Weekends are for Work

I had a fine time making pizza at church yesterday.

The pastor has moved the Sunday services up to 9:00 a.m., so I get to sleep half an hour later, and I’m also getting more efficient, so I no longer have to arrive two hours before the pizza is needed. That adds up to a scenario where I can sleep until the decadent hour of 6:00 a.m. and still get a decent prayer and study session in before I leave.

I used All Trumps flour for most of the day. It’s a high-gluten brand GFS sells. It makes very nice Sicilian pizza. It seems to brown up a little faster than the other stuff. But it seems sticky. I had a couple of pizzas that fought with me when I tried to remove them from the pans.

So far, I think Golden Tiger is the best choice. It works easily and doesn’t stick too much, and the pizza is good.

Maybe I just need to improve the seasoning on my pans. I’m working on that.

I sold a good number of pies, but I don’t know how many. I could have done much better, but they closed the cafe before the last service. We were putting on our popular Jesus of Nazareth play, complete with a mule and some goats, and that meant four services on Sunday instead of three.

The pastor says 344 people came to Christ this weekend, by the church’s figures. Not bad. Our goal is 100,000 by 2020.sysc

I can’t figure out how they kept the animals from pooping in church.

I could have stayed later yesterday and helped them strike the set, but I have bad memories of being squashed by a falling object the last time I tried to help. And I am concerned about their current efforts to keep the workers safe. I think everyone should wear hard hats and boots, and every job should be carefully choreographed in writing before they do anything. Until they make some changes, I won’t be comfortable working on sets. I don’t run the church, and I respect those in authority. I am not going to agitate or complain. But I’ll be volunteering for things that don’t make me so nervous.

Mike is headed for Florida. I was hoping he would be available tomorrow afternoon and evening to work in the cafe and help me test the cheese samples Sysco gave us. Unfortunately, he misunderstood my schedule, so he has conflicts, and it’s not clear when he’ll make it. He was going to make garlic rolls. Now he says he feels God pressuring him to go. Don’t know if he means it, but it would be great to have him there.

We have an interesting story in the news. Florida strawberry farmers are destroying their crops because they’re so cheap. This is sad, because food is going to waste. But it’s also great, because I can make strawberry cheesecake for the cafe, at a low price. I can also buy lots of berries to freeze. They won’t be any good for use as berries, but they’ll be fine for making the goop that holds the berries on top of the cheesecake. So later in the year, when prices go back up, I’ll be able to use cheap berries for the goop and expensive berries for berries, and the price will average out to a lower figure. I think.

I guess I should find out what Sysco charges for frozen berries. Maybe this is pointless. But in any case, this is a good time to make cheesecake.

I could also do strawberry shortcake. I love this stuff. It’s basically a giant biscuit made with sugar and butter, topped with berries in goop. You slop whipped cream on it. Wonderful. Or I could do strawberry pie, which is berries in goop in a pie crust. But I don’t want to make pie crusts. It’s a pain.

The church’s new mixer should arrive today. I’m having it delivered here. Will I be able to resist the temptation to fire it up? Probably not. Hmm…it takes 9 pounds of flour to fill it. Maybe resisting will be easier than I thought. But I’ll definitely want to hold it and love it.

My new plan is to get 10 more quarter-sheet pans and season them. Then I can make 15 or 20 crusts early in the day and put them in pans to rise. That will allow me to run off and do other things while other people put the pizzas together and bake them. I have to get myself free of the kitchen one day a week, and this should make it possible.

I picked up a De Santis Speed Scabbard to wear in the sanctuary. One of the younger guys shamed me by getting a nice belt holster, so I broke down and made the purchase. I guess this is better than digging in your pocket when trouble comes.

I had a funny feeling when I left church yesterday. I was tired, but I was sad to go home. I’ve prayed that God would weave me into the fabric of the place, and it looks like he has done that. I’m getting to know a lot of extraordinary people, and I feel much less alone than I used to.

If you’re a Christian, and you feel like you don’t fit into the secular world, you’re right. It’s not where you belong, and it will never accept you unless it can neutralize your Christianity first. The friends you’re waiting for are at church, and you should go meet them.

Look What Happened in Two Years

Here I present more evidence that the Chinese are going to eat our lunch.

I have been cooking in my church’s kitchen. Like most kitchens, this kitchen contains no decent knives. The other day, I took my cheap Chinese cleaver up there to slice pizza toppings. I decided to get a cleaver for them to keep.

I ordered my cleaver a few years back, from The Wok Shop. I probably paid ten bucks. That’s what they charge now. It’s carbon steel, which means it rusts. It sharpens up like a razor in less than a minute. It holds an edge a good long time. It minces garlic better than any American or European kitchen knife. You can scrape stuff with the end. It will cut onions in slices as thin as a business card. You can carry chopped food on the side of it. You can tenderize meat with the dull side. Don’t get me started. It’s a miracle knife.

I placed a new Wok Shop order. Today the new cleavers arrived. I got one just like mine for church, plus a meat cleaver and a smaller (supposedly) vegetable cleaver for myself. All three knives were sharp when they arrived. Two were sharp enough to shave with.

Here’s a photo.

My old cleaver is the one on the left. Notice the crappy workmanship. There are lots of odd dings in the steel. The weird bands of oxidation are irregular, too. It works great, but the workmanship screams “CHINA.”

Now look at the pretty cleaver next to it. The stamped characters are done much better. The bands are even. They’ve made curves on the edge and back. There are no dings in the metal. It looks sort of polished. It’s like the two cleavers came from different planets.

Now, maybe the Wok Shop found a new supplier, and nothing has happened in China. But I don’t think that’s what happened. Chinese goods are getting better, across the board. If you buy tools, you already know this. My old cleaver just turned three, and it’s nothing like the one I just bought.

Incidentally, a lot of people get excited about Chan Chi Kee cleavers. I wouldn’t put much faith in them without trying one first. Back when I got my cleaver, very few people had heard of Chan Chi Kee. Nuts on knife boards were starting to talk about them. They got a lot of publicity over the web over the last couple of years. Now people act like Chan Chi Kee is the gold standard. Maybe it is. I don’t have one, so I can’t tell you if they’re the best Chinese cleavers. I very much doubt it. In China, commodity goods like this typically come from very similar factories, and they tend to be of pretty uniform quality. And Chan Chi Kee cleavers were cheaper before people started asking for them. Maybe there is a physical reason why they cost more now, but I suspect the main reason is PR.

