several days ago, hbo premiered the sundance festival grand jury prize-winning documentary, how to die in oregon. the film documents the journey of several people towards physician-assisted suicides in oregon, the only state—as of 2004—where it is legal.

as a fan of documentaries in general and as someone who finds this topic particularly engaging, i eagerly anticipated its premiere. while it isn’t necessarily the best documentary i’ve seen (though it’s very good), it certainly compelled me to spend plenty of time contemplating what i watched and wrestling with the issue of euthanasia more than i have in quite some time.

let’s just cut to the chase, friends: jesus is coming to get ya.

well, some of ya.

but not all of ya.

as most of you know, thanks to our friends at family radio, we have ample prep time for jesus’ return on may 21, 2011. that, of course, is tomorrow. it’s coming pretty quickly.

each week on america’s favorite karaoke show, american idol, an artist serves as mentor for the remaining contestants. it’s almost become cliché that the mentor will tell the young singers that they need to “feel” the music or “believe in” the song’s lyrics. yeah, we get it lady gaga, you’re passionately connected to the lyrics of poker face and that makes it oh so great…

the reality, though, is that in spite of the cliché status (and my sarcasm), it’s absolutely true. songs move from “sounding good” to “deeply connective” when the lyrics are performed with a sense of conviction.

in 2008, a little band from seattle called fleet foxes emerged on the scene with an incredibly beautiful self-titled album full of lush harmonies and pastoral folk. i was a fan, but not as over the moon as others. so when their follow-up, helplessness blues, released a couple weeks ago, i dutifully downloaded it as a casual fan, assuming i’d like it, but maybe not necessarily thrust it to the top of my ever-growing best of 2011 list.

a couple weeks in, my assumption has, for the most part, been confirmed. i certainly like it, but maybe not love it.

except for one track.

i’m reminded regularly that blogging truly is a completely vulnerable, public diary. my thoughts—for better or for worse—flow forth in relatively unadulterated streams. sometimes it’s brilliant…and far more often, it’s pretty, well, not so brilliant.

recently i was thinking about the fact that whatever i write on the internet will be forever present. yes, forever. it will never. go. away.

my kids will read it.

and my grandkids will probably read it.

and, in the end, i’m ok with that. (i think?)

UPDATE :: i assumed this story would get a lot of response, but even i was surprised at the overwhelming reaction (it is now my most read post of 2011). i appreciate the reposts, retweets and other things that start with ‘re-‘… i wanted to offer an update and unfortunately, the update is much less heartwarming than the original story.

as of yesterday afternoon—ironically just hours after posting the story—my friends were kicked out of the house. i’m still not too sure of all the details, but it seems the woman had nothing to do with it. it was out of her control. my understanding is that she is the manager/caretaker of the house (and has lived there for quite some time) and a family member is the actual owner. once the owner found out, he kicked them out.

so, they’re back on the streets.

given the immense response, i thought i’d put it out there to see if anyone knew of any alternative housing situations for my friends. they need to stay in the downtown area if possible because they don’t have a vehicle. it’s just the 2 of them, so it wouldn’t need to be much.

if you have anything or know of anything, please contact me and i can offer some more information. you can leave a comment or email me at ryan [at] beingryanbyrd [dot] com. thanks in advance!

every now and then, it’s a good practice to point the finger at myself and my fellow christians. the truth is that we often believe we’ve monopolized, well, the truth. but to quote rob bell, truth is everywhere, under every nook and cranny. and i think he’s onto something.

yesterday, i decided to try a little something different here on the blog and posed a scenario, asking for your response. here was the scenario:

A woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to produce. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman’s husband, Bill, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $1,000 which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said: “No, I discovered the drug and I’m going to make money from it.” So Bill got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife.

Should Bill have broken into the store to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not?

i was pleased to get a handful of responses, both in the comments and a couple via email.