first john

How do you reconcile:
1 John 1:8 "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us."
with:
1 John 3:9 "No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."

Are none of us then, born of God? The best explanation I've heard (I'm beginning to feel a need to write down these small insights) is as follows:

Suppose one day Ryan Bayer* comes home from (middle) school after having cheated on a test. His father, having already heard about this incident, proceeds to lecture little Bayer. One of the first things he says, and rather sternly, too, is "Bayer's don't cheat." But clearly, they do (as Ryan has just demonstrated).

What's happening here is that Ryan's dad, while reprimanding him, is also trying to exhort him to live up to his name. Similarly, when John claims that no one who is born of God practices sin, he is not making a statement of fact, but rather an exhortation for us to live up to what we are called to be?

* This story works better when the main character has a polysyllabic last name (i.e. white), and Ryan doesn't read this blog anyway.

april fools

Only one of the following can be considered an April Fool's joke:

1) My sister got into Princeton! (as well as every other school she applied to, including Stanford, MIT, etc).
2) I have a huge crush on an undergrad girl, and asked her out today. She said she'll have to think about it :(