Wow, does our uncle pay for a lot more than we realized! Uncle Sam, that is. The prospect of a government shutdown is revealing all the people and services that would feel the pain if Uncle doesn't get some money. Suddenly, America's military and government workers - who do more things for us than we ever thought - won't be seeing their paycheck on time. It looks like even our National Parks will be affected. Does this mean Smokey the Bear might not get paid?

There's been a run on graveyards lately. Not because more people are dying, but because more people are connecting the dots in their family tree. A couple of recent TV programs that show famous people pursuing the story of their family's past have fueled an explosion of interest in genealogy research. Just ask the librarians who are welcoming visitors from all over to their newly-enhanced genealogy resources.

If you've been flying commercially recently, it's probably best if you were too busy to watch the news. Let's see - there's the plane that suddenly had a hole in the roof - and the ones where they've found cracks since then. Oh yeah, and the plane with the bullet hole in it.

A young man we know is pretty distraught over a death in his family. Suddenly, he's decided to delete a bunch of Facebook friends.

I've talked with people who have been the deleted friends of someone else I know. It really hurt. It's quite a time we live in. You can delete a relationship with a stroke of your finger.

World events - even ones as tragic and dramatic as Japan's quake / tsunami / nuclear emergency - tend to get pushed off the front page by the next big story. And these days, there's a next big story just about every day.

But I'm thinking about those workers at those damaged nuclear power plants. They have to know what's happening to their bodies and their futures as they work in that radiating place. But they also know that lives are at stake in their efforts to contain the invisible killer that leaks from those plants. So they risk it all.

I want to be a Tomahawk missile. Not blowing up things. But always on course.

I've read that Tomahawk missiles have this state-of-the-art internal guidance system that always get them to their target. If they're wandering, they self-correct so they don't miss.

Fascinating. They're talking now about a "morning after" app for your smartphone. Apparently, this will allow you to delete any Twitter or Facebook message you've sent over the past twelve hours. Just in case you have second thoughts or delayed regrets.

Now who's going to invent a way to erase the words you wish you hadn't said from the hearts and souls of those we wounded? Ain't going to happen. There's no "morning after" app for the harsh or hurting words we say. There's only a "moment before" internal censor that refuses to "let any unwholesome talk come our of your mouth" (Ephesians 4:29). Damaging words are like bullets - you can't take them back once they're fired.

Hillary Clinton said what I was feeling. What a lot of people were feeling after the stunning events in Japan and the Middle East this past week. "It's hard to catch your breath."

On days like September 11, 2001...or watching the layer-upon-layer disaster in Japan - I realize it's hard to find a mental or emotional "folder" to file these mega-tragedies. All those pesky questions about suffering and pain in the world start pressing again to be answered.

I'm seeing so many images from the tsunami in Japan that just stay with me all day. And hearing so many stories that go straight to my soul. There's one that a particular reporter will have with her for a long time. From a survivors' shelter.

It was that dad holding his three-year-old daughter. When the tsunami hit, he grabbed her in his arms - and held on, literally for dear life, as the raging waters nearly pulled her away.

Maybe it's the nuclear emergency. The images of fire and explosions and dangerous clouds in and around a nuclear reactor. And the haunting specter of something lethal in the air that you can't see or hear or feel. You can see a tsunami. You can feel an earthquake. But the fearful poison of radiation - it can be stealing your life without you even knowing it. Somehow Japan's disaster is making people uneasy around the world. Just look at the sudden run on iodine tablets and and a new discomfort about the nuclear plant down the road.