Chris's Musings

How about this year...

2012-01-03T19:09:00.000-08:00

Have you made a New Year's Resolution yet?

Have you?

No really... have you?

I guarantee that some folks did, because I saw some new faces at LA Fitness this morning. Of course, one of the most popular resolutions is to get in shape... I'm sure a few of us are looking to clean up our diets, get out of debt, find our dream job, or something like that. One guy I got into a conversation with at the gym this morning said that 10% of folks will actually keep their resolution, on average. Seems like a low percentage... and a lot of money wasted on new member fees (I'm sure he was talking about the surge of new suc...errr. members at LA Fitness this year).

That makes sense, because my resolutions are usually about "me," right? Mine are. When I noodled mine earlier this week, I said I wanted to get balance in my life. I set some goals to get down to my ideal weight and stay there; to balance my work and time with the people I love; and I suppose to write more (since I'm writing in "day 3" of 2012 vs. my every 2 or 3 week pace over the last 2 years). And because it's all about "me," when what I want for "me" gets hard for "me" then "me" decides that I can do without. And even if I succeed (and I have 2 out of the last 3 years... partially last year), I get a little bit of a big head because "me" was so good.

And it doesn't matter if you lose 20 pounds, get the dream job, succeed at your paleo/vegan/gluten free diet, or get out of debt... if you're heart is bad, it's still bad. Smaller clothes, a bigger bank account, and a corner office won't change that.

And I got a little bit of a wake-up call. Perhaps, in addition to my goal of fitting into my clothes and having more margin... just perhaps... Maybe this should be my real resolution.

I should pray, earnestly, that God transforms my heart.

What kind of difference would that make in my world... to replace a few more big lies with truth? to view people and my world through the eyes of Jesus vs. my own selfish interest? to use the Bible as my lens for interpreting what comes to me vs. the messages I get bombarded with daily? Do you think that would make a difference? I think it would.

So... that's my resolution... now.

Wouldn't it be cool if more of us did that?

Let God change our hearts to make us more like him...

More courageous, More loving, Living like He could come back today.

What difference would that make?

I think it would make a lot.

For the love

2011-12-27T09:35:00.000-08:00

Once all of the parties, the gift buying, the wrapping, and the manic rushing around is finished; we all have a chance to sit back, relax, and finally enjoy spending time with friends and family for Christmas. In Texas with "the fam," life slows down and I do have some time to relax and reflect on things; which is a good thing considering January 1st will be here soon and I always set a few goals for each year.

My current read right now is a book called "Born to Run," which was recommended by a few of my runner friends, and I have not been able to keep it down. I'm in the middle of the book and I've just got through the part where the Tarahumara have just won the Leadville 100 (an extreme ultramarathon in Colorado), beating ultrarunning legend (do these exist?) Ann Trason in what was described in the book as one of the harshest, most unforgiving ultras (as if running the distance of four marathons in a single stint isn't harsh) in the year she set the women's record. There are several chapters dedicated to this particular race in 1994, in which a cast of characters are observing the "Tarahumara" to discover the secret of why they can run like they do.

I'm sure there's more to come, because I am a slow reader and this isn't a full book report, but what caught my attention was an observation that one of the characters made about this tribe of "running people" at about mile 72 (think about this for a second) of the Leadville 100... he said he saw the Tarahumara pass, running in their primitive sandals and wearing what was described as "skirts" (they are a indigenous Native American tribe living in the mountains of northern Mexico), were beaming with....

joy.

Yes. joy.

Let that sink in... a lot of folks that will read this blog don't think of joy when running "a" mile, much less 100. But that's what this reporter saw... and something clicked. Especially as it related to why American runners aren't competing at the same levels as the Kenyans, Ethiopians, etc.

We stopped running because we loved it... we now run because it gets us what we "want."

I can relate to that. I fell in love with running a few years ago, but for some reason during this Fall's training period, my joy fell off because I was focused on a medal, a distance, and beating a time when I crossed the finish line in Savannah. For a while, I ran because I "had" to, not because I wanted to. In the month and a half after finishing that race and taking time to relax, I've let myself enjoy it again. Yesterday, I noticed that my endurance is back... I did 3.6 miles but really could have done more.

The author noted that something changed back in the 80's that caused Americans to lose our edge... it stopped being about passion for the sport and became about endorsement deals, medals, times, and having a great body, and it stopped being about running itself. We treated running as a means to an end instead of an end unto itself. And in a sport that Americans competed well in, now we envy Kenyans and wonder if they have some super-secret gene that makes them super-human runners... and maybe it's not so much. Perhaps it's because for them, they just love to run and aren't caught up in our scientific training plans and just take pleasure in going out and going fast.

But is this blog about running... because I know that for some of you the thought of running makes you want to gag :-). It's not. Because honestly this principle applies to just about everything in life.

The secret to being great is doing what you love, and loving what you're doing.

- and -

Ultimately, if we really want to succeed we must enjoy the means as much as the ends.

I know that it's "New Years Resolution" time and for many of us, including me, this includes making promises to ourselves to do some things that we aren't really looking forward to doing. We look in the mirror, our souls, and our habits and we see that we aren't quite the person we want to be and because it's a new year we promise to ourselves that this year will be "the year" that we...

Lose that weight and keep it off (actually one of my goals)
Read through the Bible this year (another one of my goals)
Launch or accelerate your career
Run a marathon
or insert yours here :-)

And for most of us, those goals die a slow death and around mid-February we are back to where we were before.

Perhaps... and I may be stretching this a little... but perhaps is it because we treat our New Year's commitments like that "run a lap" that our High School PE teacher made us do because we were messing up? We do something we hate, expecting to get something good out of it... and wonder why it's so hard to be good?

Why do we join gyms and pay crazy expensive sign up fees in January and quit by March?
Why does brussel sprouts taste just as horrible in March as they did last year?
Why hasn't our Bible been cracked open since January 15th... and it's June!

Exercise, eating right, reading lists, spiritual disciplines... these are pretty normal things that those of us that are Christ-followers probably have on our "list." And I suppose that we struggle just as much on these when we "gut 'em out" like anybody else does. Perhaps, if we found a way to love these things, or stop doing things that we assume are "good behaviors" out of compulsion and found good behaviors that we loved then we would be more successful. Like...

Maybe the gym isn't the best place for you to exercise? Somehow, I think our idea of "real" exercise is hiring an expensive trainer that just yells at us for an hour. Maybe we just need to ditch the torturer and just go with a friend who lets us chill and do things at our pace. Gyms aren't my favorite places to exercise, personally, I much prefer outdoors. My idea of great exercise is a run listening to my favorite playlist and a beautiful day... or a hike out in the woods. I have friends who dance to stay active (can I give a shout out to my crazy swing dance friends?). What's wild is that when we do the active thing we love, we don't really call it a "workout," do we? We just went running, or went hiking, or pumped some iron, or went dancing. You know, a "one size fits all" staying active strategy doesn't work real well ... but it does make LA Fitness a lot of money :-)
If you hate brussel sprouts, you aren't going to make your diet healthy by eating them. You're just going to throw up (either literally or figuratively). There's a lot of great tasting healthy food out there - so don't feel like you have to get boxed into whatever today's fad is. Experiment and find what you like... and don't feel like you have to give up the "bad" stuff you love either. We should enjoy our meals (even if we are trying to "be good"), shouldn't we?
When thinking about spiritual disciplines, think about why you are choosing the discipline you want to incorporate (in my case, reading through the Bible)? Is it because you have experienced the love of Christ in such an overpowering way that you are in love with the God who desires and is pursuing you, or is it because you want to get something out of it that will benefit you? Ultimately, our love for God will motivate us to pursue the things that grow our relationship with Him. Willpower, while it may produce some good results, doesn't ultimately produce the life that God desires for us... so this year, I am praying that I come into my Bible study with an appreciation for who God is and out of a love for encountering Him in that day. Remember, it was for "the joy set before Him" that Jesus went to the cross too (Hebrews 12:2)

At the end of the day, I'm sure that this "do what you love" strategy may not be the "results" strategy that we as Americans look for, but over the long haul I've found it to be the only one that really lasts.

Besides, you can only torture yourself so long... then the internal mutiny happens.

Perhaps, by finding our natural desires that fit with the "2012 me," we not only become healthier, wealthier, and wiser... but we also do it longer with a smile on our face.

Like a pack of crazy natives at Mile 72.

Things I love about H-Town

2011-11-19T06:53:00.000-08:00

I'm flying home for Thanksgiving on Tuesday afternoon, and I am really looking forward to spending some time down in Houston (or "H-Town" as we native Houstonians call it). I know from the outside looking in, this city is a huge flat sprawl of concrete and is hotter than Hades in August (it's true! I don't complain about the summers in Atlanta), but I love this city.

Now, I am looking forward to the challenge of trying to convince someone that this place, and the State it calls home, is actually a great place. It really doesn't help that our beloved baseball team lost 106 games this year and is selling out to the AL, or that the Texans' season is once again at risk with Matt Leinart under center after Schaub got hurt and is out for the year. But, here are some things I love about it...

We have the best Mexican food on the planet!
And yes, that includes Mexico :-). And I know we have the infamous designation of being the "fattest city in America," but if your Mexican food rocked as much as ours does you'd have the same temptation.

Houston does up everything BIG!
It doesn't matter if it is the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the Thanksgiving 5K (which I signed up for), Fourth of July fireworks (or the "Power of Houston" fireworks just because we want to deal), Hatch pepper harvest season, or lighting up Uptown for the Christmas season... this city doesn't go halfway on ANY-THING. When we do stuff up, it's first class, and it's big. Little factoid, the Rodeo will outdraw the Texans on any given year. That's a lot of people going to see livestock (or perhaps Brad Paisley).

The running trails
I started to love running at Memorial Park and running under the 100 year oaks at Rice University. One thing I love is that the running trails are designed for running and are soft surface, unlike the concrete PATH in Atlanta. I started running because I had to do something to balance my Mexican food intake; and now I run because I love it.

50 miles from the beaches
This has some advantages and there are some quasi-decent beaches with great towns on the coast. My favorite water spots are Kemah and Galveston. One of these years, I have to go see Dickens on the Strand... never been and want to go to this sometime.

Wild West
I miss two steppin'. Swing is cool but it's not the same. Thursday night hangouts with my First & Second Baptist friends were so much fun.

The pride
I love seeing the Texas pride all over the place. I know this isn't just limited to Houston (or the massive Texas flags above the car dealerships), but it is pervasive. You can't help but to get caught up in it. I admit, my state rocks and we know we're all that. Just deal with it. :-)

And of course... it's home. You can't argue with that :-)

Why, Joe Paterno?

2011-11-12T05:40:00.000-08:00

If you're in any way interested in sports, or follow the news, or know someone who does, you have probably heard Joe Paterno's name mentioned this week. During our dinner club conversation last night, talk about "Joe Pa" got a lot of airtime... But why?

Is it because he's 84 and was still coaching a successful Division 1 football program?

Is it because of his D-1 record 409 victories as a head coach?

Is it because Penn State has a real opportunity to play in the first ever BIG (Big Ten) Championship this season?

Um... not exactly.

It is because, for several years, one of Joe Paterno's assistant coaches...

ahem - his heir apparent at the time....

Did something SO horrible that I can't really mention it on this blog. The thought of it disgusts me and makes me want to vomit. And yet several people around the Penn State football program knew this was going on, and apparently....

Nothing... really... was done.

Joe notified the Athletic Director and the President, but not the police. Jerry Sandusky was perhaps talked to... I'm not sure... but he wasn't fired.

And Penn State kept this quiet for at least 9 years, and finally one of the boys and a coach who was a grad assistant at the time of one of the incidents, finally came forward.

Now Sandusky is in jail... and if I have anything to say about will spend a Loooooooooooooooonnnnng time there.

The President of Penn State is out of a job.

And Paterno, whose legacy of wins, two national championships, and remarkable longevity, is now tarnished by... this.

And now instead of being able to retire in dignity, he is fired in infamy.

A thought that I've had all this week, and was discussed at Local Three last night, was "why?" Joe Paterno was already a Hall of Fame coach at the time... he already had two national championships... the library at Penn State was built with money he donated and bears his name. He is literally a "god" in State College.

And ultimately, he goes out in shame because he chose his loyalty to a coach over the safety of these young boys.

And ultimately, he decided that Penn State football was more important than the lives and well being of children.

Period.

And it eventually caught up with him... and now he is paying the price for marginalizing what he should have valued, and valuing what at the time he should have marginalized.

Which is true of every person, regardless of the reasons they didn't work hard (or harder) to make sure this never happened again... whether it was the janitors, or the graduate assistant that came forward this week, or the President. Something was more important to them than what was ultimately valuable; and something was seemingly more important to them than shining light on the truth, whether it was:

a career.
a person.
a program.
a legacy.

This, can I call it?"idolatry" eventually caught up to them. And sadly it has caused a lot of damage.

Unfortunately, the damage caused by idolatry isn't just limited to football programs and children... but why did it take something so horrific to shed light on this fact?

It is truly sad... and I'm sure Joe wishes now he could turn back the clock, reprimand Sandusky, and fire him publicly for these acts. Unfortunately, he can't do that now.

What if this was true for Christ-followers?

2011-11-06T20:17:00.000-08:00

Anyone who knows me, or pays attention to my goings on, knows that this weekend was my second half marathon weekend. Yes, I did the half insanity again, beat my first half marathon time by 16 minutes (easy to do if you had the foot issues I had last year :) ), and had an absolutely fantastic weekend touring Savannah, St. Simons Island, and lots of traffic jams. I really felt truly blessed this weekend (maybe not for the traffic jams, but for everything else :) ).

Thinking through the weekend, a couple of deja vu conversations got me thinking. The first one was at the McDonald's in Dublin, GA. I was ordering a snack wrap and a coffee drink, and this woman behind me in line strikes up a conversation like this...

"Are you running the full or the half?"

This person happened to be traveling to her home in Savannah and knew about the race (it was a pretty big deal for Savannah), and her husband had just completed the Marine Corps Marathon the week before and still in recovery so the Savannah race wasn't on their calendar. She mentioned that she saw a lot of people on the road heading for the race. etc. etc.

It got me thinking though... How did she know I was running? I was wearing my Saucony's, and I do have skinny legs, but I wasn't really looking all that "runnery" (at least I thought I didn't) at the time. Maybe she noticed the "13.1" sticker on the back of my car. I just thought "that was interesting," got my coffee, jumped back in my car, and continued the long boring drive down I-16 to Savannah.

Later I am in Savannah touring downtown on the night before the race. Again, I do not have my Rock-and-Roll marathon swag bag (I put it in my trunk) and I'm dressed in the same Copper Mountain fleece and jeans as I did when I was asked about the race at McDonald's earlier. This time, a couple that was taking a weekend getaway into the city stopped and asked me if I could take their picture and mentioned pretty obviously that they knew I was running the race. ummmmmm...

I didn't mention that I was running the half to them. And believe me, there were plenty of people milling around downtown Savannah that were not going to run 13 feet much less 13 miles... so how did they know (I thought in my head)? I also had traded my running shoes for my comfortable Clarks (which nobody would even run in). Perhaps no one would be touring downtown alone last Friday had they not been runners... but I will explore on my own and not be asked about my hobbies. So I took their picture next to the this Bellagio-style water spout area (really cool place, by the way), and then they wished me good luck on the race and went their way.

And I was wished luck a few more times... I never really brought it up. People just seemed to look at me and think "Oh, he's running in that race tomorrow" And I wasn't waving any flair or jabbing about it. I was just doing my thing.

And then I thought this afternoon:

"Do people, in the same way, just eyeball me and assume that I follow Jesus?"

Maybe they do and I just don't know about it... like they look at me and think "Oh yeah, that guy follows Jesus" and don't talk to me like it was en-vogue to do up to and around Savannah last Friday. In the same way that someone could look at me at a fast-food joint on the last real exit between Macon & Savannah, put two and two together and ask a pointed question such as "are you running the whole or the half?"... Could a person look at me on a Sunday outside of church and confidently ask me "so, what has God been showing you in your life lately?" and assume that I would come back with an intelligent response?

It was convicting. And it honestly has me (at least in my spirit) on my knees because I know that as a redeemed person that I can't be the same person I was before... yet I go back to acting like it too often. I really want to be the kind of person who can interact with someone and that person gets a sense that somehow the person they're talking to is connected to God and is curious as to how. And just like my running epiphany, not because I have flair or a sticker on my car but because the glow and substance of who I am just screams it out.

