Ugliness, Ugliness, It's What I Long For...

Fox Sports has posted a list of the Top Ten Worst Sports Uniforms. I can't disagree with any of their choices, but how can the old Houston Astros uniforms be exempt? Seriously. Not to mention the fact that The Astrodome's colors reflected the uniform colors also. Ick!

I'm back...

OK, again it has been a long time since I have updated. I know there are those of you out there that pay attention to this blog - all two of you - that have been concerned. Sorry about the lack of communication. Life has just been really busy. I will try to be back and better than ever (to steal a line from Mike and Mike in the Morning).

This morning, I woke up a little cranky. The weather "professionals" were calling for 1-3 inches of snow for Cape Girardeau overnight. But, as should be expected by now, there is no snow. Just grey and cold outside. I like the cold, but I like it better when there is snow on the ground. I didn't particularly care for snow when I lived where we got a lot of it, but now that we never get it, I sure miss it.

Our trip to Ohio for Thanksgiving was very good. We visited my family in the Cleveland area. It was a great visit and much fun to see how much all of the kids have grown. My nephew Matthew is very scary because he is so big. I made sure that I was nice to him and didn't pick on him. And Kaylee and Mikey are getting so big and mature as well. We got to see cousins and their kids as well (except for my cousin in Arizona). It was insane at times, so it was good to get home to relative quiet and normalcy. And we discovered that Colin travels like a champ. He took three good naps, and only got really fussy once. But when Marcy climbed in the back seat with him, he calmed right down. Ten hours, fifteen minutes total, and that includes getting lost once.

Before our trip to Cleveland, I was at the other end of Ohio - Cincinnati - for the National Youth Workers Convention, put on by Youth Specialties. As always, this was a great time of refreshing, rejuvenation, and reeducating for my job as a youth pastor. The main stage speakers this year were especially good. Donald Miller, Brenda Salter McNeil, and Mike Pilavachi all hit home runs, as far as I'm concerned. The worship leaders were excellent: David Crowder Band (of course) and Starfield. It was great to catch up with some good friends, Trey and Jonesy in particular. But the highlight of the weekend had to be Ohio State laying the smackdown to Michigan for a trip to the national championship game in January. It was a great weekend, and I am already longing for my next conference. Marcy called me a conference junkie. She's probably right, but I'm not ashamed. Only ten months 'til Catalyst!

OK, I think I'm caught up now. Have a great day, and thanks for reading...

Funny Stuff

Last week at The Porch we had our usual "Dress Up Because It's Halloween" night. There were several creative costumes, but my highlight of the night came from Logan. He had a Grim Reaper hood and a scythe, and yet he was wearing his usual Hawaiian shirt and shorts. I told him I liked his outfit, to which he replied, "I'm on vacation." I laughed so hard I had to sit down! I can just imagine the Grim Reaper sitting under a beach umbrella sipping a pina colada. Now that's one funny kid!

Repentance

New York Mets pitcher Guillermo Mota has been suspended for 50 games by Major League Baseball for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance. In response, he made this statement:

"I have no one to blame but myself," Mota said in a statement that did not explain how he ran afoul of baseball's drug rules. "I take full responsibility for my actions and accept MLB's suspension. I used extremely poor judgment and deserve to be held accountable."

"To my teammates and the entire Mets organization, I am sorry. I truly regret what I did and hope that you can forgive me. To baseball fans everywhere, I understand that you are disappointed in me, and I don't blame you. I feel terrible and I promise this is the first and last time that this will happen. I am determined to prove to you that this was one mistake."

How refreshing! An athlete that comes out and says, "I did it, and I'm sorry. Forgive me." Compare this to some other recent athletes when faced with the same issues :

• Rafael Palmeiro, in front of Congress: "I have never used steroids. Period." - He tested positive five months later, and claimed that he took the steroids unwittingly.
  