I don’t see how a Chan Chi Kee could be any better than the one I just bought, or my old cleaver. I don’t think the Chinese are lying awake nights, reinventing carbon steel.

Oh. This is disturbing. My old cleaver cost twice as much as the new one. I just looked it up. Same product, better workmanship, half the cost.

Some day, little American kids will think we’re lying when we tell them unskilled union workers used to get $75 an hour. The Chinese will see to that. Some people claim the Chinese will eventually have to charge more for their labor. Sure, when they find jobs for 1.5 (or whatever it is) billion hungry people. Until then, my bet is on the law of supply and demand. And if the Chinese multiplied their average wage by ten, they’d still beat our butts.

Then there’s India.

I plan to enjoy the great cheap tools until I have to go live in a government-subsidized hole.

Correction

Turns out the heavy cleaver on the right is Taiwanese. Their labor rate is 8 times China’s, according to the owner of Grizzly Industrial, yet they managed to supply a very nice heavy cleaver which retails for $20. I assume, then, that a Chinese job would be considerably cheaper.

Reproducible Pizza Results

I made another pizza with both Sorrento and Arrezzio cheeses. I learned that the cheese conclusions I drew the first time I made one of these are still true. Hey, it may sound like I achieved nothing, but this kind of research is important. No matter how big a drag it is. Making delicious pizza. Over and over.

I also learned that everything I concluded about overnight pizza fermenting was nonsense. I fermented this baby in a couple of hours, and it was very much like the one I fermented overnight. So I still don’t see what the fuss is about.

That Publix pan is a wonder. It fries the bottom of the crust beautifully. The texture is breathtaking. If you live near a Publix supermarket, try one. I no longer recall the exact name of the thing, but it’s about 8″ square, with sides maybe 1 1/2″ high. The inner surface is some kind of nonstick, but it’s not Teflon. I believe it’s aluminum oxide. Sounds crazy, but it works, and you can’t burn it.

A cast iron skillet won’t do this, unless you go through a lot of pointless work. The Publix pan works like this: put dough in pan, let dough rise, put sauce and stuff on dough, put pan in oven. Bam, as Emeril says. You have a perfect crust, except possibly for a little stone touch-up. No pre-baking, no preheating the pan. I suggest you try it.

I put the pan as close to the lower heating element as I can, and I bake for 9 minutes. I make sure the lower element is cycling on when I put the pan in, so the element will be red-hot for part of the time the pan is over it. When the pie is done, I pop it out and give it 30-60 seconds on the stone, but you really have to watch it, because the pan gets it very done, and the stone cooks the pie fast.

The pie I just made was beyond bizarre. I used my usual no-oil recipe (oil added to the outside later), but instead of activating the yeast, I sprinkled instant dry yeast over the dough as soon as I got the water and salt and pepper mixed into it. Then I mashed the dough around and folded it until the yeast was pretty much inside the dough. Sounds nutty, but it was great. There was yeast stuck to the outside of the dough, and I thought it would be nasty, but it was perfect.

I’m starting to wonder if there is a wrong way to combine pizza dough ingredients.

I got some new stuff for the garage today. A while back, I got a 16N Jacobs chuck, because the used 14N I bought to save money was junk. The 16N was a new chuck some guy had bought but not used, and while I got the chuck, I did not get the key. Today a new key arrived. It’s so big, you could literally use it as a tiny hammer.

Now I can actually use my chuck.

I also got several new center drills. All but one are cobalt. The other is carbide. I have HSS center drills, and they’re crap. I keep hearing how great HSS is. They’re crap. I’m sorry. I can’t help it. It’s not my fault. After you use one twice, it stops working. When I finally bought a big drill bit set, I went with cobalt, because the difference is very obvious, and the cost is not much different.

Maybe the HSS bits I’ve used were lame imports, and that’s why they got dull so fast. Maybe I applied too much pressure. I don’t care. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life trying to prove everyone who promotes HSS to me is right. If I’m wrong, I’m out maybe a hundred bucks I didn’t need to spend, and meanwhile, I have tools I can actually use. If my bad technique is the problem, isn’t the smart thing to buy tools I can’t hurt with bad technique? Obviously, I should try to do things well, but every little bit of insurance helps, and it’s extremely annoying to have to quit a job because a 30¢ drill bit is fried.

I tried to use my drill press to take the lower handguard retention pin out of my Vz 58, before I was persuaded to beat it hard enough to drive it out with a punch, and I learned something. Drill presses are not rigid. I knew that already, but I didn’t know how true it was.

I have a big industrial Rockwell press with a cast iron head, and the drill bit still wandered all over the pin. Even when I tried a thick center drill, it wandered. Some of this may be due to a need to tighten up the head, I suppose, but I can tell this thing will never drill like a mill. So if you’re looking for serious drilling technology, my recommendation is to get a drill press and a small mill. I may be wrong, but that seems like the way to go. You can get a little used mill for a few hundred bucks, and on those occasions when you need a mill or a rigid drill, you will get down on your knees and thank God you bought it. When you need a mill, you NEED a mill.

Truthfully, I’m a little worried that the drill press will turn out to be useless, but I guess that’s just neurosis. I’m sure it’s fine when you’re not trying to drill rock-hard Eastern Bloc steel that came from melted-down Trabant pistons.

I ended up putting my drill press vise in my milling machine vise! That was my strategy for drilling the pin out. But when I mounted the giant chuck on the mill, I realized I had no key. I tried to tighten it as best I could, but I couldn’t get it tight enough to do the job. The bit kept receding into the chuck. That’s a good thing, because otherwise, I would have wasted three hours trying to drill an inch-long pin out.

Those pins are insanely tight. You have to beat them so hard, it’s scary. I marred mine up, but instead of buying a new one for three bucks, I think I’ll make one on the lathe, slightly thinner than the original, with some means of yanking on it. Maybe a loop in one end. I realize pins in guns should be tight enough to resist falling out when the guns fire, but this thing was way past that degree of tightness, and anyway, my gun is semi-auto, so it’s not like it’s getting pounded ten times a second.

Now that I think about it, a brass or aluminum pin might not be a bad idea. Easy to make, easy to hammer out, and it won’t hurt anything around it. Brass would be pretty, too. And I have lots of 360 brass. I don’t know if brass galls when it contacts steel. Something to consider. I also have 304 stainless. That would work, and I wouldn’t have to blue it.