Does it convict you? What would it look like if next Sunday after church you walked into your lunch restaurant with your circle of friends and the waitress asked you how you connected to God in your worship that morning? Without knowing where you went to church... or that you have... just by knowing it was Sunday and eyeballing you they could just... tell.

Would they be able to?

Familiar and Safe

2011-10-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

In my time with God this morning, I ran into a familiar story that we've all heard. In fact, I thought about "familiarity" a lot when I was noodling it,

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2021:1-14&version=NIV

Which produced a, somewhat unfamiliar, epiphany.

Jesus had just been crucified, and had risen from the dead but the disciples by and large did not accept this fact at the time. Peter and John had been to the tomb and saw it empty, but Peter didn't believe yet that Jesus rose from the dead. Peter, probably in trying to figure things out, likely out of the shame of having disowned Jesus, and possibly out of disillusionment - decided to go back to the thing he knew...

He went fishing. He had a fishing business before meeting Jesus. It was familiar.

And then, Peter hears this guy on the shore.

Guy on shore: "Caught anything yet?" (my translation into "Southern")

Guys on boat: "No"

Guy on shore: "Cast your nets to the other side and you'll catch something."

Guys on boat: (my interpretation) "oh, alright."

And you know what happened. The disciples on the boat caught a big haul and they were struggling to get it back on the boat. This is a familiar "deja vu" moment for Peter... because it was this miracle that caught Peter's attention in the first place. And then it clicked... This is Jesus!

And then Peter does something that he's done before... remember there was this other time that Peter was on a boat, Jesus was not, and Peter jumped out of the boat? There was this storm... and Peter walked on water.

Well... Peter didn't wait for the boat to get to shore this time either. Before you could say "holy cow that's a lot of fish!" he was down to his fruit of the looms and was swimming to shore.

You would think that Peter would have found a great place to hide in the boat when he made this realization. After all, the first time this fish trick was done he wanted to cower away from Jesus when he figured out who exactly he was talking to. And to top that off, the last time he was face-to-face with Jesus he was calling down curses on himself denying he knew Jesus at all over at Caiaphas' house!

But... that's not what Pete did. Peter had enough experience with Jesus to jump out of the boat. Despite the shame he must have felt and the doubts I'm sure he had, he knew that he had to swim as hard as he could to that guy who could make fish jump into nets and made death obsolete. Peter knew, because he has received grace, that Jesus was safe. He knew this person was the one who held the keys to eternal life... and just try holding Peter back from being with him.

It makes me wonder about my, and our, own responses to Jesus. Do we believe Jesus is safe, especially when He speaks into familiar, once possibly shameful, circumstances that we met Him in before? The great news is that He treats us just as he treated Peter... He didn't wait for him to get his act together, He met Peter where Peter was. And Peter did like this impulsive guy always did... no questions asked, I'm out of the boat... STAT. Jesus, I want to be where you are.

What would our lives look like if we did the same? I mean, HE is safe. Let's run into his arms, and receive his grace without question. We can ask questions later... but when it comes to getting life I wouldn't want to wait.

Brief musings from the past 6 weeks

2011-10-07T21:26:00.000-07:00

I just got back from spending time at Taco Mac with a buddy of mine; watching the demise of the Phillies in Game 5 (in which I'm sure all of Atlanta rejoiced!). Wrapping up some home chores I took a look at my blog and realized that I haven't posted since August!

Shame on me! I guess even a great writer (in my own mind) needs to take a break every now and then.

But, given that I've been away from my blog, can you imagine the pressure of the "first next" post... is it going to be awesome? That's a lot of pressure for someone who likes to write.

So... to take the pressure (sort of) off... and because I've had blog thoughts in my mind... I'll break the ice by providing a short synopsis of some thoughts I've had over the last 6 weeks... so my next post, whether snarky or serious... will be a little more pressure-free.

(Thanks to my groups director Mark Shull - the man - for giving me this) Yes, Peter sunk in the water when he took his eyes off Jesus... but you know, Peter took a risk on Jesus and while his eyes were on Jesus miraculous things came out of his life... and besides that, there were 11 "knuckleheads" that stayed in the boat and didn't see God work in their lives but instead stayed on the sidelines. So - would I rather play it safe and stay in the boat, or take a risk and go out to where Jesus is?
There are no shortage of crazy people out there; just ask the manager of the Tin Lizzy's Cantina in Buckhead
"Religion" (as a way of earning favor with God as a self-salvation project) is universal, and in trying to earn favor with God through religion you can put any faith label, guru, system, or teaching into that model and live your life by religion... What Jesus offers to us is completely different than it (even religion under the label of "Christianity"), and it requires that we surrender our broken lives in exchange for unearned grace, take up our cross daily, and follow Jesus without having all the answers (other than... He is the One). This is much more difficult to do than following a system of rules to earn mine and God's favor, and all "religion" operates on that baseline.
The Fight Club series is so true. Our relationships with our family are worth the fight. Thanks to all of the Willis's and the Kelly's for a great reunion!
Here's a tribute to Steve Jobs; men with vision and a willingness to act can change the world... anyone whose life runs on their iPhone knows that too well.
No lead in 2011 is safe as long as the Aggies hold that lead.
God often blesses us in ways that we are not expecting, and when He does so in a way that alters our status quo, it's an opportunity for us to see Him, and not our plans, as what our hearts truly desire and to roll with Him as the architect and author of life.
Mapquest directions, as good as they appear to be, STILL cannot be taken at face value... or else you may end up in Henry County to go to a dinner club at a restaurant in East Atlanta.

I'm sure there are others, but to quote Forrest Gump... I'm really tired.

And now I can write my next blog....

Sometime.

C-Dub's National BBQ Guide

2011-08-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I was able to get home and enjoy my fill of great Texas food, and yes I'm watching my calories and making sure to work out a little extra this week. Needless to say, I've had some Mexican, some Greek (there's a famous place in Montrose called Niko Niko's that's crazy good - and was on Diners Drive-ins, and Dives), and of course some Goode Company BBQ :-)

I do miss Texas BBQ. I really do. Not that my new home doesn't have good BBQ - it's just not the same and that's okay. I'm sure that you know some folks that when you say the word "barbecue" automatically think about something that may or may not be foreign to your experience, so having been around I'll give you a little lexicon.

"Southern" Barbecue (Tennessee/Georgia variety)
This would be slow smoked pulled pork with a sweet sauce, most often served with macaroni and cheese, french fries, collard greens, or a plethora of other sides. Those just happen to be my favorite.

Good Places to get it! Pooles BBQ in Ellijay, GA, The Barbecue House in Auburn, AL, The Commissary in Germantown, TN

"Carolina" Barbecue
This is very similar to the southern variety, but they really like to chop their pork (versus pull it) and top it off with a very thin, vinegary sauce. More often than not, you're going to want hush puppies with these piggies. The pups are pretty fantastic.

Good Places to get it! Hannah's BBQ in Lenoir, NC

"Memphis" Style Barbecue
Ribs, and especially dry rub ribs. The best places for ribs will automatically have those bad boys falling off the bone and making your hands messy "as all get out."

Good Places to get it! Fat Matt's in Atlanta, GA, Corky's (the original) in the Memphis area (I'm a little light Memphis places, because I'm not as much of a rib fan)

St. Louis Style Barbecue
Like Memphis - RIBS, but more saucy.

Good Places to get it! I've really never had any St. Louis barbeque that didn't come from a chain, so I'm going to refrain from making any recommendations. Feel free to comment if you have a good pick.

Kansas City Barbecue
K.C. is known for it's BBQ, and most famously for "burnt ends" which are char-broiled beef butt. It's really good if you can find it tender, smoked, and melting in your mouth. I've never had decent burnt ends outside of Kansas City. Also, K.C. tends to pare it's BBQ with more "casserole-style" sides than others (unless you count baked mac & cheese as a "casserole") - the cornbread casserole that I've had at Jack Stack is pretty ridiculous.

Good Places to get it! I've only been to Jack Stack, so far, and it was amazing. There are tons of great places but I'm only going to endorse a place I can vouch for.

Texas Barbecue (the one I'm partial to)
Since I am a Texan, I'll keep it brief. Texas BBQ is like Southern BBQ in a way but we don't smoke pork butts; we smoke brisket. The best Texas BBQ is brisket that is cooked throughout, melts in your mouth, and has a reddish smokey flavored layer on the outside of the meat. The other staple of Texas BBQ, coming from the influx of Germans and Czech immigrants into central Texas and the Hill Country, is smoked sausage "links." These are mostly beef links or pork links laced with jalapenos. Those guys are hard to find where I live now, even though I have found them at One Star Ranch and they're not bad.

Good Places to get it! Goode Company (Houston), The Salt Lick (Driftwood, TX, outside of Austin), Meyers (Elgin, TX), Rudy's (for "fast food" - they advertise themselves as the "Worst in Texas" which isn't too true, but even if it's true makes it far better than the 1/2 of the country mentioned below).

Everywhere Else (especially "up north")
Barbecue means...

Cooking food outdoors.

------------------------
If you've ever had any question on why people are weird about their foreign versions of barbecue or if they give you a deer-in-headlights look when you explain that barbecue is a multi-regional cuisine, now you have some ammunition to take with you in your effort to ed-u-macate them. Enjoy! :-)

What's the Deal?

2011-08-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

If you are like me in this new post-recession (whether you believe we are really out of it or not) world, you are looking out for a deal when you shop. As you know, there are a number of new companies and ventures out there attempting to take advantage of this mentality, the most famous of them now being Groupon.

If you're following this emerging cluster of ventures, you know that recently GroupOn had talked about going IPO and they were bragging that their initial sale would rival any company that has gone IPO before... that is, until they had to restate their books.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/08/groupon_doomed_by_too_much_of.html

I am a "deals site" consumer so I do pay attention to what's going on here. I am also a business marketing professional so I'm also very fascinated by this new tactic for attracting consumers and the retailers' ambitions when choosing to do business with these companies. I do, in some way, tend to agree with the HBR blogger's assessment. Do I believe Groupon is growing too quickly? Perhaps. What is a little more disconcerting if I were a potential investor in Groupon is not that they have become too large and bloated to become profitable, but that their success in customer acquisition, margins, and market share is unsustainable. I lean in this direction for the following reasons:

GroupOn, aside from its branding, is largely undifferentiated from the other deal sites that operate in its markets. Because it HAS aggressively built a brand around itself, there are people that associate these "pre-purchase, half-off coupons" as "Groupons." However, if I go out to LivingSocial, CrowdCut, Half Off Depot, Facebook Deals, or any other organization selling coupons such as these, I get the exact same thing that I would get with GroupOn.
Since this is the case, and consumers that subscribe to deals aren't just loyal to any one site (I subscribe to all of them), the economic law of abnormal profits will eventually apply to margins in this space. You can see this now with the more limited scopes of the deals that are being offered at restaurants. The limits are lower and the risk thresholds are smaller. If Groupon was making a great margin on deals offered a year ago, it stands to chance that competition has, or will, cut into those margins at some point.
Ultimately, the success of a company in this space rides with it's ability to attract and sell deals to consumers. Essentially, it is a online, retail B2C model (this is overly simplified, I know). In this model, the deal company attracts consumers to subscribe to its news feed (either from Social Media and/or email), then uses the strength of that base to sell merchants on providing a deal via their site, in which the deal site gets paid on performance (such as, for each Groupon sold, the merchant gets a cut and Groupon gets a cut - these cuts are negotiated between the retailer and the deal provider). However, they must sell the deals to the consumer base (that they spent lots of marketing dollars to attract) or they are ultimately not successful.
In what I'm assuming is a push to increase deal (quantity) volume, deal companies appear to be going after just about anyone who waves a dollar at them to put forward a deal. Some of the crazy deals I've seen come through the news feed definitely plant that thought in my head. As a consumer who is not loyal to Groupon but to "Me, Inc." and a set of retailers I like will offer a deal through any number of sites, I will simply troll the plethora of deal emails for something I'm interested in and buy based on the retailer versus which channel they offered their deal through. At some point, retailers will get smart and realize that no one cares if the deal comes through Groupon, Half Off Depot, LivingSocial, Facebook Deals, Bob's Deal Shack, or wherever... and they'll negotiate deals that will eventually put the smaller players and/or anyone that hasn't managed their costs well out of business. My expectation is that those Social sites that have built in followership (like Google, Facebook, etc.) will eventually win out as every venture in this space eventually will have to be profitable to survive. If Groupon may not ever turn a profit, this is a little disheartening if you're betting in this space and playing "me too."

Do I think Groupon (or the others) are doomed? No, not really. However, it is not as much "easy money" as they are making themselves out to be. Customer acquisition is hard work and expensive (especially if you don't have a built-in base); and if they can't get an ROI on that investment that will pay it back and more then the future isn't bright for them.

What can they do....

Find a meaningful way to differentiate. One site I did not mention here is ScoutMob, and the reason being is that their consumer strategy is different than the others. With other sites, I as a consumer have to pre-buy an expiring coupon to take advantage of an offer. With ScoutMob, I simply have to have the ScoutMob application on my iPhone or Android - or - request an email from ScoutMob with a coupon. As a ScoutMob consumer, I don't pay anything until I am at the retailer and make a purchase. This is really compelling, obviously, and at the end of the day the pull from greater consumer interaction will drive the merchants to do more business.

Do not outgrow your profitability. Unlike the government, you can't just increase taxes if you run a deficit... and in fact thanks to a group of pesky Republicans, the government is having some trouble doing that as well. Expansion should be done with the expectation that eventually venture capital will not be required to keep the company, or its growth, afloat.

In Groupon's case... perhaps its time to figure out a way to get profitable given the current environment. What was interesting is that Amazon figured out how to leverage its brand and technology platform to scale. Perhaps if the company isn't going to be completely in the black strictly through "deals," there are other opportunities for revenue available. Look no further than Amazon's Cloud Services as an example of how this can be done.

In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy the deals... I love checking my ScoutMob app, and I have a few LivingSocials purchased, but I think I'll pass on an IPO until the business model has matured a little more. Just my $0.02.

I'd love to get your thoughts. Business folks and consumers.... Comments?

Friday Night at the Colonnade

2011-08-06T09:28:00.000-07:00

My parents are in town this weekend. We are chilling right now, and planning to get some Stone Mountain laser show action in tonight.

Last night, we went through the "where do you want to go to eat?" question, and we decided to go down to the Colonnade. I organized my dinner group there a few months ago, and they have great, aka - amazing - Southern "down home" goodies. Mom and Dad were pretty down with that.

We get to the restaurant around 7:30pm, and it is PACKED, the smells of fried chicken is in the air (mmmmmmm), and there's a 20 minute wait to get a table. Given that I've waited over an hour for tables in Houston before, I didn't see this as a big deal. After about 5 minutes of standing, we find a table in the bar/lounge area where people are hanging out and waiting for tables.

Oh, I should give you this detail... The Colonnade is an Atlanta landmark, it was showcased on Guy's show "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" (a Food Network TV show), and is located on the infamous Cheshire Bridge Road. For those outside of Atlanta, this is where the greatest concentration of "adult entertainment" venues are in the city. I obviously don't hang out in this area... I've never been to a strip club and will keep it that way.

But... I'm pretty sure that may have been the planned destination for a lot of folks I saw as I was people-watching in the waiting area. What I saw was clusters of really sleazy/creepy (I'm sure if I was there with a mixed group the word "creepy" would come up at least once or twice) old guys that I'm pretty sure had one of those places on their agenda last night. All of them had to be over 55, most of them looked like players, and honestly I felt a little dirty just by proximity.

I thought, I imagine these are same guys trolled the clubs of Buckhead 20 or 30 years ago chasing skirts and doing one night stands when they were young. I wonder how many of them thought... "once I meet the right person, I'll change my ways.... love will be enough." And... I wonder how many of them (especially the ones that did go see whatever happens in other Cheshire Bridge Rd establishments) were sporting wedding rings. That thought especially makes me shudder... I feel sorry for those wives :-(, especially the ones that believed the "right person myth" and discovered after the wedding what the product behind the packaging was.

Andy likes to say something like this... "direction determines destination." It's unfortunate if you've invested in a lot of bad choices, but it's true. You can't make extremely unwise choices today, keep making them, and then one day a beautiful, godly woman walks in your life and you just instantly change. It doesn't work that way, behavior can change for a season but the character developed by those day-by-day, week-by-week decisions will come out because ultimately that's what you are invested in.

So what kind of future are you investing in? Is it one of faithfulness, moral authority, and worthy leadership? Or... is it one that will find you hiding your wedding ring at a "fun" venue when you are 55 years old, keeping secrets from the people you love? I pray that we would all invest in a life that God will bless with His favor and in deeper intimacy and transparency with like-minded people. That's what I want.