• Mark McGwire, in front of Congress: "I'm not here to talk about the past." - Maybe he never used stuff, but that lack of a statement sure is condemning.
• Barry Bonds: Claims he unknowingly used steroids that he thought was flaxseed oil. Seriously.

Granted, Mota made his admission after he had been caught, but it was still nice to hear an athlete own up to their failings, instead of trying to make all sorts of excuses.

Shouldn't we follow that example in life? Instead of making excuses for the way that we are and the ways that we screw up in our relationship with God and others, shouldn't we just say, "I screwed up. I'm sorry. It will be the last time"? Isn't that what repentance is all about?

Time to Vote...or Not

You can tell when it's election season. The leaves are starting to change colors, there's a chill in the air, and mud is getting slung all over the television. As a result, I hate election season. No, I like the colorful leaves and the chilliness in the morning, but the negative political ads make me a little puky. It's a shame that no one running for office has stances on any issues anymore; they only know every thing that their opponent has done wrong in their lives...or at least it seems that way to me. "Vote for me because that other guy/lady is a moron with no ethics whatsoever. Here's exactly how bad of a person he/she is." And so on. One particular set of ads have been running for months and months for someone named Judy Baar Topinka, and the tagline, "What's she thinking?" Not, "Vote for me and here's why," but, "You can't vote for her because she's that stupid. (paraphrased)" And I still don't know who she is or what she is running for. These types of ads - and the ones for prescription drugs - almost make me want to stop watching TV...but Prison Break keeps bringing me back.

We did a teaching last week at The Porch. We are in the midst of a series we titled GodSpace: A Space for God (modeled after the popular MySpace website). The idea is, what does it look like when you give God space in your life. The focus last week was on the Comments section, specifically, when you give God control of your life, how is your tongue/speech/comments affected? We found ourselves in James 3, where the tongue is compared to a bit that controls a large horse, a rudder that controls a large ship, and a spark that can start a huge fire. It can do a lot of damage, and it can do a lot of good. If you can control our tongue, it makes controlling the rest of you that much easier.

As I thought about this teaching, I thought back to my repulsion for political ads. I had this thought: What if we chose to not vote for anyone that ran attack ads on their opponent? By voting for the individuals that "approved this message," are we not saying, "I condone your methods of advertising"? I would have a hard time looking the attacked opponent in the eye and saying, "I agree with all of the awful things that [my candidate] said about you." If we made that kind of a stance, with massive support behind it, we might actually have some ads aired that were helpful and informative, instead of nasty and dirty. Granted, that kind of movement is more than this lowly blog could ever generate. So the more applicable question is, if we each made that stance, to not vote for anyone that ran negative, attacking policital ads, would we have anyone to vote for? Or have they all gone over to the dark side?

Catalyst Conference

This isn't so much an update as it is a question. I am heading to Atlanta next week for the Catalyst Conference. Anybody else going that would want to hook up for a cup of coffee? If so, let me know. I will also try to blog when there...

The Weekend in Sports

OK, so the Browns are still really stinky. And my fantasy team showed that I don't have a clue about drafting a good team (congrats on the big win, Oral). But it was still a good sports weekend, as far as I am concerned, as my Ohio State Buckeyes laid the smackdown to #2 Texas on Saturday night. Go Bucks!

Fantasy Football

Our fantasy football league had our draft tonight. Here's how my team played out:

1. Lamont Jordan - RB
2. Clinton Portis - RB
3. Reggie Wayne - WR
4. Donovan McNabb - QB
5. Reuben Droughns - RB
6. Anquan Boldin - WR (keeper from last season)
7. Javon Walker - WR
8. Jason Witten - TE
9. Jake Plummer - QB
10. Tampa Bay - Def
11. Wali Lundy - RB
12. T.J. Duckett - RB (handcuff pick for Portis)
13. David Akers - K

I think I did OK, especially since my good friend Brian Jones isn't in this league, so I might have a chance. But knowing how things go for me in fantasy sports, Portis' arm will fall off completely, and Boldin will come down with a rare virus for which there is no cure. But I'm not a pessimist. Your thoughts on my team?

