why we "bless" people when they sneeze

Have you ever wondered why people say, "God bless you" after someone sneezes. The fabulous Mrs. Bunn and I got in a minor disagreement over saying "God bless you." She thinks it's a bit pointless saying that it just seems silly to bless someone over a sneeze. She thinks if you're going to bless someone, you should bless them more significantly. Me, I say let's bless people at every opportunity we get, why not bless someone after a sneeze.

Jenny's point is that it's become meaningless because we really don't mean anything significant when we say, "God bless you." She's probably right. But it did get me to thinking about why we say it. So I did little research.

If you're like me, you've heard that your heart actually stops when you sneeze. So we say, "Bless you" as a way to say, "Oh God, can you please restart that person's heart?" Seems silly, I know. Truth is, our hearts don't stop when we sneeze. Here's what I've discovered:

The custom of saying "God bless you" after a sneeze was begun literally as a blessing. Pope Gregory the Great (540-604 AD) became Pope right around the beginning of the plague. Gregory called for litanies, processions and unceasing prayer for God's help and intercession. Columns marched through the streets chanting, "Kyrie Eleison" (Greek for "Lord have mercy"). When someone sneezed, they were immediately blessed ("God bless you!") in hopes that they would not subsequently develop the plague.

So there you have it. Saying "God bless you" is basically a tradition. Perhaps it's not all that meaningful. But it's gotta be better than saying, "You're soooo good lookin'."

a yogi berra christian

Love, love, love this video. Wow. Do yourself a favor and take the time to watch Ed Dobson's story. You may have seen him on the Today Show on Monday. Watching this video inspires me creatively, spiritually, and it especially makes me want to make the most of my time here on earth.

"It's not how much time you have left, it's what you do with that time that counts..." Check it out:

sunday's scuds (october 16, 2011)

What a Sunday at NewPointe. We got to witness a wedding (sort of). We heard an Adele song (awesome). And Dwight flat out delivered the goods on marriage. It was week one of the new series: 4 Easy Steps to Wreck Your Marriage. I couldn't keep up with all the scuds Dwight fired but I tried. Here are some of them:

• One out of every two marriages get wrecked.
  
• Divorce is devastating.
  
• Every wrecked marriage, bad marriage, or divorce could have been avoided.
• The reason marriages get wrecked: failure to align themselves with God's plan and His design.
• God's intent: No human relationship is more important than the one you have with your spouse.
• People don't get divorced because they're incompatible. They get divorced due to misplaced priorities.
  
• The glue that holds marriages together is having Jesus Christ at the center of your lives.
• When my relationship with God is weak, my marriage gets weakened.
  
• The reason marriages don't work isn't because marriage doesn't work. It's because we don't work on our marriages.
  
• It's not about chemistry. It's not about finding your soul-mate, it's about working for it!
• Don't allow your emotions to lead you to bad decisions.
  
• An affair is always wrong in God's eyes.
  
• Can you trust your spouse with EVERYTHING? If you can't then you have problems.
  

This series is already having a huge impact on me. Causing great conversations at home. Making me want to be a better husband. Part two this Sunday. Hope to see you there!

the bus best ads ever…

Check out these creative advertisements on city busses. I love creative use of existing elements.

And my favorite:

sunday’s scuds (october 9, 2011)

Sunday Dwight wrapped up the Dealing With Difficult People series. I’ve heard from several people that the whole series was relevant to their lives and very helpful. Sunday’s message was the icing on the cake. Great practical, biblical advice and principles that apply to each of us. If you missed it, you really ought to pick up a CD of it or listen online at www.NewPointe.org.

Here are some of the scuds I wrote down:

• When we see as Jesus sees, we will do as Jesus says.
• God wants you to change the way you see people—especially the way you see the difficult ones.
• God knows exactly what you’re up against.
• God is for YOU! And He’s also for that difficult person in your life.
• When we live in submission to God’s ways and His laws, life goes better.
• A life of faith is not about hoping for something. A life of faith is about being rooted in God and believing that He knows best.
• If you do not surround yourself with sane, safe people, you’re guaranteed to fail.
• It’s counter-intuitive but you and I need to be FOR that difficult person just like God is for them. It’s called GRACE (wanting good things for them).
• You keep rescuing that difficult person and you’re ticked at them. Maybe you should be ticked at yourself for continuing to enable them.
• Most difficult people need to experience some pain before they’ll realize you mean what you say.
• Don’t rescue the difficult person. Let God, let reality take its course and guide you.
• People don’t change when they see the light. They change when they feel the heat.
• The phrase “Time heals all wounds” is not true. Time can work against you if you don’t deal with the issue.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9

sunday’s scuds (october 2, 2011)

Week three of the Dealing with Difficult People series. Dwight talked about the C-word: conflict. Lots of scuds fired. Here are the ones I wrote down:

• Confrontation is a loving act done for the well-being of both parties.
• Every relationship, even the good ones, has conflict.
• If there’s no conflict in the relationship, then you don’t really know each other, you’re afraid of each other, and you’re not being real with each other.
• The way in which you handle conflict will determine the quality of your relationships. And the quality of your relationships determines the quality of your life.
• We need to clarify the problem that causes the conflict. Too often we deal with the fruit when we should be dealing with the root.
• In handling a confrontation, you need to go to God before you go to the other person.
• We tend to vent horizontally. Prayer allows us to vent vertically.
• There are some needs in your life that only God can meet. Too often we look to others to fill needs that only God can meet and when we do that, we set ourselves up for disappointment.
• We’d rather post our frustrations on Facebook than actually talk to the person with whom we have an issue.
• We need to learn to attack the issue without attacking the person.
• Key question we need to ask ourselves: Am I going to focus on the relationship or am I going to focus on being right?
• What does Christ-likeness look like? Being tender-hearted and tough-minded.

Series concludes this Sunday at all three NewPointe campuses. See you there!