100.

Brief time lines have never provided much of the intimacy and depth that we tend to desire as those who are image bearers of the Creator.

This is my one hundredth post.

I started blogging on May 18, 2006. That's roughly 956 days which equals a post every ten days or so. My first blog title was, "A Fresh Sort of Start." The post was about how there were no fresh starts... it was about the baggage we carry. It was written two weeks after my friend Eric Harless died. It was written one year and 2 weeks after my Dad died. It was written shortly after my sister told me that she wished I had died.

It was written one year, five months and ten days after my new life started with Laura.

When I read it I thought, "Wow...not a lot has changed sense then." Seriously, if you've kept up with me over the years, you might have thought that this sort of baggage might have been lost on one of my many trip mishaps.

But no.
It's still here.

So...it is a new year. A year ago, Mayor Nutter promised it that it was a new day for Philadelphia. A little over a month ago, President Elect Obama promised change for our nation.

And we? We hope? We hope that these guys are right?

More so...maybe we hope that these guys are right in the sense that change is needed. Maybe there is something deep within us that cries out that this life is not as it should be. Maybe the shock and awe of death, destruction and the currents of the "American Way," are convincing us of the truth that most of us (if any of us) don't have it together.

There's hope there because the reality of realization speaks to this sense that there is something more perfect for us to grasp. The sort of raw sense might be looked at as Plato and his Forms, or maybe...more sadly...Hegel and his Dialectic.

The sense that holds more hope for me is the idea of Jesus... of how he comes and says, "Gene...you're right...you don't have it together." It's the same thing he told his disciples. It's the same thing he told all the Jewish people. It's the same thing he told the whores and the self-righteous priests. It's the same thing he told the poor and the rich.

So...it's the same thing he's telling us.

And that's hopeful.

On the less serious end, below are the 99 words that started my last 99 posts (titles not included).

1. My
2. When
3. That
4. There's
5. Right
6. In
7. Without
8. A
9. Laura
10. One
11. My
12. If
13. When
14. If
15. Sometimes
16. Something
17. In
18. I
19. When
20. We
21. With
22. We've
23. What
24. A
25. This
26. I'm
27. In
28. La
29. What
30. I
31. I've
32. I
33. I
34. I
35. What
36. It's
37. NPR
38. No
39. Official
40. A
41. The
42. Before
43. I
44. If
45. I
46. Park
47. Blessed
48. If
49. On
50. Yes
51. For
52. There
53. Working
54. My
55. Everyone
56. Many
57. I
58. We've
59. Spending
60. No
61. The
62. I've
63. Sometimes
64. Lately
65. Screaming
66. I
67. For
68. So
69. Tonight
70. A
    
71. Rule
72. If
73. Last
74. Nothing
75. Unfortunately
76. If
77. No
78. Thought
79. What's
80. In
81. We
82. I
83. Lately
84. I'm
85. Your
86. For
87. As
88. So
89. Four
90. You
91. I
92. Crown
93. Update
94. You'd
95. You
96. If
97. There
98. Seriously
99. Last