Recently, on my trip to Florida my brother Robert introduced me to Crocs. At first I thought he was feeding me a load of croc! His wife Allyn had just had leg surgery, her job requires her to stand for up to eight hours a day. After she purchased a pair of Crocs, she said that lots of her foot, leg, and back pain have disapppeared. She now has several pairs in all different colors to match her daily work wardrobe.

So off to the store to buy my first pair. I am an adult diabetic and foot problems are part of the deal it seems with diabetics. I wore them all day on the Saturday I purchased them and then wore them to church on Sunday, and all day on my return flight from Orlando to Seattle on Monday. They are so comfortable, I hate to take them off, really! Below is some information about these shoes. Oh, BTW, there are two other members of my family that have purchased a pair.

Cayman is a slimmed down version of the original Crocs. Perfect, airy, warm weather design that comes in full sizes and is made with croslite PCCR material. Slip-resistant and non-marking soles. Crocs are designed to fit loosely. The wide, roomy footbed may feel large at first, however this is one of the key reasons your Crocs are so comfortable. To adjust the fit, simply stretch the back of the heel strap slowly until it retains the desired length. Anti-microbial and odor resistant. Crocs will respond to body heat by molding to fit your feet. Available Colors: Army, Burgundy, Celery, Cotton Candy, Lavender, Pearl White, Sea Foam, Kelly Green, Ruby Red, Black, Chocolate, Light Blue, Lime, Navy, Pink, Purple, Red, Khaki, Orange, Sage, Sea Blue, Butter, Turquoise.

Your can purchase Crocs Cayman here!

I have been working on putting the finishing touches on my book when I ran across The Books of the Bible project from International Bible Society. I was Googling a phrase something like “without additives,” when I saw the .info site listed and took a look. I wrote a post here about it.

Today, I called to inquire if I could get an advanced copy so I could key the pages of this Bible to my book. I met John Dunham, a WordWright at International Bible Society, via phone. I think we are kindred spirits. You should take a moment and read two post he wrote about this project: High Fructose Scripture and The Organic Bible. Don’t forget to read the comments as well.

I highly recommend this new publication from International Bible Society. It will enhance your reading of the Story of Scripture and it might even be the avenue through which you discover what your part his God’s EPIC Adventure is.

Today, the place where I was born stands empty of any building. I parked my rental car at the back of the property and set looking at the open lot all the way from the alley to the main street. The lot is smaller than I remember it being when I grew up there. My mom and dad owned two businesses there: a retail clothing store and a barber shop. Attached was the living quarters made up of a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, and a bathroom on the bottom floor and one bedroom and bath in the attic which was the room of my youth. The back yard had a guava tree and a chinaberry tree. It was from the latter that my mom would pull a branch to make into a switch when she punished me for breaking her rules. Beyond those was a carport where my dad parked his car. It just didn’t look like all that could fit onto that narrow piece of land that I was looking at, but it did and it seemed like there was room to spare in those days.

I am reminded from this brief moment of visiting the past that things that seemed big in life, I discovered later were really small in comparison to the time, energy, and money that I gave them. Today, things don’t seem so big to me anymore because I know that in just a brief short time I will see them at their real size.

I arrived in Florida to visit my brother and his wife yesterday, July 9, 2007. The first thing that greeted me was the hot and muggy weather. It was about 6:00 pm when I hit the outside of the Orlando airport. It was 91 degrees and about 96% humidity. The air was so thick it was difficult to breathe. Within minutes my shirt was soaked.

I don’t get back to the land of my youth and the city of my birth often, but when I do, I have a small routine that I go through. So this morning, I visited my parent’s graves to pay my respects. If not for them I would not be here. Not many steps away from their graves are the graves of my sister and brother, both my elders. Grave yards are sobering, but this small discipline brings me into touch with those who paved the way before me and allowed me the freedom to make my choice to follow in their footsteps of following Jesus.

I realize that standing there beside their graves that the body in which they live now which is not their resurrected body is just a difference of a thin vail that stands between them and me. Can they see me? Do they realize I am there? How close are they? I have no idea, but just across a thin curtain, they stand and wait. With that sobering thought, I hope it is many years down the line before I join them.

I often wonder what it is like on the other side of this life in life after death. Of course, we understand that we are not in a disembodied spirt free floating around “heaven” somewhere. We are alive, but not yet in our resurrected bodies. I wonder if what I have come to believe will be anywhere close to what really is there. Over the years I have heard folks suggest that they won’t really care what they believed while here because they will be basking with Jesus in some heavenly delight. I’m not sure I buy that notion, i.e., that it really didn’t matter what we believed.

Our belief gives rise to our actions. Or, another way of saying that is that the story we live in causes us to live in a certain way. In that way of thinking, I do believe that it is important what we believe now, because it does have consequences. We are going to leave behind a “scene of the play” from the story that we live in. What will that scene say? I believe refelctions like these are important.

Living now as if we are living then is what kingship living in his story is about.

It is not often that one senses vindication of a belief that seems for most folks like swimming up stream. But, it does happen. For years I have been sharing with folks that their reading experience of the Bible would be far improved if they would read the text without any additives such as the chapters and verses and all the other stuff that publishers like to throw into the text.

Before it was easy to produce a personal copy with a computer and a Bible program of such an adventure, I handed out small portions of Scripture where I had removed all the chapters and verses. I was thrilled when The Message came along and rejoiced that a publisher would take the chance of moving Bible reading in the right direction. Kudos to Eugene Peterson.

Recently, I finished a second Doctor of Ministry degree in which a portion of it dealt with the fragmentation of reading Scripture which was aided and abetted by those “pesky littler verses.” I called it the disease of versitis. Reading Scripture through the lens of verses has kept the reading public from being aware of the overall Story that is presented in Scripture. Today, (07.07.07), I ran across a project that has been in the making for several years, it’s called The Books of the Bible. It will be released on August 1, 2007 by International Bible Society and is a Bible without chapters and verses. Here’s what they say about their product.

• chapter and verse numbers have been removed from the text;
• the books are presented according to the internal divisions that we believe their authors have indicated;
• a single-column setting is used to present the text more clearly and naturally, and to avoid disrupting the intended line breaks in poetic sections;
• footnotes, section headings and other supplementary materials have been removed from the pages of the sacred text;
• individual books that later tradition divided into two or more books are made whole again; and
• the books have been placed in an order that we hope will help readers understand them better. (From the Preface. vi).

Bravo for IBS. Yep! I feel vindicated! This will go a long way in helping the faithful readers of Scripture to comprehend the Story of God and live within its drama. Here’s their web site where you can get a sneak preview and download a sample or two. Who knows, you might even purchase a copy and have the reading experience of your life.