SecondJon @SecondJon@qoto.org

For the record, I too have not accepted a $50 million 4 year contract to do a podcast.

Tonight's reading from Jeremiah 19 seems like it should be shocking. Even elders among the priests were called out because "the people have forsaken me....they have filled this place with the blood of innocents... to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings...which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind"

Even the religious leaders seem complicit in the death of the youngest children as sacrifice in exchange for... What? The hope of a better life for the adults?

It's framed here as totally foreign and opposite of the ideas of the God of Israel they claimed to represent.

Despite being called out on this by Jeremiah, they don't change and subsequently face divine punishment they evidently thought would never come.

Thinking about how this might apply today...

I don't disown ten percent of our family when times get tough. I don't banish our children when they don't perform.

I grow concerned when a corporate culture is built on telling employees that their work is now their family. Even the healthiest corporation isn't a family...and presenting it as if it is seems unhealthy to me.

With Salesforce leting go 10% of its Ohana (Hawaiian for "family") employees, I find it helpful to remember the importance of family and other support systems in addition to the workplace.

Colorado law in 2023 welcomes late term abortion and requires increasingly humane treatment of chickens.

I hear the Right saying that congress shouldn't have publicized Trump tax returns. I hear the Left saying How Dare He have years of hardly paying any taxes.

Haven't heard anyone yet say what anyone did that's illegal.

Is the issue that the congress who released the returns is responsible for a tax system that creates the very situation I'm supposed to be outraged about?

Thinking about the shepherds tonight...

Fear Not, said the angels to the shepherds, the rough and tough cowboys of their day.

When an angel appears to give a message in scripture, the recipient falls over in fear. A lot. They seem to always have to start with Fear Not.

How many of us have an understanding of The Story of the Biblical Narrative where this fits in? Where the weight of reality when revealed, even a little, strikes fear into the strongest and boldest?

With record high increases to the cost of living already before inflation, the government pushes it higher still.

In January, #Denver will start charging FEES for trash pickup in addition to the taxes that have always paid for it. The price of eggs just more than doubled due to new #Colorado regulations. Denver and other localities charge government fees for shipping bags to shop at brick and mortar stores, and the state charges fees to the citizen for every delivery from Amazon or anywhere else. Some homes that burnt down last year north of Denver can't be rebuilt due to regulations that make houses cost way more to rebuild because of regulatory requirements, more than insurance policies cover.

I wonder how much of the cost of living increase that has made Colorado unaffordable for the next generation is directly relatable to these Nickle and Diming policies that continue to take more and more of the people's earnings to disappear into the budget.

Some cost of living is certainly because we have amazing geography and limited space. But when it feels like a new policy to take money from my family is implemented every day, it makes me wonder if most of this cost is unnecessary and the financial strain is directly tied back to politicians messing up our state rather than our state drawing a crowd for being awesome.

(For those outside of Colorado, these are all "fees" because if they call them a tax they have to be voter approved. When they want more of our money and they know the citizens don't want it, they can just call it a fee and no consent is necessary.)