Open a Hailing Frequency

Reader blindshooter has put in a prayer request, in comments:

Pray for me, my wife has decided she don’t want to come home anymore. After I gave her a quarter mil to start a new business. Turns out a good chunk of the bucks went somewhere besides the new business. I guess I will need the services of a law firm soon.

My faith will see me through what ever comes.

Sorry to see this happen. If it were me, I’d start things off with a couple of days of fasting and prayer.

I am a Dedicated Servant

Yesterday I made a test pizza with Sorrento and Arrezzio cheeses on different sides. It was an 8″ square pie, baked in a phenomenal Publix pan with lots of oil. The dough was allowed to ferment overnight, with very little yeast. I put provolone under the mozzarella to simulate my church blend.

These are great cheeses. They bake up beautifully. The Sorrento barely browns, and the Arrezzio browns more, but less than Costco cheese. They taste very good, but the flavors are not very strong. They seem less bland than Grande, though.

My conclusion? Sorrento is probably the better of the two. It seems to taste better. Still, nothing compares to Costco Kirkland mozzarella! That stuff is touched by the hands of the angels.

The all-night ferment gave me a chewier crust than usual, with a very nice crunchy outside, but some of the new qualities may have been due to the large amount of oil I used and the dough’s failure to rise as high as usual.

Research is arduous. Fortunately, I am highly industrious and have an incredible capacity to endure suffering.

Deliver me From the Deep-Fryer

I saw a confusing scripture yesterday. It was John 16:33. I don’t recall the exact phrasing, but an accurate paraphrasing would be, “You will have tribulation in this life, but have courage, because I have seen to it that no harm will come to you.” I am quite sure it said no harm would come to those hearing the message. The speaker was Jesus.

You can imagine why that bothered me. Paul was stoned. He was flogged over and over, and flogging is not a minor thing. If they did it today, using a proper flagellum with weighted tips, the victims would have to be sewn up afterward to close the wounds. The flogging would send them into shock. Paul was also beaten with wooden batons. Eleven of the Apostles died martyr’s deaths. The one that died from natural causes was immersed in hot oil. Is that “no harm”? If so, what would constitute harm?

I looked it up. It actually says “I have overcome the world,” not “I have seen to it that no harm will come to you.” I cite the New King James Version. The Complete Jewish Bible says something similar.

Let me check the Greek in PC Study Bible.

The word translated as “tribulation” literally means “pressure,” and the word translated as “overcome” means “subdued.”

I don’t know why human beings make up scriptures or accept implausible quotations without researching them. These are very bad things to do.

Michael Reagan is adopted, and he is a Christian. But in the past, he rejected God, because he thought the Bible said people of illegitimate birth could not go to heaven. In fact, the passage he had in mind (Deuteronomy 23:2) says. “A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord.” It’s part of the Mosaic law, and it has nothing to do with going to heaven. Because Reagan didn’t check the scripture out thoroughly, he was away from God for a long time.

How many people would bother going to a Bible to clear up a scripture they remembered incorrectly, or which had been quoted to them with errors? People tend to swallow what they read and hear, without chewing.

Imagine teaching people they would never be harmed in this world. Think of the disappointment and shock you would be setting before them. God should do miraculous things in our lives. We should expect that. But it’s crazy to tell people they are entitled to gentler treatment than Jesus, Paul, and the disciples.

Regarding the story of John and the oil, I have been told two different things. One is that he was not harmed at all, that the attempted atrocity was committed before a crowd in the Coliseum, and that many were converted following the spectacle. According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, that comes from Tertullian. The other story comes from a sermon I heard. It said John was messed up to the point where he was crippled. Kind of looks like the sermon was wrong. So maybe “no harm” did come to John, but the other Apostles could not make the same claim.

Now that I think about it, John was sent to a prison island to live out his days. I would call that harm.

My belief is that unpleasant things happen to us sometimes, but that God turns them into blessings. Even the murders of the Apostles contributed to their eternal rewards in heaven. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

The upshot here is that we lose skirmishes but win the war. In fact, it was won before the world was created.

All in all, however, I hope that if I’m ever thrown in boiling oil, I will have the same result John did, instead of coming to resemble a giant Buffalo chicken wing.

The Slop Flies on Friday

Obamacare has been signed into law, and I feel healthier already. I think I’ll get pregnant with octuplets, demand free prenatal care, and then decide to abort in the eighth month, because a pregnancy belly makes me look fat.

Obamacare is an amazing thing. Like the mortgage mess, it’s an example of knowledgeable people going against their own best interests, in a way that is bound to cause great misery.

My take on things like this is that they have their root in the supernatural. There is no other way to explain such a dumb course of action, taken by so many people who knew better. Democrat politicians are virtually begging to be recalled. When has that ever happened?

They supported Obama’s law, which is extremely unpopular among Republicans and Democrats, in order to prop up a very unpopular President. There is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and we know they wouldn’t do it out of principle.

God clouds people’s judgments and lets them believe lies, when they’re far enough out of his will.

Obamacare will be a disaster, sooner or later. I wonder when the pain will come. I heard Rush Limbaugh’s show a day or two ago, and a lady in the insurance business called in. She said insurance companies jack up their rates in February, and she predicted 200%-300% increases. She was afraid these increases would come too late to affect upcoming elections, because elections are held in the fall. That would be a textbook example of a curse at work. Imagine people voting to perpetuate this insanity, two months before they understand what they’ve done.

If God is merciful, we’ll start suffering sooner, not later. Nothing is worse than prospering at the beginning of a self-destructive course of action. This is how junkies, alcoholics, and compulsive gamblers are made.

I wish Christians were doing more to help the poor. I believe our failings may have left this opening. I’m not sure about it. The fact is, bad behavior and lack of faith will lead to poverty, even when charities exist, so maybe it’s not possible for us to close the opening. Maybe God himself would stand against it. Jesus told us we would always have poor people among us. Still, any time believers fail, it leaves a way for the enemy to get in.

Aaron sent me a link to a wonderful Dennis Prager essay, explaining why secular Jews support Obamacare. Politically, Jews are suicide bombers. They vote against their own best interests, and the interests of the countries in which they live, in support of the religion of leftism. By and large, they are committed to justice, but they have abandoned the God who created their justice-driven culture. Man cannot solve his own problems without God’s help. That means obedience, faith, humility, and total submission. You can’t get these essential ingredients from Marxism Lite.

Secular thinking just doesn’t pan out, in the long run. That includes secular pride in our species. I have often noted the giant error Americans commit, when they claim human beings instinctively love liberty. I sometimes cite Star Trek. Kirk was always spouting off about the impossibility of domesticating and enslaving earthlings. He could not have been more wrong.

