As a public service we remind all readers to only transport gasoline in approved containers. Plastic garbage bags, storage tubs and that one lady with the laundry basket are NOT approved for hazard materials. (I think the laundry basket image was real but was taken by people goofing off. Either that or the vapors were getting to her.) Everyone has seen long lines at gas stations on the news and knows by now that several southeastern states have been experiencing a gas shortage following the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline. Did you know that a man and woman in North Carolina got in a fight over their place in line? Or that in South Carolina a woman hoarding gas tried to evade police only to crash her car which then caught on fire? The pipeline is up and running but it could still be a few days before local supplies catch back up.

And now for some good news. The International Mission Board reports that 2020 saw an increase over 2019 in the number of people hearing and responding to the Gospel message. We know that Christianity began during the Pax Romana, Peace of Rome, a 200 period of power and prosperity for the Roman Empire. Despite 300 years of persecution from both Jewish religious leaders and Roman officials, Christianity grew to over one million believers. We knew that a strong unground church existed in the Soviet Union but did not fully understand how well it was doing until the USSR collapsed. When the illusion that everything is well is disturbed, that we are okay on our own, bad news becomes obvious and people are more inclined toward the Good News. Christianity does well in times of persecution, oppression and other stressors as people seek after anything offering hope. 2020 saw disaster on a global scale and that gave Christian believers opportunities to be Christ-like and share hope, to be the bearers of Good News for this life and beyond. IMB has some big goals for the next few years; read more here via The Christian Index.

Facebook keyboard shortcuts are a thing that exist. I had no idea. When our daughter’s puppy (you’ve seen her before) walked across my laptop keyboard she apparently pressed “shift” + “?” and brought up this list, according to the list itself. I immediately took a screenshot because I had never seen this list before and didn’t know if I would be able to get it back. Thanks Luna. Good dog.

Thoughts of Dog is a Twitter profile I follow. The handle is dogs_feelings or try this link. Thoughts sometimes appear here or on Happy Monday so you may get that deja vu feeling you’ve seen Halo before.

An aardwolf is a member of the weasel family. Imagine a weasel with stripes. They eat many types of insects but prefer termites when they can find them. So if an aardvark is an anteater think of the aardwolf as a termite eater. Here are 10 Fun Facts about the aardwolf for your reading enjoyment; there’s a few pics in there too.

BTW, if you don’t know what an encyclopedia is imagine going to wikipedia and printing the entire thing. If you think that would fill 20 or 30 bound volumes and take up more than one full shelf on your bookcase… yes, yes it did.

The Atlanta Braves are doing that thing again where they lose 3 or 4 games in a row and make you want to abandon all hope only to turn around and sweep their next series. It’s all or nothing with those guys but I’ve been a fan for decades and we’re used to it. Mother’s Day was this week and here’s a pic of my mother and I at a Braves game a few years ago at Turner Field. In it’s 20 year history Turner Field never saw the Braves advance to the World Series. Mom will turn 81 next week and still watches pretty much every game, at least until 9 or 10 PM. She has that “well maybe this year” attitude all Atlanta fans live with.

These are stats for Happy Monday #43. There are a few Monday posts – 43, 83, 125 – that have been viewed more than all the others. Search engine results are based on popularity so the more times a post is viewed the better it’s chances are of being viewed again. Snowball effect, it’s how posts go viral. I don’t know what the factors are in this case but Happy Monday #43 was viewed 900 times in 2020, seven years after it was posted. The best numbers were during June and July last summer so maybe it’s just like the spread of the Gospel message we discussed earlier. People were pinned in and looking for good news, or in this case perhaps something to make them happy.

iMonk Radio Podcast #134 has been corrected to include the audio player, in case you happen to read the description on Thursday only to realize you couldn’t actually listen to it. Michael mentions a cartoon version of himself in Catholic garb leading a herd of goats that I remembered seeing and very much wanted to include in my post. The original Internet Monk website is no more and his personal Facebook page has finally been retired as well. After numerous Google searches of different terms I managed to find what I was looking for… on my website. I shared a post titled “Remembering Michael Spencer” back in 2015 and for some reason used that particular image in the post. After searching high and low, and becoming increasingly frustrated that it was not out there to be found, it turns it was here along to be found.

Comments are open. You are welcome to share what you like about this post, don’t like, how your week went or the price of gas where you live. I kind of miss people telling me that I’m wrong, at least that was interactive. Enjoy the weekend, Peace and God bless.