Another good reason for me to go to London...

London's Trafalgar Square

...the 2012 Olympics.

Yep, London Town beat out the Big Apple, Paris, Moscow and Madrid. Of course, I hope I get a chance to visit London before 2012!

Speaking of London, Phil Johnson is there for a conference right now, and his blog has become a journal of his London activities. I particularly enjoyed his post about Bunhill Fields, the London cemetery that's the final resting place of such luminaries as John Bunyan, writer Daniel Defoe, poet William Blake, and Susannah Wesley (mother of John and Charles). Very interesting stuff.

And speaking of admirable Christian women (Susannah Wesley), I'm set to do an interview tomorrow with Noel Piper about her book, Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God. This slim volume had a real impact on me, spiritually. Noel's accounts of the lives of Sarah Edwards, Gladys Aylward and others truly moved me. These women accomplished great things for God. Their lives, filled with difficulty and sacrifice, make my modern life seem ridiculously soft and cushy.

Noel Piper, by the way, is the wife of John Piper of Desiring God ministries.

Am I the only one bothered by this?

While Live 8 artists donated their talents, they reportedly got goodie bags from local sponsors filled with as much as 12-thousand dollars worth of stuff.

Maybe I'm oversimplifying things, but couldn't the cost of those "goodies" be better off going to the starving people that Live 8 was designed to help? Even if that isn't a good argument for some reason, it just doesn't seem appropriate to be showering already-rich artists with luxury items for participating in a benefit concert.

At least one ethicist agrees with me: "Another ethics expert said he wonders why the companies who donated the gifts wouldn't just give the money to charity.

" 'There is nothing stopping the businesses from taking a stand, saying, `No, we are going to take this money, and we are going to give it to the charity,'" said Rushworth M. Kidder, president of the Institute for Global Ethics in Camden, Maine."

I'm a link du jour!!!

I'm honored to discover that Ganns of Superblessed recently made me a Link du Jour. Ganns said some really kind things about my blog, and I appreciate it very much!

Thanks, Ganns. You superblessed me today!