American Soldier

American Soldier,

We owe you
Our praise for your service
Our patience when you struggle
Our prosperity when you come home
Our tears when you fall
We owe you
Our help
Our respect
Our gratitude
Our love
We owe you
The country in which we live
The flag we all salute
The liberty we all enjoy
Things we take for granted
We owe you
A debt we cannot pay
With money
Or words
Or statues
Or parades
We owe you
The peace with which we sleep at night
More that we can say
More than we’re willing to admit
Compassion, strength, honor, grace
We owe you
So please accept this humble genuflection,
to who you are and what you do.
A simple “Thank you,
American soldier.”

Images

There are a lot of images in my head that I want to remember forever. Images I don't have pictures or video to remind me of, just the memories. I'm going to try to remember to at least write them down here as they come to me over time...

Image: Anna screaming louder and longer than I've ever seen or heard as she won the 2009 AWANA Grand Prix at Forest Park Baptist Church. No birthday or Christmas ever produced such a reaction. She was ecstatic like never before as she ran the length of the track to be surrounded by friends who all held hands in a ring and jumped and screamed together with her.

XXI Winter Games IV

A couple final notes on the Vancouver 2010 games, which ended over a week ago.

A. I am in withdrawal.
B. Although the summer games are incredible, my true love is for the winter sports.
C. Wang Meng, as dominant as she is, and she's arguably the single most dominant athlete in the world when compared to the rest of her sport, does NOT belong in the pantheon of the greatness occupied by people like Gretzky, Jordan, Tiger Woods and Shawn White. Those men transformed their sports, Meng is incredibly dominant, but hasn't transformed the game. Courses were altered for White and Woods. Teams changed their entire strategy to deal with Gretzky, and Jordan brought basketball to the world with his skill and popularity. Meng, who might be more successful than all of them, comparatively speaking, hasn't changed short-track at all.
D. China is set to become a global superpower in athletics. Don't be surprised if they win more medals at London 2012 than they did in Beijing 2008. They're leveraging their home-games success quite nicely. Sports is an opiate for the masses?! NO WAY! (Duh.)

XXI Olympic Winter Games III

And the awesomeness just keeps coming...

14) The South Korean women finished first in the 3k Meter Relay on the short track. HOWEVER, they were disqualified by the judges after the race, which gave China the gold and bumped the United States into bronze. Does it get any better than that?! YES! The Chinese were also credited with a world record time, even though they crossed the finish line in second! I should probably apologize for the inappropriate joy I feel at this whacked out turn of events... but I won't.

15) Speaking of whacked out: Lindsey Vonn crashed on the Giant Slalom, which hurt because she was in the lead by over half a second (that's like a 20 pt. lead in an NBA game--huge, but not impossible to beat). However, since the weather was so poopy, race officials had already sent the next skier down the hill. Standard procedure, and they got her stopped in time, but by random chance that second skier was defending gold medalist Julie Mancuso. Aaaggh! No way ANYBODY get jacked up like that in the middle of a run and comes back to repeat the same quality of performance. Julie finished the run in 18th and wept profusely. Sad day for U.S. Ski Team. AND, it looks like Ms. Vonn may have broken a finger, which seriously effects her chances in the slalom. "Oh no, we suck again!"

16) Silver for the United States in Nordic Combined Team?! NO WAY! But it did happen.

17) Job opening! Dutch speed skating coach Gerard Kemkers pulled an All-Time Olympic blunder in the Men's 10,000 meters race when he yelled at Sven Kramer to switch lanes with eight laps left to go. Kramer is the world-record holder and 3-time defending world champion at that distance. The only person he was competing with for gold was himself. Thanks to Kemkers advice however, he was DQ'd. Not a lot of love lost between athlete and coach afterwards. This might not have been so bad, but speed skating is to Holland what television is to America.

18) Women's Ski Cross? Seriously, wasn't the men's event embarrassing enough? In the 7 heats they showed in prime time there was exactly ONE lead change past the first 50m. There were only about 3 position changes in the back of the races, and only once in the competition did the leading qualifier in each race NOT win. (YAWN!) Where's curling when you really need it?

I am a ski fanatic. I have no problem following other freestyle events, alpine, biathlon, Nordic combined, jumping or cross country races, but ski cross--AND I REALLY HOPE THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE IS READING THIS--SKI CROSS HAS TO GO!

19) This is what makes the Olympics great: Marjan Kalhor. Marjan Kalhor is the first woman from Islamic Republic of Iran (the official Olympic designation of that country) to compete in a Winter Olympiad. She will finish dead last in the women's Giant Slalom and has to wear a head scarf under her helmet to comply with Islamic dress code, but she's there. Kudos to her and all the other athletes like her. And kudos to Iran for allowing her to compete. There is always a group of athletes that come from nations sending only a small handful of representatives (often as few as one), who's biggest victory is marching in the opening ceremonies, and I wish them all the best. I hope their Olympic experience is everything the rest of us dream about.

XXI Winter Olympic Games II

A few more personal thoughts on the 21st Winter Olympiad...



7) Ski Cross. Loooooser. I love skiing, truly I do, but this is the first (and hopefully last) time we've seen this one at the Olympics and it's a real stinker. Snow Cross is a two-thumbs up awesome event, but just because it works on a snowboard doesn't mean it should be done with skis. Like the X-games' new "High Air" event, it begs to be cancelled.

8) Yeah, those South Koreans are still running their mouths and still backing it up. Dang!

9) This is the sloppiest television coverage I've ever seen at an Olympics. Seriously. Yesterday they spliced in an interview during the Men's Super Combined that featured a graphic of the final results. OOPS! Hope you weren't watching that... And the announcers apparently all took stupid pills before flying in to Vancouver. I say that because at nearly every venue I've seen they make incredibly dumb remarks that make me wonder if they're watching the same competition.

10) Doubles luge. Seriously?

11) You have to love Bode Miller. Even HE admits he's a tub of goo. The guy is totally out of shape (for an Olympian) and he STILL has three medals in three events. Rarely do you wonder if an athlete will have a heart attack during an event, but Bode makes you wonder. AND, although his lackadaisical attitude was really awful in Torino, he's cleaned up his act enough to be downright cool.

12) Kudos to Johnny Spillane AND Todd Lodwick for giving the United States real respectibility in the Nordic Combined. Spillane's silver is our first EVER medal in the event, Lodwick's fourth shows it wasn't a fluke. These guys are legit!

13) Simon Ammann, you are da' man! Guy can't jump out of a paper sack for eight years... eight years between double Olympic golds! And now he'll fade back into nothing, at least until Sochi 2014.

XXI Olympic Winter Games

Still addicted to the games. Can't help it. They are sports par excellence and nothing else comes close; not any sport's World Championships, not football's Super Bowl, not soccer's World Cup, not anything. And I'm especially fond of the winter olympics. I love mountains, I love snow, and let's face it, halfpipe blows beach volleyball right out of the water. Not saying the summer games are inferior, just that the winter games, for me, are more exciting.

What stands out to me in this olympiad so far?

1) Nodar Kumaritashvili: Luger who died in a practice run, forcing race officials to lower the start line, which caused competitors to use words like "boring" to describe the course. Absolutely tragic, but he died doing what he loved and at the absolute pinnacle of his sport's competition. (You'll go four years before you hear anyone mention luge again after the winter olympics.)

2) Crappy Vancouver weather. I don't think anyone would argue that the weather has been maybe THE story of the games so far. It's caused course conditions to stink at pretty much every outdoor event so far and thrown athletes off their game at multiple venues.

3) However, weather ALSO caused the women's downhill to be postponed which gave Lindsey Vonn enough time to recoup from injury to be able to embarrass the rest of the field. Most dominating women's world cup season ever? So far! (six wins in seven downhills)

4) Two reasons to hate South Korean short track skaters: First, they're talking trash, and second, they're backing it up. Gotta love Lee Ho-suk's ALL-TIME biggest blunder in the 1500m though. They had the sweep locked! But he just couldn't leave it be, so Apollo Ohno and J.R. Celski took silver and bronze when he crashed into his own teammate. Thank you Lee!

5) Shaun White is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! His win in the men's halfpipe was the stuff of legend. I truly believe he belongs in the pantheon of sport next to men like Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan. He has truly transcended snowboarding. And he has a great nickname too. Who doesn't love "The Flying Tomato?"

6) Wang Meng. Yep, a female Chinese short track skater. She's probably the most dominant athlete on earth in comparison to the rest of sports. I mean, the Flying Tomato is cool, but Meng is 101-1 since her gold medal in Torino in the 500m. 101-1! AND the only loss was because she tripped, she beat herself. The woman hasn't been legitimately beaten in over FOUR YEARS! And, yes, her victory in this year's games was every bit as dominant at White's was in halfpipe. Epic. If she skated more distances, she'd be in the pantheon as well.

