I'll get back to my series, "Where There's Smoke, It Might Just be a Smoke Machine," in a day or two.  For now, though, I need to offer my regular readers an apology.

Earlier this month I blogged about our my calling to the Red Lion Evangelical Free Church and Christian Academy.  A few days after putting up my original post, I re-read what I had posted and decided that I just didn't like what I had written.  In retrospect I felt that I had unfortunately placed too much emphasis on the "titles" behind the calling and not nearly enough emphasis on giving God the glory for affording me an opportunity to serve the Red Lion community in the first place.

(Editor's Note: This is Part II of a multi-part series offering a new take on the age old question, “Who do you trust?”  When selfish motives often lurk in the shadows, how can you really know whether spoon-fed “truth” is really “the whole truth and nothing but the truth”?”)

Just the Spin-Free Facts, Ma'am.

Selective truth telling – “spin” – masquerades as trustworthy “fact” with alarming frequency these days.  We see it in White House press briefings, from Republican and Democratic administrations alike.  We see it in those BP oil spill briefings which virtually nobody takes seriously.  We see it in Wall Street financial reports when a company highlights its up-tick in earnings while downplaying the fact that it just laid off 1000 workers to reduce expenses.  We see it every day on C-Span as both sides of the political spectrum bash each other, pretending as if the very solvency of the Union is teetering on the brink of disaster if one ideological slant is not pursued to the exclusion of all others.

Carefully selected snippets of targeted facts and figures are used to bolster this position or that, making one person (or company, or special interest group) look really, really bad while another looks really, really good.  What is thoroughly messed up about all this spin-mongering is that honest, hard-working reporters, pressed by rampant cost-cutting and a general lowering of editorial standards, regurgitate hand-picked “spin” as if it is hard-edged fact.  This new editorial expedience means that people or organizations with narrowly-targeted agendas get away with monopolizing the thought cycle of the day, often to the detriment of exposing deeper, trickier truths that get swept under the rug.

So perhaps it’s the awareness that we increasingly tiptoe through a “spin-controlled” world that gives me a more jaded sensibility about what gets offered up as “truth” these days.

Matthew 18:21-22 (New International Version)

²¹ Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"  ²² Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Today we ponder the power of words. 

No, I'm not talking about great works of literature.  Even as we approach the 50th anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee's ground-breaking, "To Kill a Mockingbird," I thought it was time to get a little more elemental, to dig deeper into the underlying meaning and power of smaller, more discrete building blocks of language.

Today, we consider two, inconsequential, three-letter words and the ways in which their placement in a sentence can either destroy a shaky relationship or heal a longstanding rift.

Today, we consider the sublime importance of those tiny, building-block words "did" and "you."

(NOTE:  The author is not an official representative of the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) or Montgomery County ARES/RACES (MCAR).  The comments expressed herein are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official positions of either LAF or MCAR.)

"Mr. Livestrong" Puts Out the Challenge

Most of my close friends and family know me as "Mr. Livestrong."  From the first time I volunteered to serve on the 2007 Philly Livestrong Challenge I have been hooked on this event.  It is one of the most professionally run non-profit fundraising events around.  My Toyota Prius still proudly sports the "official car" trunk decal that I surreptitiously spirited away from last year's Livestrong Challenge bike race.

My personal challenge to regular readers of "Pearl's Paradise" is that you, too, should adopt this worthy cause and get personally involved.  If you are a ham radio operator you are desperately needed to help staff on-course communications for this mammoth event.  If you are not a ham radio operator but just want to donate your time to this worthy cause, you are also needed.

(NOTE:  Volunteer sign-up links can be found at the end of this posting.  Please READ ON for more info.)

The official announcement finally hit the airwaves today.  I am finally free to speak openly about the amazing spiritual and professional journey of the past 9 months.

On August 1st the Pearl family will join the administrative team and community at the Red Lion Christian Academy.  It has taken a while to get here and it has been a wild and wonderful trip!  In the coming days I'll share more about how we got here, what we will be doing, and how God has graced our entire family with love and support along the way.  I'll also share a little about  why I am so passionate about what we are about to do together on that campus and beyond.

For now, though, I want to put something out there for the benefit of my current colleagues and friends whom I will probably see much less of after our move to Delaware.

She said it in such a goofy, exaggerated way that at first I didn’t think she was serious.  Then she said it again and I realized it was actually a term of genuine respect.

“Hey, Coach!”, she shouted from the other end of the hallway.

“Yo, Justice!”, I called back.  “How YOU doin’?”

“Pretty good, Coach.  I’m ready to go play some basketball!”

Justice was a tall-for-her-age 5th grader on my church league basketball team.  She also had the distinct misfortune of catching me in my first attempt at being a “Head Coach.”  I had been the assistant on my daughter’s team the year before and decided, after not a small amount of internal debate, that it was time to belly up to the bar and take a swing at the world of coaching.  Poor Justice didn’t know quite what she was in for.

Neither did I.