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Good Friday Reflections

April 10, 2009 by Leave a Comment

It’s Good Friday and for me, it’s been a good day so far.  These days are always kind of interesting because you’re trying to balance the sacred with the practicalities of life.  So far I’ve spent time doing some beautiful things, like hanging out with the family, trivial things like taking out the trash, and spiritual things like reflecting on the significance of this day.  

Indeed there is a heaviness as I remember what our Savior did for us.  I also reflect on my loved ones that have passed on and imagine myself thinking about them had Christ not died. I imagine how it would feel if they were not Christ-followers.  I’ve thought about a lot of things today.  What about my loved ones who are still living and the difference the cross makes for our new son and the new lives that were brought to this world since last Easter.  I reflect on the people that I don’t know, the ones that don’t like me, and the ones that I don’t care for. 

There’s a joy too.  I know, understand, and love the meaning of the Resurrection – a dead man lived again.  And this man was God and his name was Jesus and he extends this same life to me.  It’s a mind-blowing story. 

I read a few things today, John 15 & 16, Jesus the Final Days by Craig Evans and N.T. Wright (CT has an exert from Wright’s concluding chapter here), and a couple of blog posts:

Tony’s post – Why Jesus Died.  

Evan’s post, What You’ll Probably Hear at Church this Easter Weekend (but I Hope you Don’t).   It’s excellent.  I’d like to add John 10:10 and it’s context to his point, “…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full”.  

And the always moving poetry of our dear friend, Thomas.  Here’s the opening verse of The Day Before the Last

The day before the last,
when bread is just bread,
and wine is just wine,
there is a chance, a facet
of hope to cling to, for us gathered.

The online world is part of my community.  Tonight, I’ll gather with my church and we will worship and reflect on the meaning of this day.  Praise the Lord for his unconditional love.

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Monday Morning Brief – 4.6.09

April 6, 2009 by Leave a Comment

What I Enjoyed This Week – 1.  Nathan trying to figure out how to walk.  He is not walking on his own yet, we’ve enjoyed holding his hand and helping him around.  He’s a bit wobbly but it’s been fun.  2.  Going to get Nathan’s passport.  It’s crazy to think about but a year ago, we had just found out about his existence (and they told us the baby was going to be a girl) and here we are.   3. Salty Fusion – Our student leadership team ran youth group Wed. night.  They did a pretty good job and I was encouraged by the student who did the lesson.  4.  Enjoyed (and frustrated at certain moments) watching the panel discussion about the emergent church at the  Christian Book Expo.I thought Scot and Tony spoke truthfully and courageously. They have said some of those things (what is emergent, what isn’t, etc.) a number of times and I loved that this was recorded.  I plan on pointing people here as a reference.  I hope to add my thoughts one day but check out Tony’s here and here.   Thanks to whoever posted it on Tangle.  Also loved that Scot mentioned our seminary president Dave Dunbar and our celebrated professor John Franke.  5.  Holy Week!  In my last church this was such a crazy busy week with all the easter dramas and services, it was hard to take it in.  These years, I’ve enjoyed the slow reflections I’ve been able to partake in.  Imagine – God suffered for you and me … and then rose again.  I’m reading through John right now and as always, moved by it.  

Reading – Exploring the Old Testament – A Guide to the Prophets by J. Gordon McConville for seminary.

Listening to – a bit of everything.  Found myself listening to White Stripes the other day, Sufjan, and the Arcade Fire.  I guess I was feeling pretty 2005ish.  Also enjoyed a bunch of podcasts – Fermi, Homebrewed Christianity, Mars Hill (what, Rob’s wife is pregnant?) & Relevant Magazine.

Looking forward to – I told the church during announcements that I have the gift of prophecy because I was doing well on my brackets. (I’m winning 2 out of  3).  Yeah, 3 people thought it was funny but I’m looking forward to rubbing it to those in the youth group bracket.  Back to back years now; it’s going to be a dynasty. 2. Speaking of dynasty, the Yankees will win it all this year.  Aside from that, I am looking forward to a new season of baseball.  This will also be my first season  doing fantasy baseball. 3.  Going to the Fermi Project’s Q Conference.  4. First family vacation in May (Susan and I haven’t been on vacation in several years and we’re going to Aruba with pretty much everyone in my family.  Should be fun).