2010 Life Goals

Not gonna sweat much over this one, but here's a few things I want to get done this year:

1) Read the entire Bible (even Leviticus).
2) Get down to 170 lbs. and STAY.
3) Build an exercise habit that survives the winter.
4) Disc golf 25X
5) Folfathon: Wichita
6) Fish 10X
7) Put another stamp in my passport.
8) And this is the biggie... Peak out on Mt. Bailey.

Honestly, there's a lot more I could put on here, serious things like "spend more time with my kids" or "lead 12 people to Christ," and I'm sure I could fill the page with great spiritual goals that would make me look like some kind of circus-freak Christian or something, but these are the selfish little things I'd really like to do. Frankly, I think a lot of those selfless 'spiritual' goals will probably be requisite to actually achieving this list. Hope I'm right.

NCAA Football: A sport without a champion V

My friend Chris Martin, perhaps the last unpaid defender of the BCS, sent me a Facebook message recently. I felt I had to reply. Here's Chris's message, me reply follows...

I said to myself, self let's see if Jon is right about Boise deserving a shot at the Title.

OU(average by OU standards) 45 Tulsa 0Bosie St 28 Tulsa 21

CollegeFootballNews.com ranks all 120 major college teams. Here is the breakdown for Boise

They play this year, 7 teams that are ranked between 100 and 120. Their overall average for their 12 team schedule? 90.6. Let me say that again 90.6. So let's blow off their regular season schedule and Tulsa comparison and talk Bowl games.

Last 5 years? 1 win 4 losses. Dominating? Their only win was by 1 point in overtime. Not a great resume' for Boise.

Let's compare vs. oh say Texas. Their average schedule rank is 58.6. They are 4-1 in thier last 5 bowls. Not fair to compare the Big 12 to the WAC? OK. Let's go to that Joke of a conference The Big East. Cincinnati. Their average schedule rank? 58.5. 58.5. Let's look at that again Texas 58.6 - Cincy 58.5 - Boise 90.6. Oh by the way, Cincy 4-1 in their last 5 bowls.

Boise is a joke. They don't belong in the top 10. They don't belong in the BCS. They don't belong in the National Title conversation. I give them credit they beat the best the pac-10 has to offer in the first game of the year, when that team was clearly not playing their best running back.

The BCS works in this case. It Keeps posers like Boise out of the Title game. Thank you BCS!

Chris,

All very intriguing, but utterly meaningless. If ANY team, regardless of strength of schedule (which is dictated TO the school, not determined BY the school), finishes the season undefeated, it is a ridiculous statement to say that "every game counts" or that there is a true national champion out there. I think, secretly, you know this. The fact that SIX other teams finished with records similar to or better than LSU's championship winning 12-2 tells me that every game counts only IF the judges say so, but those judges are pretty fickle. That year several BCS conference champions were denied a chance a the title because they simply weren't ranked high enough.

The FCS division of NCAA football is little better than ice dancing when it comes to crowning a champion. Teams are ranked before the season begins based on educated human OPINION, not performance on the field. Its a beauty contest, pure and simple. Teams are judged before they ever face an opponent. If a great team happens to appear from an unexpected quarter (i.e., the Big 12 north, or the WAC), they face the imposing obstacle of impressing the judges who deemed them unworthy before the season began. If the system "works," then how did Michigan ('97), Tulane ('98), Marshall ('99), Auburn ('04), Utah ('04), Boise State ('06), and Utah AGAIN ('08) all finish unbeaten without a championship? The answer is simple, the "champion" is crowned by vote. The trophy goes to the team VOTED by the judges (coaches, reporters, etc.) to be the best in the country. Just like ice dancing.

I know, I know, computers. What about the computer rankings, you ask? Don't those eliminate the human element? Once again, no. The computers do the same thing the other voters do, they rank teams who have never faced one another on the field based on their subjective programming and spit out a list of who's-better-than-who. Once again, it's a beauty contest.

Equally sad is the "common opponent" argument you routinely fall back on. Although, I do appreciate that you always bring it back to Oklahoma... The first problem with "common opponent" is that teams change all the time, developing for better or worse due to coaching, injuries, etc, at different paces all the time. Who cares if OU punished a team that another school barely squeeked by. At the end of the day, a win is a win. The second and more serious issue is that it undercuts sportsmanship. Common Opponent is a margin of victory comparison. If you're going to use margin of victory as a component to measure a team's worthiness or ranking, you offer incentive to coaches to run up the score on their opponents. (Incidentally, that is the single reason why margin of victory was removed from the BCS formula in the first place!) SO, if no respectable coach will use common opponent, why do you? Sportsmanship matters, which is why common opponent doesn't. No one cares how much stronger OU or Boise State or anyone looked against Tulsa. All that matters is DID THEY WIN?

And while we're at it, let's address the so-called "popularity" argument. If the system is so bad, why is college football so popular? Simply put, it isn't. The overwhelming majority of fans out there screaming their heads off around the country are not fans of NCAA FCS football, they are fans of their local university team. Being from Oklahoma (where football and Jesus are neck and neck in popularity), I know this will be hard for you to understand, but most people could care less about what's going on elsewhere in the country football-wise. I bleed green and yellow, and will gladly watch Oregon play at 1am if I have to because its a west coast game, but that's only because I'm from there. The Ducks are MY team. And that's pretty typical. Honestly, I don't know anyone who watches college football if the game doesn't feature their local favorite or alma mater. As for bowl games, its pretty much the same. I might watch the majors, I might not. I'm not going out of my way to watch anything without Oregon in it. That's for sure. The so-called "BCS championship game?" Yes, I'll watch it, but only because I want to be able to talk about it intelligently with friends. Last year I missed it completely. No big deal. If Oregon canned their football program, would I watch some other teams play? Nope. Do I spend any time watching teams here in the Midwest, like Oklahoma and Missouri, since Oregon isn't often on? Nope. And I don't really miss it.

Compare that with the NFL. The Super Bowl. Ahhh... Football at its finest. Or any other level of the college game, where the champion receives a plaque from the NCAA and knows that NO ONE can dispute their claim. And no one does. Last year in the NFL the Patriots went 11-5 and missed the playoffs. Did anyone cry foul? Of course not! The system works. Last year in the FCS, D-II and D-III the NCAA crowned champions who won their titles on the field. Did anyone cry foul? Of course not! But then there's the Football Bowl Series, where "every game matters" (unless you're from a non-BCS conference, then none of the games matter), but somehow almost every year there's an argument over who should be in the championship game and half the time someone goes undefeated but isn't allowed to play for the crown. Hmm...

Don't get me wrong here, football is an amazing sport, but football is only football. That is, whether its FBS or high school or the NFL, football is football, but the FBS is still the worst system for determining a champions that exists in the game today. Of course it's still popular, its football for crying out loud! That doesn't mean the system works. If anything that proves the greatness of a sport that can survive in spite of its inadequacies. Or perhaps because of the strength of its other

In conclusion, as long as polls exist to determine the national championship game, controversy will continue. It's a lame system. Period. In fact, and there's nothing personal here Chris, but outside of you and Bill Hancock, I don't know a coach, player or fan who appreciates the FCS as a championship format. And frankly, I pity the fool who has to try to defend it. Wait, I take that back. Bill Hancock is no fool. He is, however, highly paid to take a fool's position. What's your excuse?

In 1994, Penn State was moved from 1 to 2 in the national rankings because they put scrubs in during the fourth quarter of a blowout game against Indiana and gave up a couple of garbage time TDs that made the final score look closer than the game actually was. They still won by 6 points, but people who didn't watch the game who saw the score were tempted to believe that PSU actually struggled to win. They went on to finish 12-0 and were voted second in the AP and USA Today polls. Ouch. Had they run up the score some more they'd have won a championship. It was that finish that spurred the Bowl Coalition, which in its failure spawned the Bowl Alliance, which gave way to the current system. The fact that they changed it all signifies that the system didn't work well for producing a satisfactory champion. That they've changed it repeatedly since and 50% of "fans" still want a playoff indicates the further failure of that system.

Having said all that, however, I must admit that there is a playoff-free solution that I'm frankly surprised no one has touted thus far: INTEGRITY. If the BCS would simply admit that all they want to do is guarantee the most money they can for their member schools, and that that money will be used to produce better scholars and athletes--CITIZENS--for the United States, I think they'd hear a lot less whining. All they need to do is tell the truth; that they aren't interested in the fairness or purity of the game as they are about financing the future of the students at their member schools. THAT would sell. People would believe, they would recognize the value of sacrificing the need to crown a true champion in favor of creating a generation of champions that will carry America into the future. Who could argue with that?!