Urgency

A couple of weeks ago, we introduced cereal into Colin's diet. For those of you that aren't yet parents, allow me to educate you for just a moment. When I say "cereal" I don't mean Fruity Pebbles or Honey Bunches of Oats (or Cheerio's, which seems to be a popular little kid cereal choice). When a child is Colin's age - closing in on five months - cereal means a tasteless, pasty white mixture. It reminds me of the paper mache mix we used in elementary school to make maracas out of light bulbs...tastes pretty similar, too...don't ask how I know. Colin is at the point of his development where he gets two 1/3 servings of this each day. And daddy - me - is often called upon to make the delivery. What an adventure that is! Colin treats each bite as though it were the most amazing stuff on earth, and as if he's afraid each bite will be the last. Even before he has swallowed the previous bite, he is already grunting and whining for the next one. He has an unbridled sense of urgency that I have never before witnessed. "Daddy, I know I haven't swallowed yet, but if you don't get that next bite near my mouth for me to eat, I don't know what I'll do. I might just blow a gasket, even though I have no idea what a gasket is yet. So let's go Dad, step it up and get me that pasty white food stuff!" It's really a site to behold. And last night was an even greater adventure, as he was so excited, that both arms and both legs were flailing while his head swiveled from side to side. It was like target practice, and quite frankly, I'm not good at target practice. Thank God for bath time.

As I fed him last night, I started to think about my life. I have the tendency to live life with this same sense of urgency. I do a lot of sitting around, until push comes to shove, and then I shift life into urgent mode. I have often said that I work really well behind the 8-ball. The problem is that it doesn't work so well for those that have to deal with me. And it's not a great way to live. So many important things get pushed aside for the urgent things. Sometimes the urgent is the most important, but oftentimes it just seems that way due to its, well, urgency. The challenge for me, and for any of you like me, is to fill and focus our lives on the important so that stuff doesn't get pushed to the side in favor of the urgent. How to do that? I'm not sure, but one day, when I absolutely have to do it, when it is urgent, I hope to figure it out...

New Video

Check out the new video I just posted on YouTube. You can see it on the sidebar to the right. Enjoy! And remember, Old Guys Rule...

Trees and Tag, You're It!

The big Bradford Pear tree that adorned our front yard is officially gone. What was left after the storm was cut down and removed over the weekend. Now there is a great big hole in our view where once was a nice-looking tree. We will especially miss it in the spring when it was known for it's beautiful white blossoms. It's departure made me reflect on the brevity of life. If I was counting the rings correctly, it was in the neighborhood of 16 years old. Granted, this is not old when you think about Oak trees and the like, but a 16 year old Bradford Pear tree means it is a pretty big tree. And the majority of it was gone in a matter of a half hour. All that time and effort on the part of the tree and Mother Nature reduced to a pile of sawdust and leaves in minutes. What a bummer! Our life is no different. We work hard and long at whatever for however long God gives us on Earth, and then one day, we are reduced to a pile of sawdust and leaves. But hopefully, we have done something in our lives to leave a hole when we are gone, to know that we will be missed. What have you done that will be missed when you are gone?

On to the tagging. A buddy of mine from seminary, D.G. Hollums has tagged me, meaning I have to - actually, I chose to, because it's fun and interesting - answer a series of questions. This particular tagging focuses on books, so here we go:

1. One book that changed your life: (We'll assume the Bible is asssumed) The Ragamufin Gospel by Brennan Manning - If you still have a hard time grasping grace, read this...

2. One book that you have read more than once:
Put Me In The Zoo by Robert Lopshire - Colin loves this one!

3. One book you would want on a desert island:
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide by Douglas Adams - Makes me laugh out loud every time, which brings me to...

