Anyhow, one day right as we were walking out their door the ‘F’ word slipped out my mouth. But I did, like a gentleman, apologize to ‘wife’s mom’ for saying the ‘F’ word in her home. The ‘F’ word stands for ‘fart’ for you less religious folk.

Ever since then, being dyslexic, I somehow got the words ‘toot’ and ‘fart’ mixed around.  I know this because my kids say ‘fart’ when this whole time I thought I was teaching them ‘toot’. I’ve since given up and incorporated the ‘F’ word into our family vocab, which lead me to the chorus I wrote for my kids this morning.

"When you fart, it clears a pathway to your heart.  We love to fart"

I’ve often heard the ‘turn the other cheek’ principle being used at the expense of ones own dignity, translated as, if someone attacks you, be passive, submissive, let them take it out on you and then some. I believe that Jesus meant something entirely different, that turning the other cheek was an afront, an attack, an aggressive move to engage voilence with something far more powerful – love. Loving our enemies / turning the cheek is not a violation of self (or our families) but rather is a forceful advancement of the kingdom of heaven.

The story of Hezekiah (Isaiah 39) is a good example of how to not to love our enemies. He allowed Babylonian spys to see everything in his palace including all his treasures. It was a violation of Israel. And God, in response said to Hezekiah, “"Hear the word of the LORD Almighty: 6 The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. 7 And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."

God calls us to put up boundaries of protection, and live on the offence using His weaponry of truth, love, wisdom and so on.

Rivers splash in through the eye
Waters flow refracted light
Translucent, clear and pure sight /
Murky dark polluted tide

Cornea bathes in every fleet
Bend each drip of light it sees
Focused on each drop, it leaves
An image on the heart in me

Bathe in beauty oh iris stare
Upon pure light of God and there
His face will make the river clear, an
Soak my heart with freedoms cheer

Here’s my street perspective on the topic: The real question of stem cell research, I think, has to do with value. Scientists create human embryos through injecting sperm into eggs, then they wait 4 or 5 days till the embryos are about the size of a dot, and finally they remove the stem cells from the embryos destroying them in the process.

The embryo is as alive as any embryo. It’s a human being at its simplest form. So then the question comes down to how valuable that embryo is. If it is less valuable, then why?

• Location? – created in a lab / less valuable than / being created in a womb
• The parental purpose? - baby wanted for it’s stem cells / less valuable than / baby wanted for itself
• How it was created? – in-vitro fertilization / less valuable than / sexual fertilization
• Parental presence? – babies without parents / less valuable than / babies with parents
• How many cells you have? – the life of a blastocyst (+/-40 cells) / less valuable than / an adult with over 100 billion cells in his/her brain alone. (Is it ok to sacrifice the life of a few celled person for the health of a many celled person?)

My stance on stem cell research is simple. I don’t think people are qualified to place values on the lives of fellow people and therefore must rely on God to tell us what our value as human beings is. “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:12) doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room.  What do you think?

We have this idea of God on His powerful throne as some mighty emperor of the universe and yet untouchable and unconcerned with our little lives. If God was man that’s exactly what he’d be. What has Bush done for your kidney stones lately? Yet, that’s the amazing thing about God is that He does care, love, listen, serve our basest needs. He’s a servant of ALL our needs, ALL people, ALL situations, ALL, ALL, ALL. Imagine telling the Pope that your bunions were swelling and him getting on his plane and flying out to wherever you are to care for you. Then on top of healing your feet, he cleans your house and does your laundry. That’s exactly who God is. He is above all things so that He can serve all things. He calls us to do likewise.

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."  Mark 9:35 (NIV)