Thursday, December 22, 2005

Well, there's your trouble, Mr. Osteen.

Was noodling around the net after my first post. Found this info from a Christianity Today review of Osteen's book (see below). Looks like Mrs. Osteen was just following her hubby's idea that, by golly, these airline people need to get with the program and show her the favor that God has given Joel to parking spaces, faster seating in restaurants, and bending airline baggage rules. I'm of the persuasion that Providence is the hand of God in the glove of Circumstance. Hence, I may well get the parking space by the entrance. By the same token, I should neither demand, expect, or be ungrateful for getting it, or pitch a fit if I don't. Tsk...

One of the finest chapters shows how Christians should aim for excellence and integrity. The book undercuts the emphasis on integrity, however, by suggesting trivial examples of God's favor to the faithful: faster seating in restaurants, a last-second opening of an excellent parking space, being upgraded to first class without seeking it, and enjoying a personal exemption from an airline's baggage policy.
Osteen tells of not wanting to check an expensive television camera on a flight to India. The counter clerk insists that the airline's policy strictly forbids him from it carrying on, and Osteen asks if he can talk to someone else. A pilot walks up and offers to stow the camera behind the cockpit.
"The woman behind the counter glared at me and shook her head, clearly aggravated," Osteen writes. "I just smiled and said, 'Sorry, ma'am; it's the favor of God.'" Or was it simply that an observant pilot intervened to prevent an unnecessary conflict (which some planning on Osteen's part could have prevented) from escalating?

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