Oh... and by the way.... we did eventually get a table.

And the food there ROCKS. This is why I ran 4.7 miles this morning :-)

-------

On an unrelated note, when my parents came in two weeks ago, my mom gave me a copy of the Georgia Travel guide that she picked up at the Welcome Center on I-85. She got it because there is a "100 Great (cheap) Dates" article in it. Well, my friends, she's getting more aggressive :-). In some ways, I appreciate the attempt even if I probably won't take a girl out for a 4 hour hike (one of the recommendations) on a first date. One day... I hope to introduce her to someone awesome. I'm still waiting... and investing in becoming the person that a girl that loves Jesus would want to have pursue her. :-).

Two sides of the Gospel

2011-08-04T20:45:00.000-07:00

In the last couple of weeks, partly because of the study I'm working through with my small group but also through a lot of conversations within my community, I've really been thinking about what it really means for me to live Gospel-centered.

One thing that I heard tonight that's really got my brain churning is how we as human beings can even turn the truths of this good news of unconditional, unmerited grace given to us at the expense of Jesus Christ somehow into a moral improvement code.

Several years ago, a guy at Second Baptist gave a talk about the "two sides of the gospel" that has really stuck with me and I've gone back to often. It also explains why we are, in many of our Christian circles, so quick to jump on the "performance bandwagon" - when we only embrace one side of the gospel and not the totality of what God has offered to us.

If you think about "it" in terms of Accounting, consider that we human beings have a balance sheet that is completely full of debits on the "sin" column and empty on the "righteousness" column of the sheet. We do nothing that can please God because at the end of the day every thing we do apart from Christ is tainted by our sin nature. And, in Christ's ledger, there is endless credits on the "righteousness" column and it is empty on the "sin" column.

The way a lot of us understand the Gospel is that a transaction is made when Jesus died on the cross and we freely accept what He did for us. We know that He paid for our sins and we don't have to face the wrath of God because Jesus took all of that on our behalf on the cross if we put our trust in Him. All of us that have prayed a prayer, made a decision, gotten baptized, etc. understand that. "Man, I'm glad I'm forgiven!" We have given Jesus the debits in our "sin" column and he pays for them... on the cross positionally He now owns them. The wrath of God that we deserve is satisfied and we are forgiven.

And that's where a lot of us stop. Now... we feel we've got to show God that we've earned it. We now, that we don't have anything in the "sin" bucket, feel that we've gotta go fill up the "righteousness" column to show Him what a great call He made to save us.

And we stress ourselves out, we worry, and burn out...

Because we're not good at being righteous. In fact, we kind of suck at it. I know I do.

But there's another side of the gospel. Jesus doesn't stop at just forgiving us of our bad things.

Remember that fully loaded "righteousness" column that He has... the one He earned by 33 years of perfect obedience to the will of God that we couldn't possibly do?

That...

Yes, that.

gets transferred into our ledger.

We are not empty ledgers... we are not moral zeros. When we trust Jesus and embrace Him as our treasure...

We are made.... RIGHTEOUS. Not just "forgiven,"

Righteous. Completely and totally.

Does that make you breathe a sigh of relief.

Does that make you stop stressing out?

Does that sound too good to be true?

Given the paradox that we aren't completely severed from this thing in us that makes us want to do bad things, it's sometimes hard to believe... but this is what the Gospel teaches, that we are a new humanity reborn spiritually with a nature enabled by the Holy Spirit to actually do good works that actually please God; not just serve our self-promotion. Even our good works are a gift... does that make you happy?

It should :-)

We don't have to "do" anything to be good... if we trust Jesus, that's just what he makes us.

I wish I could exhaust you (and me - I get pulled away from this so often - my natural inclination is to make rules for me to follow rather than resting in my relationship with Jesus too) with all of the Bible verses that scream this out, but it'd make this blog post so long that you'd eventually fall asleep if you haven't already. So - instead of saying, "just trust me" I'd encourage you to take a 2 hour stint and read through the entire book of Romans in its entirety. When you finish, I hope you see the offer of an unconditional, undeserved, absolutely stunning offer of adoption and regeneration by a God who loves you, wants you to rest completely in His love and favor, and enables you to live life centered in that new reality.

If in our heart, at our core, understand that we are freely cherished by God and freed from law, what is the natural byproduct of that relationship? In that case, it is no longer about me "doing to gain approval," it is living out of a new nature that I have because of what God has done and is in the process of doing in transforming my life (the crazy thing is, our "sanctification" is also by grace; not just our salvation). That, rather than the former, brings life and removes guilt. It enables us to love for the sake of loving rather than because we have to.

In a sense... we do these things, because that is just what we are.

And considering the nature we inherited when we were born, when we realize that we are acting and loving in a truly God-honoring way....

THAT is grace.

The looming deadline approaches

2011-07-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

I have been watching the news with baited breath... as negotiations occur in dark rooms in which the fate of many will be decided... and the clock is ticking to an eventual doomsday deadline.

Yes, my friends.

I'm talking about the July 31st baseball trade deadline.

I am, sort of, watching the market for who may be traded to my current hometown team, who has been somewhat crippled when Brian McCann went on the DL just recently. With the loss of his bat, the Braves really need to pick up some offense, especially against left handed pitching (where they were recently quoted as batting a measly .227 as of about a week ago).

But more so, I'm nervous and watching the biggest seller on the market. After all, I am from Houston and I am a Houston Astros fan.

And yes, I know....

They really stink. Actually, that may be too kind.

That's why we are the biggest seller now, because we own the most marketable player that is being talked about as a trade target. That would be Hunter Pence, who is by far my favorite player on the team.

But part of the reason we're in this position is that our GM Ed Wade has really managed this team into the toilet. Our farm system has no impact prospects; we haven't gotten great trade value for the players we've dealt in the past; our scouting has been in decline; and we pay out these success-choking large money contracts for players that don't produce (need I mention Carlos Lee?). I fear that, should he trade Hunter or Michael Bourn, that we won't get what they're worth. After all, the jury is still out on the deals to trade Roy Oswalt and Lance Berkman, who Ed traded last year (if Brett Wallace ends up being a stud, then I'll change my opinion, but so far Happ hasn't put out).

But, I imagine that with the sale of the team and Wade knowing that he's getting fired at the end of the season (this is what World Series to .333 winning percentage in 6 short years will get you), he's going to try to add a big blockbuster trade to his resume. Plus, with the World Champion Giants getting Carlos Beltran now, the other NL contenders feel the pressure to add a piece to the puzzle. Rumor is that the Phillies and the Braves are talking to the 'Stros about Pence, so if I were Ed Wade (and Jim Crane, since this will be his team very soon) this is what I would do.

1.) If you don't get at least one pitching prospect that can start and would be projected as a #3 or better starter in the near future, pass. Actually, we need at least 2 young players that can start in the majors immediately. Pence is too valuable to just fire sale him... Arguably, from the Braves you should get at least Minor or Delgado and a couple of other prospects (at the AA and A levels).

2.) Get as much pitching as possible. Offense isn't our problem right now, we need arms that can get batters out. We don't have that right now; even though Wandy is finally having a decent year.

3.) Trade Wandy for sure - he's in my opinion at his highest trade value now and we should get what we can for him. He's a decent #3 or #4 starter, but the Astros are paying him as if he's an ace. He's not.

4.) If there's a way to get rid of Carlos Lee and his contract, please do it. But then again, Ed Wade's lousy negotiating probably makes that a near impossibility.

I read an ESPN blog post about this, and I agree with the writer. Houston is probably better staying put and letting a competent General Manager take over (that would not be Ed Wade, by the way). However, you never know what kind of "deal we can't refuse" may be offered in the next 72 hours.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/14322/thursday-overnight-2

Frankly, if I see Hunter Pence in a Braves jersey and Mike Minor pitching in an Astros jersey in a week; I think I'd be okay. Depends on what other pieces we get. Hunter Pence is too good of a guy to be buried in losing like he has lately, so getting on a winner would be good for him. I just wish that winner was in Houston :-(

Here's to hating rebuilding... Again.

Dinner at Ted's and observations from other random conversations

2011-07-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

Some of you know that I organize a once a month dinner club for friends and friends of friends to explore new restaurants in the city, meet new people, and have interesting conversation. I am somewhat of a foodie and started organizing these dinners a few years ago because I wanted to go out to nice dinners but was on a dating fast at the time (and usually you go to restaurants like these on dates), so why not organize a "dinner club?" For this summer, I have themed my picks as the "Summer of Celebrity" and am picking restaurants that are owned by well-known celebrities or have been featured on a national program. For whatever reason, this month I felt lazy (I say this, because I usually never choose restaurants that are part of national chains) and picked Ted's Montana Grill as it is owned by one of Atlanta's most famous (or infamous) celebrities, media mogul Ted Turner. I organized for last Thursday night.

On the way from my office to the restaurant, I swear it had to be one of the worst traffic days in Atlanta. I passed two wrecks, including one on Johnson Ferry Road by the Chattahoochee that would be analogous to the topic of conversation at dinner as well as the thoughts comprising this blog post. I saw an eight (give or take) car pileup just shy of Riverside Drive in which many of the cars had their entire front ends smashed in and their drivers were standing aside on the road dazed and confused.

I got to Ted's, and found that the party had been cut in half (partly because of the weather), and that I was the only guy at the table that night. And what did we talk about?

Dating... and especially first dates.

See the correlation with Johnson Ferry Road?

Now, most of you know that I don't blog on the particulars of my own dating life, although some of my blogs have been inspired by it. So, in light of that, the gross details of the conversation (such as names, dates, places) will be removed to protect the guilty (or the innocent, depending on your point of view).

Most of the conversation was pretty nondescript... but it started because a guy had followed up on a casual first date with a text message asking for the second date and the girl was obviously not interested in talking to this guy again and wanted to know if she should respond to said text. To be quite honest, in thinking about it I'm not sure what I would do if I were in her shoes. All I know is that unless you don't have means to ask in person or over the phone, texting is not an emotionally appropriate way to ask a girl out. I can consider myself fairly clueless on some occasions, but that I do know.

On the nondescript side, we talked about what you would "do" on a first date. They thought that my idea of doing a baseball game on a first date wasn't real great, but polling the audience most of the girls at the table were not baseball fans so I'm not so sure. For the most part, I'm a pretty big fan of doing something activity-based (which is why I like baseball... but then again, I just like baseball... period) or a short meeting over a caffeinated beverage from an institution inspired by a Seattle-based coffee chain that we all know and love.

On the desrcript side, I walked away from dinner amazed at how many really bad date stories girls had, and some of the things that guys would do. I think I posed this question as "I'm curious as to what 'other guys' do because I'm a guy and obviously don't experience what you do." I think I posed this question partly to boost my ego (I'm friends with a lot of girls that I have taken out, and so I know that even though I haven't found "the one" yet that I must be doing something right), but also because I wanted to get some insights that could help me be a better guy - and why not take advantage of the opportunity, right?

Well, I think my ego was boosted and I broke for us guys, especially us nice guys that really want to get married (and probably married way too badly), because what I heard was kind of scary. The obvious is the guys that don't ask girls out unless they have been given a green light from God to marry the girl (talk about pressure!), who don't date anyone and then pour all of their hopes and dreams on this poor girl who just wants to get to know someone. What was really shocking were the stories of guys asking about how many children a girl wanted, if they would leave their career when they had kids, or said something to the lines of "you'd make a great wife" before they had said "good night" from the first date -or- even worse on Facebook chat before the first date was even asked for. What is this, electronic pre-screening?

If you -ARE- one of these guys or have purposefully and intentionally done any of this, please chill out. Seriously, please chill out.

It's just coffee. It's just dinner. If she's really supposed to be your wife, I'm sure she may be more open to this conversation three months into the relationship.

It kind of makes me understand why some girls are taking a year off.

That goes to my next thought. A few months ago, Andy concluded a series entitled "The New Rules of Love, Sex, and Dating" and finished the series by encouraging singles who were convicted that they needed to take a step back to really become the person God wanted them to be in a future marriage to take a year off from dating. All dating... period. I know a few good friends that are taking this journey now, or have taken this journey in the past.

I applaud them all. Especially the girls that I know that really could get any guy to ask them out.

If you are doing this, for whatever reason....

You need to detox from the emotional damage of past dysfunctional relationships
Sex in your world is synonymous with dating
The dream of getting married is your god, and everything you do revolves around meeting "the one."
or any other reason...

I applaud you. Don't give up, and let God show Himself to be glorious, all-sufficient, and everything that you desire that you're attempting to find in dating.

About 4 years ago, I officially took 6 months off dating (and wish I would have taken longer) because marriage was my god. I needed to release it, to be free from it, and to embrace Jesus and go "all in" with Him. I can tell you that to consciously separate yourself from something that is an idol in your life can be painful, but the investment pays off dividends big time. For me, it has been that I've gotten my true self back, and I'm a much better friend now (at least I think so) than I was before.

If you are someone who is interested in a girl (or girls, a guy) and find out that she is taking the one year pledge, please respect her decision! There is nothing that makes me more upset than to hear of a guy who is persistent in pushing a date request on a girl who has surrendered this year to God... it's as if this guy values his own relational pursuits more than what God is doing in the life of this girl, and dude you are in this effort tempting her to replace God with you and that is just not right. So don't do it.

Last thought and I'm out for now.

And this is a happy thought.

This afternoon after church, I ended up grabbing lunch with a group of UpStreeters, one of whom was friends with a buddy that I asked to grab lunch with. During lunch, we got into the "what do you do" questions and I found that this one girl worked in social media and got her start by writing a blog about the dinner dates that she has been taken on (she critiques the restaurants as a foodie), commenting both on the restaurant itself and the adventure with the dude. When I got home, I pulled it up because I was intrigued and now have some more ideas for dinner club. But what I really caught was a dating life where it was about the experience and having fun; and regardless of how the date went there was always a story that could be laughed about later, and in many cases she had fun (I think she's single now, so obviously Prince Charming didn't knock her socks off at the Iberean Pig).

I think that this is a good perspective for both guys and girls to have... especially Christian guys, because in some ways I get the vibe when I have conversations with Christian girls like I had at Ted's that Christian guys are much worse dates than non-Christian guys. Like Paul said in some other context I'm sure, "this should not be!" If we have the Spirit of God living in us, shouldn't our dates be more life-giving than the dude whom can only offer looks, personality, money, and success?

Could it be, that unlike them we are expecting too much from 45 minutes at Starbucks, and we need to just chill, get to know, and let the natural course of relationship happen? Could it be that, perhaps we don't get to announce on Facebook that we are "in a relationship" quite as quickly, and that can be okay? However, just perhaps we won't create as much collateral damage from our dating life as we are, and...

Just perhaps...

in relating to the girls we date with surrender and no expectations we may have the opportunity to be life giving instead?

Just a thought from a bunch of random thoughts.

The debt ceiling debate

2011-07-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

As soon as the election of 2010 started, you had to know this was going to happen...

The national debt, which was already bad, is starting to get out of control. The Obama/Pelosi "stimulus" package did nothing more than to throw away several billion dollars in funds and produced *ahem* higher unemployment (well, not really, but it didn't perform as promised and unemployment is conservatively at 9.2% today, double what it was during the heyday of the Bush administration).

The "Obamacare" health care overhaul was passed. This was a very bad piece of legislation by most people's counts and the greatest government encroachment on the US healthcare system in our history. Applauded by people on the Left, demonized by people on the Right, and controversial all around.

And a very vocal group of average citizens, empowered by fear over the economy and the government's seemingly unbridled approach to spending and power grabs over the private sector, rose up and enabled the largest takeover of Congress in the history of our nation. The Democrats, who have controlled this spending spree and power grab binge, are no completely longer in power but still control the Senate and the White House... and now in Washington the debate has become a war, over the "debt ceiling."

So what does this mean? (in case you haven't watched FoxNews or CNN in the last month)

The US Federal Government, by law, has a credit limit... and on August 2nd the Federal Government will have essentially maxed out it's several trillion dollar credit card. The debate in Congress is surrounding the conditions that conservative, Tea Party enabled Republicans are putting on Obama to increase his card limit (actually, Congress's since it is Constitutionally speaking the Congress's authority to spend).

This is a big deal, because the Federal Government has a number of key obligations that have to be met, and honestly if the debt limit is not increased these will be the ONLY things that the Federal Government can fund:

Social Security
Medicare/Medicaid
By law, guaranteed entitlement programs
Paying the interest on the national debt
Essential keeping the lights on for the government (paying congressmen, paying the light bill at the White House, etc.)

