July 1, 2021
First of all, The Bro sent me an awww photograph for today. It is of Cathy Sisler, a.k.a. CJ, a.k.a. Mrs. Tour Guide, who is celebrating her birthday today.
👉 Another anniversary is being celebrated today – Bobby Bonilla Day. Coming off four straight All-Star seasons and two consecutive top-three MVP finishes with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Bronx native became the highest-paid player in a team sport when he signed a five-year, $29.1 million deal with the Mets at the beginning of the 1992 season. That’s the simple part, but from here it gets crazy.
In 1995, the Mets traded him to the Marlins, and in 1999, got him back. He had a terrible season, played 60 games, batted .160 and the Mets wanted to dump him and his then current $5.9 million dollar contract. But they didn’t want to spend that money just to make him go away, so they negotiated the sweetest contract in pro sports history. Bobby would get nothing until 2011, so the Mets could use the $6 million in some other fashion – they made it to the World Series in 2000 – and then start paying him $1,193,248.20 (at 8% interest) every July 1 for 25 years, until 2035 (another $29 million in total). There is a lot more to the story than QB has space for, so check out Devin Gordon’s not-very-friendly-account in Bloomberg Businessweek.
👉 Today we wrap up our look into Disney animated films with Tangled, the 50th Disney animated feature film. It is loosely based on the German fairy tale “Rapunzel” in the collection of folk tales published by the Brothers Grimm.
Disney discovered too late that Princess and the Frog appealed to too narrow an audience: little girls. This prompted the studio to change the name of its Rapunzel movie to the gender-neutral Tangled. Tangled, a contemporary retelling of the Rapunzel story, is the last fairy tale produced by Disney’s animation group for the foreseeable future.
A “big” musical number, “Mother Knows Best” begins when, on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, Rapunzel finally summons enough courage to ask Mother Gothel for permission to travel and see the mysterious “floating lanterns” in person. Gothel, whose eternal youth and beauty solely relies on the safety and protection of Rapunzel’s magical hair, denies this request by sarcastically reminding her that “mother knows best,” warning her ward that “the world is full of wicked people who want to steal her hair’s magic,” while explaining to her that it’s “for her own good,” claiming to only want to protect her.
“I See the Light” was nominated for Best Original Song at the 83rd Academy Awards (the award was won by “We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3). “I See the Light” takes place soon after Rapunzel and Flynn Rider have finally completed their grueling journey from Mother Gothel’s tower to Corona, arriving in the kingdom just in time to experience its annual lantern-lighting ceremony, which Rapunzel has spent her entire life observing at a distance from the confinement of Gothel’s tower.
The Tangled franchise produced three sequels, and a stage musical adaptation of the film for the Disney Magic of the Disney Cruise Line. The show is one hour long, forty minutes shorter than the movie.
👉 A couple of issues ago we looked at some strange rules from around the world.
Here are two more, starting with Switzerland where it is illegal to hike naked. Hiking naked doesn’t sound like something to worry about, but a few years ago it became the thing to do in Switzerland. The move violates the country’s public decency laws. One man who continued to ignore the rule was fined $100.
You can’t feed pigeons in Venice. A few years ago, it became very popular for tourists to feed the pigeons in Saint Mark’s Square. Since the birds knew they could find food, they would descend on the square in the thousands. After the pigeons caused immense damage to the city, the government put its foot down. In 2008, Venice made it illegal to feed the pigeons in the city. Anyone who breaks the law could pay fines of up to $850 (cheaper to hike naked in Switzerland).
👉 On that note, let’s look at some lighter moments from the comic strips:
And two from Blondie about memory:
👉 Here are some signs for the times:
👉 Today’s close is from New Morning Mercies, by Paul David Tripp.
If someone asked you, “What is God doing right now?” what would you answer? I am afraid that many of us are confused when it comes to the present benefits and activity of Jesus. We get that we have been forgiven and we understand that we have eternity with him in our future, but we’re not sure what the agenda is in the here and now. Because we don’t understand what God has committed himself to in the present, we are tempted to question his wisdom and doubt his love. Our problem is not that God is inactive or that he has abandoned us, but that we are not on his agenda page. Left with confusion about his plan and carrying with us unrealistic expectations, we get disappointed and a little bit cynical, and we quit running to him for help. It is a bit of a spiritual mess.
The answer to the big question we have proposed is really quite easy and straightforward. What is God up to right here, right now? Redemption! He is actively working on sin’s final defeat and our complete deliverance. He is working out the spoils of the victory that Christ accomplished on the cross of Calvary. Listen to the encouraging words of 1 Corinthians 15:25-26: “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
Now, you and I need to understand two things in these words that answer our question. What is God doing? First, he’s reigning! No, your world is not out of control. No, the bad guys are not going to win. No, sin will not have the final victory. Because your world is not out of control but under God’s careful redemptive control, you can have hope even when it looks to you as if darkness is winning the day.
What is God doing? This passage gives a second answer. He is putting the enemies of his redemptive purpose under his feet. He will crush enemy after enemy until the last enemy, death, is defeated. He will not sit down, he will not rest, he will not relent until sin and death are completely defeated and we are finally and forever delivered. Hope right here, right now doesn’t rest in your understanding or strength, but in the sin- and death-defeating rule of the King of kings and Lord of lords. His reign is your present protection and your future hope.
God will not rest from his redemptive work until he has once and for all presided over the funeral of sin and death.
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