4. One book that made you laugh:
Anything by Bill Bryson - Hilarious and educational

5. One book that made you cry:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

6. One book you wish had been written:
The Answer Book for Being the Best Husband and Dad Ever

7. One book you wish had never been written:
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown - Could there be any more hype for a below-average book? I think not

8. One book youÂ’re currently reading:
Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz and Dori Jones Yang

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
The Challenge of Jesus by N.T. Wright - I'm actually in the middle of it...for the third time

10. Tag 5 others:
Brian Jones
Guy Williams
Jennifer Schenkelberg
Jason and Jeni Russ
Scott Russ

A Lot to be Thankful For

So, Saturday night during a bad storm, a tree fell on our house. And in the past week and a half, our ministry has lost five SIMYs (that's the acronym for our adult leaders). So why the title, "A Lot to be Thankful For"? Well, with regards to the tree, everyone is OK, and the damage could have been a whole lot worse. It just clipped the corner of the front porch. And with regards to our ministry, we still have many good, solid, committed leaders in our youth ministry, so I have that to be thankful for. And, I talked with my aunt the other day, and she told me of the problems they have had with bitter youth leaders that have gone so far as to leave their church (they are the junior high youth leaders) because they don't agree with the direction that the new youth pastor is taking the ministry. As near as I can tell, and from what those that have left our ministry have told me, we are not experiencing that sort of bitterness at all. It is simply a matter of people trying to scale back their lives or God taking them in a different direction in their own ministries. So praise God for that!

On a different note, I am looking for some good quotes. We are nearing the end of the renovation of our youth space at La Croix. There is a company that sells lettered wall decals. I would love to get some good, meaningful quotes that would appeal to youth to add to the walls in there. So if you have any, please pass them along. And, part of the renovation is a prayer room. If you have any quotes that specifically pertain to prayer, please pass those along as well. Thanks in advance...

I'm Back!

It's good to know that two of you have noticed my blogging absence and have been concerned about it. That's more than I figured it would be. To return, I thought I would present my On Notice list of things / people that are dead to me:

• Turn signal non-users: Nothing drives me battier than someone who is driving in front of me and they slow down for no apparent reason...and then they turn! That's what the little stick on the left of the drive shaft is for!
• Prescription drug commercials: When did they start advertising for prescrip drugs? Sure, they have always advertised for Bayer and such, but a drug for Restless Leg Syndrome? Come on!
• On-air talent shows: OK, so I watch American Idol, but do we need America's Got Talent? If you judge it by that show - which I admittedly have not watched, but have seen a few clips - no, we don't have talent. And are David Haselhoff and Brandy the ones that should be determining it?
  
• Chuck Norris: Why is he popular? Are people trying to make him the next Kevin Bacon? It will never work.
• Fox Sports football coverage: Just show me the dang game, don't make it sound and look like a blasted video game.
• Sweetest Day: Just a holiday invented by Hallmark to sell cards. Love you, Marcy!
• Neckties: The only time I have worn one in the past several years was to preach at my sis-in-law's wedding. Can't stand 'em.
• Mike Shane: He is the local news anchor in Cape. Marcy and I laugh at him most of the time, because he is ridiculous. His time of usefulness as an anchor is long gone. Yesterday he was commenting on the ears of the Humane Society dog of the day saying that, wouldn't it be great if humans had ears like that? Huh?!?

It's good to be back...

Schlemiel, Schlemozzle, Hossenfeffer, Incorporated!

Tomorrow morning at 8:00am, 27 teenagers, 6 SIMYs (adult leaders), and I will be piling in 15-passenger vans and hitting the road for our annual summer mission trip. This year, as hinted at by the title of this post, we are heading to Milwaukee, WI. Please pray for us. Pray that our teenagers and adults get a glimpse - or another one - of what it means to serve the way that Jesus talked about and demonstrated. Pray that our leaders are able to establish good, strong relationships with the students. And pray that I don't screw anything up...and that I'm able to deal with missing my wife and baby for the week. I hope to give updates on a regular basis this week at The Porch's MySpace site and upload pictures at Flickr. Don't hate on me if it doesn't happen, though...