The history of humanity shows that often, it doesn’t take much pressure to enslave us. The Bible provides a proper method for people who desire to become slaves; you allow your ear to be pierced in a certain way. People were allowed to make that choice, and many did. Today many Americans are doing the same basic thing, voting for leftists. You give up control of your wealth, which is tantamount to selling your freedom piecemeal, because you can’t use freedom unless you have wealth. In exchange, you get to live like a hog at a factory farm. Mommy-State Dearest slops you and hoses out your pen, and in return, you accept a poor but stable standard of living, and your liberty is restricted.

We were created to trust God to give us health and prosperity and safety. Instead we rely on politicians, who are among the people we respect least. Crazy, if you think about it. We trust people like Jim Traficant and William Jefferson and Randy Cunningham more than we trust God.

Everyone has faith and lives by it. The question is, in whom is that faith placed?

God knew all this when he tried to get the Israelites to accept a church-state. Through Samuel, he told them kings would steal from them, treat them unfairly, and send their men to die in wars. Everything Samuel predicted came to pass; even David and Solomon did great evil. And we are no different from the Israelites. They’re at the center of God’s story. We’re peripheral, and unlike the Jews, we have no promise that we will be preserved as a nation. Compared to Israel, Gentile nations are disposable.

In continuing their blind devotion to Marx, Jews are perpetuating the decision they made back in Saul’s day. And any Gentile who votes the same way is doing the same thing.

On a lighter note, I’m planning to get back to rifle shooting. I got some .17 HMR ammunition. The price has dropped back to sane levels. I’m also finishing up the modifications on my Vz. 58/CZ858 (whichever you choose to call it).

Here’s something for suffering Googlers. If you bought a FAB Defense handguard, you need to know this. To remove the old handguard, place the gun on a very hard surface. You can put something under it to protect the finish, but don’t use anything thick. Take a punch and a sledge (I used a 3-pound hammer) and beat on the right-hand end of the retainer pin under the receiver. You may have to hit it really hard, but it will eventually come out.

To put the FAB part on, force it. The rear will be gouged by the receiver, but the gouges will be hidden once it’s on. Make sure you install the rails before installing the handguard.

I’m going to try to install mine today, and I may Dremel some of the polymer away to make it go on easier.

I still want a decent semi-auto long-distance rifle. The Kommunist Kannon (PSL/Romak III/FPK) isn’t that great. The trigger will slap you silly, leading to numbness and poor accuracy, and very few people report tight groups, especially with a hot barrel. Also, the supply of good Russian surplus ammunition (7N1) is gone. I think it may be time to get an AR15 and unload the PSL.

The Vz 58 is great for short distances, so I don’t need a light AR15 which is highly portable. That means a .308 with a varmint barrel. I think Rock River is the way to go.

This would pretty much complete my defensive arsenal. Not that I foresee a reason to shoot anyone 200 yards away. Or at any distance, for that matter. Prepare for war, if you want peace.

I also need a holster for church. The pocket method is working fine, but a holster would provide faster access. In the outside world, it would be a pain, but in church, it’s cool, and I can wear a shirt or jacket over it to provide concealment. And I feel like getting a Galco Miami Classic II for my .38 Super, for more formal occasions. Maybe it’s possible to get different holsters for the same harness, so I can use it for the Glock, too.

We have a lady armorbearer now. That’s pretty cool. And it makes sense. The greatest church-shooting hero of all time is a woman named Jeanne Assam.

I still have no pimp handles for the .38. Sad.

More

More info for Vz 58 owners.

It turns out the FAB Defense foregrip (pistol grip) with the integrated flashlight holder is worthless for the Vz 58 rifle. The rear of the pistol grip interferes with the magazine, no matter how far forward you put the grip. You can put the grip on the gun once the magazine is installed, but in order to remove the magazine, you have to take the grip off. Not really what you want to be doing while defending your house at 3 a.m.

Another fun issue: you can’t change the battery in the light or laser without removing it from the mount, unless your light or laser unscrews from the front. My light works that way, but my laser does not.

I’m emailing Israeli-Weapons.com, trying to get a refund. They don’t seem interested in returning my correspondence.

Another problem: I bought a plastic holder for a 1″ flashlight or laser. Israeli-Weapons thoughtfully includes a 1″ rear cap with a pressure switch. But the holder is too small for a 1″ flashlight cap, including the one they supply. How about that?

I had to put the holder on a milling machine and cut a hole in it to make my flashlight fit with the cap behind the holder. That way, you can screw the cap into the flashlight when it’s installed in the holder.

Show Your Pass at the Gate

Tomorrow is shaping up to be an exciting day, by my standards.

I have doubts about the Bouncer flour I’ve been using to make pizza at church, so I put a couple of pounds in a bag, and I’m going to make test pies tomorrow. I also took a pound of Sorrento cheese and a pound of Arrezzio cheese, which is distributed by Sysco.

We had toppings that were not going to make it to Sunday, so I took some of those, too. I had to chuck a lot of sauce due to age considerations, so I stuck some in a bag, and it’s in my fridge. This stuff will be fine tomorrow and Friday, but by Sunday, it would be too risky to use it.

I have to see if either cheese compares to Kirkland, and I also plan to do a sauce experiment. If it works, I should end up with the tastiest pizza sauce imaginable. Mike was jealous when I described it to him. I have a secret ingredient.

Pizza hobbyists have been needling me because I make dough in an hour, instead of letting it ferment for days. In the past, when I’ve tried leaving dough in the fridge overnight, it has been a little better than usual (I think), but not enough to justify the aggravation. And who can plan pizza a day in advance? That’s insane. Meatloaf, you can plan a day in advance. Because you don’t care if you ever see it on the table. But pizza is too good to put off.

I’m going to slap some dough together today with less yeast than usual, and I’ll let it rise for a day. We’ll see what happens.

I know sourdough would be worth the wait, but plain old yeast?

Pizza nuts talk about “poolishes” and “preferments.” I’d be pretty excited about those things, if I were not already making the best pizza I know of.

Mike may be here on Saturday. If so, Sunday will be interesting. I’ve threatened to turn him loose in the church kitchen, making garlic rolls. Should be a blast. I was hoping he’d be here early enough on Saturday to help me make test pies, but maybe we can do that on Monday.

I have to hit the store to get my secret ingredient. In fact, I need to get two versions of it. Hope it works.

