How much is a billion dollars?

I remember being in a grade school class one day when our teacher was teaching us about large numbers. She said a 1 with 5 zeros was 100,000. I didn't have a problem with that number as I knew Mickey Mantle made $100,000. But then she started talking about how much a million was. That seemed like a number that I would not have use for except on her test. We were working people and I knew my dad didn't make that kind of money. The reason I knew that was because one day as I was walking through the kitchen as my folks were looking at their bills and they had this paper from the bank. I saw it had numbers on it and I asked my dad "why are some of those numbers red?" I thought it was a good question but he told me to go outside and play.
So we didn't have a lot of money. But today we hear about 30 second commercials during the Super Bowl that went for 3 million dollars! Can you believe that 3 million dollars! So for all of you math guys/gals out there figure up how many commercials it would take to total a billion dollars.
Recently the Alabama Baptist State Convention release a report that stated "on September 8, 2008, Alabama Baptists passed the $1 billion mark of gifts through the Cooperative Program since its inception in 1925."

Must be harder to get money from Baptists that it is from advertisers. But anyway, we are talking about a subject I know very little about, having huge sums of money. Our government has experience with big numbers though. We have a bail out coming, billions of dollars they say and we don't really have that kind of money because they say our kids and grandkids are going to have to pay for it. So that means we are bailing out credit problems with more credit, doesn't it? Something seems funny (not ha! ha!, funny strange) But what I do know is our government has a printing press, and boy can they shell out the money. I have been to the U.S. Mint in Washington, D.C. The day we were there they were printing $1 bills. There were pallets of $1 bills everywhere in the secured area.

I suppose if you had a billion dollars in $1 bills you would have several pallets of money. I don't know if the bail outs are going to work or not, and what is scary to me is that I don't believe the people who are working on the bail outs know either.

Maybe it is a really good time to pray for our country and our leaders. We need jobs and we need them quick. A working person doesn't have to make a billion or even a million dollars but they need to be able to make a living. I still don't understand how much a billion dollars is, but I do know people need jobs and they need them yesterday.

On another subject, we check this blog and find out who is reading. We don't have names but we have city, state and country. There have been several hits from people in Alabama and Oklahoma. Some people from Texas, Washington, Kentucky and Michigan have been on this blog. But I wanted to say a special thank you for those of you that have read my blog who live in other countries. It's amazing to know that people in the Philipines, South Korea, Ivory Coast and Israel have recently been on this blog. Thank you for checking us out and may God richly bless you.

New Stuff

Well, here we go 2009! Nine years after Y2K and my computer still works! It's amazing what we think is crisis sometimes when it isn't. A couple of years a go we had a movie come out that starred Tom Hanks and much time was spent in the Christian community telling us to boycott the movie and that the movie had the potential of shaking the foundation of our faith. Now here we are a couple of years after and I can't remember the name of the movie. On January 20 of this year we will have a new president. So much time has been spent by many worrying about the crisis the new president will bring. But folks we are already in crisis in this country, economically, morally and spiritually.
Maybe our crisis is that we are afraid of new stuff? I personally like new stuff. Last year I got a new chair, a new hdtv (see previous post for more detail on that experience), and a new grandson. I will have to admit the new grandson trumps the chair and the tv. Now this year promises some new things too. Sometime in this month of January, I will get another new grandson. In June I will get a new step mother, as my dad is getting married after being a widower for two years. Getting new stuff isn't a bad deal from the way I see it.
I will admit to you that I made no new years resolutions. Why? I mean why start the year off setting myself up for failure? It's January 5th as I write this and most of the folks who made resolutions have broken them or are trying to figure out how to get around them. But that doesn't mean that I don't want new stuff to happen to me in 2009. My hope is that if I live to see 2010 that the Larry of 2009 would have become something new. I hope I conquer some areas of which I stuggle. Maybe I will be a different person by this time next year because I grew in some areas of my life that need to grow. As well I plan on "expanding my horizons" as they say. I do intend to write more, alot more. That could be more blogs, more notes to people, more letters to the editor, more recordings of my life, present and past. And just maybe I might write a book like Sandy has been encouraging me to do over the last several years. Just maybe.
I've spent alot of time reflecting over some things during these quiet days of holiday. I'm looking forward to new things happening in my life. New experiences, new acquaintances/friends, new challenges etc. Why? Because God says I am a new creation and a new creation continues to grow. Above all I don't want to be afraid of the new things God wants to do in my life. May 2009 be known in my life as "The Year of the New Stuff!"
Oh, by the way, I wore a sport coat when I spoke Sunday and no one said a thing. Now that's two new things already!!!!!
"Dear God may we be open to the new things you have for us this year."

