Nate LaClaire

Texas Bar Sues Church

// July 25th, 2008 // No Comments » // Faith

In a small Texas town, (Mt. Vernon) Drummond’s bar began construction on a new building to increase their business. The local Baptist church started a campaign to block the bar from opening with petitions and prayers. Work progressed right up till the week before opening when lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground.

The church folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, until the bar owner sued the church on the grounds that the church was ultimately responsible for the demise of his building, either through direct or indirect actions or means. The church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the building’s demise in its reply to the court.

As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork. At the hearing he commented, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to decide this, but as it appears from the paperwork, we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer, and an entire church congregation that does not.’

As far as I know, that’s just a great illustration, with no truth behind it. Thanks, Alex, for brightening my day!

The Serenity Prayer

// June 15th, 2007 // No Comments » // Memorable Quotes

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. –Reinhold Niebuhr

What an awesome prayer… I saw this on a “thinking of you” card several months ago and it has stuck with me. I finally looked it up and discovered that it can most likely be attributed to the theologian above, although it was popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous. I’m not one for memorizing prayers, but this is one that I have and God has brought it back to me time and time again.

links for 2006-06-06

// June 6th, 2006 // No Comments » // Links

• The Presidential Prayer Team:
  (tags: community government prayer christianity)

Purpose

// December 6th, 2005 // No Comments » // Life

The whole idea of a blog is kind of odd… I mean, who really cares what is going on with me, or what I think about the latest legislation? Does anyone care? Should anyone care? Probably not.

I first started my blog back when I left my old job and related lifestyle (more on that some other time) and wanted to provide a method for people to keep up on what is happening in my life. Unfortunately, it’s hard to take time to write blog posts when I can’t find time to do stuff that earns me money or stuff that is required for college. However, I want to do better. If I find something interesting on the web I want to tell the world about it. If I read an interesting verse in the Bible I want to blog it. If something exciting, or neat, or frustrating happens in my life I want to share it with others. As I get more photos of Riley (my cat) or my family I will post those, too.

I have been reprimanded for dropping off the face of the earth… The fact is, I miss my old life. The fact is, if I could undo what I did I just might do it. The fact is, my decision was not a mistake, as God has proven to me time and time again (I’ll share more about that later as well). The fact is, making any decision other than the one that I made would have been a mistake. So, where does that leave me? Still right here trying to piece together a life after the library; trying to retain friendships that were formed while I was at the library; trying to move ahead without leaving that all behind.

Have you ever felt too comfortable with your life? I knew that if I didn’t exit soon I could be stuck forever. Sometimes it seemed like I had grown up at the library. Like it was my second home. Now when I go back it feels odd… Like walking into a place that used to be familiar but is familiar no longer. The same friendly people are there, but it’s not the same. It never will be.

I know that most people won’t care about most of what I post on my blog, but perhaps each thing that I write will be meaningful to some person in some way. That is my prayer. Thanks for reading.