Free Pizza

Last night, I believe I moved 6 pizzas, not including two I had to bake and give away. The cafe didn’t get much business.

The pastor who does the Tuesday services has a policy of locking the cafe doors while he’s preaching, to keep people in the sanctuary. That means you sell maybe two pizzas before the service, and then you get another chance at around 9:30 p.m., while people are leaving. So there is a limit to what you can do.

A couple of weeks ago I sold around 20 pizzas on a Tuesday. I’m not sure how that happened. I think they promoted it during the service.

Anyway, I’m thinking I should drop Tuesdays. It’s not worth it to drive up there and spend six hours just to make the church $60. And that figure is reduced when I have to throw out ingredients due to bad business. I can show someone else how to do it. I’m planning to write a manual.

Trinity is a church, not a restaurant. That means they want people in the sanctuary, not the cafe. I believe I overestimated their interest in making the cafe run at a profit. The church has a huge mortgage to pay, and the impression I got from what I was told was that they would like the cafe to do well, but now I think I may have misunderstood. I think they just want a credible cafe that runs briefly for short periods on Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and if it runs at a loss, it’s okay, as long as it’s not a big loss.

I have to get serious about finding people to do what I do. I’m supposed to be an armorbearer, and the head armorbearer needs me on Sundays, so I need to free myself up. Knowing the way the church runs, I know the cafe might not exist in three months, but the armorbearers will always be needed. I want to be where I’ll do some long-term good.

We could net the church $50,000 or so per year if we made an effort. More, if we really tried. But maybe that would require putting too much energy into business.

It can be frustrating, trying to help a church. People get very excited about projects when they start, but after a short time, the energy tends to disappear, and things just peter out. I had a warehouse full of construction materials I wanted to give the church, and they were interested at first, but over a year later, nothing had happened. I couldn’t get anyone to come check it out. In the end, all this stuff was given away to the person who cleaned out the warehouse. I could have sold it myself and given the church the money.

Maybe the best way to help a church is not to give them your ideas. Maybe the smart move is to keep your ideas, make the money yourself, and give out of the proceeds. The cafe is never going to make money running twelve hours a week, but a pizzeria could make me money, and I could support the church out of the profits.

I’ll say this. I’ve learned a great deal working at the cafe. I’m much more efficient than I used to be. Last night I arrived at 5:30, and by 6:30, I had a whole bunch of crusts rising in pans, and there was pizza ready to eat.

Our new mixer will be here next week. Once we get that, I should be able to come in early, make 20 crusts, and then leave the rest of the work to other people. That should get me out of the kitchen so I can do my other job.

I don’t know where we’re headed, but so far, it’s been tremendous fun.

Pope Prius I Drops a Curse on Me

Mike has failed me. He was supposed to be in Miami this week. We were going to cook at church, possibly leading to our being held hostage by the crowd and forced to continue cooking until the gas ran out.

It’s a big week, too. First of all, next week is the Jesus of Nazareth play, so attendance will be good. Easter brings the contrite out of their holes. Second, I have new sample cheeses to try.

Our Sysco rep brought Sorrento whole-milk mozzarella and Arrezzio mozzarella. I heard a rumor that Arrezzio is the same as Kirkland, so I had to try it. I wanted to bake a bunch of test pies, with Mike’s help. And he’s not here…because his PRIUS is sick.

I asked him what he was doing for clean laundry. [rimshot]

He said lived across the street from Sears, so he just walked over there and bought new huskies.

I had forgotten huskies. The only thing worse than being a kid who wears fat pants is being a kid who wears fat pants with the word “HUSKY” attached to the waistband.

Anyway, if he can get his Prius working (I think the agitator is bent), he’ll be here this weekend. If he could be here on Saturday, it would be tremendous. We could occupy the church kitchen and have the armorbearers judge the cheese.

Speaking of fat pants, I won’t be wearing mine any time soon. By the end of the week, with God’s help, I’ll probably be down 28 pounds from August. At that point, if I still look bad, it will be because I’m ugly, not fat. There’s a difference.

The cast of the play will need food. Mike HAS to be here. We can try to kill them. Talk about epic. Pray for Mike’s Prius!

What should I make for the cast? Just pizza? I was thinking ziti, chili, macaroni and cheese, brownies, and maybe cheesecake. Not all of these things at once. But I was thinking I might make some of them.

I still have to try Cento cherry tomatoes on pizza. They’re sitting in my kitchen cabinet. I’m sure they’ll be no good, since other people have tried them, but there is no substitute for personal research.

These are the exciting things that occupy my mind today.

Let’s all Take a Deep Breath

Yesterday I wrote an entry about working in the kitchen at my church, and I pointed out that I had to be careful where I left a sharp Chinese cleaver, because the women who worked there were liable to injure themselves with it. I mentioned a lady who cut herself with it because she used it as a spatula. And I noted that women don’t seem to do very well with sharp knives.

People seem to think I was expressing contempt for the people in the kitchen, particularly the lady who cut herself. Sorry if I gave you that impression, but that wasn’t the point. As a matter of fact, the lady who cut herself is an unusually sharp and classy person. Speaks three languages fluently. The fact that she doesn’t know what to do with a Chinese cleaver does not make her stupid.

As for the generalization about women and knives, I’ve found it to be true. Most men are bad about sharpening their kitchen knives, but I’ve only seen women complain about knives being too sharp. Men tend to like sharp tools.

The safety concern is very real. When you work in an institutional kitchen, everybody shares equipment, and if the workers are volunteers, they often don’t know what they’re doing. No one who goes into a church kitchen is going to expect to pick up a knife that will pop the tiniest hairs off an arm and leave nothing behind it. They’ll assume it’s dull like all the other knives. One of the most likely ways to learn differently is to carve up a hand.

I can’t go to church and line everyone up and ask who is going to defy my expectations. I can’t hold a knife safety class. That means I have to make sure that if I have a sharp knife, nobody gets a chance to use it without asking me first. I should never have left my cleaver where other people could see it.

I ordered a cleaver for the church because I’m not willing going to suffer, using the church’s horrible knives to chop pizza toppings. I guess I’ll get a diamond hone, too. And I’m getting a Chinese Chan Chi Kee meat cleaver and a smaller Chinese vegetable cleaver for myself. I’m sold on the cheap Chinese stuff. You can put a fine edge on a Chinese carbon-steel cleaver in ten seconds, and my cleaver outperforms a Shun by a mile.

