Faith story - Spider web and brick wall

During World War II, a U.S. Marine was seperated from his unit on a Pacific island.  The fighting had been intense, and in the smoke and the crossfire , he had lost touch with his comrades.

Alone in jungle, he could hear enemy soldiers coming in his direction.  Scrambling for cover, he found his way up a high ridge to several small caves in the rock.  He quickly crawled inside one of the caves.  Although safe for the moment, he realized that once the enemy soldiers looking for him swept the ridge, they would methodically search all the caves, and he would be discovered and killed.

As he waited, he prayed, "Lord, if it be your will, please protect me.  Whatever Your will, though, I love and trust You.  Amen."

After praying, he lay quietly listening to the enemy begin to draw closer.  He thought, "Well, I guess the Lord isn't going to help me out of this one."  Then he saw a spider begin to build a web over the front of his cave.

As he watched the spider layering strand after strand of web across the opening to the cave, he thought, "Hah!  What I need is a brick wall and what the Lord has sent me is a spider web.  God does have a sense of humor."

As the enemy drew closer, he watched from the darkness of his hideout and could see them searching one cave after another.  As they came to his, he got ready to make his last stand.  To his amazement, after glancing in the direction of the cave, they moved on.  Suddenly, he realized that with the spider web over the entrance, his cave looked as if no one had entered for quite a  while.

"Lord, forgive me," prayed the young man.  "I had forgotten that in You a spider's web is stronger than a brick wall."

We all face times of great trouble.  When we do, it is so easy to forget that God can work in our lives, sometimes in the most surprising ways.

Joke: Tips for becoming a better gun-fighter

Morris, as a young man in the Old West, wanted to be the best gunfighter alive. One night as he was sitting in a saloon, he spotted an old man who had the reputation of being the greatest gunfighter in his day. So Morris walked up to the old man and told him his dream. The old man looked him up and down and said, "I have a suggestion that is sure to help."

"Tell me, tell me," said the young man.

"Tie the bottom of your holster lower onto your leg."

"Will that make me a better gunfighter?"

"Definitely," said the old man.

Young Morris did what he was told and drew his gun and shot the bow tie off the piano player. "Wow, that really helped. Do you have any more suggestions?"

"Yeah, if you cut a notch in the top of your holster where the hammer hits, the gun will come out smoother."

"Will that make me a better gunfighter?"

"It sure will," said the old man.

The young guy did what he was told and drew his gun and shot a cufflink off the piano player. "This is really helping me. Is there anything else you can share with me?"

"One more thing," said the old man. "Get that can of axle grease over there in the corner and rub it all over your gun."

The young Morris didn't hesitate but started putting the grease on the gun.

"No, the whole gun, handle and everything," said the old man.

"Will that make me a better gunfighter?"

"No," said the old man, "but, when Wyatt Earp gets done playing that piano, he's going to put that gun where the sun don't shine, and it won't hurt as much."

Joke: Wifey, what did you say ?

My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion, and I kept
staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby
table.

My wife asked, "Do you know her?"

"Yes," I sighed, "She's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to drinking
right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been
sober since."

"My Goodness!" said my wife, "who would think a person could go on
celebrating that long?"

And then the fight started...

Weird news: Pilots and crew fight in mid-air, in full view of passengers

Imagine the reaction of passengers, when, after the flight has taken off, and is in mid-air at its cruising altitude of 30,000 feet, there is a fight on board. And this is not a drunken passenger fighting, to be arrested later. Instead, this is a fight between the cabin crew on one side and the pilots on the other side, upto actual physical fighting. Read more about this horrid piece of fighting (link to article):

Passengers were shocked to witness a fight between the cabin crew and the pilots, with the pilots on one side and the cabin crew on the other side. This horrid scene (witnessed by passengers) was seen on a flight of the Indian Airlines, running between Sharjah and Delhi

Nuclear issue over Iran - another attempt at dialogue

The nuclear ambitions of Iran well known, and the attempts by some of the significant world powers to stop these nuclear efforts (mostly in a futile effort) are also well known by now. Iran has most likely done the calculation that it will be able to pursue its nuclear quest through a measure of playing one country against another along with a dogged determination to go the full path. Further, given the difficult power structure of Iran where the Supreme Leader and the President both represent power centers, it is hard to figure out who is fully in command (although it is believed that in any decision making, the Supreme Leader will prevail; but the recent political chaos also showed that the President has cultivated the Revolutionary Guards and the military to get more power). Iran also believes that the only way for it to project itself as the natural leader of the region is to get nuclear weapons (especially since its given enemy, Israel, has nuclear weapons and advanced delivery systems). Iran also stands alone politically in the region (except for Iraq), since the other countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, etc, all are more or less against Iran (they are all Sunni countries while Iran is a Shia dominated country).
And yet, the countries interacting with Iran over its nuclear stance (primarily the countries in the UN Security Council) are unable to make a decision on how to proceed. Iran has always had the stance that it is using nuclear energy for purposes of generating an alternative to fossil fuels for electricity, a stand that other countries refuse to buy, and yet this must be one of the longest running attempts to have a discussion (link to article):

The U.S. and European Union called for a meeting with Iran to discuss stalled nuclear talks, brushing aside the Persian Gulf country’s failure to mention the dispute over its atomic program in a proposal for negotiations. The EU request for a meeting came in response to the Iranian plan to tie any discussion of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East to talks on the future of the Palestinian people and changes in the structure of the United Nations Security Council.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki presented a five-page document to China, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K. and U.S. in Tehran on Sept. 9. The proposals are a response to Western concern about the atomic work, said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who denies allegations by the U.S. and major allies that Iran’s nuclear-power development is cover for the production of weapons. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told worshippers in Tehran yesterday that Iran must “stand firm” in the nuclear dispute, saying it has the right to the technology, Agence France-Presse reported.

The members of the Security Council and the EU have not been able to come to an agreement about how to deal with Iran, given that Russia and China have not agreed with the western position. And of course, there is widespread problems even in the US, and the EU about trying to move ahead with a military and hard decision.