NCAA football: a sport without a champion IV

Well, the BCS hired a new mouthpiece last week. And he immediately went to work by hiring a prominent public relations firm to start touting the positive aspects of the worthless system. In my last commentary on the BCS, I said, "at least they're honest" in reference to the money grubbing reasons for avoiding a playoff system. Bill Hancock is out to change that. Gone are the public concerns for money money money, which could at least be defended by stating that it was all going to the education of our future leaders. Now its back to scheduling and tradition, neither of which is truly denfensible. Sad days continue, and this year looks like it could be an even bigger failure than ever for the pathetic efforts to determine a true champion. With a month left in the season there are still six unbeatens in the division formerly known as D1 (now the FBS). Scheduling will reduce that number by one or two, but the season may very well end with multiple unbeaten teams who never got to play for a championship... Maybe congress will step up and intervene.

Marriage ramble

I sometimes vomit my brain on paper. This is one of those times. It is not meant to be an authoritative statement of who I am or what I believe, but a dialogue, an exploration, with myself about what is really true...

From a recent article in the Joplin Globe:

• Living together before marriage doubles the chance of divorce.
• Children with divorced parents are 89% more likely to get divorced themselves.
• Jasper County, MO is one of the top 50 counties in America for divorce rates.
• Four leading causes of divorce are economic struggles, infidelity, blending families in second marriages, and addiction to drugs/alcohol.
• A college education lowers the likelihood of divorce.
• Adolencents with divorced parents are more than twice as likely to drop out of high school. "...virtually all of the increase in child poverty in United States since the 1970s can be attributed to family breakdown."
• Three way to help avoid divorce in the future: finish high school (and college!), wait until you are 21 to get married, don't have kids until after you are married.

What I find interesting about the article is that it pretty much mirrors Biblical wisdom. Biblically, marriage is a covenant relationship between one man and one woman that is meant to last until one of them dies. Of course, theologically there's a lot more to it than that, but that's another story. So on the surface marriage is pretty simple, but in reality it is a HUGE commitment that people take WAY to lightly. A solid marriage founded on common faith in Jesus Christ is still the best way to enjoy sex, provide stability for children, meet one's own social, emotional and spiritual needs, and survive financially. But American society has little regard for Biblical marriage today. I mean, a lot of people make a big deal about the whole "one man, one woman" thing (as opposed to homosexual marriage), and I suppose we should be grateful for small blessing like that, but most of those people are speaking out of convictions they know in their heads rather than in their hearts. They are fair-weather Christians who are only too happy to stand firm for their convictions as long as those convictions don't impinge on their own personal happiness. Of course, that's easy for me to say since I have (thankfully) led a very blessed life. I haven't had to fight through most of the issues facing all those couple in divorce court today. I hope I never have to. I can't help but think, however, that perhaps the reason I haven't been through a lot of that is because I have tried (albeit imperfectly) to keep Jesus Christ at the center of my life and marriage. I mean, everyone faces adversity in life, and some more than others (see Job, or my sister-in-law), but how we deal with that adversity is what reveals who we truly are. Do we run for the exit when trouble comes? Or fight tooth and claw for the things He values most? Notice I said "He" not "we." in that last sentence. I think "we" value our own personal freedom and happiness. Its in our DNA as a nation after all, but the truth is that the Bible trumps the constitution. And until we are willing to voluntarily surrender our own rights to happiness and freedom in the context of family, we will never really experience either. "He" has a wholly different set of values that when we fight for will produce the peace and hope we all long for anyway.

God's Will

As to God's will, I think you have a better grasp than you know. People do get all bent out of shape over God's will, and I just don't think that's what He wants from us all the time. We shouldn't have to agonize over little decisions, or even big decision if we are in a right relationship with Him, but we do. I hear people talk about being "in the center of God's Will" and finding His "perfect Will" for their lives all the time. Heck, I'VE said those things. But the reality, I believe, is different.

The Bible is God's perfect revealed will, period. What it says in clear plain English (yes, I know, its a translation, just go with me here.) What it says in clear plain English is what it means. DO THIS. DON'T DO THAT. Clear commands and promises are just that. And here's the tricky part, EVERYTHING ELSE IS GUESSWORK. I mean, no matter what we do, we cannot say "this or that is God's will for me" just because we've done our homework. Do all the things you've heard me teach before (search the Bible, pray, seek wise counsel, consider the circumstances, etc.) and make decisions and take action on those decisions. And trust God to help you along the way. IF you are in a right relationship with God, you'll be alright. Things may or may not work out according to your plan, but whatever happens you can have peace because, and this is important, GOD IS IN CONTROL.

Proverbs 16:9 says, "A man's heart plans his way, but the LORD determines his steps."

Medidtate on that for a while. We make plans. We use every faculty at our disposal, but who determines what happens?

That's right. It's not about you.

Think too about Philippians 4:6-7. "Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Ever wonder about that peace? It's the peace that comes from understanding that GOD IS IN CONTROL. Things might turn out horribly different that you intend or desire, but GOD IS IN CONTROL.

I heard a horrible preacher a while back talk for ten minutes about how bad he was as a preacher in his introduction. And he was right. BUT one thing he said really hit home with me. He said that anxiety comes when external pressure intrudes on our internal sense of what is right "for me." And that is arrogance. The providence of God is a beautiful thing.

What I'm getting at here is that we DO have a responsibility to do our part in seeking God. But ultimately the results of our decisions are in His hands. And let's not make the mistake of substituting a false ideal (like knowing God's perfect will apart from scripture) in place of Jesus. That is, we talk about seeking God's will, but there's an inherent fallacy there; we are supposed to seek HIM. His will, in a sense, is a distraction. Focus on being right with God. The closer you are to Him, the more inclined you will be to trust Him with the results of whatever decision you have to make. Seek God, not God's will. And when the time comes and you have a decision to make you can stand before the throne of God with utter confidence and say, "Lord I have done all I know to understand what you want me to do, therefore I..." and you can finish the sentence from there. He may or may not bless the decision you make with success as you have determined success to be in your own mind, but He will never condemn you either. Peace. Peace of knowing that you have allowed Him to guide you in the process and peace in knowing that you have allowed Him to be responsible for the outcome.

Make sense yet?

Letter to the Editor: Joplin Globe: MSSU Baseball

Thank you Joplin Globe, for helping me support the MoSo baseball program...

Has anyone else noticed that the Missouri Southern State University baseball team has been winning a lot lately?

Seriously, these guys can flat bring it. Yet the stands are typically empty. What’s up with that? Come on, Joplin, this is your team. Your university. Your chance to have a great time for free.

Coach Darnell is putting a quality product on the field day after day, and it seems like the community is just ignoring it. I mean, there’s always a few parents, and the obligatory girlfriends, but shouldn’t there be more support for a program that’s winning games, entertaining, and free to the public?

I would think that given the current state of economic affairs that last bit would get some attention.

I know, I know... it’s soccer season. And this is football country. And, and, and, whatever. Can the excuses. The ’dogs are on the grill at Joe Becker Stadium (I dare you not to salivate), the field is ready, the team is good.

Check it out while there are still a few games left!

English lit

I saw a woman yesterday who reminded me of my high school English Lit. teacher, Ms. Schulz. She was amazing and I gave her the worst time for it. Looking back now I can see that about 90% of what I know about literature I learned from her. For some reason my college lit profs were complete idiots. One guy used the entire class just to rant and rave about how the Republican party was of the devil and George Bush Sr. was (insert expletive string here). I'll never forget the day one poor woman worked up the courage to tell him that her husband was serving as soldier in Iraq and she didn't appreciate all the anti-military, anti-government talk and couldn't understand how it related at all to classical American literature. She was polite and respectful about it, just wanting to get back to the subject for which she was paying to be educated. He (his name was Jerome) came unglued. Total rant. Called her names. Called her husband names. I thought he was going to have a heart attack. And, honestly, I almost came out of my chair and hit him. Guy was a total failure as an educator. But he had tenure! Yay!

But that experience was at a community college. When I transferred to the University of Oregon, I thought things might get better. WRONG! My next prof was just as bad. Although she didn't hammer away at politics and government all semester, she used the entire course to teach relativism. At one point she wrote Frankenstein, Hitler and Jesus' names on the board, then made everyone in the class go up front and put a check mark under who we thought was "the real monster." She also served Screwdrivers during the final. Nice. Freshman class. At least she made us read a few books and short stories along the way, some of which were even relevant to relativism. At the end of the semester we had a three page paper due. I wrote one short paragraph about how I thought the whole thing was "irrelevant." Got an 'A.'