What Made Me Laugh – I actually did think the Guitar Hero commercial with Coaches Krzuzewski, Patino, Williams and Knight with Metallica was pretty funny.  Yeah the Risky Business scene has been covered so many times but I actually think this one is good.  What I also can’t believe is that Metallica is in the commercial.  Not kids who like Metallica, not a cut-out shot of them playing on stage someplace else but them in the flesh.  If you would have told me back in the height (1991-92) of the “Black” album that these guys would be in a video game commercial with college basketball coaches, I would have said, “Yeah right, and Bono won a Nobel Peace Prize.”  I’m glad I’m living here but it’s a weird place.  Here it is:

 

 

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My Alma-Mater, Liberty University …

April 1, 2009 by 1 Comment

My Alma-Mater, Liberty University Has Been in the News Lately

I can hear some of you now, “You went to Liberty??” Did you graduate from there or did you get kicked out? Though it was the only time in my life where I had reason to contemplate whether suicide was the unforgivable sin, all in all, Liberty was a good experience for me (I submitted that to be an honest endorsement for their recruiting catalog but their publications has yet to reply).  What helped me was that I had a great group of friends that I bonded with, had some great professors that influenced me, and I met my wife there. Graduating Liberty was what I imagine is similar to robbing a bank and getting a way with it. You’re glad you did it but don’t want to go back there. Yes indeed, the rules were too much, yes Dr. Falwell said some crazy things (but there was a cool side to him too), and yes, I met some of the strangest people I hope to never see again until my perfected nature meets their perfected nature in heaven.

First there was this:

Seth Curry (who led the nation in freshman scoring this year) brother of Davidson’s superstar Stephen transfers out of LU to Duke. Doh!  That said, I was happy to read that Liberty’s coach had some encouraging things to say about Seth’s decision.

Second is this book that is getting a fair amount of attention by Kevin Roose called, “The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University” – Great title and wow, America’s Holiest University??? That’s like when Falwell would call it “The World’s Most Exciting University”. Some there may firmly hold to absolute, objective truth and see it all in black and white but alas, it was at Liberty that I first learned how to think in relative terms and I point to the above statement as Exhibit A.

Anyway, Christianity Today had a nice interview with Kevin. Initially, I suspected that his polite candor was a ploy to get you to like him and buy the book then get fooled but it seems that this is precisely the paranoia that Kevin is describing.  He seems pretty genuine and I probably trust him more than some Christians I know.  Here’s an exert:

CT – What most fascinated you about evangelicals and evangelical culture?

My social circle was pretty much empty when it came to evangelical Christians, so my impression was that these students were just interesting and smart and personable. They were not at all like the caricatures I had adopted in the secular world: the placard-waving, backwoods evangelical. They were just nothing like that, so I was heartened by that. But it also made me intensely curious; they seemed like people I would get along with. What would actually happen if I tried? So I think it was their humanity that came through to me.

CT – You largely blame “paranoia and lack of exposure” for the culture war between evangelicals and non-evangelicals. Do you think it’s possible to bridge the gap between the two sides?

A lot of my friends at Brown, I love them to death, but a lot of them are paranoid of evangelical culture. A lot of them would send me e-mails during my semester saying, ‘Are you getting tortured down there? Are they burning you at the stake?,’ and then the same thing on the other side. My Liberty friends would talk about secular culture as one big orgy, and it’s not. My fantasy is to have other people do versions of what I did. How cool would it be to have an exchange program between secular colleges and evangelical colleges and have [students] switch places for a semester? I think we could do a lot to break down that wall.

Kevin also has the distinction of being the last person to interview Dr. Falwell in print. Here’s the link courtesy of Relevant.com and here’s my comment:

“Good article. As a graduate, I feel I have he right to say that indeed Liberty is an unusual place. There are some great things about it and some … hmmm …. not so great things. The same was true with Dr. Falwell. There were numerous times as a conservative, I’d wince when he’d mention tele-tubbies or Ellen. I loved that he was friends with Larry Flynt though and I admired these types of moments.
I did appreciate his interactions with us as students around campus. My personal favorite were when he would speed around the Vine Center after convocation and pretend that he was going to run over the students. Freshmen would always freak out. I will also never forget him crowd surfing at the Big South Tournament. Lucky for him, I carried his right foot for about a second.”

