You and I still need food, clothing, and shelter every day, whether we live in a jungle hut or download Internet music. We need to know that we are loved and wanted. We need to know that our lives and days matter beyond today.
One of the staples of military life for decades has been the Battle Dress Uniform, famous for its dry cleaned and pressed creases and polished boots. According to today's New York Times, fashions are changing. Wash-and-wear uniforms are now in vogue at military bases around the world. The Army version comes with suede and synthetic boots which can't be polished, and Velcro ribbons and name patches.
Meanwhile, the Times tells us that space tourism is becoming more likely, thanks to Benson Space Company. Rocket entrepreneur Jim Benson formed the company to fly wealthy people 60 miles above earth, starting late next year. A ticket will cost between $200,000 and $300,000. But you'll have to launder your own clothes.
And this morning's Wall Street Journal reports on Apple CEO Steve Jobs' 1,800-word online essay calling on music companies to allow Apple and other companies to sell their song catalogs without using anticopying software. For years, "Digital Rights Management" has been required by the major labels as a deterrent to online music piracy. But Mr. Jobs says that the software doesn't really work, and keeps the various computer and MP3 players from using all available formats.
For instance, I don't have an iPod (apparently making me a constituency of one); and so I cannot easily download music from the iTunes website. Nor can iPods use music from other sites. If DRM were dropped, music sources would be compatible, or so we're told.
On occasion I try to see the world through different eyes. I think of natives on Borneo I met when doing mission work one summer…they did not know the year, the American president, or the benefits of electricity. I imagine the world my grandfather fought to protect during World War I. I remember that one percent of the world has a college education, and seven percent have access to the Internet. And I realize that advances in fashion or technology do not change the basic facts of human existence.
You and I still need food, clothing, and shelter every day, whether we live in a jungle hut or download Internet music. We need to know that we are loved and wanted. We need to know that our lives and days matter beyond today. So consider this biblical fact: God thinks about you more often than the number of grains of sand in the world (Psalm 139:17-18). Physicists calculate that number at approximately 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Your Father has a plan for your Wednesday. He is thinking about you right now. Are you thinking about him?
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