So, thanks Marna Schulz, for teaching me about settings and themes and how to identify the parts of the story that actually matter. You were awesome, even when I wasn't, which was pretty much the entire time you had me in your class.

As I pondered all this earlier today I thought it would be a great idea to put a few English profs' heads on a pike in front of the dept. as a way of reminding them that they have responsibilities, and to remind students that they have rights.

Random thoughts

I don't have time for more than a quick ramble.

Just finished John Ortberg's book Faith & Doubt. Good read. A couple of quotes really stood out to me, among them:

"Doubt is a good servant but a poor master."

"To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is like choosing immobility as a means of transportation." (Quoting Lesslie Newbigin there)

"Jesus never said, 'Believe my arguments.' He said, 'Follow me.'"

"Sometimes one of the biggest obstacles to faith in Jesus is the incompetence, complacency, and arrogance of his followers--followers like me."

While I'm at it, I've also been going through Experience God with our church. It's really promped me to think a lot about the how God moves in the world. And one thought I'd love to explore more is the idea that God will not give us an assignment until we have the character to carry it out. I think we spend a lot of time waiting impatiently for God to move in some spectacular and obvious way when we should instead be concerned with developing the character within ourselves to carry out spectacular and obvious works of God so that He might use us accordingly. What I mean is, I think I am guilty of peeking around at other people other ministries and seeing how God is using them to accomplish mighty deeds that incontrast make it look like my own life and ministry is an exercise in futility. I see the fruit dropping freely from the branches of others and wonder why all I have is empty branches even though I'm trying like crazy to make stuff happen.

I say this now, when it seems, at least to me, like my own life is filled with fruit. I see God moving. I feel God moving in my life and in those around me. I have great stories about good things, GOD things, going on right now in my life and ministry. But I have wandered in the wilderness, and doubtless will again, and I wonder if I'll have the hindsight then to realize that God is there too, working to mold and shape the vessel His hand is on for yet another purpose.

I think my point here is that God is always moving in your life, but you really need to be careful how you evaluate that movement. Otherwise you might be tempted to wonder, as I often have, why God moves so clearly through others, and not through you. Does that make sense? I hope so.

BCS Chokes Again!

It's no secret that I despise the BCS and all it stands for. SO you can imagine my joy at discovering this article by ESPN's Rick Reilly:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3815656

And so we can add Utah (again) to the list of teams the BCS has failed to account for in its system. I am beginning to wonder at the intelligence of the men and women who call it a "National" championship game. Apparently the word 'nation' in their minds does not include the state of Utah.

College football continues to revolve not around the character of the athletes, their education and morals, not around the quality of the programs, their wins and losses, but around the value of the dollars those programs can bring in. This sad state of affairs is so lamentable that I don't really watch D-I (FBS) football anymore. I'd rather read a book or go for a hike with my son that watch a "sport" that eliminates half its teams from championship contention before the season starts automatically (via conference ties) and another quarter through opinion polls. The only real exception I make for that, obviously, is the the Oregon Ducks, for whom I will gladly bleed green and yellow forever.

Live green, Yell-O!

Evil-lution II

Iam constantly amazed at the proliferation on "Just-So" stories being foiseted off on the gullible public. I just watched a show on the Discovery Channel called "Evolve" that made me want to laugh out loud. The smoke, mirrors and outright contradictions being sold to the viewers was all quite professional; production quality was high end, experts were quoted, explanations all quite logical on the surface. If one listens uncritically it is all very believable and entertaining. On the other hand, if one lisens carefully, the inconsistencies are glaring.

They brought out one expert to discuss the transition from water to land animals. He pointed out that if evolution were correct, there ought to be a transitional form, then he brought out a fossil to demonstrate how that was exactly what we have.

Um... If evolution is correct there ought to me thousands of transitional forms, not a transitional form. This is still a massive unsolved dilemna evos face. And the big selling point of the supposed transitional form he brought out was the fact that it had a neck!

A neck.

Really? So we're supposed to believe that some lucky fish just happened to suffer the right genetic mutation to spontaneously produce a fully functional neck? That's your proof of evolution?! C'mon, I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but even I know that's just stupid.

What's that? Evolution depends on massive periods of time to slowly produce such changes? Oh, I get it. Sorry, I almost lost it there. But since that's the case I suppose the fossil record will reveal the tens of thousands of transitional forms that produced this necky fish animal. What's that? We don't have them? Um... again, isn't that a bit of a problem?

YES!

The other really amazing blunder I saw that caught me off guard was the expert on giraffes who pointed out that their necks were so long because they used their heads to fight. Never mind that plenty of other short necked animals use their reads exactly the same way, what floored me was his off-hand revelation that this is also why their horns are blunted. Sharp horns, you see, combined with long necks would inflict lethal wounds during male-dominance combat. "Evolution," he said, "does not kill. Only people do that."

Wow.

I'm not sure, but I'd bet that sounded stupid even to his evolutionist colleagues. Evolution doesn't kill. HA Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!! I think he was like a professor at the Carnegie Institute or something. Seriously, I think he was trying to point out that natural selection favors species who don't kill their own in large numbers, or something like that; evolution doesn't like intra-species warfare. Even that is debatable, but what he actually said looking into the camera was one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.

What makes me worry though is that he sold it well. He stood in the middle of the African savannah, looked right into the camera and after his cedentials as an expert were established he said it like it was the gospel truth. He ought to be arrested for that kind of intellectual irresponsibility, but I'm sure he'll get away with it and thousands of people will see the show and tell their friends that giraffes have blunt horns because evolution doesn't favor killers (except people, of course.)

I love good science, but THAT is not good science. Lord, save us from 'experts' like that.

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving, a day to be thankful for the long list of things God has blessed me with. Family, friends, freedom, fishing, football... AHhhhhh.... football. Watching maybe the singe worst Thanksgiving lineup in history this afternoon I realized how thankful I am to have seen Barry Sanders jukin' and groovin' through opposing defenses for the Detroit Lions on so many wonderful Thanksgivings. Seeing this year's Lion team struggle to rise above putrid to become merely horrible as they got plastered by the Tennessee Titans, I was reminded how incredible Barry was to watch. In twenty years of avid NFL fandom, I've never been so entertained as when Barry had the ball in his hands. So on this Thanksgiving, I just want to give my appreciation to the most entertaining back in NFL history. Thanks Barry.

Church Rant

“I’ve heard it hundreds of times: I’m looking for a church that meets my needs. Can you admit for a moment how incredibly unbiblical that statement is?”

--Craig Groeschel, Senior Pastor, lifechurch.tv

I ran across this statement the other day and was struck by how familiar it feels, how I can relate. One of the hardest aspects of working with students is encouraging them to connect with a local church. Yes, I’m going to pick on students, but this tirade has much much broader application, and I have to confess that during my time as a typical student at the University of Oregon, “I am the worst of them.”

After pure, unadulterated sloth the excuse I receive most often as to why a student hasn’t connected with a local church is that they haven’t found ‘the right church,’ but when pressed on what that is, ninety-nine times out of a hundred they fall back to ‘one that meets my needs.’ It’s a consumer mentality. They want a church they can really ‘get something out of.’ It rarely, if ever, occurs to them that they should really be seeking a place they can give something back to. There are, of course, exceptions, but most want a place where they can sit with a large group of people who look, talk, act and smell like them so they can all feel comfortable doing as little as Christianly possible. OUCH! And yes, I just made up a new word, but try to focus on the point, which is that we have GOT to get better at challenging one another to live richer lives in Christ (Hebrews 10:24-25). And I believe that begins by connecting more closely with the entire body of Christ, not just those parts that seem most attractive to us.

Statistically we, who claim to follow Jesus, who claim to be empowered by the Holy Spirit of the Living God, are nearly identical to the world around us. (I say nearly because the argument can be made that we’re actually a little worse off.) Statistically we are NOT being transformed by the renewing of our minds, but instead doing a nifty job of conforming to the world (Romans 12:1-2). Perhaps if we disciplined our bodies a bit more rigorously (1 Corinthians 9:27) we’d be a bit more likely to actually share the light of Christ with the world.

