Heaven can Wait, Court tells dying man

Oddly Enough - Reuters
ROME (Reuters) - A man given six months to live by his doctors has been told by an Italian court to come back in 14 months to hear the outcome of his demand for insurance damages.

Carmelo Cisabella, 39, has an inoperable spine disease and is anxious to pick up some $596,300 in already-agreed damages from his insurers to help ease his final months of life, Il Messaggero newspaper reported Tuesday.
In a bid to speed up the process, Cisabella turned to the Sicilian courts to put pressure on the slow-moving insurers, but was told to return next year to hear their decision.
In his frustration, he chained himself to the gates of the law courts to bring attention to his plight.
Il Messaggero said Cisabella's woes dated back more than a decade when he was left paralyzed by a motorcycle accident. Confined to a wheelchair, he subsequently developed a lethal infection of the spine.
The insurance claim dates back to the road crash.
Italian justice is notoriously slow and it takes on average 3,041 days to obtain a definitive sentence in a civil case.


And Now for my two cents worth....

Ever feel like you just aren't being heard? Well, mom and dad, here's your opportunity to say "I told you so".... I don't have kids of my own, but I do understand what it's like to talk to teenagers and feel like they're in orbit somewhere and my words are completely missing them. That goes with the territory of being a youth pastor. I am happy to say that I do not believe that I will have to chain myself to the doors of the youth room for them to hear the message. But the image there brings up an interesting thought.....the man in Rome had to chain himself to the courthouse for the courts to hear him adequately....they had heard him but not adequately. In short, they had not LISTENED. I spoke to my youth group last night on a topic that bears weight for us all. Our friends that do not know Christ and His saving power are literally in chains. Maybe not on their physical bodies, but definitely on their souls. But do we adequately listen? Do we hear their plights? Their deaths are not only more certain, but carry worse results than the man who has been given 6 months due to a spinal infection.....but do we hear their cries for life? Do we see past the facade that their bodies put up to shield their souls, the ones that say "everythings great, I'm happy doing it my way" and see that their hearts cry out for salvation? What will it take for us to LISTEN. Have we even tried tuning in lately? Do we even try to look past the surface? I would guess that far too many of us "leave it in God's hands" and go about our merry, saved way, forgetting that God told us to "Go, and make disciples of all nations"-Matthew 28. As Christians, we need to get back to some basics of living, the first being that there are others who are dead men walking. They need life, but they are chained to death. They cry out for help, for love, for salvation. Can you hear them?

Computer Generation??....Really???

Take heart, anyone among you who believes he or she is technologically challenged, you "ain't seen nuthin" yet. This is an excerpt from a Wall Street Journal article:

1. Compaq is considering changing the command "Press Any Key" to "Press Return Key" because of the flood of calls asking where the "Any" key is.

2. AST technical support had a caller complaining that her mouse was hard to control with the dust cover on. The cover turned out to be the plastic bag the mouse was packaged in.

3. Another Dell customer called to say he couldn't get his computer to fax anything. After 40 minutes of troubleshooting, the technician discovered the man was trying to fax a piece of paper by holding it in front of the monitor screen and hitting the "Send" key.

4. Yet another Dell customer called to complain that his keyboard no longer worked. He had cleaned it by filling up his bathtub with soap and water and soaking the keyboard for a day, then removing all the keys and washing them individually.

5. A Dell technician received a call from a customer who was enraged because his computer had told him he was "Bad and an invalid." The tech explained that the computer's "bad command" and "invalid" responses shouldn't be taken personally.

6. A confused caller to IBM was having trouble printing documents. He told the technician that the computer had said it "couldn't find printer." The user had also tried turning the computer screen to face the printer- but that his computer still couldn't "see" the printer.

7. An exasperated caller to Dell Computer Tech Support couldn't get her new Dell Computer to turn on. After ensuring the computer was plugged in, the technician asked her what happened when she pushed the power button. Her response, "I pushed and pushed on this foot pedal and nothing happened." The "f oot pedal" turned out to be the computer's mouse...

8. Another customer called Compaq tech support to say her brand new computer wouldn't work. She said she unpacked the unit, plugged it in and sat there for 20 minutes waiting for something to happen. When asked what happened when she pressed the power switch, she asked, "What power switch?"

9. Another IBM customer had trouble installing software and rang for support. "I put in the first disk, and that was OK. It said to put in the second disk, and had some problems with the disk. When it said to put in the third disk, I couldn't even fit it in..." The user hadn't realized that "Insert Disk 2" implied removing Disk 1 first.

10. A woman called the Canon help desk with a problem with her printer. The tech asked her if she was "running it under windows." The woman responded, "No, my desk is next to the door. But that is a good point. The man sitting in the cubicle next to me is under a window and his printer is working fine."

11. And last but not least: TECH SUPPORT: "O.K. Bob, let's press the control and escape keys at the same time. That brings up a task list in the middle of the screen. Now type the letter "P" to bring up the Program Manager." CUSTOMER: "I don't have a 'P'"TECH SUPPORT: "On your keyboard, Bob." CUSTOMER: "What do you mean?" TECH SUPPORT: " 'P' on your key board, Bob." CUSTOMER: "I'm not going to do that!"