Life is Good!

Man, I had a great weekend! My dad came to visit me from Ohio. He got into town a little late due to some car issues, but he made it Saturday morning. It was fun getting to see him meet Colin. Almost everyone on Marcy's side has met him, but my dad was the first one on my side to do so. We had a fun weekend of doing very little. Hey, we live in Cape, so what do you expect? I also preached my last sermon in the series I have been working on called, "What you talkin' 'bout, Jesus?" While I certainly enjoyed preaching, it is nice to have that extra workload off of my shoulders. And to top it all off, my dad and I went to Busch Stadium last night for the Cardinals game. Our beloved Indians were in town, so we snapped up tickets. The stadium is great, and our seats - section 164, row WC - were awesome! They were plastic fold-up chairs placed just behind the lower section, so we were actually able to move them around and lean back in them. Very nice! And to top it all off, our Tribe laid a serious butt-whooping to the Cards, 10-3. Too much fun!

Brennan Manning and Kisses

Now, if that title didn't catch your attention and imagination, then you are simply not alive. Last weekend, our church had the privilege of hosting Brennan Manning for our weekend services. He is booked solid through 2008, but through the fortune of a church cancelling his visit with him, we were able to land him to speak while our pastor was on sabbatical. And what a blessing it was! He gave three distinct messages at each of the services, all focused on the theme of God's amazing love and grace. If you have read any of his books, you will find this theme to be unsurprising, as many of his writings - The Ragamuffin Gospel, Abba's Child, Ruthless Trust, etc. - have this as their central theme. During one of his messsages, he referenced a particular translation of the story of the prodigal son. This translation, when it gets to the part of the story of the father greeting his son upon his return, says that the father, "...couldn't stop kissing him." What a beautiful way to read it!

Rewind now about two months. Colin had just recently been born. As I came into contact with friends and acquaintances, many of them would ask, "So, how is it being a daddy?" My reply to many of them was, "I just can't stop kissing him!" Almost word for word what that translation read. I guess this being a daddy thing is just a glimpse of the overwhelming love that the Father has for me. It means so much more now...

Apple Envy

The new MacBooks are out. They make me hate the whole nature of computers. A couple of months ago, I purchased a refurbished iBook - which Apple is no longer making - and I love it! But, now they come out with the new MacBook, which features the Intel processor (translation: 5X faster), the new iLife '06 software bundle, a built in webcam for video chats, a remote that can control iTunes and the DVD player, and a magnetic power cord to prevent accidentally tripping over the cord and pulling the laptop off the table and onto the floor. The entry level one is about what I paid for my refurbished laptop. Curses! If I had just waited a little longer, I could have the new fancy one. But I know that a few months after that, they would have come out with something else to make me envious yet again. It's a never-ending spiral downward.

Plus, the new 24-hour Apple store opens today in New York City. It features a glass-cube at street-level, with stairs that descend into the store. There you find lots of computers and toys that you can try before you buy. If I ever make it back to NYC, that will certainly be a stopping place. You can read more and see pictures here.

I do love the new Apple commercials, though.

Cliffhangers

Two nights ago Marcy and I finished watching our TV addiction of choice for the year, Prison Break. It was the season finale, and boy, what a great season it was. The plot centers around Michael Scofield, whose brother - Lincoln - is on death row, having been framed for the murder of the Vice President's brother. He robs a bank so he can get put in jail to help his brother - and others, as the show progressed - escape. It's a very intense show, and most of the episodes ended with a cliffhanger, causing me to wait with baited breath for the next week's episode. Every Monday I would say to Marcy, "You know what today is?" She would answer, "It's Monday." To which I would reply, "And you know what that means?" "Prison Break," would be her answer. And I would be giddy with anticipation.