And honestly, based on current "revenues" (taxes collected) and current spending, these would be the only things that the government could fund. Everything else, non-essential (like those pork barrel road projects on 285 this weekend), goes away.

Or... the apocalyptic version... the entitlement spending is too much to handle without yanking out Uncle Sam's AMEX, the government defaults on portions of it's debt, foreign creditors freak out... demand payment... interest rates go up, causing more foreclosures and runaway inflation... and well, your imagination can go on and on.

So - this is a big deal, because one thing we know about the Federal Government is that they have an addiction to spending increases. This is out of their league, even Republicans if we are honest.

So, each party has come up with their proposals to cut $4 trillion from the Federal budget over the next 10 years. To put this in perspective, the federal government is projected to spend $3.8 trillion this year alone, so a $400 billion cut in spending is equal to just over 10% of cuts. Cisco, who just announced a restructuring because they aren't meeting Wall Street expectations, is cutting over 14% of its workforce. Therefore, these cuts to an agreeably bloated beyond imagination Federal bureaucracy is still much less than what a US corporation is planning to incur.

The "how" is where we're getting hung up. From my perspective, conservatives (who I agree most with) want to cut what we'll call "REAL spending" - and drop the expense column in the federal budget so we can work with a lower spending threshold.

Liberals, whom I agree with some but not all of their proposals, want to decrease spending by taking away a so-called "spending" measure known as the "Bush Tax Cuts." In other words, they want to raise taxes. Now, I agree in principle that "revenues" (aka - taxes) need to be increased, but in a down economy where we need people *with* money investing in job creating ventures rather than taxed is this such a great idea? I also don't equate a "tax cut" with "spending" because spending assumes that you have the money and the money is really the property of the citizen -- not the government. But, I will concur with them that the government needs to find ways to get more money in so that they don't have to borrow so much, but if we're going to cut $400 billion, let's actually cut $400 billion versus creating a tax increase and calling it a "spending cut," okay?

Regardless, we do need to do something and unlike 2004 and 2009, one party doesn't wield unbridled control of the Federal lawmaking machine - so let's do something that we haven't done in a while...

Compromise.

So - here are my thoughts:

1.) Conservatives, we are going to have to accept some military spending cuts. Sorry. Do we need to be the world's policeman and spend billion of dollars in crazy powerful "boom boom" equipment from Lockheed, Northrup, and Boeing to make sure that we have the "biggest and baddest" everything? Perhaps it's time to think about rationalizing our military strategy rather than just having the coolest toys on the block?

2.) Conservatives, we need to find a way to bring money into the government... I do not agree that the marginal income tax rates should be increased. Screwing the rich is screwing investment... this is a last resort. Acceptable (now know that I'm more moderate than some of you) tax increases IMHO would include:

Raising the gas tax, cigarette tax, and alcohol tax.
Imposing a small (1 to 5%) tariff or tariff increase on goods imported into the U.S (so your German built BMW costs $41,000 vs. $40,000... big whoop). Perhaps a tax on "foreign outsourced" headcount (same - 1 to 5%) can be imposed on businesses for the Indian call-centers, SE Asia factories, etc. If it's small enough, it will disincent US businesses from choosing foreign labor pools over domestic when staffing up but not disincent them enough to shut down those call centers and thus avoid the tax. I am all for free trade, but we have to make sure that we get a fair playing field in this country.
Raising the Passport fees.
You get the idea. Don't increase income taxes! "Optional" taxes are on the table.

3.) Liberals, cutting entitlement programs by 1 to 2 percent (or even 10%) is not going to starve children or kill old people. Perhaps, all it will do is empower some newly unemployed government workers to start a charity, create a charity, and use their passions to do good without the beaurocratic overhead. We need to stop thinking in terms of "I spend money... so problems will go away." This is a fallacy that we have chased for over 80 years and I think we should know by now that it does not work that way. Throwing money at problems doesn't create solutions... in some cases it just throws money away. So - stop demonizing us for wanting to chip away at entitlement spending... Clinton cut welfare and the end of the world didn't happen. I think we're safe to cut money from a few of your pet programs too.

Those are my initial thoughts. Fortunately (or not) we have a lot of self-interested people with pet programs and elections on the line debating this issue right now... and we'll get a solution.

The fact that there's an election in 2012 demands that... or someone's getting blamed. That could be interesting.

But I believe we'll get one.. and each side will take credit for doing something.

And each side will blame the other for forcing them to abandon their "principles."

It's going to be fun :-)

Savannah

2011-06-15T18:08:00.000-07:00

Well friends, I had my final visit (I hope) to Dr. Peebles today and got the go-ahead to start ramping up my running.

Good thing, because on June 1, 2011, otherwise known as National Runners Day, I registered for the inaugural Savannah Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon on November 5th. A $13 discount from Competitor.com had something to do with my getting signed up then :-). My goal is to start going into "training mode" for the race in early-to-mid August.

Interestingly enough, when I was at the L.A. Rock and Roll (also an inaugural), marathon record-holder Deena Castor was speaking to a group and encouraged everyone to think of the "next goal" you have... to have something greater in front of you. For me... it is to finish this next race without any injury, without walking, and to bust my PR of 2:32 wide open.

Now this will be the third race I've run so the third time is a charm, right?

My goal: 2:10 - stretch, under 2 hours.

But for now, I am going to continue to get my body used to running (I completed 5K without breaking stride this morning), and then I will slowly and carefully start building my mileage. This time, I won't be running any races immediately before this one, I will monitor my mileage uptick carefully, and if I feel my body pushing back, to listen to it early on and go get therapy to speed the healing.

And, knock on wood, sprint with a smile at the 13.1 mile mark for the camera at the Rock and Roll.

The road to Savannah starts today... officially in 2 months.

The Friend Zone

2011-06-14T16:34:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about this recently, and a conversation I had with a married friend of mine about this topic got me thinking about the "F-word" in relationships. You know it.

"Let's be..." (I can see you cringing now :-) )

Friends.

My friend told me, "You know that once you're friends you never get back." That may be true, but sometimes when you're interested in, or have gone out with a great girl a couple of times and "something" is not right which you can't put your finger on - sometimes surrendering the romantic is the right thing to do. Obviously, there is risk to it, but it is in my opinion the most honoring thing to do for the other person too.

Even if it may be the "kiss of death." Perhaps this is why I'm still single. Ha! I'll get to that in a second.

Being an expert on being friends with women (in my own mind), in my opinion there are four or five "friend dynamics" (from a guy's perspective... or one guy's perspective :) ). Here's the list:

She wants to be friends but you want more. This can be a fairly frustrating place to be depending on your level of infatuation with this person. Usually this can be stated explicitly if you've asked her out and she says "no" (at least you tried) or if the girl refers to you as "friend" or "buddy." My advice on this one, if you like spending time with her, don't take this as rejection but evaluate whether you "can" surrender your desire and just be friends with her. Regardless, maintain your boundaries because she may push buttons you don't want (or need) pushed depending on how outgoing she is. You should enjoy her friendship but manage your expectations and surrender your desire to God.

You want to be friends but she wants more. This is hard to gauge, honestly, because women really do want to be pursued and may not tell you outright if she is interested. Playfulness may be flirting or just friendliness, depending on the person (God didn't make us all alike, you know). In this case, maintain your boundaries and if you're really interested in being her friend don't make her feel "less than" because you're not interested in that way. Be her friend, but be aware that you could push buttons and respect her heart.

You went out before, but it didn't seem to work out. This can be interesting, and in my experience it really only works if you were a.) honest with each other when you dated, and b.) you hadn't been too invested in the "dating" before. I have some great female friends that started out as dates - mostly the "three date wonder" as I liken it (it lasts about 3 dates, we had fun, liked each other but didn't pursue a relationship for whatever reason). In this case, boundaries and communication have been huge because at some level interest and attraction is or was there at some point; but what's really cool if you can actually be friends after dating is that if you did it right you probably know this person better than a lot of your other female friends.

She wants to date you, but you're too chicken to ask her out. If you're that guy and you want to ask her out, then do it. You're that guy that all Christian girls groan about. She's not going to think less of you if you ask her on a date.

You're like brother and sister and both never thought about dating. This is pretty cool, seriously. But my advice is when you click this well with a girl that you totally think of as a buddy and she thinks of you the same, to be aware that your friendship may make other girls that you may want to ask out wonder if you and your buddy are dating. If you're "that guy" in category #4 then this can keep you single for a while (just saying).

I'm sure there are others, but these cover most of the bases. If I missed anything, feel free to comment.

Of course, this whole discussion begs the question that was asked in "When Harry Met Sally," which is "can men and women actually be friends?" And I mean, real friends.

I truly believe the answer is yes (at least in the season of singleness - when I'm married, my one female friend WILL be my wife, as it should be :-) ). In fact, I believe that having a healthy balance as a single person (read my parenthesis above) is having trusted friends of the opposite gender. First of all, us guys are clueless sometimes about women and we need that perspective sometimes to keep us from doing relationally stupid things sometimes. Can I get an amen?

And the second question that most guys (maybe some girls too - but I'm speaking to my people now) that are in one of the "I like her" zones above want to ask: "Is there any way out of the friend zone?" To answer that question, I would quote Jesus who told Peter after he made a snarky comment about it being impossible for anyone to receive eternal life after Jesus told his audience that it would be "easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter into Heaven" (which is the prevailing opinion of guys - and maybe some girls - about getting out of the friend zone) when he said, "With God all things are possible." And isn't it true that we would rather believe and trust in God and have a great story to tell than try to force something on our own and have a not-so-great story to tell?

This is the hard thing I have to do when I go here, whether because it's how I feel God leading me or if I get led there some other way, is that I cannot ever, ever, ever be friends with a girl (especially a girl I'm attracted to) expecting that she will one day change. If I am going to call her a friend and act as a friend, then I do this expecting nothing in return other than the friendship she desires. To do otherwise would seem (and probably is) somewhat manipulative and who wants to be manipulated? It doesn't foster trust, which ultimately is what a solid relationship has to be based on, well.... err... hmmmmm. It means I have to, if I like her...

Surrender.

Give my desire to God and ask Him to transform it, and to give me something better.

Be willing to step out in your dating life to meet and date other people, involve myself in ministry, live a full life... all of the things that I do now as a single person. My life has not been put on hold, and I hope that if you're single and reading this that this is true of you.

And here's the deal... there's no guarantee that she will one day see you or I differently. It's probably the chances Lloyd had with Mary in Dumb & Dumber (like one in a million). The odds are WAY against it. It still means that God will provide something better; a relationship with your future wife enhanced because you know how to relate to women (as a result of these friendships in our single season), the patience that comes with waiting on God with no expectations other than His presence, and even if He doesn't provide any of those other things, He will give us more of what our hearts are truly aching for....

More of Himself.

On the romantic "switch" - who knows? It has happened before. You've heard great stories - and the truth about all that we desire for ourselves is that when the timing was right, it was just natural. I won't try to explain it - let's just call it a God thing.

And since I'm not an expert, I'll just trust my married friends who tell me "well, Chris, when it's right you'll just know." Given that I'm not married or in a relationship right now, I'll just take that on faith and wait.

Besides, in Jesus I got all the love I need. A romantic relationship, that's icing.

Glutton for Punishment?

2011-06-10T06:39:00.000-07:00

Several years ago, I had made fun of a friend of mine that, on our group ski trips would insist on going snowboarding even though for three consecutive years she would get injured. From my recollection, the injuries were:

A foot broken in several places
An ACL tear
(and I can't remember what the third was, nor can I perfectly recall the order)

And this girl was a pretty good skiier, but she insisted on going boarding despite the ribbing and the, as I can imagine, frequent trips to the hospital.

Well, I can understand it now...

Guess what friends? I've signed up for my next Half Marathon.

This is after, Silver Comet race - torn miniscus... surgery. L.A. Rock and Roll - painful achilles tendonitis... finally able to run after 7 months and a lot of chiropractor and pediatrist visits. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can finish this year injury free?

But am I a glutton for punishment?

Maybe.

But I get what my friend (who still boards, and has managed to stay out of the hospital now) got... when you love something you may consider the risks but they don't deter you. You just pursue your passion as long as you can. That's how I feel about running, it's in my blood. So Savannah Rock-N-Roll here I come :-).

If you love someone or something, you may account for the cost but it doesn't stop you. I get that better now, and perhaps that explains one other thing...

How the message of Jesus got out of the 1st century.

These people knew and loved Jesus, and couldn't stop talking about him, despite the fact that they were getting thrown into jail, mocked, beat the crap out of, and killed for it. I don't know, but if there isn't something real to the reward of following Jesus, then why subject yourself to that? And... if they were just making something up and they didn't actually see Jesus risen, then what kind of idiots were these guys?

But apparently, and history proves it out. They saw Him. They were convinced. No one could refute what they were witnesses to, and even though the powers that be tried to silence them they wouldn't shut up and people continued to put their trust in this crucified, risen carpenter who was the Son of God.

And because of this love, the cost didn't matter so much... and we have benefited. But they have too.

14 Things that do impress me

2011-06-07T22:33:00.000-07:00

I don't know if you saw this post from Tyler Stanton, but I thought it was pretty hilarious. Not only because of it's obvious snarkiness, but also because it's pretty obvious that I'd probably not impress Tyler (me being the movie line quoting, Android phone carrying, theologically minded guy that I am). But I laughed, so I gave it the fanfare that a great post is due. Here is the link, in case you haven't seen it.

http://www.tylerstanton.com/2011/06/06/16-things-that-dont-impress-me/

I've actually thought about posting my own, but I think I'd rather ponder what actually DOES impress me (even though in Henry Cloud's "Nine Things" chapter about "hating well," what we dislike (aka - doesn't impress us) is an indication of what we value). If you don't really care about impressing me, then you can ignore the rest of this blog, but in case you're curious then you can read on... :-)

Things that impress me in general
1.) You are Biblically and theologically literate, and you can apply this knowledge into this thing we call "life"

2.) You can learn your way around technology without having to have your hand held.

3.) You associate and humanize people that whom associating with would appear to your peers to be "beneath you."

4.) You've run any distance races. I'm a runner and know the discipline needed to do a distance race, and if you've done the same you have my respect.

5.) You take risks and are willing to step out on faith in God even if it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

6.) You can discuss spiritual issues from many different Christian vantage points; and don't get locked into a "turf war" discussion around your point of view (some popular rat trails include "predestination vs. free will" and any discussion around end times)

7.) You can be snarky in such a way that makes people laugh (out loud), without a shred of ego, and does not ever belittle or marginize other people

Things that impress me in girls
Since I'm a guy and I have been known to date from time to time, I'll let you in on a few of these...

1.) Balance. I am extremely impressed with a girl who can manage her life well; including making time for exercise, intellectual pursuits, fun, friends, and her work endeavors.

2.) Modesty. I am very impressed with a girl who looks great but doesn't try to commoditize herself by the way she presents herself. She knows she's beautiful and she lets you know she's a woman, but she also lets you know that she's not "for sale."

3.) Pursuits. I am very impressed with a girl who invests her time serving others. I really have a lot of respect for teachers and nurses, but also for those that give their time to minister in the community and invest time serving in the local church.

4.) Worship. I am very impressed with a girl with whom it is clear that Jesus is the love of her life. This is a little hard for me to discern in church, however (I value this, because this is my desire for myself... hence I'm paying more attention to Jesus than to "her" when I'm in church)

5.) Intelligent/Deep. I am very impressed with a girl who loves to talk about deep topics, and is not afraid of a little friendly debate. I really am impressed when these topics are about spiritual things.

6.) Cheap but you wouldn't know it. Actually this impresses me as a whole, but this is where I thought of adding this item. I am very impressed with people who are able to find deals and you look at what they do and how they live and you would be shocked at how much margin they actually live on. I actually shocked a friend a couple of weeks ago when I told her how much I paid for some of the clothes I bought at Costco (CK and Levi's 505's).

7.) Athletically and artistically competent. Maybe because this is me, but I really am impressed with someone who is involved athletically or follows sports, and can draw, sing, play an instrument, or write really well. Maybe that goes to the balance thing but I really have a special appreciation for those that can be part-time jocks and part-time glee club people for some reason - also it's a desire for my kids as well.

Now, that is my (partial) list... The second isn't my "must haves" but I have to say that most of my girlfriends have had one or more of these characteristics. I know that this wouldn't impress everyone. You gotta find your own passions and your own likes. But these are some of mine and this is my blog so if you read up to now, well now you know.

Peace out.