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Monday Morning Brief – March 30th

March 31, 2009 by Leave a Comment

It’s been a quiet week as I’ve been trying to catch up on a bunch of things

This Week I Enjoyed – 1. my pastor’s sermon on the deity of Christ yesterday.  He started a series on the new doctrinal statement that the EFCA updated last year (later this year, our church will vote whether to accept it or not).  2.  An area-wide youth worship service called Linked.  It included about 10 churches and their respective youth workers organizing the event.  The service focused on the theme of Christ’s mission that he called us to. Myself and two others were responsible for the prayer stations that were set up below the sanctuary.  The entire night turned out to be a beautiful experience for those gathered, including several of our own students. 

Reading – the same as last week and not enough. 

Lent Update – Have been pretty faithful in my vows thus far.  One of them (concerning people), I’ve missed a few moments but I’m trying to compensate and have been adjusting along the way.  

Listening to –  Love Drug’s Paper Scissors that I downloaded FREE (and so can you) from Noisetrade.  I like it.  It’s different from their first record and it has a slow dark side to it.  I’ve also been listening to some Relevant and Mars Hill podcasts and re-listening to some of the recordings of the Amidst the Powers Conference.  I hope to blog my thoughts on the Hauerwas lecture soon.  Keep an eye on Evan’s blog too.

Student Ministry Update – this week, we are taking a break from Kimball’s they Like Jesus but not the Church curriculum because we have our student leadership students running the night this week.  I always look forward to how they do it – it’s revealing in some ways and it’s inspiring in other ways.  There are some moments where we see our influence upon them and others moments when we see God working in them independent of anything we’ve done.

Looking forward to – iPhone 3.0 update  

What made me laugh this week – Pink Lights put Off Spotty Teenagers and this video below is funnier than the Office season (but it looks like Michael’s resignation is going to save the season).

Ignatius from travis hawkins on Vimeo.

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Reflecting on Out of Ur's Trouble Brewing

March 28, 2009 by 1 Comment

There’s a great discussion on the Out of Ur blog called Trouble Brewing concerning the alcohol consumption of church leaders.  One of the questions that was posted was if Jesus were here today, would he have changed the water into wine?

One of the key aspects in understanding Jesus turning the water into wine was that was an important thing at a Jewish wedding 2000 years ago. 

I believe that if Jesus was in our churches, he’d change what came out of those terrible 100 cup coffee peculators, and hand out fair-trade, French-pressed coffee.  Perhaps he would have also changed the Welch’s grape juice to wine for our communions. 

If Jesus were attending the Super Bowl and they ran out of water on the sidelines, I’m not sure he would have changed the water into wine.  He probably would have changed into Gatorade (or he would have cleared this American temple but I hope not because I love the NFL and hope God does too).

I speculate that if Jesus was walking through Africa, he may have changed the dirty water into pure water or if he were in Vancouver, he may have changed the soda into hot chocolate.

You can see that I’m not as quite committed to the wine but I do not want to dismiss it entirely either.  I think Jesus liked wine and it’s worth noting.   While not everyone needs to like or consume alcohol, it’s a topic that we should reflect on.

Below is what I posted on the Out of Ur post:

Worthy topic to discuss here. It’s hard to disassociate ourselves from our American-evangelical context (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but I think considering the worldwide Church community is helpful. Like some have already alluded to, drunkenness is condemned in Scriptures, not the consumption of alcohol. In light of the liberty described New Testament and the countless tragic stories many of us have experienced, we cannot be trite here. Indeed some have stumbled by the alcohol use of others, while some doors have been opened by the exact opposite. I know I’ve experienced both and again, this is why we should avoid being dogmatic about this. I think among the problems is that local congregations have been too one-sided favoring one side while demonizing the other. Conversations would be helpful here.

Filed Under: Christianity, Reflective

Monday Morning Brief – 3.23.09

March 23, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Context and Highlights –  1. Just got back from the Amidst the Powers Conference with homeboy Evan Curry.  2.  This was a great weekend for me.  I was grateful that my wife encouraged me to go to the conference guilt-free.  Further, I was also grateful that so much youth ministry happened without me this weekend.  Jr. High retreat, Sr. High dinner and movie night, and Sunday schools.  Though I do go on vacations and mission trips and leaders cover for me, there’s usually not as much happening and

Reading – everything from last week and Exploring the Old Testament – A Guide to the Prophets by J. Gordon McConville.

Listening to –  nothing new.   Which is a shame but it was good to drive and listen to some Wilco, Bob Dylan, Death Cab and whatever Evan was playing.  Looking forward to getting the new Decemberists. 

