We celebrated Bryant's first birthday on Friday night. He thoroughly enjoyed his first chocolate cake, and we thoroughly enjoyed watching him eat it. This kid is just too adorable!

Someone asked me this week what I had been thinking about. I guess my blog has been much more familial lately than geopolitical. Frankly, everything that is going on is just making me tired. I am totally unimpressed by our "Decision 2008" lineup. I've decided to just not spend much time thinking about it at this ridiculously early date, because I don't wish to develop an ulcer. Yes, I would love to see Senator Thompson jump in, although I can't clearly articulate the reasons why. I know he has a pretty strong conservative voting record. He's from the South (Yee-haw!), and he seems to be a guy who shoots from the hip. Some worry about having an actor in the White House, because how can you ever know when to trust what he's saying? But really, how is that different from any other politician? I think that a background in theater can only help you when dealing day in and out with the players on the world stage.

It is amazing to me that Rudy is the current Republican frontrunner. Yes, he impressed us all with his crisis management skills post 9-11. But what else does he have to offer? It wasn't that long ago that being on your third marraige to a woman who's on her third marraige when you began your relationship when you were both married to other people would have had a negative impact on one's marketability. Guess we have Bill "personal life doesn't matter" Clinton to thank for this one. I don't mean to sound judgmental. It's just that I still believe ethics are important to the all-around character of a president. Mr. Guliani's ethics have been somewhat less than impressive, not to mention his liberal leanings on most social and moral issues.

It has been kind of fun to watch the Clinton campaign try to deal with her less than stellar poll numbers. For a candidate who supposedly had the nomination in the bag, her spin machine must be in high gear. As unbelievable as I would have once thought, Edwards could emerge as the Democratic nominee. Could we see an Edwards/Obama ticket? That would just be weird. Not as weird as Algore trying to make a comeback, but still weird.

On the world news front, I've just been trying to digest. It seems to me that Iran is testing the waters. I really believe that Ahmadinejad wants nothing more than to pick a nuclear fight with either us or Israel. If he can get us to strike first, then they can claim self-defense when they try to retaliate. I think it's interesting that they kidnapped British soldiers instead of Americans. Was it a mistake? Did they get the wrong guys? Or were they simply afraid to go after the big giant, and instead testing to see just how strong the coalition really is?

My thoughts on the months ahead: I think Iran will eventually go too far and will either attack or provoke a strike against them. In the aftermath of this war, I think it's highly possible that the 12th imam or Mahdi (the Muslim messiah) will emerge as a voice of peace and will set up a treaty with Israel that will allow them to rebuild Solomon's temple. The Mahdi will be the antichrist. Muslims believe that Jesus will appear shortly after the Mahdi to renounce Christianity and defer to his authority, enforcing Muslim rule over the world. I believe this is the False Prophet. Then I think we will be faced with 3 1/2 years of persecution, otherwise known as the tribulation. Yes, I am coming out of the closet. I am no longer a pre-tribber. I have every Left Behind book ever written, and I no longer believe in its basic premise.

This is what I've been studying the past several weeks. I was challenged as to why I believed in the pre-trib theory, and realized that I believed it because that's what I had always been taught. I began to study, and I have come to a different conclusion about what the Scripture has to say. I think this is a tricky issue, because there are so many brilliant Bible scholars who totally disagree about this. I don't think that it is supposed to be a divisive issue. But I also don't believe that we are supposed to blindly accept any theory without studying God's word for ourselves. So I encourage you to do that. Not just about the end times, but any and everything. What worthier use for your time?

So, there you have my thoughts in a nutshell. I believe that once Christians have endured the wrath of Satan via the Antichrist in the first half of the tribulation that the rapture will occur and THEN God will take care of some serious business here on earth. Perhaps not a popular theory among my Southern Baptist peers, but there it is. Look it up and study it. God's word never returns void, so I can assure you, your time will not be wasted.