My Shun cleaver hasn’t been used since maybe a month after I bought it. That was years ago. There is a reason for that. Experience proved it wasn’t a very good cleaver. If it had worked well, I’d still be using it. Sometimes you have to admit the pretty toy you bought was a waste of money.

I guess I could donate the Shun to the church. But I don’t believe in giving God hand-me-downs I wouldn’t want for myself. There’s always the Salvation Army. They could sell it, along with the chipped Shun santoku I never use. And my Tojiro nakiri.

A commenter recommended Old Hickory carbon-steel knives. One of the few things I got from my grandmother’s house was her old rusty butcher knife. I don’t know if it’s an Old Hickory or not. I’m afraid to use it, because it’s kind of a museum piece. Fortunately I have a huge Forschner scimitar knife to fill the need.

Plus More Food Network Fail

I had a fine day of pizza-making at Trinity Church.

Today I decided to go Hawaiian. I made pizzas with pineapple, onions, ricotta, and ham. They were very good, but for some reason, Hawaiian toppings seem to work best on thin pizza. And the people at my church are addicted to pepperoni. I had a hard time getting rid of the Hawaiians, except for the few highly cultured people who knew the score. They were thrilled.

I also made pies with kalamatas, onions, green peppers, and ham. I am told a lot of people at Trinity have problems with ham, because it’s “slave food.” Arrggh. Where did this myth come from? Slaves ate pork. No doubt about it. So did their rich masters. In the South, pork is not considered poverty food. Everybody loves it. So giving someone pork to eat is not a sign of disrespect.

The crazy thing about the “slave food” idea is that Muslims like to push it. And who treats black people worse than Muslims? They were big in the slave trade. Still are! And Mohammed was a red-headed white man.

Whatever. I’m not going to quit putting pork on pizza. I wonder if people realize pepperoni is pork.

There is nothing like pork. No other readily available meat can begin to do what it does. Pork is magical. Pork means ribs, bacon, country ham, prosciutto, serrano ham, chicharrones, biscuits, cream gravy, redeye gravy, salt pork, lechon asado, and ham hocks. We’re talking about some of the finest eating available. I love a good prime steak, but other than that, beef isn’t in the same league.

I wish I hadn’t brought this up. I’m planning to start a fast soon. Ordinarily, I don’t like to talk about fasts with much specificity, because Jesus cautioned people about passing themselves off as hyper-righteous while fasting. But since I admit I’m fasting for purely selfish reasons, and because I don’t pretend to feel spiritual while I’m doing it, I have no problem mentioning this fast. I plan to whine pretty much continuously. That’s just how I roll.

I’m fasting because I want more power and freedom in my life. And I want God to help my dad and my sister. To me, it’s like taking a flea dip. It’s all about me and my needs. I got some good stuff when I fasted before, and I want more. How’s that for asceticism?

We still have no slicer at church, so I took my $10 Chinese cleaver. Don’t be foolish and buy a Shun or another high-end Japanese vegetable cleaver until you’ve tried the Chinese carbon-steel jobs. This thing has nice hard steel, it sharpens fast, and it will take an edge so fine you can hold a paper towel in front of you and wave the cleaver through it like a light saber. Okay, not quite like a light saber. But it will cut all the way through in one easy pass.

A lady volunteer thought it was a spatula, and she pried a slice of pizza off a pan. Later, when I realized this, I told her to watch out, because it was actually a razor-sharp knife. Then she showed me the cut on her hand. She was lucky; it was tiny. You could easily cut your self to the bone with this thing before you realized you had a problem.

It’s frustrating, having sharp kitchen knives around women. They never expect knives to be sharp, and it seems like whenever a woman picks up a sharp kitchen knife, the blood starts to flow. You have to watch them and hide the knives. I tried to keep mine to myself today, but she found it anyway.

My mother used to get mad at me for sharpening knives. Can you imagine?

The Chinese cleaver has mysterious powers. For some reason, you can mince with it, much faster and better than you could with a regular knife with an edge of the same length. You can load food on it and move it. You can cut food–even big food–in slices so thin they’re transparent. It’s sturdy enough to cut meat. It’s thin enough to cut potatoes and yuca without being dangerous. It adds iron to your food. And when you use it, you look like Bruce Lee.

I’m getting one for the church. But where will we store it to keep women from killing themselves while using it to flip pancakes? I’m also getting a smaller cleaver for myself. Six bucks. I mean COME ON. How can I not? You can find them at Wok Shop.

I have a Shun and a Tojiro. The Shun is worthless. Alton Brown is a fine person, but the Shun is still worthless, as is my Shun santoku, which chipped badly from the terrible stress of sitting in a dishwasher. The Shun cleaver is the wrong shape and size for anything you will want to do with it. I’ll bet I haven’t used mine in three years.

The Tojiro is a nice cleaver for big jobs, but it was very expensive, and I’m afraid to use it, and you can get a Chan Chee Ki for like $25.

The down side of Chinese cleavers is that they rust, IF you can’t figure out how to use a paper towel. However you don’t have to worry about big pieces falling out of them because the dishwasher is just too stressful for their dainty constitutions. Alton Brown hand-washes his Shuns, handling them as though they were booby-trapped hemophiliac burn victims with painful fractures that needed to be set.

No wonder. If you let one drop into your sink, you would find chunks of it on the bottom later.

The crazy thing about Brown and his washing technique is that he demonstrates it in a video intended to sell Shun knives. “Look what a pain it is to take care of these! And a set only costs three thousand dollars! Buy a bunch of them! Wait, come back!”

My Shun bird’s beak paring knife is also worthless. My $5 Forschner holds a better edge and sharpens faster, and it’s a more useful size and shape. And it’s tougher. I’m not quite sure what it is about the Shun that’s supposed to make it desirable.

If you like cool knives, buy Shuns. If you like to cook, buy Chinese.

No, don’t buy Shuns no matter what. They are the beige minivans of Japanese knives. There are far cooler knives available on the web. If you’re going to buy cuteness instead of functionality, do it right. Go to Japanesechefknife.com and look around. Check out the Mr. Itou knives. You’ll wonder why anyone ever bought a Shun.

I wonder why I did.

God is really something. Imagine a being who could give me something so wonderful after a fast that I would come to look forward to fasting. I am determined to move forward and build on what I have.

I better have some pie.

More

Turns out my Japanese bird’s beak knife is actually a Tojiro, not a Shun. Whatever it is, it does not hold an edge, and the rest of my comments still apply.