What would happen, do you suppose, if a million college students actually went to bed one Saturday night (while it was still was Saturday night and not Sunday morning), got a good night’s sleep and went to church on Sunday with a mindset of giving instead of receiving? What if a million students walked into sanctuaries across America next week and asked all those pastors, “What can I do to help?” My guess is that once the shock wore off we’d see a revival break out. Of course, that assumes that the students are actually willing to serve in whatever capacity the church leaders see fit. I’ll never forget hearing one of my seminary professors, whom I greatly admire, tell us that the one of the best things we could do to prepare ourselves as pastors was serve in a church nursery for a year. Rocking babies and entertaining three-year-olds may not seem like much, but it’s actually some of the most valuable service you can offer. Likewise, vacuuming the sanctuary or cleaning the church bathrooms or mowing the lawn around the building; all amazing feats of ministry that many Christians haven’t got the spiritual maturity to handle. Helping park cars for Jesus makes a difference! What would happen if a million college students gave an hour a week—or even half an hour!—to help the local church?

The unfortunate truth is that we may never know. Because the typical student goes to a church once, and if they don’t see a large group of other students milling aimlessly about they leave and never come back. And whether it is called ‘church shopping’ or ‘church hopping’ the result is the same. They walk in with a Me First mentality and look for the exit at the first sign of discomfort. They walk in looking for an excuse to not come back! Ouch.

Now, if you’re a college student and you’re reading this, don’t act all surprised and offended. First, you know I’m generally right, and second, it’s not all your fault. The vast majority of you grew up in churches where were were marginalized from birth. I know, I know, that sounds ridiculous, but think about it. How involved are the youth and children of your church in the life of the congregation? Not, how central, how involved? Kids generally are central to a church; they tend to get their share of space and money from the budget, parents wouldn’t have it any other way, but what is expected of them? Are they ever invited to business meetings? Are they included in planning for outreaches and celebrations? Do they as individuals and a group have any responsibilities to the body of the local church? Or are they coddled?

I serve in an association of over 50 churches. Every year we meet to talk about what’s going on with one another and discuss any pressing business. Then we break for a meal and have some sort of ministry rally. During that time we traditionally have one rally for adults and one for youth… in separate locations. Now, the youth rally is really cool, with good speakers and a kickin’ band and lots of kids are effected deeply by the experience, which is awesome. However, think about this for a minute. We’ve taken them away from the rest of the church. They have no responsibilities at the main meetings, no input, no expectations, no involvement whatsoever. Nothing. Nada. ZERO. They DO have an awesome time with one another in a controlled environment where they don’t have to do much other than show up and hang out with other youth. And that’s the problem. All they see is one another and that’s the view they develop of what a healthy church should look like, and it’s wrong. Listen, people argue about what a healthy church looks like all the time, but everyone agrees that it’s multi-generational. You need senior adults and children and people of all ages to really understand what the body of Christ was meant to be. To give up, or substitute a generic campus ministry (as I did and many other students continue to do) and call that ‘church,’ is a cop out.

Sometimes we do the most damage with the best intentions. We have a tendency to keep the bar low for our kids, spiritually, and wonder why they underachieve later. This generation of college students grew up getting trophies for being on the team, as if that was an accomplishment, they had kindergarten graduation parties; they were spoiled. We’ve given them everything we could except self-esteem. They’ve never had to work for accolades so they feel entitled. They are the children of the original “me” generation, and true to form (at least when it comes to church), they’re as self-centered as their parents. We’ve valued such that they don’t understand value. In a sense, we’ve denied them hard labor, and we’re surprised that they’re soft.

So, in order to avoid the ‘cranky old man’ label, I’m not only going to sound the alarm like a good watchman, I’m going to offer a couple of solutions.

Solution 1: Responsibility—Churches need to get children, youth and students used to having responsibilities early on. Let them clean a couple of Sunday School rooms when they’re young, help take the offering or light candles or help with the audio/visual systems as they get older, and give them a place in front of the congregation as opportunity arises. In America you have to be 35 to be president, but in far too many churches you have to be over 65 to pray in front of the church…

Solution 2: Involvement—Get youth and college students involved in the business of the body. Yes, that means inviting them to business meetings and even encouraging them to talk and give input on decisions. No, you don’t have to do everything they say, but if you don’t train them to speak, don’t be surprised by their silence. As a man sows, so shall he reap…

Solution 3: Expectation—Or accountability. If we’re going to get younger generations to participate in body life, we have to raise the bar for them and hold them accountable for reaching it. This means giving establishing goals and consequences for them. We have to give them a path to follow and apply both the carrot and stick to keep them on it. Keeping with the farm metaphor, how do train an ox? You put the younger one with an older one to guide it along until it knows how to do the job. We’re not doing that much in America today, and we’re paying for it with generations who aren’t looking to till a field, just munch the grass they find growing on it.

Can I be honest here? I think that students today represent the best hope the world has for real change. Your passion for social justice is overwhelming. Your desire for relationship is incredible. Your environmental awareness is nearly omnipresent. And your empowerment is at an all-time high. Never have so many had so much to do so good. If only you would stand up and seize that potential! If only you would become the leaders you were meant to be!

We all know people are basically selfish. Face it, you are. I am. Every child coming straight from the womb is entirely self-centered. I’m not saying that’s wrong, but it is a problem you have to overcome. But that’s not my point. My point is that selfish people often do selfish things. Slavery? Selfish. Rape? Selfish. Physical abuse? Selfish. Selfish. Greed? Selfish. Pride? Selfish. That burning desire to do what YOU want to do is what drives us. And sometimes that leads us to accomplish great things, but let’s not pretend to altruistic motives for progress just yet. The United States first landed a man on the moon not because we wanted to explore outer space, but because we wanted to beat the Soviets to the “high ground” in a war of nuclear proliferation. Drug companies spend millions of dollars on research to cure diseases not just to help people, but because billions of dollars are at stake.

People are basically selfish. And selfish people do selfish things, often to one another. And for that reason there is a ton of social evil in the world. People are killing each other. Children are starving. Poverty, illiteracy, homelessness—take your pick, they’re all out there; sexual slavery, genocide, drug abuse... The world is full of bad things. But they’re often preventable. And your generation knows that. Your generation cares. And that compassion can drive you to do great things, good things for the right reasons. Don’t let that slip away.

Keep following the dream of a better world. Keep volunteering at shelters. Keep giving to charities. Keep shopping at socially aware businesses. Keep writing letters to the editor of your local paper about the injustice you see and the opportunities to fix it. Keep planning your careers and families around the idea that your life matters not just to you, but to the entire world. Keep starting socially aware businesses. And above all else, keep positive. Don’t get dragged down by news of defeat. Don’t sink to the level of violence and deceit that you’re trying to abolish. Don’t give in to the money. “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil…” You and your generation can change the world, but you have to commit yourself, your whole life to that idea.

Be the difference

I think the world needs to change, don’t you? Children are starving. Disease, treatable disease, is rampant. People are homeless, illiterate and poverty-stricken. Sexual slavery still exists. So does war and AIDS and a host of other evils. And the greatest instrument on the planet for doing something about it is us. Me. You. We are the ones tasked with changing the world, and we have everything we need to get it done. God gave us the instruction manual for global change (The Bible). And he gave us an example to follow (Jesus Christ). And he gave us the resource to carry it out (The Holy Spirit). And he gave us the responsibility to do it (The Great Commission). So we really are without excuse.

The world is broken and God has made it clear that you are his plan for fixing it. It’s not about the money. It’s not about the time. It’s not about the resources it takes to make something happen; the brains, the talents and abilities. It’s about your commitment. God will use ordinary people to do extraordinary things, but you’ve got to be ready!

Listen, I want to change the world. I want my life to be the difference between what is and something better. According to God I am part of the thin red line between heaven and hell, and since it’s the blood of Jesus that makes that line red, I take that responsibility seriously. And the odds are that I’m not going to be the guy that cures cancer, but I’m pretty sure I can accomplish something, not only because the Bible says I can, but because my life is like that story about the little boy and the starfish:

Once there was a storm, and the storm left a particular beach covered with starfish. A man was walking along the beach looking at the devastation when he noticed a small boy picking up the starfish and throwing them back into the ocean one by one. The man said to the boy, “Why are you doing that? There are thousands of starfish here and you’ll only get to a few before they die. You really won’t make any difference.” And the boy picked up another starfish, threw it into the surf and replied, “I made a difference to that one.”

There are billions of people on this earth. What difference can I make? I don’t know. But each and every person whose life I can help change is a person who matters. Everyone counts. So if I only change one, isn’t that something worth doing?