The follow: Apple Came Through

2011-06-03T16:31:00.000-07:00

I really can't leave my last post hanging. You have to be wondering by now, whatever came of your "Bad Apple Experience?" Are you a Windows guy now?

The answer is... No! I'm still a Mac guy. And I'm happy.

After noodling over the situation and soliciting the advice of friends over Facebook, I decided to try to get to a customer care person and explain my situation. A buddy that had worked for Apple for 3 years gave me some advice that if I can get to the right people they can make some things happen.

So - I tried, and tried to call. The support line was strictly a computer, and it didn't really lead me anywhere. Funny thing about a large company with a lot of raving fans... they think no one complains. Funny, huh? I tried three times to get past the computer bouncer, to no avail.

So when you want to complain to a person, what do you do? You tell the computer that you want to buy something.

Salesperson is now on... live human at your service! :-). Then I proceed to tell him about my situation.

So off to tech support... and then to customer care, where I finally talk to someone who is in a position to at least hear me out and tell me that they can do something or not. This guy, based out of Austin (I could tell by the 512 area code that comes on my phone when he calls to check in), was very patient with me (good to do when you're talking to a very upset customer), understanding, and eventually intervened on my behalf with the people at the Perimeter Apple Store about the botched communication about my MacBook. After a few instances of being on hold (no longer than 3 to 5 minutes), this customer care guy gets on the phone three-way with me and the manager at the Perimeter Apple store with a solution to my "Bad Apple" situation.

Would it be acceptable, if we repaired the MacBook at the cost you were charged for the mistaken repair?

I was ready to do the happy dance. This was exactly what I wanted.

Now, according to "corporate policy," Apple did not have to do this. Officially, they have fixed what they were told to (even though they screwed up on a pretty major detail... being notifying me), but what they did was what all companies that maintain great brands do. They OWN the customer experience and do everything in their power to make sure that their customers have a great experience with the product. The first moment of truth isn't enough... they understand that every moment of truth is a brand-defining moment and they take it very seriously.

And when they mess up, they own up to it... and do what they need to, within reason, to make it right.

When I took my MacBook into the Apple Store again to go to depo for this (expensive) repair they were comping, they warned me about my hard drive potentially being replaced... after some long thought, knowing that there was no truly "replaceable" data on the HD, and considering that my battery was down to 7% I opted to take the risk. I did talk to my customer care guy and said that it'd be awesome for them to spare it but because I was given the information I needed to understand the risk I'm okay with getting a MacBook back with a fresh start, but again would be enthralled if I get it back, data and all (I'm keeping my fingers crossed). I'll be dropping by on Saturday, after a business trip to Bothell, to pick it up.

I can't tell you how impressed I was with this... most large companies would tell you, with a three year old laptop and an incidental mistake by a tech guy that "you got our best offer and you should be happy. After all, we have much bigger customers than you and we can afford to let you go." But they didn't do that... even though I wish there was a cleaner way for me to get in to make a complaint than fib to the Apple computer about wanting to buy something... they listened to me, they understood that I had a right to complain, and they acted to make me right even at cost to themselves. They followed the golden rule, even if they didn't think about it in those terms.

And that's why, I am still a raving fan.

And that's why, I will still buy Macs.

A bad Apple experience?

2011-05-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

I really like Macs. I love my iPod, and the iTunes store is my place to buy music. So, you can imagine that this blog post is a little shocking.

I am pretty upset with Apple right now. I got a really terrible deal when I took my MacBook in for repair at the Apple store, and I'm at a loss now for what to do.

Seriously, Apple. I love your technology. I love your product. But seriously the treatment I got this week over my laptop repair was unacceptable, and it leaves me baffled because I'm used to getting a great experience. This is a little bit of a shock.

A week ago, I had an accident where some Diet Coke was spilled on my MacBook and it caused some of the keyboard keys to stick and the kicker was that my power adapter stopped charging my computer. Obviously, without being able to juice the machine, this was a showstopper.

So, I go to the Apple Store and talk to a Genius at Perimeter Mall about my issue. The person that I talked to told me that the keyboard would need to be repaired (about $125) and perhaps if liquid got inside the casing that it would add $400 to the repair cost. That was a little bit of a sticker shock, but they thought that it may just be external things so I authorized the $125 repair and told them to call me if it required more because in that case I would likely opt to replace the laptop. They agreed to that, and I left my MacBook at the Apple Store.

So - they made the repair we agreed to work and they did not call to say that there was any internal damage. I picked up my MacBook this evening after work, took it home and plugged it in to see if it would charge (it was sitting at 11% battery at the time). It did not. The core issue... the one that I took the laptop in to repair... was not corrected.

Of course, like anyone that just dropped $125 to repair a problem and it failed, I went right back to Perimeter Mall to ask them "what happened?"

Fast forward to my return trip to the Apple Store... oh yeah, the internal casing and that $400 repair job, it was needed. Did I get a call from them before the other repair? No. Why? Because I wouldn't have authorized the repair had this additional work need to be done. It would be better for me to just replace the laptop.

So, of course I told them that I didn't ask them to replace the keyboard; I asked them to fix the laptop and get it back to working condition. They did not (and preemptively performed the repair even though they should have known that the power cord issue was the big issue). Doesn't matter - to get that I'd be out an extra $400 now, and I'm already out $125. With a 3 1/2 year old laptop needing a $400 repair, it's better to go ahead and get something new (or at least new to me).

So the Genius (like a good salesperson) tried to upsell me on a MacBook Pro. Great pitch. Wrong timing. Poor ethics on the bait & switch, dude (and you're a nice guy, and I'm sure you were doing what you were instructed, but I'm not happy). They didn't fix my laptop and I've spent good money to do it.. now they want another thousand? I'm not feeling it.

So I can get a refund on this non-repair? Out of the question.

Instead, I have a $125 credit to spend at the Apple Store toward a NEW Mac.

Upsell? Bait and Switch? I love you Apple but this isn't what I came in expecting.

But now I have a $125 credit toward an expensive notebook and damaged trust.

So - I figure I'll ask you what you think I should do. After all, I really do like the product....

Should I?

Go ahead and shell out the cash on a new MacBook... it'll last for at least 3 years and a new one will be under warranty.
Buy a Windows 7 PC laptop... even with my voucher I can get more processing power for less money than with a new Mac. I hear that Windows 7 is significantly better than the stuff Microsoft has come up with as of late. Of course, if I go this route I have to replace my purchased iTunes library which isn't going to be fun.
Find a used MacBook. This may be a good option if I can find one cheap. Or cheaper than new minus $125.
Drop notebooks altogether and buy a tablet, which I can buy for less than $500. I've thought about just going tablet with my next purchase, but can I do my Word/Excel stuff with an iPad as I could with a notebook?

Or should Apple get over their refund policy and just do what it takes to true me up without making me spend any more cash. After all, when they returned my notebook to me it was under the auspice that it would be working and functional.

And that, they did not do.

Please weigh in :-)

What if it's today?

2011-05-20T10:19:00.000-07:00

So - at dinner club last night and all around the twitterverse everyone's talking about the end of the world.

Yes - somebody else with a formula and some loose scriptural interpretation has predicted it.

Again.

And he's likely to be wrong.

Again. (Yes - this same guy has predicted it before and struck out).

So - while I'm pretty sure I'll see you all and have something witty and snarky to say to you on Sunday, the thought gives me a little pause, because Jesus didn't really tell us when he's coming back. He just told us that he was.

So, it could be today.

And I'm not a prophet, and I don't have a formula, but it could be today. And then again, it could be tomorrow.

My question is:

Does that make you happy? Or does that make you afraid?

I think there will be two types of people who will fear Jesus coming. The first are people who have lived like there is no God... and then will see Him, in all of his glory. That would be very scary. The second are people who tried to stack up a bunch of stuff to impress God and were really sincere, but it was really about "me trying to put together a great resume for God" and then seeing God in all of His holiness and realizing that my resume was like a fry cook at McDonalds trying to apply for the CEO job at Apple. That's probably not going to be a good feeling either.

And then the happy people... I'm going to be one of those. They are people that realize that God is holier than I can possibly imagine, and there's no resume I can build that would even come close to impressing Him... and took the one offer God gave that is 100% sure to please Him. Surrender my life. Accept the life that Jesus lived when He was here before, and accept that He's done everything that needs to be done to please God and rely on His record, the transaction He made by dying in my place on the cross, and the new life he has given me... versus trying to live my own life for me and my glory. Those people, who love, treasure and value Him, are going to be ecstatic

Are you?

Because one day, it will the day.

Just maybe not Saturday.

The Prosperity of the City

2011-05-19T03:21:00.000-07:00

My small group is about to go through Tim Keller's Gospel in Life study in our group time in the next couple of months. I am becoming a big fan of Keller, partly because of how clear he is in his message and the intellectual depth that he brings to the discussion (plus: anyone who quotes Edwards & Lewis is cool in my book... just sayin').

So I'm started getting ahead a little (probably because I'm the leader... it's my job to know what's up), and in reading through the section on "City" we are reading through this letter that Jeremiah wrote to the Jews exiled to Babylon in 586 B.C., and in it he writes:

"Build houses and settle down." - Jer 29:5
"Plant gardens and eat what they produce" - Jer 29:5
" Marry and have sons and daughters" (and encourage your kids to do the same) - Jer 29:6

"Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." - Jer 29:7

And I'm sure that those Jews that read this letter, who had plenty of people telling them (on God's behalf, which is one reason God had Jeremiah write THIS letter) "Oh, you won't be here too long!" "Don't worry, don't get too comfortable - God's got a one way train back to paradise. Don't settle here in this pagan city." were probably thinking....

"What?"
"Pray for THIS city?"
"Do you know what these people did to my {insert relative} when they destroyed Jerusalem and drug me off to here?"
"You gotta be kidding!"

Don't get me wrong, Babylon was the place to be in that time of the world. It's where everything was happening. It was the center of power, culture, and the economy for the biggest and baddest empire of its time... not unlike the city that Tim Keller does ministry in... New York City. You may have heard it it :-)

A lot of us find ourselves in the cites we live in because a job brought us here, not because may be necessarily be in love with the culture of the place we find ourselves planted. As a Christian, there is a lot in the city that flies in the face of what I know to be true that the Bible teaches (maybe not as much as the gap between the Jews' covenant with God vs. the Babylonian culture, but in some ways we feel it). I believe however that our calling is the same, so for my city...

"I should seek the peace and prosperity of Atlanta, because as Atlanta prospers I too will prosper."

This means I need to primarily give to, and invest in the good of my city. A lot of us come here to take what the city can give to us (Hey, the Braves are here and I love baseball! Hey, there's economic opportunity here so I'm going to make money! Hey, there's a hot singles scene here so I'm going to plunge myself into all that has to offer!, etc.)

However, what God is calling his people to radically do is to give to the city and raise the status of the city and the people here. It means - volunteering to make this a better place to live, investing in relationships instead of using people, giving hope to the marginalized and oppressed. Is that a picture of what the church (meaning, God's redeemed people sent out into the world) looks like in Atlanta (or insert your city here) or does it look different? Are, in your city, Christians considered the most giving, hospitable, life-giving, culture-enhancing people in the community? And if not, why is that the case? Is it because we're falling for the same lie that the Jews were getting fed - that the city that God placed us in really isn't that important... that it's all about us and our circle instead of the betterment of the place he has placed us? And if it is not, shouldn't we change - and instead of doing church; be the church and do justice in our city?

That's what Jesus did. That's what a select group of remarkable Jews did in Babylon. That's what we should do in Atlanta.

Andy brought it today

2011-05-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day!

And in that light, I think Andy Stanley did all of the mom's and future mom's in his audience a big favor by taking a huge risk and being willing to step on we mens' toes. And it's something we need to hear as men in our culture.

I'm not going to give you the cliff notes of the talk, because the talk was way too good (and important) for me to summarize it in a weak blog posting. But, if you really want to know... we need be cherishing women. All women. All the time. Period.

In every way.
In our thoughts.
In our actions.
In our choices.

The details of that, which Andy talks about today, are very edgy. You can listen to the talk to know what I'm talking about :-).

It was a little convicting for me, because the gravitation of this culture is strong and if we don't by the power of the Spirit swim upstream then it will take us with it whether we like it or not. I prayed that God would give me grace where I didn't always get the respect thing right with ex-girlfriends and girls I've dated in the past - I'm definitely not perfect and I really do want to leave a good wake in my path even though I'm not by any means perfect.

I did delete a couple of songs today (Rockstar by Nickelback and Zac Brown's Devil went down to Georgia live song that I just downloaded off iTunes after Friday night's concert... why these songs? Listen to the message!) and am really praying that I remain in Jesus and have this cherishing heart that Jesus, Peter, and Paul talk about in the scriptures we read today. It was good to be reminded that they were even more countercultural then than they are today.

The talk did make me very thankful, though, that God got a hold of me early. While I have a pretty boring salvation story of being saved from legalistic self-righteousness like the older brother in the Prodigal Son story, I am very thankful that I have been spared from some of the consequences of the stuff that Andy talked about. I do feel like a dork sometimes when I talk in circles about my lack of experience (dare I bring up the "v" word?) and naivety about what's "out there," but I think I'd rather have my dorky life today than the alternative, even if I have to talk today about sex only in theoretical terms. But you know, that dorky virgin (there, I said it!) till I say "I do" lifestyle has spared me a LOT of heartache, and I can't tell you how thankful I am for that.

So, if you haven't heard the talk - seriously go to Buckhead at the 6 or check it out on Northpoint Online at 6 tonight. And, if you have been there and you're in a small group, would you be bold enough to talk about this in your group this week? Our hearts, our future marriages... they're at stake here.

Your future wife, your girlfriend, the girl you want to ask out but are scared to... if you hear Andy out and apply his urgings in your life, they will thank you. I truly believe that.

Zac Brown Concert tonight

2011-05-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty stoked about this weekend. Starting tonight, I'm heading to meet some friends for the Zac Brown Band concert at Verizon. It should be a great show.

My favorite song of theirs, of course, is "Chicken Fried." However, a week ago I got on the scale, saw something I didn't like (a number too big), and decided to make some changes till I get back to my "ideal weight." Which means, no fried food and definitely no beer (I hate beer anyways but I'm cutting all "mature" drinks out till I'm back on track... it's good for me :) ). So I figure I'd have to sing this instead.

I'd like me some Chicken Fried
Cold beer on a Friday night
But this pair of jeans don't fit just right...

So I'm giving it all...all...yall, up.

C-Dub's New Rules of Love, Sex, and Dating

2011-04-29T16:20:00.000-07:00

Andy is doing a new series at Buckhead Church (either live or on HD), about (as if we need to be made fun of any more for being relationship-obsessed :-) - Ha!) "The New Rules of Love, Sex, and Dating." It should be an interesting series, not because I haven't heard a thousand talks about relationships (that's what it feels like) but because Andy did some field research on The Bert Show a few weeks ago. The Bert Show is a very popular morning radio talk show for Q100 in Atlanta that focuses on pop culture news and gossip; and is not a Christian program. I'm interested to learn how he's going to use that "call in and talk to Andy" session he did a few weeks ago.

So, I posted the link to the series on my Facebook page earlier today and have gotten a few comments about it; including a comment from one friend of mine that asked that I give her the "cliff notes" on what Andy's new rules are. That got me to thinking, given all that I've read and my own dating experiences in the 21st Century that maybe I should post my own "new rules" and see if any of them match up with Andy's (or yours... feel free to comment).

So I give you, Chris's "New" Top Ten Rules of Dating (in the 21st Century)

Keep everything discreet. The less drama you post to Facebook, the more you can get to know your girlfriend (guys) in real life. That includes making your relationship, no matter how "in" you are, "Facebook Official" (or FBO for short)
I know we have tweets, Facebook, email, etc... .but I still like getting a girl's number and asking her out over the phone or in person. Personal is still better... I feel that electronic communication, as great as it is, can cheapen relationships, especially one that could potentially be significant.
Guys: Always offer to pay when you are on a date. Girls appreciate it, even if they insist on splitting the check. It makes her feel cherished and valued, and at the end of the day isn't that how you want her to feel? :-)
Start out casual and get to know. Don't rush on getting into an intimate relationship & trust God for the romantic. A solid friendship is the bedrock of any great relationship and needs some TLC before you go too far down the romantic path
But guys, on #4, let her know that you're interested even when you're taking it slow. If a girl wants you to pursue her, you need to give her a clue that you're pursuing her and not "just hanging out" even if you are in that season hanging out.
And on #4, let your level of physical intimacy match your commitment level. If you're casually dating and getting to know some other people; DON'T hold her hand, kiss her, drop the "L" word, etc. Those things communicate exclusivity, so unless you're ready to commit back off the PDA and the romantic language :-)
My personal rule: If you had fun on the first date, ask for a second. Sometimes chemistry takes a little time to develop, and dating should be fun... so if you had fun why not hang with her again?
Treat your relationship with the long term in mind. Here are some questions I ask myself:

If she is not "the one," how would my future wife want for me to be interacting with her at this time? (this can be a pretty convicting question to ask, even if she IS the one)
How can I invest in this date to enable me to relate to my future wife better?
How can I invest in her to enable her to relate to her future husband better, whether it is me or not?
Is our friendship and relationship with Christ closer because of this experience?
Is she better off for having spent time with me?