Laughed about – using the Canadian expression of “eh” incorrectly.  It seem that they say it after everything but they insist they don’t.  I am sorry of taking the typical American posture of misinterpreting other cultures but that’s what it really seemed – eh  Evan thinks that is the sound of the end of the sentence period eh  2.  Jack White started a new band.  We need to get him planting churches or something.  3.  That Michael quit the Office.  You know it’s been a tough season when the boss quits the show. Will the cameras still follow Michael?  Well, I’m tuning in.

Youth Ministry Update –  While I don’t know if it’s the best time we’ve ever had, it’s been a pretty good one.  I’m always grateful when our students are truly connecting with what we’re discussing.  2. As mentioned in the Highlights/Context, Tim Nye took our Jr. Highers went on their Winter Retreat trip Camp Monadock (yes we know it’s technically spring) but it’s pretty much always winter in New Hampsire.  3.  Our fantastic sr. high leaders held the fort down without me for our “Stimulus Night” (everyone else is using the word out of context, we thought we’d be sarcastic about it too).  It was a dinner and movie night and it was free (so while not actually adding money to the economy or giving to our students, we were stimulating their souls with ziti and Nacho Libre).  Win-win. 

Seminary Update – Last week we finished Preaching Christ through the Old Testament with Pete Enns.  Though I didn’t wow Enns with my papers, it really was one of the better classes I’ve taken and not just because of the prof.  For instance, the Christopher Wright book, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament was brilliant. Now in Dave Lamb’s  Prophecy and Contemporary Ministry and looking forward to appreciating more on the prophets.  One of my life-long goals is to find Haggai in less than 10 minutes.  Last week I clocked in just under 12 so I’m making progress ;-)

Looking forward to – UNC winning it all and saving my bracket.

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Regarding the Coming Evangelical Collapse

March 20, 2009 by 1 Comment

First, well done Mr. Spencer, your post, The Coming Evangelical Collapse was a very interesting post. I had bookmarked Internet Monk but I now regret not adding it to my RSS feeder. I will remedy that. It is not my intention to refute his post, just adding to the conversation. Also check out Evan Curry’s post, “Dear Mom, the Evangelical Collapse is Coming”.

Indeed change is in the air. I agree with the consensus, it’s coming but I don’t think the “collapse” will happen within the next 10 years. My main reason is the Boomer Generation is not yet old enough and they still have enough money.

Consequently, I see the following happening within the next 30 years: “Collapse” is too overstated, I see it more as a evolutionary, and we’ll look back and cal it the “Renaissance of Evangelicalism”.

I mean no offense by this, though there is a strong attraction to the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican faiths, their current approach to family ministries will not be relevant enough to the children of young X’ers and Millennials. This will result in the aforementioned evolution of evangelicalism.

Agreed, there will be a drop off political ideology in the evangelical world. Meaning, there will be less and less of an assumption that evangelicals are republicans.

Agreed that the mega-church will stick around in the coming years. There will be fewer and fewer mid-size churches (600+) There will be fewer and fewer of the less than 100 people churches in their traditional role. They will more likely be house churches, or cell churches.

Agreed that we will not be speaking about the “emergent church” but not because it failed but as so many have pointed out, it was a segue to different conversations that did not create their own brand or denomination (praise God).

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Reflecting on Kris Anne's post, "Sex and Seminary"

March 18, 2009 by 1 Comment

My friend Kris Anne had an interesting post called “Sex and Seminary”  (great title for a spin-off of Sex and the City.  I can totally see Charlotte enrolling here in Hatfield).  Anyway,  my comment was getting too long so it’s now a post here.

Hey sister, I know what you mean.  I say this knowing full well that I am a lust-trap myself.  I’ve noticed  when I lead the congregation in prayer, there are many women that don’t close their eyes.  Of course, it’s to look at me a little more.  Like the Lord told Peter (in a translation that does not exist yet), “Everything I made is good”.  (Yes, I’m kidding).  

I’ve been thinking about how to appropriately make a comment here without sounding chauvinistic but I’m trying too hard and thus, doomed to fail. So here we go.

Certainly, I believe that we should all strive for purity in our thoughts, actions, words, etc.  Also, I believe we should all dress with a sense of modesty but that’s obviously a relative scale.  Certainly, we should consider where we will be and who we will be with when we put on our clothes but only to an appropriate extent.   

