We have lost a gifted leader and a dear friend. The death of Jere Patzer, 61, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Pacific Northwest, is not only the death of a personal friend—I’ve known Jere for thirty years since ministry days together in Oregon. But it is also the loss of an uncommonly gifted church administrator in our community of faith.

In the election of Barack Obama, as our nation’s first black president, we all made history together. Irrespective of our political convictions or party loyalties, we collectively share this historic moment.

Makes you wonder—what if God had to run for office? If he were on the ballots of this nation next week, how do you suppose he’d fare? Perhaps the question isn’t so preposterous, given all the national polling about belief in God. In fact this year the Pew Foundation released one of the largest surveys of Americans’ religious beliefs ever conducted (36,000 adult respondents). Be prepared to be surprised! According to their findings, 92% of Americans believe in God or a universal spirit.

Am I the only one amazed by what appears to be the stunning speed of this economic meltdown? It seems like years ago that we were collectively mourning the collapse of investment firm Bear Stearns—when in fact only seven months have passed since March 17, 2008. True, the home mortgage and foreclosure crisis was already under full steam in the summer of ’07, but in a post-Bear-Stearns world the dire headlines have exponentially accelerated!

According to the CIA website (www.cia.gov), it’s the same size as the state of Oregon. But clearly Romania is a world apart, and a beautiful world, at that. Karen and I just returned from a seven-city preaching itinerary in that ancient but modern land, and we’re certainly the richer for it!

Has Wall Street become a four-letter word? The headline for Jeff Cox’s report on CNBC’s home page earlier this week caught my eye: “As Bailout Looms, Fear is Market’s Biggest Problem.” His piece opened with these words: “The government rescue plan may help cure some of the ills that are afflicting the banking industry, but it’s unlikely to remedy Wall Street’s greatest malady right now: fear. . . . ‘People are confused and they are scared.

Do you know how much $700 billion is? Yes, it is the amount of taxpayer bailout that the United States administration is urging Congress to adopt in order to save the financial institutions that have recklessly accumulated “toxic debt” in their quest for skyrocketing profits. But how much is $700 billion? If the 3,200 students at Andrews University were to be declared the beneficiaries of this bailout, each of our students would be receiving $218,750,000. One could afford college education with a subsidy like that! How much is $700 billion?

A week ago, a scientist warned that the world might end . . . a week ago. Which is why he wasn’t celebrating with the rest of his colleagues in the scientific world over the brand new Large Hadron Collider that was unveiled beneath the grassy sod along the Swiss-French border. Billed “the world’s largest atom smasher,” this brand new particle accelerator is a seventeen mile underground circular tunnel.

So how much power is swirling in Hurricane Ike right now? With Gustav last week and Ike this week and possibly Josephine a few days hence, the destructive power of nature’s howling winds is on more than a few minds! Googling for the answer, I discovered several sources that have calculated that, while it is extremely difficult to compute the power of a single hurricane, it is estimated its power is equivalent to 400 twenty-megaton hydrogen bombs (8000 megatons, or 8 billion tons of TNT).

“Birds of a feather flock together.” My mother drilled that sage piece of counsel into my pubescent brain when I was a kid growing up. She wanted me to learn the truth that people judge you by the company you keep—so choose your friends carefully. And her words stuck, irrespective of how I as a teenager conformed to her maternal wisdom. “Birds of a feather” has to do with political parties and loyalties, too.