Harder to get things done

Have you noticed it is getting harder to get things done these days? Over the weekend we purchased a new television, no big deal right? Wrong! We have been looking at these flat screen tvs for a while. It is quite an experience to shop for a new tv. If you don't know what I mean the next time you are taking your wife out for a bottle of pop down at the service station stop by on the way home and look at tvs somewhere. Try Best Buy, then maybe Sam's or Walmart, but you must end up at H.H. Gregg. There are more tv's than you can make sense out of. LCD HD 720p or 1080 p and plasmas. Sounds like a foreign language, doesn't it? How far do you set away from your tv when you watch? Do you want a 46" or 50" set? Well, I was thinking about something smaller and under $500. What room will you be putting this tv in? Do you have satelite tv or are you on a cable? Cable, oh well you won't get as many stations in HD as you will with the satelite. Would you like to get satelite? No I just came to look at tv's. Well, then how big is this room you are going to be watching tv in? Would you like to see our new sounds systems that will make, well, just come over here and listen. We will knock off $150 the sound systems today if you buy a tv today. No thanks, I just came in to LOOK at tv's. Ok, well just tell me which one you want to look at and if it's not hooked up I will hook it up for you to see. (At this point I am ready to let him hook up something and slip out while he is bent over hooking up the set) But no I stay! It's already gone to long to make this a short story, but we buy a tv after getting the manager to meet a competitor's price. A little bartering saved us over $150! So I say, let me have that 32" LCD HD 720p LG tv. Yes, sir! Let me go to the warehouse and see if we have one! Ok, I'm in it this far, so why not wait. Sure enough they have one and you must have this $20 bottle of cleaner to clean the screen with. OK! Calf rope! I give up, I buy it with the bottle of cleaner.
I just wanted a tv to watch. So we make it home. Guess what? You have to put it together. That's right. They give you 12 screws for 4 holes. I know that will drive you engineer types crazy, but that's what is in the box. So it's together now. Now we have to move this monster of a tv we have. And just where are my sons when I need them? So I take to pillows off the couch put them on the floor and ease the tv on to the pillows. Then we put a sheet under the tv and I drag it while Sandy pushes to get the tv out of the room for now. It was quite a sight watching us move this old heavy tv. So it's getting better. Now we move another little table to put the tv on because the stand we have for the older tv looks funny. Guys you will understand that I am sure. So we have the new tv on the table and now I have six hundred and ninety five cables hanging out the back of the tv stand that doesn't look funny to do something with. So I hook them up and am ready to watch the new tv. But wait! What is this? A book that tells you how to program your tv so you can watch. Wonderful, I just want to see what the Dallas Cowboy game looks like in HD but all I am getting on the screen is NO SIGNAL and it's dancing around. In about 30 minutes I get it all lined out push some magic button and WHAMMO! I have a picture on the screen and it's pretty cool! So much for going into the store and telling the clerk "I believe I'll have that tv right there. He takes my money, loads it up, I bring it home place it on a table plug in it and watch tv. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That's not how it is in our modern 2008 world.
It's just harder to get things done now.
And so it is in the church too. Let's not let red tape bog us down in reaching those that need something better than a new tv, but a better life found in Christ.
Maybe next time we can talk about how complicated it is to purchase a new cell phone!

Little Things

Have you ever noticed the importance of little things. I mean like the little screw in your eyeglasses that keep the lense in place. Or how a little mistake can cause a person alot of problems? Ask Barak Obama about that when he misspoke and called someone "sweetie" recently. Have your ever noticed how little things can "get under your skin". You know something that is a particular "sore spot" with you.
What I have noticed about little things is that some people get more upset about certain things than others. What is a problem to some, doesn't seem to bother others. You know we say we have "pet peeves", and I guess we do. But why? Oh we may justify our "sore spots" and our "pet peeves" but is it really worth all the fuss?
Mark this down: little things if not put in their proper position will become little things that have been blown way out of proportion before a person knows it which in effect have become a BIG Thing, or a BIG Deal. Maybe I am mellowing out some as I get older, but folks alot the time we get upset over the smallest of things and we find ourselves swimming in the middle of Lake Silly.
Learn to let little things go. Practice love and forgiveness daily, even to those that don't deserve it. Because if we can't let the insignificant little things go, we might end up with a little heart attack. Would you please think about that concept a little?