This is Why we Should Have Stayed in Vietnam

I wrote a while back about a strange deliverance I had had. I feel like there is a presence that tends to make me crabby and anxious. I can physically feel it. And sometimes in response to prayer or fasting it leaves for fairly long periods. That’s great, because I don’t want to be obnoxious and critical and nervous.

I’m planning to do some real fasting in the near future, and this thing is one of the reasons. I wrote about my plans this week.

Today, the presence is gone. Why is that? I think it’s a matter of anticipation. It knows a beating is on the way, and it’s giving up and lying low.

It’s like Psalm 37 says: “For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.” I think that’s supposed to apply to people more than spirits, but God runs spirits off, just as he ran the Canaanites out of Israel or the moneychangers out of the temple. The same scripture seems to apply.

“I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green bay tree, yet he passed away, and lo, he was not. Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.”

Now I’m just typing stuff because I enjoy pulling up things I’ve memorized. It’s great not having to have a Bible handy every time I want to refer to scripture.

Currently working on Psalm 138.

“A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most high, thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.”

“Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.”

Okay, I’ll stop.

Low Discount Prices!

Earlier this week, I read a familiar Bible passage and got something new from it.

Every charismatic or evangelical Christian knows Ephesians 6, with its description of the armor of God:

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints . . .

I think this passage was intended to encourage us to seek God’s righteousness. In other words, the righteousness you can only have after the Holy Spirit works in you.

It says, “be strong in the Lord.” The phrase “in the Lord” is one of those expressions Christians toss around without making any effort to understand what it means. But it must mean something, or it wouldn’t be in the Bible. And “be strong in the Lord” must mean something.

I think it means, “Use the Lord’s strength.” The New Testament often reminds us that we can’t be good on our own. Why would it do that, if there were no other hope of being good? I don’t think that would make sense.

In Galatians 5, we are told that the Holy Spirit will supernaturally provide us with the following positive characteristics, known as “the fruit of the Spirit”: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Oddly, faith is listed as a fruit of the Spirit and also as a gift of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12).

Notice that these are not known as “the fruit of hard work.”

Galatians 5:16 says, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” What does “walk in the Spirit” mean? I don’t believe it means “think of spiritual things” or “try to be spiritual.” That would be silly, because that’s what the Jews had to do before the New Covenant. They had to rely on their own efforts. We are supposed to have a different deal with God.

I believe it means “develop God’s character and power supernaturally, through the Holy Spirit, and walk in your new nature.”

It would not make sense for the Bible to tell us to do something we can’t do. But refraining from sin is, for all practical purposes, impossible. This is especially true for addicts and other people living in demonic bondage. What good does it do to tell such a person, “Walk in the Spirit, bro!” It’s not very helpful. If you have a bondage you hate, you’re already trying to get rid of it. Being reminded that you need to quit, and that you’re not being spiritual, is not a great blessing.

We are told God will give us ways to escape temptation. Does that mean every time you feel tempted, you’re going to find a practical, useful way to get out of it, in the moment of temptation? It does not seem to work that way in practice. It has not worked for me, and I have considerable faith in God. The promise must be true, however. So what does it mean? Maybe it means that over time, through fasting and prayer in the Spirit and casting out demons, you’ll be given the supernatural power to beat temptation. Maybe the failures are okay, because they serve to remind you that your own efforts were useless.

That’s how it worked for me. I stuffed myself all the time–a chronic sin–and I could only quit for finite periods, and then I went back to it. Then God delivered me from the problem. Now I’m still tempted, but I can say no, on a consistent and prolonged basis. I’m down about 26 pounds. I can move. I can wear some of my “real” clothes. I feel comfortable.

Drug and alcohol addicts who have cried out to God have had the same experience. At 3:07 p.m., you’re hopelessly addicted. At 3:08 p.m., you’re free for life. It happens. It’s not even rare.

God gives people supernatural character. He runs off the demons that tempt them. Put it together, and you get freedom.

One of the big problems with evangelicals and charismatics is that we tend to demand God’s blessings without building the right foundations. You can say, “no evil shall befall me, neither shall any plague come nigh my dwelling” all day, but if you’re in line for a dose of chastisement, you should not expect it to work all that well. If your behavior and faith are wrong, you will have problems. You can’t leave the screens off your windows and then complain about flies. Although salvation is free, power and protection and other blessings are partly contingent on good behavior and clean motives and thoughts. To receive them, we need to put on the armor of God. But it appears to be impossible without the power of the Holy Spirit.

I’ll tell you right now, there is no possibility that I’ll succeed at it in my own strength. It’s not even worth trying. I know myself. I can’t change my behavior permanently or thoroughly, and even if I could, I can’t change my attitudes and desires. I have iniquities, which are persistent evil inclinations. I procrastinate. I am contentious sometimes. I am often lazy. I tend to ridicule people and get angry for no good reason. I have problems with lust. These things don’t rule every second of my life, but they pop up and cause problems. I can’t get rid of them just by thinking happy thoughts. The human mind doesn’t work that way, and even if it did, some or all of these things have their roots in the presence and activity of hostile spirits. Stuart Smalley can’t help you with those. You’re not good enough, and you’re not smart enough.

What does Paul expect us to do, then? It looks like he gave us the answer at the end of the passage, which is not often quoted: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.” Pray always in the Spirit. Pray in tongues, in other words. That make sense, because we are told elsewhere that it will build us up.

For centuries, we have denied the validity of the baptism with the Spirit, we have refused to perform and accept it as an act separate from water baptism, and we have condemned prayer in tongues. And Christianity has been very disappointing during this time. We tried to convert people at the edge of swords. We tortured Jews. We turned the Papacy into Tammany Hall, at least in the past. We gave anti-Christians ammunition they still use against God today, as though the Inquisition had ended last week. And the flow of miracles was nearly cut off. Healings were considered so extraordinary, people traveled to places like Lourdes instead of expecting healing in their own churches. In January, I got healed in a church parking lot in Miami Gardens. Saved me the price of a ticket to France.

Without the Spirit, we acted like animals, and prayers did not get answered, and God’s power was not manifested much. No wonder the church isn’t bigger today. The wonder is that it survived at all.

Paul believed in prayer in tongues. In a letter, he said he did it “more than you all.” In Ephesians, he tells us to keep doing it. Nowhere in the Bible does it say this gift has stopped, or that it will stop before Jesus returns. There is a passage which says spiritual gifts will stop, but it does not mention a time, and it clearly refers to the future, either in the Messianic Age or after death. Eventually, there will be no need for the gifts. That time has not come.