I am also in the process of reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Now, before you question my Christianity or my wisdom, read my post below about this book. Anyway, Brown's writing style is a little annoying to me. I know, the book has sold a bajillion copies, but his chapters are each only a couple of pages long, and practically every one ends with some sort of cliffhanger:

• Langdon could not believe the words that were scrawled on the floor.
• Collett saw that the keys to the Land Rover were missing.

And so on. I know these fabricated sentences don;t make a lot of sense by themselves, but in the context, they would make one think, "Oh, I can't wait to find out what happens next! I must read the next chapter, all two pages of it!" It simply gets a little tiring after a while. It might work for an hour-long TV drama, but for a novel, I just don't think it works as well.

These two pop culture elements of my life have caused me to think about life in general. What would life be like if it were like Prison Break or The Da Vinci Code? What if, every hour or so, or at least every day, we had this huge cliffhanger in our lives that we had to deal with? I wonder how many of us would be able to deal with that kind of pressure on a regular basis. One minute, we lose our job. The next, we find out we've been set up. The next, we find out it's part of a huge conspiracy. The next, we discover that it is a conspiracy that we actually set in motion. And so on, and so on. By the end of the day, I would be curled up in the fetal position sucking my thumb. Thank God for the comparitively mundane-ness of life. Thank God that when I go home, I can simply kiss my wife, hug my child, and pat my dog on the head without having to worry about the government agent showing up at my door with a gun. Thank God that most days, the most exciting thing that may happen is that I get an e-mail from a friend or discover what great salad Marcy made for dinner. Thank God that the excitement of my life comes from an occasional great sporting event or roller coaster, and not from someone holding a knife to my throat. Cliffhangers are great for TV, not so great for novels, and distressing in real life.

Pac Man

If you have ever been a fan of the video game Pac Man - or even if you haven't - you will likely love this video of two people reenacting Pac Man in real life. It must have been finals week...

The Da Vinci Code

I ran across this blog entry when it was republished in Christianity Today. It was written by Barbara R. Nicolosi, a scriptwriter, author, and speaker. She has some very opinionated things to say about The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Her basic premise is that we should stay far away from the book and the movie, as utilizing it for discussion purposes or to educate ourselves with it for those purposes would be similar to arguing with the Devil himself. She likens a discussion with anyone advocating DVC to an exorcism of demons. She criticizes those that might fall away from God because they did so "over this cartoonish, illiterate, dishonest piece of hack drivel..." instead of something bigger and more important like a love affair. Her depiction of "typical DVC inspired dialogue" paints the advocate as a close-minded, rude, sex-crazed, demon-possessed individual. Wow! Nothing like being open-minded, eh?

I just got The Da Vinci Code out of the library (the huge, illustrated, coffee-table version, since it was the only thing left) and started reading it the other night. It's an OK book so far, not great. And I plan on seeing the movie when it comes out, either in the theater or more likely on DVD (since I have a baby now). Why? Not only do I really like Tom Hanks as an actor and Ron Howard as a director. I also need to be prepared. I have heard much about the book, but have experienced none of it first-hand. I need to be prepared to know what I'm talking about when the topic comes up. And come up it will. If I were to take Ms. Nicolosi's high road, and one of my students were to approach me with questions about some of the so-called facts that the book or movie espouses, how would I respond? "Sorry. I didn't read or see it. It is spiritually-unfit for me to consume. And just the fact that you are asking me about makes you the Devil!" Come on! Let's be a little less closed-minded and impractical. Jesus Himself in Mark 5 not only communicated with the demons, but also granted their wishes by casting them into a herd of swine. I am not putting myself or anyone else on par with Jesus, but this book will open conversations with people about God, even if they have skewed opinions of Him. 1 Peter 3:15 exhorts believers to be prepared to give an answer for the hope that in them, and with humbleness, not pride. I would much rather be prepared to dialogue and give an answer for my hope than to condemn...