Wear your up, wear your hair down, but wear it how you felt like it.  Feeling like dressing up a little bit more today, like the comment you get from your husband when you wear that sweater (not because it’s sexy but because he likes how the color looks on you.  Or because your spouse thinks the former), then go ahead.  But I think you know all that and that’s not really what you’re saying.

The part that I really want to get into is what you wear and what you should wear “at church” (ie worship service).  I understand and appreciate that many women do not wear things that are inappropriate in a worship service (whether they will be on the platform or in the pew in front of me).  However at some point, we as men (and young men), need to put forth the necessary diligence and allow the Spirit to form us when it comes to the areas of things like our purity.  We cannot discriminate against women being in front of the church because they’re too beautiful! 

If I could put myself out there – I was at an event where there were probably 10 people leading us in worship. There were a lot of lights, screens, instruments, and spit flying through the air. It was pretty energetic and everyone was bouncing up and down.  One of the singers was a pretty twenty-something.  Her top was fitted but not in the “going clubbing” sense. Here are a couple of thoughts in reflection of sexy and seminary and sexy and on stage:

1. Do we really need to only have unattractive women in our church (or on our platforms)?  Because that just sounds ridiculous.  I can hear it now.  A woman is asked to sing on the praise team and is relieved that she wasn’t too beautiful to serve.  

2. Should she have put something baggier on?

            A.  I don’t think that’s really the issue

            B.  And I leave it up to her.

3. Should we never play music that makes us bounce or show the physicality of our bodies?  That too sounds lame.  Sometimes good music makes you jump.  Sometimes the Lord does too.

4.  I don’t feel guilty about these thoughts. They were not sinful nor lustful.  Thinking about our sexuality is a healthy thing, even in a worship service  (In a worship context we have a tendency of sounding legalistic and I don’t see worship being an “on-off” switch). In a sense it reminded me that I tend to look too much at those leading me in worship as opposed to who am I supposed to be worshipping and it caused me to deeply examine this part of my heart.

5. Depending on you as a reader, you are probably assuming a couple things at this point.

            A. Wow, this guy is a pastor?   And he talks about other women?  He must not be married.  Oh he is??  He must not be happily married.

            B.  Wow, this guy has done too much thinking about this.  This is what the devil does – distract us from what is truly important.

           C.  If these are your thoughts, re-read point 5 – You are part of the problem.  (No offense, it’s ok, I am too but please keep reading).

6.  As a Church, we have no problem with putting obese men in these spotlights.  I know I have sat in a worship setting and thought things like, “Wow, that guy is big.”  I don’t remember ever thinking he shouldn’t be up front because of it.

7.  If we are being honest, I think it’s somewhat normal for most of us to take inventory of the person speaking, or the performer, or the bride, or the barista, or whoever.  We tend to do that and we get used to it.  We can do this in church settings too.

8.  What I am not saying:

           A.  That people should dress inappropriately and allow the audience to just deal with it.

           B.  That people who are not perfect should be given any more or any less preference.  (I’m                   saying it doesn’t really matter).  

9.  That day at the event, I realized that we don’t have women in front of us in church enough.  As a result, people like Kris Ann feels the way she does.

10.  God has given us so many gifts from singing to hospitality.  I’m grateful for all who are in the Church.

Filed Under: Reflective

Monday Morning Brief – 3.16.09

March 16, 2009 by Leave a Comment

It’s been a real fast week.  Haven’t had a chance to post or catch up on my blog friends since last Monday.  I’ll try to catch up on some of my thoughts (and yours) in the next few weeks.  

Highlights of the Week … 1. All is well with our little family.  Nathan gave us high-fives for the first time this week and he just started clapping.  2.  Emergent cohort meeting with Thomas Turner, Scott Kent Jones, Scott Lenger and for the first time ever, Tim Nye.  Good times.  Looking forward to next month when we discuss Augustine’s City of God 

Disappointments of the Week … 1. No new Lost episode.  2. the new Office episode with the Willy Wonka Michael inserting 5 golden pieces of paper in the paper boxes.  I’m not trying to be the cool guy who who likes to be critical but it wasn’t that great.  I like the Office, I want to like the Office again, but I’m watching and not really laughing.  And where’s Stanely?  I think he gave one eye roll last week and we hardly heard from the miserable guy.  They’re not using their cast this season.    