Aside from all that, millions of Christians are praying in tongues, and it’s pretty clear we are not imagining things or under the influence of demons. And it would be extremely odd for God to allow a demon to enter into a person asking for the Holy Spirit to come in. If God does things like that, we have no chance. The Bible says, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” How can anyone think God would go back on his word and let us be filled with demons, at the very moment when we are seeking his righteousness?

Here is what Paul said about our fleshly efforts at righteousness, in Galatians 3:

Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.

He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

That’s not about water baptism. It’s not about being baptized “in the name” of the Spirit. It’s not about thinking spiritual thoughts. It’s about the baptism with the Holy Spirit and the miracles that follow. Converts thought they could observe the Jewish law and perfect themselves. Paul corrected them. Many Christians think they can perfect themselves by obeying Christian law. If the Jews were wrong, how can Christians who believe the same thing be right?

Obedience takes strength, and strength comes from the Holy Spirit. That’s what I believe.

I know of four main things that will get you free, supernaturally. First, prayer in tongues. Second, prayer with your understanding. Third, fasting. Fourth, casting out demons. Put those things together, and you get power. You get freedom to control your behavior. That improves your obedience. That closes doors the enemy can come through to get at you.

I’m planning some fasting. I have some issues to work on. Overall, I’m getting more and more free, but sometimes things I’ve beaten come back to try me again. I’m not going to sit around promising to be good and begging for relief, impliedly telling God (in pride) that I can fix myself. I’m going to invite God to do what I can’t do. It has worked in the past. I have no reason to think it won’t continue working.

I want the screens up and the doors closed, and I want to be free to devote my energy to helping other people instead of myself. To mature as a Christian, you have to love, and love is not just internal. It is manifested in actions. I am not doing a great job, and I’ll be better at it if I’m free of the distraction of my own failings.

It Never Stops

Life continues to improve. Seems like I say that every day.

This morning, I thought about a problem many people have. They work all their lives and achieve things that are important to them, and then they slow down, and finally, they are no longer able to do what they used to do. They sit on the sidelines and reminisce and feel ignored. Nostalgia makes them suffer, which makes sense, since “nostalgia” is formed partly from a Greek root meaning “pain.”

A Christian who walks by faith should not have this problem. When you walk by faith, God never stops challenging you and putting you to use. Your function may change, but you’ll always have to get up in the morning and set your heart on obeying God. You’ll have to make a conscious decision to ignore the ever-present deceptive evidence that he will not stand by you and help you. Faith is a job from which you can’t retire. And because it never stops, you should expect to keep growing as long as you live, barring dementia.

That’s a wonderful thing. Maybe nostalgia for your glory days is a sign that you were chasing the wrong dream. Christianity is about progress; it’s not about amassing a certain number of achievements and then waiting to die. It’s always about the present and future. Maybe this is what the Bible means when it says God will renew our youth like the eagle’s.

My pastor makes our worship team learn new songs all the time. It’s annoying, because probability guarantees that new songs are not as likely to be good as old ones, and because you can’t sing along with a song you don’t know. But he does it anyway, because he wants us to continue renewing our minds. He mentioned it last night. He said he didn’t want us to get Alzheimer’s. He understands the need to keep moving.

Whatever a Bible-believing, Spirit-filled Christian may lack, he always has something other people may not have: a bright future. There is nothing you can do to us that God can’t turn into a great blessing later on. Eleven of the Apostles were martyred, but they died in victory, because their futures were assured. How can you top that?

Worldly people and Satan own the things that dissolve and pass away. God and his servants own everything else. If you don’t believe, you’re like a passenger clinging to a sinking ship. You can take supplements and have yourself injected with cells from aborted babies and have plastic surgery and exercise compulsively, but the ship will still sink. Sooner or later, you’re going to be in the water. The thing that makes you feel secure is going to vanish. The thing that makes a Christian feel secure can never be touched. We’re like the Whos down in Whoville. You can’t steal our Christmas. You can’t take away a reward which is in a world you’ll never be allowed to enter.

Paul used a word meaning “dung” to describe the things he valued before he came to Christ. Can a man with that attitude ever feel nostalgia? Can he ever feel that his past was better than the present? I don’t see how.

So anyway, life continues to improve.

The church has a new mixer on the way. A commercial mixer was too expensive, so we’re getting a Bosch Universal Plus with a stainless bowl. This will be fantastic. I’ll be able to make dough for 14 pizzas at a shot. If I run this thing twice in a day, I’ll cover my needs. This is going to get me out of the kitchen.

I’m also preparing to do pizzas with better toppings. Pepperoni isn’t solving all our problems, but I didn’t want to do toppings on demand, because it would require maybe ten bowls of prepared toppings, and it’s also a logistical impossibility, since most people won’t wait long enough for specially prepared pies. I realized I could put together toppings for a loaded pizza and then add them to pies as needed. I’d only have to prepare toppings once a day, and we’d have some variety. I’m thinking I’ll do a mix of ham, black olives, onions, and green peppers.

I can also do other varieties from time to time. I need to find out whether people will eat pineapple. If so, I’ll do pineapple, ricotta, onions, and ham.

In fact, I think I’ll do that whether they ask for it or not. Sometimes people have to be trained.

Mike will be in town soon. That will be a blast. I’m going to put him to work making garlic rolls for the church.

I’m thinking about making a trap for my BB gun, so I can put targets up in the garage and do rapid-fire drills. A frame about two feet wide and three feet high should work. I think point-shooting skills will be a great asset to me, and it’s much more fun than slow fire.

My weight loss continues. I’m down 26 pounds now, and I’m doing virtually nothing. It’s all God’s work. I’m getting into clothes I couldn’t wear for years. I haven’t been this thin since about 1996.

My social life gets better and better. I feel like part of the church now. I don’t wander in and out unnoticed. I enjoy the people tremendously, and their wonderful outlook is a powerful remedy to Miami rudeness. It’s hard to tolerate Miami when you never get a break from the hostility, but now I have a stronghold to which I can retreat.

Christianity is not just about avoiding hell or getting dribbly bits of help in a catastrophe. It’s about a God who will show his power in your life every day, in proportion to your devotion and willingness to pray. The God who fed Elijah and parted the Red Sea and made Solomon rich and reanimated the rotten corpse of Lazarus is still in business. I’m a witness, and I have nothing to gain by telling you.

Hope your day will be as blessed as mine. Or more.