Have fun and do things on dates that you enjoy. You'll be more attractive, interesting, and engaging if you're enjoying the experience.
Involve your community and trust your friends' advice... this isn't new, but involve your head and your heart in your romantic life. Sometimes, friends can help with the "head" part when the heart is taking over :-)

Any other rules you'd add?

I can't wait to hear Andy's. Bring it on.

Better than the blood of bulls and goats

2011-04-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

Interestingly enough, where I am in my quiet time through Hebrews today happens to be very relevant with the significance of what we remember today. A verse in this section that I vividly recall says this:

"... because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." - Hebrews 10:4

Now, in our 21st Century non-Jewish world, this verse may make no sense to us. But to the Jewish believers that this person was writing this letter to, it was rich with meaning.

You see, ancient Judaism was a religion that was deeply entrenched in a sacrificial system that, in the minds of many worshippers, equated the sacrifice of a bull, goat, lamb, dove, pigeon, etc. for a sin offering (Leviticus 4:1- 6:7) and the yearly sacrifice of a lamb on the alter of the temple on the day of atonement (Leviticus 16) with the covering of sins that they and the nation has committed. These sacrifices were commanded by God for the people to conduct when they sinned (I left the scripture references above in case you really have an inkling to read Leviticus :) )

Now, as you can imagine with a nation of 3 million plus people when Moses was delivering these command from God; fast-forward to the first century and you can imagine that's quite a lot of hamburger meat, barbeque dove, and lamb chops being produced in the name of "I have get my sins covered." Can you imagine, every time you sin having to go find a cow from your pasture, walk it up to the temple, go through the ritual of identifying with the animal that is commanded in Leviticus, and then watching the priest kill it and add the meat to the menu of the local Temple Five Guys? (okay - I made that part up, there was probably not a Five Guys in Solomon's Temple, but if Five Guys were around back then it'd be a great racket!)

There's one problem that's inherent in that system (and God apparently baked it in with that problem). The bulls and goats don't really solve the problem... You sin again, well, there goes another heifer. Can you imagine a wife talking to her husband saying "You gotta stop cutting corners on your business! We're running out of good bulls! Your sin is seriously cutting into our meat supply! Arrrrggh!"

And people who knew God's heart knew this was true.

For example, David said this:
"You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
   you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart
   you, God, will not despise." - Psalm 51:16-17

So, if God required that all of this cow slaughter were to take place (no wonder the Chick-Fil-A cows are so passionate!), and they weren't really that effective at taking away someone's root sin, what purpose could they have served?

The writer of Hebrews answers this question:

"The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins." - Hebrews 10:1-3

In other words, they were there to remind the Jews of something. In my reading, two things:

When I sin, someone has to die.
When I offer this sacrifice, I am demonstrating that I trust that God in his grace will have someone ELSE die on my behalf so that I don't have to die.

And depending on how good of a sinner someone was, they could have been reminded of this a LOT, and the local Temple Five Guys would be happy.

Here's the other problem with the animals... they didn't really make you righteous. You couldn't, unless you were the High Priest, and only once a year with a rope tied to your leg (just in case) could ANYONE in this environment of dealing with a Holy God even approach God. You just had to keep bringing animals and have faith in God's promises, but don't even think about approaching God because HE is holy and you are not.

So - onto the scene comes Jesus. He is God in human flesh, laying down His glory so that we can actually see him and not die. He comes to be one of us. He lives the holy life we could not even dream about living. He lives in perfect unity with God the Father, and on the day that we are remembering today.

Dies

Our

Place.

No more bulls needed. It. Is. Finished.

There is a new covenant. If you accept this sacrifice as the final sin offering (Lev 4-6), the final sacrifice of atonement (Lev 16), then not only are your sins covered...

He gives us something even better. Something unimaginable. Something awesome.

Righteous standing with God.

Access to approach God and call HIM Father.

No more condemnation.

The Temple Five Guys can now be closed. No one needs to sacrifice a bull for sin anymore.

That is why the writer of Hebrews can say... and for a Jew living in this system this had to blow them away.

"Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water." - Hebrews 10:19-22

I don't have to fear approaching God? I can enter the Holy of Holies with... confidence?

Holy Cow!

Yes. But better than a cow. A perfect sacrifice. A risen savior.

Happy Good Friday! :-)

The Donald for President?

2011-04-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

I first started to believe this is a publicity stunt, but from the appearances of the polls it looks like this time he may be serious.

The Donald is considering running for president. He is in fact, speaking at a Tea Party event in Boca Raton today. My first question is: if the attendance is really huge, how many people are there because they believe in small, limited government and low taxes and how many are really there to see Trump?

But, he is polling evenly with most of the other GOP contenders, so perhaps in this crazy political environment he should be taken seriously this time. In light of this, and having been a fan of The Apprentice in the beginning, I do have a few questions that I will pose.

My Top Ten Questions about the Alleged 2012 "The Donald" Presidential Campaign

1.) Donald is going to bring up the birth certificate, will "The Obama" bring up The Donald's three failed marriages to Supermodel women?
2.) Will The Donald say "President Obama... You're Fired!" (with the snake) in his acceptance speech at the Convention?
3.) Can we take The Donald seriously on balancing the budget when he's had his own big-time financial problems?
4.) What will happen to Celebrity Apprentice if he gets elected?
5.) Will he make Senator Reid and Speaker Boehener sell lemonade at the capitol as their first test of business prowess?
6.) Will Rush Limbaugh be his running mate? Can you imagine that ticket?
7.) Finally, someone more controversial and loud-spoken than Sarah Palin in the GOP spotlight! Can she handle that?
8.) This will answer the question of: "Are Republican voters more celebrity-obsessed than the Democrat voters that nominated Obama?" If The Donald is nominated, we have our answer.
9.) Will Camp David be moved to the Trump Casino in Atlantic City?
10.) Will The Donald be as transparent about his personal & business finances as The Obama is being about his birth certificate?

My feet peas

2011-04-10T18:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when I was out with some friends watching baseball, somehow the topic of my achilles injury has come up, and I mentioned that I have a couple of bags of frozen peas (one at work and one at home) that I use as regular icing devices to treat the achilles tendonitis that I developed before (and during) my half marathon in October... they retain their shape and evenly distribute the cold - they are wonderful! Yes, I in fact have a bag of ORGANIC peas that a friend gave me when I had my miniscus surgery that still serves as a therapy pack to this day. They are, as my friend mentioned: my "feet peas." I think I'm going to keep that saying.

I haven't run since my 1/2 marathon, and I have to tell you that it's driving me a little crazy. I don't really enjoy stationary workouts, and without running this hasn't made my cardio workouts as much fun (except for spin, but that's mainly because of the music). Unfortunately, achilles injuries are pesky little things... that tendon doesn't get a lot of blood flow, so the healing process is really slow. It was pretty knotted up after the LA Rock & Roll, and 6 months later I'm still not quite sure I need to be out on it yet. It's frustrating, especially because the best running months are going on right now.

This is an injury that is mostly a "rest and give it time" thing, but I did go see a foot doctor a few weeks ago to check it out and make sure that there's not something else going on. Praise God that it's "just tendonitis" - which means, rest and ice, rest and ice. Dr. Peebles was great. He told me to wear these heel lifts on my shoes, get a deep tissue massage once a week to get the blood flow going (which hurts like HECK!), stretch like a runner (and it doesn't hurt anymore! Yay!), and ice about 5 times a day (with my feet peas).

That visit to "Dr. Peebs" gave me confidence that things were going to get better and I need to trust the process. It means that I just need to be patient... and patience is not my thing but God keeps drilling that lesson into me anyways :). And... it's kept the feet peas in my freezer... trust me, they will never get served at a dinner event. That's just gross.

I'm pretty active though... achilles tendonitis didn't really slow that down, it just kept me from running. And with spring in play I've really wanted to wear my sandals and walk barefoot more, and have until about 3 days ago. I felt like, when I'd get up and about in my condo that after a while of walking barefoot my ankle would get sore. Last Friday I went to this worship event at a friend's studio and had to walk barefoot at this pilates studio the event was being held at, and in my frustration found the padded part of the room to walk in and felt a lot better. Somehow in that moment, I thought to myself, "perhaps this advice that Dr. Peebles gave me to use the heel lifts wasn't just for when I was wearing my shoes, perhaps it was for always."

So from then on I've stopped going barefoot, and started wearing my running shoes with the heel lifts in them... in fact, I put them on when I am walking to and from the freezer to get my feet peas. And you know what, I've felt like I've been moving forward... sure it's inconvenient to have to find my shoes whenever I want to walk inside my own house, but I am somehow now convinced that if I trust the doctor and do what he says then I will reap the benefits of the advice that I (and my insurance) am paying him to provide. And you know what, it's working.

Come to think of it, if we trust God with our lives and believe Jesus holds the key to eternal and "right now" life (as I wholeheartedly do), why would I not do the same thing with the commands he gives us? It's been cool to listen to Andy & Jeff talk about these "Life Apps" over the last couple of weeks at Buckhead Church, and think to myself that "Yes, by being obedient to God in these things, my life would be so much better" - much as my achilles will be much better if I ice them with my feet peas. If the feet peas stay in the freezer, they are not doing me much good. If the heel lifts never go into my shoes, they aren't doing me much good. If I don't put the shoes with the heel lifts on my feet when I walk, they aren't doing me much good. Likewise, if I read God's word and don't do what it says, it's not really doing me any good.

So, will I treat God's commands like my feet peas and let it work out in my life? My achilles is getting better. I think my life could perhaps use a few spiritual feet peas of its own.

More signs you have been at NorthPoint too long

2011-04-08T03:54:00.000-07:00

Man, I had some fun talking with friends about that post I made yesterday, and it spawned some more ideas, so I thought that instead of coming up with a new "surprise" post, I'd just "complete" the list.

More signs you may have been at NorthPoint a long time :-)

11.) You've used any of the following words in your normal dialogue

Guardrails
Communicator
Listen, listen, listen
Wisdom
Church Person/Church People

12.) You believe that Chick-Fil-A and church are somehow mystically connected.

13.) You have at least two of the following books on your bookshelf:

The Best Question Ever
The Grace of God
Visioneering
The Deity formerly known as God by Jarret Stevens
Any Boundaries book by Henry Cloud (or any book by Cloud, period)
Wild at Heart by John Eldridge if you're a guy -or- Captivating by Staci Eldridge if you're a woman
Crazy Love by Francis Chan

14.) You have seen the water ballet at Labor Day Retreat, and wish they'd bring it back.

15.) You have said to a friend, "Is that the wise thing to do?"or "is this bringing you life?" when talking over an issue.

16.) Your Facebook photo album is largely filled up with pictures from fusion events.

17.) You get goosebumps when you see baptism videos! (I do)

18.) You've ever accidentally attributed a quote that is actually a verse of scripture to Andy.

19.) You can quote Proverbs 27:12 by heart.

20.) You serve in at least two environments (and love it!)

21.) You truly want to, and want to see others that don't know Jesus grow in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

I love my church... But if you take things too seriously, and not the good news about what Jesus did and wants to give to us, then we gotta watch it! :-). Hope you've been entertained.

Top Ten Signs You've been going to NorthPoint too long

2011-04-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

I've had this on the brain for a while... I need a mental candy break though.

For myself, or for any of my friends who are members of one of the NorthPoint Ministries campuses (that means Buckhead, Browns Bridge... you know who you are), there are (admit it) signs that you've been going to this church for way too long. And now, like any person that needs to get out of their denial, I'm going to point out a few :-)

Top Ten Signs You've Been at NorthPoint for Quite Some Time

1.) You commonly use any of the following words in your daily conversation:

Margin
Life-giving
Give, Save, Spend
Environment
CG
Big Idea
Virtue
Bottom Line
Safe

2.) Something that Andy Stanley said in a sermon inevitably makes it into your Bible study discussion.

3.) You don't see anything wrong with wearing the same T-shirt every Sunday for 30 Sundays in a row (a shout out to all of us UpStreeters!), and in case you haven't washed "this year's" shirt, you have "retro" shirts in stock just for that kind of emergency.

4.) You truly believe that you have to wear skinny jeans to be a worship leader.

5.) You just expect event t-shirts to be at least one size too small.

6.) You feel like an social outcast if you haven't volunteered at Passion yet.

7.) You go to fusion to meet new friends, not just to meet potential dating partners.

8.) You pick up 10 copies of the program by habit because you regularly have to save seats for your friends.

9.) You get to UpStreet (or the environment you serve in) early because you want to make sure you get your kind of bagel.

10.) You think this video is hilarious :-)

I'm sure there are others... comment. Please.

We gotta get past denial, folks :-)

Seeing ministry as grace (repost from 5/08 from Estonia blog)

2011-03-27T04:42:00.000-07:00

I was looking through my Estonia short term trip preparation thoughts the other day, and ran into this blog that I wrote back in 2008... I hope you are encouraged and challenged by it.
----------------

This morning as I am sitting down to have my quiet time (and) to also prepare for my small group discussion on Ephesians, God showed me something really cool. I thought I would share :). We are, this week, in Ephesians 4:1-16, where Paul is transitioning from (in my honest opinion) one of the best descriptors of our high calling, position, and value in Christ into the practical "how do you apply this in your world?" section. This should be a cool section, because we as guys are into action even though I love the "look at who you really are" stuff :).

So, I'm reading through this section and I get to verse 7, which says: "But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it..."

And then describes our calling to be unified and to reflect Him through our gifts.

Earlier in this letter, Paul uses the word "grace" in a very similar way:

"Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you..." 3:2,

"I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power." 3:7

Same word. Same meaning. Not grace = salvation and I get a cool relationship with Jesus and go to Heaven when I die... but something else... I get to participate in what He's doing in the world today. I get to partner with God in eternally significant ministry.

Here's my thought... or at least how I felt God speaking to me... God has given me (and you if you know Him and are called according to His purpose) the grace (gift) of getting to participate in what He's doing in the world. That, in fact, the ministry (aka - work) that He's got you doing is in fact a gift of grace and not a "job." That was the context that Paul used the word grace to mean in chapter 3 and by all context is the purpose of the word that he uses to spur us on in chapter 4. Furthermore, the focus of this letter is not on how to be saved (he was writing this to a persecuted church), but the manifestation of this great salvation in the life of the believer.

What does that mean? Well for starters, that going on an amazing short-term mission trip to serve people in need, volunteering in your church, and showcasing Christ through my life is not a "job" but is instead a privilege that God has given me, which He has already empowered me to do. It is as much a part of my joy in Christ as the cool, warm-and-fuzzy stuff I get to do like sing and hang out with my friends. Thinking out loud, it also has to be a cure for ministry burnout... because generally I get burned out by what I "have" to do, and when ministry becomes a "job" or something that I am "volunteering" for, then my attitude tends to reflect that. However, if I see it for what it really is... God's grace that's been given to me... I can do all of these things with joy because I am living out my calling and participating with Him in reflecting who He is to the world.

That's my epiphany for the day.

The bottom

2011-03-13T14:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I got into a conversation with some friends about Passion 2011 and a couple of talks in particular. They happen to be from people who have influenced me a lot... namely John Piper and Francis Chan.

I hadn't stopped to listen to Piper's talk from Passion this year and had some margin today, so I downloaded it from the All Access site and watched it today. It may. have. been. one. of. the. best. talks. I. have. ever. heard. from. him.

Seriously.

Now, what really got me tuned in was how he introduced this idea of what ranks higher? God's making much of us, and God's (and ours) making much of God? It comes down to joy, what makes us happy?

Have you ever really thought about what, at your core, makes you happy?

What was really cool about this talk is that Piper pulled out a technique that I learned in a Market Research class in MBA school called "needs-value analysis" to explain his point. He didn't use those terms, but that's immediately what my mind went to. It's kind of a silly set of questions, really (to the person being interviewed). It basically starts with a "what do you like about _______" (insert thing you think is cool or makes you happy in the blank), and then you follow up with a bunch of...