Reading … Three Views on the New Testament use of the Old Testament, Still reading Cross-Shattered Christ by Stanely Hauerwas, The Hauerwas Reader (which I’ll finish when the Cubs win the world series), flipped through The Great Giveaway by David Fitch.  Handful of magazines too like the new Relevant Magazine, the new Youth Worker Journal and flipped through the new Group magazine.  I love magazines, they require little from me.  

Listening to … a little less of No Line on the Horizon but I’m still loving it and so is the rest of the nation.  Debuting no. 1. on the billboards was an easy prediction but doubling the sales of the previous highest selling record of the year, Springstein’s Working on a Dream, is pretty impressive.  You can read a little more here.  2.  Fiction Family (with Jon Foreman and Sean Watkins from Nickel Creek) is pretty good.  Jon always sounds good.  Even when he’s not rocking out with Switchfoot (who are supposed to release a new album soon with their new label).  They’re is a hint of Dylan especially from Jon (he’s been doing this on his EP’s too), even some PFR which is pretty cool.   The new Fray is pretty good too.  Though overplayed and unpopular to admit, I like the Fray.  While I like the new album and I think they are good guys, I have a hard time telling which songs are from the old album and which are from the new album.  I can only imagine that an artist would be frustrated to hear that, but I can’t tell.  So I liked the first album, obviously I like this one too but was looking for a little more.  

Student Ministry ... is going well.  1. Yep still loving Dan Kimball’s They Like Jesus but Not the Church.  We’re doing the video curriculum and this past week was part one of, “Is the Church homophobic?”.  The discussions run far deeper than the initial question but as everyone knows, this is a topic that we discuss so much more out of the church than in it.  Happy with the start of it. 2. We had our first Summer Missions Team meeting.  We talked about many things, including a better team name.   

Looking forward to ... Amidst the powers Conference with Evan this weekend!

Laughed … with America at Jon Stewart’s fight with CNBC’s Jim Cramer from Mad Money.  Stewart is cool but I can’t watch this show … uhh …daily.  Anyway, nice work Jon, I appreciate you saying the things that need to be said.  Don’t be selective now, there’s a lot more to say my friend.  You can read the NY Times’ article about it here.

Watch it here.

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Monday Morning Brief – 3.9.09

March 9, 2009 by 1 Comment

Highlights of the Week… 1.  Taking Nathan to buy the new U2 album.  I can’t play catch with the 10 month old yet but I dream of the day when he pushes me in my wheelchair as we buy the physical album of U2’s Greatest Unreleased work in 2067.  That’s going to be a good day.  2. Youth Leader Enroute Training Day.  We took our wonderful youth leaders to this Sonlife training day.  It’s about exploring transformational youth ministry with God’s narrative.  It’s been pretty good and makes a great day of training and our other youth pastor, Tim blogged about it here.  3.  We had our fantasy baseball draft yesterday.  Commissioner Tim Nye is at the helm.  I’m confident that he will do a much better job than Bud Selig.  My team name is, “I Am Wolverine!” so we hope to live up to the name. 

Disappointments of the Week …  ARoid.  But I was smart enough not to draft him ;-)

Listening to … U2’s No Line on the Horizon, Homebrewed Christianity podcast 44 (Evolution and Faith with Daniel Harrell), Mars Hill Bible podcast 2.15.09 (A Life that Shines with Jeff Manion)

Watching … the best show on television – Lost. 

Student Ministry Update … Our students are still loving They Like Jesus But not the Church video curriculum.  Doing some rethinking about certain things in our ministry.  Praying for wisdom.

Feeling … good about this current class at school.  (although I’m a little behind in certain parts.)

Looking Forward to … Amidst the Powers Conference with Evan.

Understatment of the week …  In a Washington Post article discussing the need and cost for super fast trains:

“But experts and government officials caution that despite the billions, the amounts are still not nearly enough to pay for the kind of sleek “bullet train” systems that crisscross Europe and Japan at speeds of 200 mph or higher. The California project, for example, would cost an estimated $45 billion, including $9 billion in state bonds that voters approved last year.

“It sounds like a lot of money to Americans, but it’s really just a start,” said James P. RePass, president of the National Corridors Initiative, a nonprofit rail advocacy group. “We’re not going to wake up in a year and see a bullet train. But we are going to see much faster service for relatively little money.” 

LOL – I know he used the adjective “relatively” but it still made me laugh.

Filed Under: Reflective