In the midst of experiencing life in Kenya, Daniel shares some good thoughts on social responsibility:

When I returned from Cuba I saw I was living in excess. This happens to most all that visit people living well below the poverty line. Seeing people living on next to nothing lead me to question the lifestyle of Americans. First of all, how do you cut back but how do you give the cut back amount. The sensation that I was living richly has not hit me in Kenya. I think it is because I already learned the lesson. This statement seems cocky but read on. I do not deserve to be wealthy, go to a university, be born in America but I was. It does one no good to feel guilty because it this way. Believe me, many of them find more joy than we do. Accept this fact; everything that is your has been given to you by God. Now it is your responsibility to deal with it responsibly. So I have a couple points to live by

• Steward your blessings wisely
• Cherish blessing don't put a death grip on them
  
• Don’t look down on those with less material wealth
  
• Let your life speak louder than your money

It is okay to have fun in life and to own things that cause enjoyment but make sure you can exhibit self-control when it comes to spending money.

WORLD on stupid signs:

So I'm driving home from Starbucks a minute ago, when I see a very weird sign. It was one of those orange Men at Work-style diamonds. Except this one says:

CREW WORKING IN TREES

There's a stand of eucalyptus trees alongside the road, separated from the asphalt by a phalanx of orange cones plus a wide sidewalk. But I see the sign, right? So now I'm craning forward, looking up and right, trying to catch a rare multiple-grown-men-in-trees sighting.

And if I'm looking up in the trees, I'm not watching the road. And if I'm not watching the road, isn't that more dangerous than if, say, I wasn't aware there were men in the trees, and I just drove past, giving the orange warning cones a goodly berth like the conscientious motorist that I am?

MercatorNet on animals and personhood:

Humans are not two separate substances, but have two parts, and an ability of one part is that of forming ideas starting from what we sense, imagine, and remember; all of the latter though are functions which involve the brain. Our immaterial intelligence is thus meant to work in conjunction with our body; it is not meant to exist as an independent entity. The immaterial part of us will continue on after we die, but it is not a complete human person.

Getting back to the significance of chimps having a lot of the same DNA people do, first, to talk about DNA is to talk about something material. However, as I argue above, those who think that this proves there is no real differences between the two species are working on the faulty assumption that humans, like apes, are purely material beings.

Owen Strachan on patience:

The mature Christian is the one whose commitment to holiness transcends the principial level and extends into the practical level. Let me be very down-to-earth here, and repeat something I've said recently on this blog (not that anyone's noticed, but I'll repeat it to myself). We who blog as young men preparing for the ministry reveal that our commitment is only principial when we blog as if we have sixty years in the pastorate behind us, or as if we possess a doctorate in Wisdom Concerning All Things. We are not truly patient when we write in this way, for we are showing that we are not willing to wait for the experience that will authenticate such words and invest them with authority. Like the runner who starts a second early, we are cheating. We're getting ahead of ourselves. We need to slow down and ease off the polemics.