Why do you like that?
Why is that important to you?
Why do you feel that's valuable?
(I had to mix it up when I did this because asking "why? why? why?" all the time just sounded really repetitive to me :-) )

... and at the end of this set of questions you eventually get to a "why?" where there's no further follow up question to ask... this is what Market Research people would call a "value" and this value is usually the core emotion that all successful advertising tries to attach to their products. The value is where the needs -or- "this is really cool" questions stop and you can't go further down. You are at the bottom. You are at the core. You are, in fact, at the source.

What really makes you happy?

Here's a highly fictitious set of questions that may happen with a group of guys...
Dude: "I got a date with this really hot girl!"
Questioner: "Why does that make you happy?"
D: "Because I like the way she looks."
Q: "why does that make you happy?"
D: "Because I may be spotted by one of my buddies and they're going to think I'm a stud."
Q: "why does that make you happy?" (see how repetitive this can get ;-) )
D: "Because I know that they respect me."
Q: "why is that important to you?"
D: "Because I have to be respected."
Q: "Why is that important to you?"
D: "If they respect me, I feel important."
Q: "Why does that matter to you?"
D: "I don't feel good about myself unless I feel important."

I could probably go on another couple of layers, but you see how the questions go from circumstance to values, to source...

Maybe that may explain why Donald Miller said in his book "A Thousand Miles in the Million Years" that his observation of the point of most advertising is to get you believe that if you buy that product that people would want to have sex with you... this is really there. If you don't believe me, read the book for yourself. Watching some of the advertising at the Super Bowl, it was a little scary how accurate that statement may have been.

But enough of Donald, back to Piper.

Eventually you go down to the bottom of our happiness -or of our value(s) in this sense- and you get to two options. God or self. Are we motivated by making much of God and His glory, or are we motivated and driven by propping up our selves and our own individual self-centered worth? I could have chosen any example of questions, but they really all lead down to that question if you think about it... the question is...

Who is my treasure? Is it me.... or is it really God?

This was such a great talk, because Piper did talk about how God values us and treasures us as His prized creation... but all in the end of treasuring God and his glory. If you read the Bible, especially the New Testament, you get this sense of how exalted in the eternal sense that the regenerated Christian is; it's quite mind blowing to tell you the truth.

On the needs/value side, if that makes you happy and I think the writers of the New Testament would agree that it should... why does it make you happy? Especially if you've been going to church for a while, understand the grace given to us because of the cross, and would say that you have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Does my salvation make me happy because of something it does for me?

Honestly, for me...

I get humbled and so grateful that God in His grace would save me; that I want to revel in His glory and through this blog and through my life showcase how amazing Jesus is. He is worth everything and He is my reason for living. I don't say this lightly, because I know what it's like to "do church" on the other side and do it all for me. I can honestly say that, at least from what I've experienced, there is. no. life. there.

None.

Nada.

Zilch.

It's only when I gave up, gave Jesus my life, and asked Him to be the source. My treasure. My life. That I truly got life. This was the prayer I literally prayed... "Jesus, I want you to rebuild my personality around your love." In other words, please be my life. I can't live it... I'm not going to be my own god anymore.

And from there on, I started to become free.

And it was awesome.

So - to John Piper's talk. Perhaps I will invite some people over to talk through it (and so I can cook for friends). It's a pretty big idea.... but if you think about it, it's likely the most important one we will ever hash out.

That's all (for now :) )

When people make up acronyms of your company name

2011-03-11T18:36:00.000-08:00

You know it's rarely a good sign when people get creative with your company brand :-)

I'm on a Delta flight, leaving an hour and a half late (fortunately not as late as other Delta flights here), and when I put a comment on my Facebook wall about "what's up with the Delta delays?" a guy that I worked with during my road warrior work days commented with...

Don't you know Delta stands for Doesn't Ever Leave The Airport?

And then another friend commented with...

Don't Expect Luggage To Arrive.

For someone who has endured long delays and has had my luggage lost... not once, not twice, but at least three times by this airline, I had to laugh. Why? Because I've experienced this... it's pretty true.

Being a marketing professional by training and trade, this intrigues me a lot, because you know that Delta isn't really trying to get this type of publicity and their PR department isn't exactly pumping out this message. However, Delta does (if you see the billboards and other marketing they put out) spend millions of dollars every year to attempt to brand themselves as an airline that can take you everywhere and anywhere, where they still care about customer service, and that they have a personality (or at least that redhead that talks like William Shatner and waves her finger at you when she says that smoking is "not allowed" does). However, all of those ad dollars and all of those branding efforts, you have to imagine, get wasted when you book a Delta flight to "go somewhere" and it's stuck on the tarmac for 2 hours, or is delayed by over an hour and a half, or when you arrive at this exotic destination you find out that your luggage is in an entirely other part of the world.

What speaks louder? The advertising messages... the PR statements... the cool new colors on the airplane?

Or the fact that they lost my luggage... again?

I think you know :-)

I could talk about Comcast -or- AT&T and how wrong Luke Wilson is (as if he knows anything about all of the dropped calls for the iPhone users that compromised on cell coverage to have the coolest phone available), but I won't. Well, maybe Shaq can play hoops and sounds cool when he talks about Comcast's "triple play"... and maybe Comcast makes a lot of channels available, but their techs and their call center reps don't know diddly about service levels. I actually parodied a song about Comcast because I was so frustrated

http://cdubsmusings.blogspot.com/2007/09/if-comcast-cared-parody-of-nickelback.html

But back to Delta, and the fact that they can get me anywhere... 2 hours late. Maybe with my luggage.

At the end of the day, your Marketing department doesn't ultimately determine your brand. Your customers do. And for those brands that meet or exceed expectations, this is a wonderful thing. For those that do not, it keeps Brand Managers busy, but really makes your company look silly...

As the acronyms and parodies can tell you. Ha!

Giving up watermelon for Lent

2011-03-09T19:48:00.000-08:00

This morning, working out at the hotel gym where I'm staying, I caught a little banter that the guys on the financial channel were throwing out for today's Ash Wednesday "so,what are you giving up for Lent this year?" conversation. Somehow, I caught this little exchange and was a little surprised that the guy who "apparently" observed Lent said that he was giving up watermelon this year. In fact, he said, he gives up watermelon every year.

The other commentator bantered back, "that's not much of a sacrifice." To which Mr. Watermelon replied with something like "perhaps next year I'll give up something else."

Now, I'm not Catholic nor do I prescribe to a ritualistic religion of works, rather an embracing of the grace Jesus offers to us through the cross. However, I do think there's something cool about the idea of sacrificing something during the 40 days preceding Easter. I'm not so sure about watermelon, though. I agree with the "other guy" that it's just not that much of a sacrifice.

Especially considering that Jesus gave up a lot to save us. I mean, a LOT.

Perhaps, for next year, this guy could come up with something a little more fitting... like,

Giving up access to some kind of media or entertainment that you frequent
Giving up the inhibitions you have around associating with people that are less successful, less influential, less acceptable by your circle of friends... and allowing them to speak into your life
Giving up some of your time, talent, and treasure to support the spread of the gospel
Giving up access to some of your creature comforts
Giving up your right to talk critically about others

Of course, I would be a little hypocritical to think that my so-called "sacrifices" are much better. Sometimes I think that as an American Christian, that what I call a "sacrifice" when compared to what Jesus did...

leave Heaven and the presence of angelic worship
hang out with sinners and tax collectors, not to mention 12 clueless guys and one that would stab him in the back
touch lepers,
be told by religious people that He's a glutton, drunkard, blasphemer, the prince of demons, etc... and
die an inhuman death on a cross

so that I can have eternal life through Him.

Is what I'm giving up in worship to him, much better than...

giving up watermelon for Lent?

He is worth much more than that. He's worth our laying down our lives.

What we get in exchange for our giving up our lives... is a much better life, a life that God enables if we let him. And in the end after we live this great adventure... eternal life.

We don't get this... when we just give God watermelon for Lent... or whatever our piddly religious act of self-serving duty is.

He wants so much more... and only once we give Him all of us, does He give us all of Him. And to really experience life, that is what we really need.

That is what I desperately need. Please Lord have all of me, because I need all of you :-)

And thank you for giving all of yourself... we have no idea how amazing Your act of grace and sacrifice was; I only receive it as an unearned gift of grace.

My last couple of nights, two words at a time.

2011-03-03T17:59:00.000-08:00

small group.

great talk.

Luke 17.

Bell video.

Controversial? Yes!

left late.

good sign.

Monroe drive.

clueless girl.

Left turn.

Smack hard.

Airbags work.

Car. Trashed.

Neighbors came.

Police too.

Feeling dizzy.

Strapped down.

Texting from.

Ambulance board.

Checked out.

Friend came.

Mo Trin!

home working.

story shared.

scarier in.

Hindsight yes.

had to.

Get keys.

From inpound.

So Baby

Would rebound. (okay, there's a little rhyme in there)

Ride to.

Buckhead Towing

Sketch. Yeah.

Very Sketch.

Key dropped.

Oh no!

Prayed hard.

God. Help!

Interrupted friend.

Made call.

Explained oddness.

Let in.

Richard escorted.

Cat greeted.

very pissed.

No, literally.

She pissed.

Chris cleaned.

Ride laughed.

Cat inspected.

Lysol rocks.

Eat Chikin.

Chill out.

Write blog.

Pack bag.

Colorado. Tomorrow.

Chris. Out.

Something small or someone huge?

2011-02-22T19:25:00.000-08:00

It's always great to get a little perspective.

Especially when we (or I) get too focused, anxious, and permeated in something small...

...er than....

God.

Today was one of those days for me. When your perspective is on the here and now in your life's circumstances, and you try to control "it" but you feel like "it" is controlling you, it's a little easy to get discouraged, cynical, down... just plain ugh!

Thankfully, God got me out of me. He nudged me to go to this Bible Study tonight with some life giving friends, and in that little gathering, singing "All to us," God turned my head around to this theme that He's been weaving in my life since Passion 2010.

It is not crazy to trade something small, in exchange for something HUGE.

And in that moment, that perspective became once again clear. What I was so fixated on, what was draining my mental energy is... in light of eternity... worth....

Nothing.

And the unmeasurable greatness of the glory of God almighty, which I am allowed to bask in through the exchange that Jesus made on the cross. That glory which I had marginalized in favor of that miniscule, eternally insignificant thing; that glory that is worth everything and then some. I needed emotionally and spiritually to be reminded as to what really matters... and to repent of that grievous sin that is scarily so easy to fall into.

What I do with the temporal gifts and opportunity I'm granted, at the end of the day, is there to be leveraged for eternal glory because ultimately that is what really matters. And it's really the only thing that can grant significance, even in this life.

It's good to be reminded of that. The human heart too quickly strays away from the source... I wish mine wasn't such a fool.

I'll finish with a couple of quotes that God brought me to tonight... one that He brings me to frequently and one that He's just put in my life :)

When this passing world is over
We will see You face to face
And forever we will worship
Jesus, You are all to us
- Chris Tomlin, from All To Us

Why do you complain, Jacob?
   Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD;
   my cause is disregarded by my God”?
Do you not know?
   Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
   and his understanding no one can fathom." - Isaiah 40:27-28

Will we/Will I trade our little lives, our little dreams, and our little accomplishments; in exchange of the life that God offers; The life that is larger than life. That life that gives our life the meaning and purpose that no temporary thing that is offered to us here can?

As Jim Elliot stated:

He is no fool...
who trades that which he cannot keep...
In order to gain that which he cannot lose.

The Ultimate Pickup Line

2011-02-14T03:16:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day!

Either you love it, hate it, or you're trying to ignore it. Ignoring it may be hard to do if you go anywhere like a mall, grocery store, gas station, church, wherever... basically if you're not in a cave meditating on the meaning of darkness you can't escape it. A friend of mine that's on staff at church somehow got on this kick last year of tweeting cheesy pickup lines during Valentines Day and making people laugh. It was quite funny and I guess she may be doing it again this year. It got me thinking, what's the funniest pickup line I've heard? It may be one that I heard at fusion (not one a guy used on a girl, but we were playing a game where we were trying to "vote" on the funniest one).

And then somehow I thought: What would be the best one? What is the best one? I'm not a "pickup line" kind of guy, but if I had to use one what would I use?

And this hit me. This was the best one. It was actually used on me. And it worked. Do you want to know what it is?

Seriously?

It came from Jesus.

He said....

"Follow me."

He's been using this "line" for centuries. He started with 12 that would change the world through this radical love that God was about to pour out on us, enabled by the ultimate act of love displayed on a cross. He is, in that phrase saying, I am the One who has life. I can make your life worth living. Let me lead you into a better life. The kind of life that I live, and I'll enable you to do just that.

I bit on it. Over 20 years later, I've never regretted it.

Come to think of it, in light of that call, Paul invited this following to a group of Christ-followers in another simple statement: "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ." (1 Corinthians 11:1). Paul did life with Christ and modeled who Jesus is in such a way that he was confident to encourage others to watch and follow his example. He loved like Jesus loved. He cared about the things that Jesus would care about. He practiced intimacy with God. He lived to show people what it was like, and how awesome it is, to follow Jesus.

Ultimately, if we're thinking about relationships, that is the best thing we can offer. If our pickup line to a girl could truly be "if you want to know what following Jesus is like, spend some time with me." And... if we could back it up with the way we lived our lives, how awesome would that be? Having dated, and having had conversations with my single female friends (who will remain nameless :) ), ultimately it comes down to this. They want a guy who walks with God in such a way that they can offer that leadership, direction, and unconditional love that only comes from being connected with the life of God. They want a guy that's not perfect (none of us are), but who can say with their lives "follow my example, as I follow Christ." None of us do this perfectly (I'd be a hypocrite to say that I do), but I guarantee you that godly women are hungry for that.

To do this with authenticity, the step isn't to "try harder" or "clean up your act" or "make a resolution and do better." It is, to accept the ultimate pickup line. The one Jesus himself has extended.

"Follow me."

And our response?

The same that Matthew, a pretty unlikely invitee into new way of living... and new way of love, gave. He left his old life, his categories, what made him secure. He left everything and followed him.

And he never regretted it.

You won't either :-). It's not always easy, but it's the best life ever :-).

Much better than the Hollywood romance, too.

Yes. I have fun at church :)

2011-02-06T11:01:00.000-08:00

I have a lot of fun serving in my church (as you can tell) :). We like to make it fun for the kids that are coming so that they can catch the gospel that we are teaching and showing with our lives.

Here's a little taste of our wackiness. Enjoy.

My thoughts after having watched Food, Inc.

2011-01-29T08:26:00.000-08:00

I finally got a chance to, on a lazy Saturday afternoon last weekend, watch Food, Inc. If you don't know what this movie is, it's a documentary that this investigative journalist did on on the food industry that supplies the vast majority of our supermarket and fast food products to the shelves that we purchase everyday. Chances are, if you have seen it, it disturbed you. It disturbed me.... from thoughts of "well, that's not completely destructive but it's unjust and I'm certain it's unethical" to "that is downright disgusting" (seeing the cattle feedlots and the chicken coop will do that!)

Now, I'm a conservative. What that means is, I don't feel that the government should be telling us what we should and should not eat. I'm very opposed to their infringement in the personal everyday decisions of citizens. And I totally get that we as citizens need to exercise personal responsibility when making decisions on the food we put in our bodies.

However....

What became clear to me was that this argument has logical flaws in it.

First, the government IS responsible for this problem. Did you know that the "farm bill" subsidizes corn production in the United States so that companies can purchase corn below the cost of production? We complain about Europe subsidizing industry but our Federal Government does the same thing with agriculture in this country. This is a boon for corn farmers (well, maybe) but it has unintended consequences, like the prevalence of high fructose corn syrup in about the vast majority of the supermarket items on the shelf (go read the ingredients label and you'll be shocked!). And even without HFCS, corn products are in EVERYTHING, including the feedstock for the beef, chicken, farm-raised fish, etc. that we purchase.

This stuff that is being subsidized by our government is not for food that is beneficial for the health of consumers, but more likely beneficial for the profits of large agribusiness companies like Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, and Montsano. Most of the products that we consume that are derived from corn (the biggest culprit being "high fructose corn syrup" - which is labeled in a couple of different ways) are contributing heavily to the obesity epidemic in our nation and in fact HFCS has been statistically linked to a higher probability of developing Type II Diabetes. However, we subsidize these nutritionally deficient/calorie dense products and not the nutritionally dense crops that we need (if you want to see the difference, check out how expensive the healthy food is at the grocery store - or just walk into Whole Foods)

Second, information about what we are buying is not readily available to consumers. We do not have information as to whether the produce we buy is genetically modified or not; we have to watch documentaries to see the conditions that the animals we eat live in (and you wonder why there have been so many eColi and Samolina outbreaks in the last 15 years?), and "All Natural," "0% Trans Fat," etc. doesn't necessarily mean what is shouting out at you on the box.