I heard another story about a woman who lives on the East Coast. I can’t remember where exactly, but she grew up in somewhere in that mess that used to be Yugoslavia. As a little girl her life was torn apart by the genocidal war between the Serbians and Croatians and Bosnians. I don’t think the war has a name, but the words “Ethnic Cleansing” were used a lot. Anyway, I can’t imagine being a child in a war zone, how that must feel. Bullets and blood and bombs going off, and fear and violence everywhere… not much to be happy about. Then one day, at Christmas, she got a shoebox from a group called Samaritan’s Purse. Seems silly really. I mean, what difference could someone in America make by filling a shoebox with toys and mailing it to some random kid who might be gang raped and butchered before they get to open it? Well, this woman opened that shoebox, and inside she found hope. Someone had put a gospel tract inside the shoebox along with the requisite toys, and reading about Jesus, she found hope. Today she works full-time for Samaritan’s Purse, sending thousands of shoeboxes to kids all over the planet. The irony is that whoever put that shoebox together probably has no idea what a difference they made!

But this isn’t about starfish or shoeboxes, this is about you. This is about your life. You see, God didn’t give the responsibility of changing the world to me alone. He gave it to everyone who calls themselves a follower of Jesus. He wants us all to be committed. He wants an army of His children on the beach throwing back starfish together. Too many of us are strolling along with our hands in our pockets admiring the view when we should be actively engaged in creating a better world. He’s given you everything you need to be the difference, to stand firm, to be the thin red line of hope. What are you waiting for?

Ways to create change:
1) Draw near to God (We are called to BE the difference, not just MAKE a difference.)

a. Memorize one verse each week.
b. Read your Bible through in a year.
c. Fast for a day.
d. Take notes during church and talk about it over lunch with someone.
e. Journal (Blog about God to God. And keep it private!

2) Volunteer (Churches, shelters, etc, always need help.)
3) Make your major matter (Know how your career makes a difference.)
4) Tithe (Give 10%, save 10%, live on the rest. It’s God’s plan, but you can hear it from pretty much any financial advisor regardless of their religious leanings.)
5) Write a letter (… to the local paper, your congressman, interest groups, etc.)
6) Vote (Let your voice be heard!)
7) Educate your children (Give them a voice worth listening to!)
8) Shop at socially aware businesses (i.e., Tom’s Shoes.)
9) Recycle (Duh.)
10) Pray (I mean REALLY pray, not just once-in-a-while-if-I-remember pray.)
11) Clean out your clutter (See how much you can donate to Salvation Army or Good Will.)
12) Give generously to charity (She needs it.)
13) Share Jesus with someone (Not only is it expected, it is also the most loving thing you can do for someone.)
14) Buy eco-friendly. (Yes, it will probably cost more, but so what?)
15) Go on a mission trip. (LIFE is a mission trip, but we don’t think of it that way often enough.)
16) Give random street people gift certificates to McDonald’s (They can’t spend it on alcohol or drugs that way!)
17) Go to a protest. (Or protest a protest…)
18) Conserve resources (What’s YOUR carbon footprint?)
19) Plant a tree. (Earth Day 2009 is on April 22.)
20) Bring someone with you into any of the above mentioned activities. (2 Timothy 2:2)

Faith and Sound Doctrine

I find so many of us as Christians today disparaging the importance of theology and am grieved. In truth, my heart is cleft by the willful ignorance and outright rebellion against learning sound doctrine. After all, faith without sound doctrine is faith without foundation. Yet that is where millions of us find ourselves today. Instead of applying ourselves (heart, soul, mind and strength) to the study of God’s direct revelation—the Word of God—we choose instead to rely on personal experience to interpret who He is. Though God has given us the Bible as a telescope, “to see Him as He longs to be seen,” we look instead through the kaleidoscope of thoughts and feelings that swirl around us and see wonderful and entertaining patterns which we label “God,” but is at best only a pale shadow of who He really is, and many times is a complete distortion of the truth. As one theologian put it, “God made man in His image, and man is returning the favor.”

Instead of developing a Biblical worldview, we develop a chimeric understanding of reality built from a combination of desires and opinions and fears we experience as we are buffeted by the storms of life raging around us. When faced with hard or even merely moderately difficult decisions we rarely say, “The Bible says…” More often we are inclined to spew out such gems as, “Well, I think…” or “I feel…” or “I believe…” and then we go on our merry way. Who cares what I think/feel/believe?! As followers of Jesus Christ, the only opinion that truly matters is the Lord’s! Of course, ultimately we will have to incorporate our thoughts, feelings and beliefs into our decisions. They are, after all part of who we are and were created to be by the same God we’re blessed to follow. My point is that those things must first be tempered by prolonged exposure to the Word of God.

Indeed, that we should have a deep and abiding concern for sound doctrine is evident both implicitly and explicitly in scripture. Implicitly we can see the “messenger formulas” given hundreds of times throughout the Old Testament which point out that it is not just another person speaking, but the Lord himself. (A messenger formula is the phrase used to describe the source of a particular message, i.e., “Thus says the Lord.”) In the New Testament we see the Lord Jesus Himself quoting scripture repeatedly in His teaching and most poignantly in His confrontation with Satan during a time of temptation (Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13). As a child He is lost for three days and later found in the temple debating scholars who were, “astounded at His understanding and His answers.” (Luke 2:41-50) And one might be tempted to argue that He was God and therefore theology was moot for Him. True, but He also left us a record of Himself continually throughout His human existence engaging people with sound doctrine, in the temple, the marketplace, the street, and even in the wilderness. He wanted His followers to understand Him that way! Beyond that we have the example of Jesus’ apostles at the beginning of the church. Their earliest activities as described in Acts 2:42, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching…”

Explicitly, we have both what the Bible says about itself as well as the admonitions it contains to pay attention to what we believe. In the Old Testament we find God telling His people in no uncertain terms, “These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7) God is creating a culture there based on the understanding of His Word. Then in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul says, “Be conscientious about yourself and your teaching; persevere in these things, for by doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Timothy 4:16) And, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15) In context we find a young pastor fighting bad doctrine—poor theology—in his church. Paul’s answer? Sound doctrine. And where does that come from? “For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as to divide soul, spirit, joints, and marrow; it is a judge of the ideas and thoughts of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) “so My word that comes from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and will prosper in what I send it [to do].” (Isaiah 55:11) “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.” (Psalm 119:105)

And maybe you’re reading this now and saying, “I don’t need theology, I just need Jesus.” That’s great, but which Jesus? I mean, there’s a lot of people out there who agree with that simple statement; Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science Church, Moonies and Unitarians to name a few. Unfortunately, unless you want to buy into universalism—the idea that EVERYONE goes to heaven—somebody has the wrong Jesus. Jim Jones loved Jesus too. Want some of his Kool-Aid? David Koresh loved Jesus so much he thought he was Jesus. Didn’t turn out so well for his followers (Branch Davidians), but that’s just more theology you don’t need… or is it?

Listen, everyone is a theologian. We all have opinions about who God is and what He’s like. Even atheists have theological ideas. The question I think we need to focus on is where do those ideas come from? Have we thought them through? Muslims call Christians, “Followers of the Book,” meaning we live according to what the Bible says, but do we? When we pooh-pooh theology, complain when a pastor teaches deeper thoughts about God instead of “Ten Steps to Better Living,” or whatever other “me first” sermon we want to hear, are we really doing ourselves any favors? I don’t think so. Next time, instead of whining about how boring it was to hear about the authority and inerrancy of scripture, or the importance of Baptism, or the person and work of the Holy Spirit, perhaps we should focus on how amazing it is that we serve a God who cares enough to let us hear and understand so much about Him and His world.

When a husband bears his soul to his wife, should she ask him to be more relevant to her and turn up the television, or praise him for his openness and apply herself to understanding him all the more? Isn’t intimacy desirable in marriage? Yet we, the Bride of Christ, don’t want to hear much about Him. We want to hear how he’ll bless us and make our lives easier, but we really don’t want to invest much time in understanding who He really is. It’s as if we’d rather be married to a vending machine. We’d put it in the attic (so our guests wouldn’t know it’s there), then when circumstances warrant, say for instance, when we needed a better parking spot, we could put in a little prayer and out pops a miracle! And we wonder why our faith is so weak, why our lives don’t reflect the joy we were promised, why the “abundant life” for which Christ came seems so flat… We lack sound doctrine. We treat it like spiritual broccoli. We live only a shallow faith, one built on the shifting sand of personal experience, and we wonder why life isn’t better than it seems.

Maybe it is. Maybe it is and we don’t know it because we’re spiritually malnourished. Faith without sound doctrine is faith without foundation.

