The Prodigal Blog

I just got home from picking my aunt up at John Wayne Airport in Costa Mesa. Her flight was scheduled to arrive at 10:50pm; I arrived 30 minutes early just in case. I've never picked anyone up at that particular airport before, so I was somewhat bewildered and dazed beyond what might be normal for me. I walked around, checked the flight information, and then made my way to a bench off to the side of the more trafficked parts of the airport. That is to say that I was not hidden from view, merely on the fringes of the main thoroughfares. I sat down, and instinctively pulled out my phone to thumb through the cheap games that come bundled in with any phone that is not intelligent enough to be considered a 'smartphone'. After failing in Snake3 for the third time, a strange thought came to my mind. "Why am I so instinctively interested in appearing busy?" I returned my phone to my pants pocket, said a prayer, and looked up and out. Someone had taken a seat on the same b...

The Consumerist posted some links to the Health Care Reform bill that is passing through the halls of our government. Honestly its very difficult to pay attention, or even want to, when the public dialog around health care reform is so polarized. So, I went ahead to take a look at the source material that's generating the controversy. Oh snap. It's 2,409 pages...I'm making these notes based the summarized version from the House Ways and Means Committee. Not noting everything, just things that strike me as interesting. CBO says that insurance coverage 32 million more people will be covered as a result of the legislation (95% of Americans) Will apparently reduce the federal deficit by $138 billion over 10 years, $1.2 trillion in the following 10 years. Major tax cut for low and middle income Americans in the form of tax credits and cost-sharing assistance. Increases payments to primary care doctors in Medicaid. Provides new, free annual wellness visits, and eliminates out‐o...

If you've been around me recently, you might have heard me babbling about making a podcast...well...we're doing it! No really. I think we're going to do it. Here's an unedited look at the creative process that we went through in naming the podcast. The place the mp3 is hosted is a temporary solution for now until we're able to come up with our own hosting solution for the mp3's. I'll be posting updates here on the progress of each episode as we're producing it. Hopefully in the future though we'll be migrating blogs to our new domain name ProdigalRadio.com. Anyways, here are some of the things to look forward to from the podcast: Unique takes and discussion on a wide range of topics including: news, music, games, movies, technology, Christianity, and Christian subcultures Musical guests and interviews Profile interviews with special guests that you may or may not know Let me know if you guys have any topic suggestions, ideas, or criticisms.

OK. Maybe it would be better to say that music can be dangerous. Let me preface this post by saying the following: 1. Music is not evil. 2. Me calling this a rant, isn't an attempt to escape genuine criticism. Fire away! 3. God has often used music to lift up my soul from the depths of indifference and sadness. 4. I believe that God uses music, and those who play it. So what exactly am I trying to get at then? I think I am trying to voice concerns about our Christian liturgical culture. Music has always been part of the worship of the people of God. Throughout time, and even into eternity we will not only be worshiping God with our hearts and our minds. But also with our singing and playing of instruments. The worship of God through music is printed throughout the entire bible. Consider the following: "David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with songs and with harps , lyres , tambourines , sistrums and cymbals ." 2 Samu...