh, or have fun.  But think of the bunch he ran around with.  One was a career fisherman,  a couple of others were hotheads,  and one was a tax collector.  If you put a bunch of men with similar careers together today just think of the conversations that could take place.

Old Testament teaching from Solomon says there is a time for everything, and Jesus probably realized there would be plenty of time for sorrow and agony to come, with his torture and execution.

But think of the fun he had in the interim…beating the ills of life itself at its own game.  Calling a dead man out of a tomb,as if to say ” take that, death…see… you can’t beat Me or My Father.”   Don’t look for that in the red lettering in The Bible.  I just made it up.

Imagine His eyes,  reflecting the beauty of sight itself from those who were moments ago, without it.

Biblical?

It probably depends on who you ask.

The children who clambered to be near Jesus saw something in him, and I would have to believe it was not a scowl of religiosity, but a smile they knew came from the wellspring of life itself.  You can’t fool children.

The best Christmas gift of all has been preached for centuries.  Some sermons have been better than others.  I submit the better ones are from pastors who smile a lot.   Not a tooth-showing tee-vee kind of smile…but more of a reflection and a countenance of happiness from someone who gets it.  There’s a carload of ministers here in East Tennessee, from all denominations who have that smile.

I have had my moments where it seemed I was pretty close to seeing what it was like on the other side of this realm.  Those few times, I was chided for some of the jokes I made about nearing the end of this side of the veil.

That humor comes from my belief in that Smiling Jesus, and the victory he represents.

Got all the answers Foulk?

Not a chance.

But I  place my future with that smile.

Laughter that warms hearts of those who are at the bottom of the well of hope.  A smile that sometimes, just says “I’m here.”  Sometimes,  it’s a bit of humor that might keep us from taking ourselves a bit too seriously.

And I hope you laugh and smile a bit in the next few days, too.

Oh, and in case there are those who were in Sword Drill with me….

It’s in Luke, Chapter Two.

Rowan Andrew Wilson    8 pounds, eleven ounces   8:26PM, Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

I’m not a good waiter.

No, not that kind of waiter.  I’m not a good waiting room, hospital, wanting-to-make-things-happen waiter.

And that is just what I’m doing.

Waiting.   Waiting specifically, on a new grandson.

It’s like standing in line for the big ride at Six Flags.  But there aren’t any people in line in front of me.  There’s just my youngest daughter, her husband, and their unborn child..who is taking his time.  I think he wants to be a Christmas Eve baby.

Meanwhile, Pap Paw is near panic… aided by gallons of coffee from Pilot, Weigels, Starbucks, and many other un-named sources.  And you better watch out for those little un-named packages.  Sometimes they’re okay.  Other times they produce a brew that tastes like something slowly dripped through the carcass of a water buffalo.   Don’t ask how I know.

I don’t think I was as wired up for the birth of my own children.  But I might just have been too ignorant to worry about all that could go wrong and all that was ahead for my children.  We learned on the first two Foulk prototypes.  The one about to give birth is the final edtion, the youngest, the baby.

There are many more high tech devices now.  Mind you, I am not so old that I had go with Festus and boil water for Doc… but things have changed.

I just wish they had an anesthetic for grandparents.

And, just in case, shouldn’t I be boiling some water?