Dalai Bama

I wake up this morning in the Obama Nation. What will the next four years bring? To listen to the Republicans, socialism and left wing extremism on an unprecedented level, increased taxes, more abortion clinics, the complete undermining of Biblical marriage, etc... Obamunism. To listen to the other side, Obama is, as Louis Farrakhan put it, "the Messiah." Seriously. Barak Obama is nothing if not charismatic, and his followers, in my experience, tend to elevate him to the status of religious figurehead. They wax eloquent about him to the point that you begin to wonder if he puts his pants on one leg at a time or if they just materialize around his waist. I suspect the truth is somewhere in between. He'll start out fairly centrist, then lean increasingly to the left. And there WILL be change. Of that there can be little doubt. The Dems not only took the Presidency, they also increased their leads in both houses of congress. That means that, for better or worse, Obama has tons of friendly support with which to accomplish whatever it is he sets about doing.

Truthfully, I could care less what the man does. (And what will the NAACP do now that "The Man" is black, I wonder? You can't go blaming 'the man' when you are the man, right?) I mean, I'll have an opinion about government policies, and I might even share that opinion through an opinion piece in a newspaper, or an e-mail to my congressman or senator, but the reality I care about is much closer to home. As awesome as it must be to influence 300 million people with the strke of a pen, I'm much more comfortable talking to people face to face. And no matter what the president does from his office in Washington, I'll be ready here to help people deal with the reality of day to day living in a broken world.

Oh yes, the world IS broken, and no president, not even Barak Obama can change that. As Dallas Willard once wrote, "Human problems cannot be solved by human means." And that's the real problem here. Millions of people are looking to a new president to solve the problems in their lives, but what everyone seems to miss is that only Jesus can satisfy the lnging in their souls. Better health care, free gas and a winning lottery ticket in every mailbox just won't get it done. It might make you a bit more comfortable, but for how long? Until the next divorce? The next bankrupcty? The next human tragedy that touches your life? Jesus is the Messiah. The president is just a man. Unfortunately, I think a lot of Americans have forgotten that.

He's just a regular guy, people!

I voted this morning, but to be honest, I didn't vote for either McCain or Obama. So I'm really not trying to influence who anyone votes for or make a political statement one way or the other about either of the two major party candidates. While piddling about the internet I stumbled across these posters, however, and I do have to say that they really caught my attention. Why? Because I've seen way to many Obama supporters who have elevated him as a candidate not based on merit, but because they bought the hype that he's going to change everything tomorrow, and we'll all have better jobs and insurance and world peace will break out instantly, poverty will end overnight, adult illiteracy will stop now, and dogs and cats will get along and I won't have to pay my mortgage anymore and magic fairies will take out the trash for me every week! Hallelujah! Amen and amen!

Gimme a break! Honestly. I don' care who you vote for, but at least have the common sense to understand that Barak Obama is just another man. On the upside he's thoughtful, intelligent, and charismatic. And I LOVE that he's there at the end of every single one of his ads that I've seen. Good or bad, "I'm Barak Obama and I approved this message." There's an element of integrity to that which is seriously lacking on the Republican side who's ads are backed by various political action committees and private interest groups, but rarely by McCain himself. (Of course, I can only speak from my experience here. It is possible that this argument would be entirely undermined by a greater sampling of political ads on both sides, although I'm pretty sure the surgeon general would agree that that would be bad for my health.) Anywho, on the downside, Mr. Obama is given to questionable judgment in who he associates with, makes outrageous claims he can't possibly back up, is determined to undermine Biblical marriage and thinks its okay to kill babies before they're born. Now, given that we already have a strongly democratic senate and congress, I expect that the nation will change pretty radically in the near future. But not because Obama walk on water. His pooh stinks like everyone else's. And the change he represents isn't necessarily for the good.

Anyway... I don't want this to be an anti-Obama diatribe, I just wish his followers would be a little less blinded by the glitz and glam of his 750 BILION dollar campaign. I could just as easily hash the McCain campaign for entirely different reasons. It just so happens that I didn't stumble across any really cool anti-McCain posters.

When will we wake up to our desperate need for stronger third party voting?

Oil-industry profits

So, Exxon Mobile Corporation reported nearly $15 BILLION in quarterly profits this week. Not bad. In fact, in the history of mankind, in the history of business, since the first cavemen traded rocks and sticks, nobody anywhere in any industry has ever reported bigger profits. And whose record did Exxon break? Its own. When was the previous record reported? Last quarter. Yes, in the past six months Exxon has made over $25 BILLION for its shareholders. Not bad. And, of course, those profits are completely unrelated to the price of gas. Just ask the company. For the past year they (and every other major oil corp) been telling anyone who'll listen (using media interviews, paid lobbyists, and advertising) that there is no correlation between their industry-wide record profits and the price of gas at the pump. And all this time I thought the companies that bought, processed, distributed and sold the product had something to do with setting the price of their product. Silly me. I guess I need to take a few more business courses. In the meantime, I'm gonna go get jacked at the pump again by whoever does actually make money on gas...

American politics, ugh.

“In my country, we have two parties. The stupid party, of which I am a member, and the evil party, which we oppose vehemently. Sometimes my party wins, in which case we get lots of stupid legislation. Sometimes the other party wins, in which case we get lots of evil legislation. Occasionally, the parties act together in what we call 'bipartisanship,' in which case we get legislation which is both evil and stupid.”

-Anonymous

I don't know who came up with that, but I'd like to kiss them right on the mouth. Our beloved presidential candidates who care so much about our country are spending more than a BILLION dollars combined to get themselves elected. The audacity of WHAT?! Obama will collect somewhere in the neighborhood of $700 million by election day. (He raked in $150 in September alone! Meanwhile, approximately eighty-seven thousand children starved to death in the same month. Uh, Senator...) McCain, meanwhile, is way behind with a measly $400-or-so million. And you'd better believe they'll use it. Of course, there'll be a little left over, I'm sure, to retire on if they need it. (It pays to be a candidate, or did you actually think Governor Palin was going to return that $200,000 wardrobe for which the Republican Party recently paid? Your financial contributions at work.)

And here I was thinking that the economy was in trouble. Apparently not. Apparently there are a myriad of Mavriholics and Obamunists out there who have plenty of disposable income available to give. If only we could convince them to give to something worthwhile...

Summer Olympics XXIX: Beijing 1

I LOVE THE OLYMPICS. Summer, winter, it doesn't matter. I love the Olympic games. All the events, the medal ceremonies, the pomp, the grandeur of it all. It is pretty much the epitome of sports, and in many ways the pinnacle of humanity. Sort of like World Cup Soccer, only better.



It doesn't hurt to be American either. Being a world sports powerhouse, it gives you plenty for which to cheer.



Yesterday I heard the story of Lin Hao and nearly cried. All hail the Chinese for brilliantly placing the 9-year-old life boy next to the 7-foot 6-inch basketball hero Yao Ming during the opening ceremoies (which I missed). Yao might be the biggest celebrity in China, but even he should be humbled by the hero of the Sichuan earthquake. (When asked why he went into the rubble of his collapsed school twice to pull out classmates (2/3 of whom died in the quake), Hao said, "I was the hall monitor, it was my job to look after my school mates..." Kid's got more courage in his little finger than most people have in their whole body. The contrast between sports celeb and life hero was staggering.



Then there's American swimmer Dara Torres, at 41 she's still winning Olympic medals and so concerned about the issue of a drug scandal she's volunteering for extra testing and requested that samples of her blood be frozen so future tests might be run as the technoogy becomes available. 41? Are you kidding me?!



Or how about the 33-year-old German female gymnast Oksana Chusovitina. I say German, she won a gold medal for the Unified team in, get this, 1992! Later she competed for Uzbekistan. When her son needed chemotherapy for Leukemia, she immigrated to Germany for better medical treatment. WAY TO GO MOM!!! A thirty-three-year-old gymnast?! She's old enough to be the mother of an olympic gymnast. AWESOME!!!



Of course, there's always the pool. I was literally screaming at my television today during the 4X100 freestyle. A member of the French team, Alain Bernard, shot his mouth off before the meet saying, "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for." Well, the American B-team set a world record in the prelims, and then the A-team got the job done in the final that saw five teams eclipse that record. M. Alain had a body length lead going into the final leg, then choked like a... Frenchman... and lost the race by .08 seconds. HA! (I told you it was great to be an American.)



Cullen Jones. Just another random athlete? No, he's an Olympic swimmer who very nearly drowned as a kid. They pumped a pint of water out of his lungs before he started breathing again. Oh yeah, and he's only the second black American to win gold in a swimming event (the above mentioned 4X100 freestyle.



With stories like these, how can anyone not love the Olympic Games?

The (Lamentable) Exhuberance of Youth

George Bernard Shaw once said, "youth is wasted on the young." At 37, I'm still a fairly young man, but I have perceived that he's right. By the time you're wisdom--and the maturity and discipline to follow it--set in, the flower of life has begin to fade. It's not that visible at first, I mean, at 37 I'm still pretty much in the prime of life. Still, I'm not who I once was. Physically at least, I've peaked. Oh, yes, I could potentially whip myself into the best shape of my life, but really, I understand now that physical ability and appearance are only shadows of reality. They have some value, but no real eternal significance. More importantly I've begun to see how important it is to understand real wisdom and to pass it on to others. Time and again I see a generation behind me making "smart" choices and all I can do is hang my shake my head in awe at the laughable excuses they make for the results they reap from the folly they justify in their pride.

Most evident to me is the error (sin?) of Christian liberty. The young will claim their freedom in Christ as they commit one foolish act after another. "Flee temptation," says the Bible. "PFFFT," say the young. "Restraint!" says the scripture. "Eat, drink and be merry!" cries the young Believer. It is often only with age that we understand the difference between the sarcasm of Solomon and the plea of Christ to "be of good cheer." Rare indeed is the 20-something willing to let go their freedom to embrace the blessed slavery of the cross. Rare indeed is the youth capable of or even interested in understanding the difference between being save from sin and saved to serve. More common is the attitude of independence that claims the middle ground, lives not for Christ, not for Satan, but for self--if truth be told. Loudly they cry out, "NO! That's not true!" Then they'll head for the pub to talk about it, then go home to complain about it to their live-in girlfriend, blissfully unaware that they look and sound like idiots. (Justifying their questionable behavior with hollow, yet firmly held arguments such as "Luther did it" or "We're changing culture." Which is just a lot of bullsh... What they really mean, if they were honest with themselves is, "We want this. The world says it's hip, and we want to be hip too, so we're going to do it no matter what you say." Their theology, mostly gleaned by trolling the internet, is populist and sad; grounded in self rather than scripture.

If only they could all star in their own Youtube hit series! That would prove their intelligence! Wouldn't it?! If only we gray-haired old fogeys would read their blog! THEN we'd understand how the world REALLY is, and we'd KNOW how messed up WE are and how righteous THEY are. If only we'd bow to their superior interpretations of reality... But we don't. Mental midgets that we are, we insist that education and experience trump Myspace.

They want to change the world by conforming to it as much as possible without actually sinning. Have you ever been to the Grand Canyon? I have. And I noticed while there that they always put these guard rails up not at the very lip of the canyon, but set back several feet. Why? So you don't trip and fall over; to warn you of the danger you're in. And what do most kids do when they get there? Jump the rail and head for the edge! Now, they might not fall over, but that doesn't mean they made the right choice. The smart choice. The wise choice. Does it? Of course not. Yet that's the attitude of so many of today's youth. They want to push the limits.

Alcohol? "Who cares? Everyone drinks, don't they?"

Pre-marital sex? "Cool. As long as it's not actual intercourse, it's okay."

Gambling? "More innocent fun."

Co-habitating with your boyfriend/girlfriend? "If you don't like it, that's your problem!"

In all these cases and countless more, SIN is not necessarily present, but is CLEARLY lurking nearby. What it the WISE thing to do? I'll leave you to figure it out for yourself, just please don't ask anyone under 25.

I like the way J. Robertson McQuilken puts it:

I think God has planned the strength and beauty of youth to be physical. But the strength and beauty of age is spiritual. We gradually lose the strength and beauty that is temporary so we'll be sure to concentrate on the strength and beauty which is forever. It makes us more eager to leave behind the temporary, deteriorating part of us and be truly homesick for our eternal home. If we stayed young and strong and beautiful, we might never want to leave!

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Looking back at what I've just written, I can't help but feel a sense of deja vu. I've written this before. And it sounds like I hold a grudge against those blessed with the youth I've lost and misspent. I'm sorry for that. The fact is that I care very much for those in whose hand I must eventually leave the world. And they are wonderful, for all the mistakes they make. My own generation cannot escape the plain truth that WE are the ones responsible for failing to make the world a better place for them to grow up in, so how hard can I be, really, on those who follow?

Truth be told, I'm excited to see the incredible things they will do once they understand how precious life is; once they cease to take for granted the time they have and wisdom sets in like a fire out of control. Perhaps their passion will burn hot enough that they will succeed where we have failed. Wisdom, their great failing now, inevitably WILL come. And therein lies the hope. My own generation, the original "me" generation, has aimed our full measure of force on seeking our own selfish desires first. Perhaps our children, and theirs, will be wise enough to learn from that mistake...

One great day

Yesterday was one of the best days of my life. I spent some serious man-time with Nate during the day and got to baptize both him and Anna in the evening. The whole thing started out innocently enough with Anna asking to get baptized. She's asked several times about baptism over the past year, but we told her she needed to wait until she was seven. Yes, its somewhat arbitrary, but we decided that although all three of our kids accepted Christ at such a young age (the girls at four, Nate at five) that we'd make them all wait until they were seven to get baptized. Naturally, once Anna brought it up, Nate asked about it as well, which was interesting since he's never really mentioned it before. Anyway, we settled on the details (June 21 at the Saturday night service at church) and everyone was excited. Then we realized that Disney's newest pre-teen hit Camp Rock was scheduled to be released the night before. Now, I could care less about Walt Disney, but Alyssa was excited, so we arranged for her two cousins (Ava and Olivia) to come up from Commerce, OK to watch it with her and spend the night. That's when things got interesting.


With the girls coming over to spend the night, the plan was to send them home with family the next day after the baptism. Great plan, but there was a flaw: Nate. I love my son too much to abandon him to a day long estrogen festival. At this age, he needs some man-time. So I talked it over with him and we formulated our own plan. Friday night we watched Pirates of the Caribbean. Good movie, even if it is a little old for him. Then on Saturday, while the girls giggled and played dress up and had tea parties and all other sorts of fluffy fun, we went to Prairie State Park and hiked the Drover's Trail. It was a blast. Eighty-five degree heat, no trees, no water but what you carry in, and bison. Yes, bison. Huge, hairy, manly bison. And let me just add that there is no such thing as a girly bison. The bulls are over a thousand pounds, and even the cows are intensely manly, if for no other reason than that they can kill you if you play with them.


Anyway, our adventure started out with a close encounter with the bison. The herd was hanging out on the trail, so we approached with caution hoping that when they sensed our presence they would move. I was surprised at close we could get without startling them... And for the most part, the plan worked perfectly. The only exception is that when they did finally move, they moved in our direction! Not good.


"Nate, move faster!"


They weren't charging us, they were just curious about who we were. But when you're only seventy-five feet away, its still a bit scary to see about a million pounds of muscle and horns coming right at you. So as they meandered directly toward our position, we beat a hasty retreat back to the visitor's center which was the longest quarter mile I've ever had to travel. Since the Drover's trail is a loop, we decided to travel in the opposite direction and hope the bison had moved on when we got back to that point.



Did I mention that there is ZERO shade on the Drover's Trail? There are however, prairie chickens. I've never seen a prairie chicken, but we found three on our hike, which was really cool since they wait until you're almost on top of them before they break cover. The second one was so close when it took off that Nate and I were both startled enough to take a step back. Then an amazing thing happened; Nate found a chick. A prairie chick. That's just unheard of. We could go back on that trail a thousand times and not see it. I walked right over it. I think any adult would, but Nate's still pretty close to the ground, so he spotted the movement right away. I caught it and we took a picture with it... beautiful. The staff at the visitor's center was astounded. They asked for a copy of the picture.


By the time we got back to the place where the bison had blocked the trail, they'd moved on, so we had a clear shot to the visitor's center. The prairie was beautiful.



The prairie was also hot and muggy. We'd been on that trail for about two hours in the heat of the day and we here scorched, so our next stop was the creek that runs through the park. We soaked our feet, drank some water (I filtered it first!) and just relaxed for a bit before getting back in the car and heading for home. On the way out we stopped to help a box turtle cross the road. I love turtles. So does Nate. And, honestly, none of our adventure would have been worth it if he hadn't been there to share it with. I hope we can have many more outdoor adventures like it in the future.


The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful, but church was great. Pastor John brought a great message, Lloyd and the band were ON, and, of course, the whole family (Mandi's side) was there to watch the baptism. Anna and Nate did fantastic. The only hitch was that we got confused as to where the person taking pictures should stand, so all we got was their backs. Oh well. Being able to baptize your own children is one of life's greatest blessings. It's hard to describe, but it feels like you've done something right. And I don't mean that you didn't drown them, I mean that for the duration of their little lives it feels like, as a parent, you're not a complete failure. I think you have to have kids of your own to understand what I mean by that. Anyhow, I can't wait to see who they become as Christ molds their lives. Thank you, Jesus, for a fantastic day.