--------------------
So what can we do?

Watch the movie and get informed. You may not agree with everything in there (I didn't), but you'll walk away with a more informed opinion.

I'm not going to say we should stop all of the corn & soybean subsidies (speaking of soybeans, did you know that over 90% of the soybeans grown here are GMO from Montsano?), but we should think about what they are producing socially, not just on the bottom line of the large agribusiness companies. In addition, our government SHOULD use their constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce to demand and require food companies to label products clearly (on the front) on whether they contain HFCS or not, contained genetically modified crops or not, are sourced outside of the U.S., and whether animals received growth hormones during their incubation. This IS responsible, and an ethical and responsible oversight group should demand that we have all of the information we need to realistically be personally responsible for our choices. Misinformation and 30 second marketing messages are not adequate. Once we are fully informed, the personal choice argument will be valid.

Know that when we purchase products, we are voting. Corporations, as much as they can be vilified for some of the decisions they make, are not evil and are truly trying to do what they feel is in the best interest of their consumers (in terms of what we are demanding) and their investors. If we vote with our dollars for healthy and humanely treated foods, they will produce more of them because that is what consumers demand.

Case in point is Wal-Mart, who now sells all of their milk as not treated with rBST (a bovine growth hormone). Why? Because Wal-Mart got an ethical heart? NO! It's because they saw consumer trends that said that consumers didn't want this crap in the cows that produce their milk! This is a case-in-point that when we as consumers make good decisions (assuming we have all the information we need), businesses will follow suit to fill that need.

It's also the reason that Wal-Mart purchases and sells millions of dollars worth of 100% organic Stoneyfield Yogurt in their stores. They want to make money... and they see that there are enough consumers out there that want pure food on their tables so they are doing what they need to do to get them in their stores (by the way, Stoneyfield is awesome... you should try it). Wal-Mart, like most other companies we buy our products from, is run by sound business people that when they see that a product is in demand they are going to move to supply it. It's how capitalism, in its purest form, works.

I could probably write a novel here, but to wrap it up. Be informed. If you care about your health and want to vote correctly, read ingredient labels and buy from companies that are truthful about what they are selling you. We can change this thing, one dollar and meal at a time.

Bless me

2011-01-27T03:39:00.000-08:00

I am re-reading through Luke in my quiet times right now, partly because my small group is tracking through it in our group discussions and it's been really fascinating. The discussions we've had have motivated me to dig more into the Word and meditate on it.

So - I ran across the parable of the shrewd manager yesterday, and when I was noodling on it thought about what Andy has been talking about in church the past two Sundays. He's been talking about how feeble our American prayers have become, and how we generally pray for things that don't really require God's intervention (like, help me have a safe trip), for God to bless us, and then for a few random sick people. The sarcasm he threw out about our prayers as Americans for God to "bless us" stuck with me, because he's absolutely right that if anyone from any other part of the world heard us pray THAT, they'd probably laugh at us because compared to everyone else we are already SO blessed it's unreal. I mean, a lot of us have expensive coffee habits, houses for our cars (we call them "garages"), and just about all of us get 3 meals a day and live indoors. That's not necessarily a given in other parts of the world, sadly.

So here's this parable that Jesus tells about a dishonest manager who gets caught and whose master fires him and asks him to give an account of his management. He weighs his options, and realizes that he's got a limited amount of time, so he leverages that time and the money he still controls to make friends for himself outside his master's house so that he's not begging when he loses his job. Therefore, he settles his accounts at huge discounts to his masters' creditors so that he can make friends out there, and then is praised (huh?) by his master because he acted shrewdly. Jesus wraps this parable up by saying "I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." (Luke 16:9) and "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." (Luke 16:13).

What really jumped out at me is this parallel between us and the dishonest manager. We have, by sin, squandered God's gifts to us and God in His grace has given us a little bit of time between when we encounter and receive His offer of grace & a new life and when we have to say "bye, bye" to it and exit stage left from planet earth. Compared to eternity, our lives are probably like the one day that that the servant had after his master pulled a Donald Trump "You're Fired!" on him for this guy to settle accounts. Notice that the servant did not enjoy that one last day and enrich himself in his master's house... he leveraged what was still entrusted to him to enrich his life on the outside. He was thinking of "then" not thinking of "now." In the same way, we have a choice of how to use our time, talent, and treasures in the temporary time we have between now and eternity, and are we using that to enrich our cushy lives here and now or are we using them so that our eternity will be enriched and God's kingdom is expanded? Or in other words, as a child of the King that I am, would I rather drive a BMW here in Atlanta or be welcomed by a swarm of people, that may have never heard of Jesus had I not leveraged those things God entrusted to me, when I see Jesus in Heaven? Sure, a BMW will last about 5 or 6 years, but what is that compared to forever?

My question to myself is, how am I leveraging the things I have (time, talent, stuff) to expose people to the awesomeness of God? And if I'm not, what creature comforts or filler to my margin should I give up so that I can invest more into that? The dishonest manager was welcomed on the other side, and I definitely want to be too :-). Ultimately, that is being blessed.

Thoughts from the billboard in Louisiana

2010-12-28T18:07:00.000-08:00

Did you know that the return of Jesus is scheduled on May 21, 2011?

No?

How did you know, you may ask me?

I saw it on a billboard on I-10 in Louisiana.

And you know, interstate billboards like much of the internet, can't be wrong.

Well, you know that roadside marketing and internet blog pages (not this one, mind you :) ) are full of interesting stories, and you can't believe everything you read.

But, just because I was curious by the fearless prediction and the fact that some person or some group of persons thought it was important enough to spend money to advertise on a billboard, I decided to Google "May 21 2011" just to see what was going on with this, and which "prophet" or group was propagating this thing. Turns out, like the whole "2012" Mayan calendar thing, someone had done a "Biblical" calculation based on some scriptures pulled out of context (my opinion), young earth theoretical dates, and some extrapolation of random Biblical details. In case you're interested, here's a link to their site. Based on the things I've read here, I'm pretty sure that this group is bordering on a cult... once you read it you'll know what I'm talking about... http://www.ebiblefellowship.com/may21/index.html

Now, I'm pretty darned sure that any of these groups that starts declaring that they know "THE DATE" that Jesus is to return is wrong... and how I know is that Jesus' own disciples asked HIM what the date was and he told them that only the Father in Heaven knows (Matthew 24:36). So, it comes to show that if God in the flesh, in his humanness, did not know the date, then it is pretty certain that this group at eBibleFellowship.com is probably not in line with Jesus on when they're saying He's coming back.

What really got me thinking though was the focus of the billboard... they were painting this picture of the world getting destroyed by fire. A picture of judgement, which I suppose is what you probably could expect from a "mass marketing approach" to the end of the age.

It did stand in stark contrast to the CDs that I was listening to, from Andy Stanley's new book "The Grace of God" which beyond a reasonable doubt proves out that God's relationship with His people is based on his lovingkindness and grace (rarely, if ever, do you see the "turn or burn" threat of judgement used... and especially resulting in someone's accepting grace). Judgement and grace are valid... and I do believe we should take the justice of God more seriously than we do sometimes, but as a recipient of mercy through Jesus Christ, that is NOT how I came into relationship with God. I KNEW that I was a sinner and needed grace... and when I saw the offer of relationship and restoration for what it was I jumped at it. No tract or billboard could do that.

It also stood in stark contrast to the vision of Jesus's coming that I know as a child of God... and another CD that I listened to on the way to Texas. It is the vision of a wedding feast, a celebration. Jesus told it in the same vein as a bridegroom that finished his place for his bride and returned in a flash to the bride's house to get her and start the party. This story isn't told enough, I think. Heaven is definitely something to look forward to, and investing in that life is definitely wiser than investing in real estate today. Much wiser.

So, could Jesus come back on May 21st?

I do believe that Jesus will return. Jesus himself promised that he would, and he hasn't lied or else we're doing this Christianity thing for nothing. I'm looking forward to it, actually. Not only do I get to be face-to-face with the One who loves me more than I could possibly know, but also at that time He will right all wrongs, wipe away all tears, and ultimately bring His glorious kingdom to this world. If you love and value Jesus, you want that. It's an awesome thing.

But as for May 21st of next year....I guess he could come back then - it's about a 1 in (count # of days between "the day" and "Pentecost") chance - but He could also come back before I finish writing this blog (if you're reading this, then He probably hasn't :) ). The one thing that I think is clear from reading the stories and parables Jesus tells about his return is that the vast majority of us won't be expecting it, or be prepared for it. We'll be "doing our thing" and then "whammo!" here He is. I won't go into any views about eschatology here... all I know and can say for certain is that everything will change from that point on.

So - what do I think we should do? Here's my $0.02 :)

- Keep inviting people to follow Jesus and into His invitation of grace. Paul says in Romans that it's God's kindness that leads us to leave our broken "me centered" life and embrace the "God glorifying" life we accept through receiving what Jesus did for us on the cross.
- Continue to work diligently in where we are planted. I don't think Jesus wants to find any lazy butts when He comes back :)
- Invest in things that will last, and if things that will not outlast earth allow us to do that then give those things our diligent effort.
- Live in joy and love one another. Life's too short to not live it in love... even if we're going to spend eternity in love too :)

As for the billboard people, maybe you should spend your cash somewhere else... after May 21st, perhaps in a new mathematical fortune teller? :)

What Christmas is about

2010-12-25T17:47:00.001-08:00

Another Christmas has come, and will soon be gone. Another season of feasting and celebrating with family and friends. Another day of the eager and giddy ripping open of presents from Santa and from loved ones.

Another season to manically rush through the busyness of celebration.

Another season to wonder "did I get the perfect gift?"

Another season to pause.

And in that pause, I hope that we reflect on the reason that we're celebrating this day in the first place. It's easy to get lost in our culture, our hustle, and all of the expectations of the season that one day about 2010 years ago, give or take... something happened in a marginalized part of the world, to the most unlikely cast of characters, in a very inconvienent set of circumstances... that changed the course of history and if we fully embrace the promise that comes with the coming of Christmas, the course of our lives.

On that day, a baby was born. That baby was Christ the Lord. Who was God, and has been God since before the world was created. He gave up the comfort of Heaven and the constant worship of angels to live on earth and be one of us. He came to show us what it was like to live in fellowship with God the Father, and he came to live the life that we couldn't live... the life that God requires of us that we couldn't live. He came to die, so that He could give us what we couldn't get on our own... forgiveness for the life that we live that tells the all-glorious God "I don't need you and I don't want you," and His perfect righteousness so that we can actually have what Adam had in the Garden before he touched the fruit.... a love relationship with God.

This changed everything.

Instead of relating to God and each other by a set of rules, we now are adopted as Sons and Daughters and live in a relationship based on undeserved grace.

Instead of living in fear we live in love.

In place of our attempts to reach for God, God reached out for us like the one lost coin, like the one lost sheep, and like the one lost son.

He has connected us not only to Him, but also to each other. He has given us a capacity for intimacy that we haven't known until now.

He has demonstrated His love for us and gave it to us liberally. All He asks is that we accept it and give Him the lives we couldn't live, and accept from Him the true life that we can't live... it's the life that HE lived... the life that is truly life.

It all started at a manager. It all started with shepherds. It all started with a young virgin.

And we now bask, as recipients of this great gift, celebrating the entrance of God's own Son in the greatest rescue mission and greatest love story the world has ever known... and this one is one that we ourselves get to live in if we say "I do" to the God that comes to pursue us with His love, kindness, and grace. He did it not because we needed it... but because He wanted to. Because He loves us.

And regardless of what Santa brought you this year... you have received the perfect gift :-)

Merry Christmas!

Are we leaving Jesus at Church?

2010-12-18T21:22:00.000-08:00

First of all.. Merry Christmas!

It's been really fun this year to celebrate this season with a lot of different groups of friends, in many different settings. The Christmas season is always a great time to see old and new friends and catch up in many ways.

You know, at a lot of these events I see people from church and in a "party" context you see them in a different context then you see them at church. It's not about what they're consuming, but more about the character of what's flowing out of their actions when I see them. I say this and hope that I'm speaking with integrity on this because I know that I'm not by any means a perfect follower of Christ myself, but it's almost as if I'm seeing a person that has left Jesus at Buckhead Church and leaves Him at the door and does their own thing at the party. In many cases, I'm actually a little shocked because I've heard some of their stories and believe with all my heart that God is at work in their lives.

Believe me, I don't believe that having a drink is a sin. Jesus turned water into wine, he went to parties at the houses of tax collectors and "sinners" that He knew and loved, and he served wine at the Last Supper. However, in everything Jesus lived in perfect obedience to the Father and exercised self-control. People knew that Jesus was different, not only because He is who He is but also because He lived it out in His actions.

I think about this a lot... because I am in a relationship with Jesus, He is with me 24/7 and is in a love relationship with me. This doesn't get stronger when I am at church and weaker when I am in a place like East Andrews. Jesus is with me and in relationship with me in both places. I can't leave him at church, because He isn't contained to my church or anyone else's... He lives in the hearts of those who love Him and have asked Him to be their life. So - the question I need to ask myself is: Would Jesus be pleased to be with me when I'm at this party? I would truly hope that the answer is yes.

Now, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ (Romans 8:1), if we are in Him then we are forgiven of the stuff we've done in the past, the stuff we're doing now, and the stuff that we haven't even thought about doing in the future. When Christ saved us, He saved us completely and changed our inner nature, and for whatever reason in some areas it takes some time and chiseling to get our actions to align with that. Can I get an amen?

The good news is that Christ has set us free from Law... we don't have to feel condemned and that is good news because none of us can be good enough to keep up with God according to a standard of behavior. However, the best news is that in our freedom God has given us a spirit of power, love, and self-control, and that we are not to use our freedom to destroy ourselves in sin but to pursue God. And sometimes, I think we can take for granted that God has set us free from our guilt and can forget that He doesn't ever leave us.

Ever.

I wonder, because He is uncomfortable with what's coming out of our lives at the time, that by taking advantage of His grace in those times that we are losing the benefit of relationship. I don't really ever want that... my relationship with Jesus is the one thing that gives my life meaning. And while I do believe Jesus would be at the party, I think people would look to him to help a friend that got in trouble at the party rather than the one that was in trouble. That's where self-control comes in... because when you cross the line and go past your guardrails, you lose your ability to represent Christ in this way, and instead you've become a great candidate for grace. Thankfully, He is full of grace, but by living in synch with Him in the first place, He can give us something better... He can let us be a conduit of grace (which we have all received)... and honestly I can attest that is a MUCH cooler experience :-).

Just my $0.02. I'd love to see us be a community that is a conduit of grace, and represents our Savior well. Everywhere. :-)

A plausible football championship playoff format

2010-11-27T12:48:00.000-08:00

As the college football season finishes off, and Cam Newton wills Auburn back to life once again and Boise State ruins the hopes of all of the "non-AQ" fans that want a party crasher to the BCS championship game.

As long as Auburn and Oregon keep winning, there should be no beloved controversy to bring debate back to killing the BCS, but if the Beavers or the Gamecocks get lucky next weekend, let chaos ensue:

Because your options are:

- TCU, they are undefeated BUT they played a schedule of cupcakes all season, including a 5-5 Oregon State team.
- Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Michigan State - Three one-loss Big Ten teams in the top 10 of the BCS standings. This may be the best "top three" of any conference in the nation, and none are, currently, ranked in the top 6 in the country.
- LSU, who won't even win it's division of it's conference, but only has one loss, to Auburn
- Oklahoma State, a one-loss team assuming they beat OU in Bedlam and Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship game. They have had a very solid season and are very exciting to watch. Mike Gundy is a man, and he would want to play in a man-sized game. We'll see how Bedlam plays out tonight.

So assuming that #1 or #2 loses, let chaos begin. Every team here will claim that they deserve a shot to play in the BCS game. But seriously, if they win out, should they all, or should only one, or should some but not all? I think it's crazy that a national championship is up to a bunch of voters and computers... I guess it keeps the sportscasters employed and the corporate dollars flowing, but is it as legitimate as what Duke had to go through to win their basketball title this year?

Not that I want to have a 65 team playoff in football, but it's better than 2. But seriously, the anti-playoff people are right that you can't extend the season an extra month, but a couple of weeks is probably acceptable. However, I would like to propose a system that would give us everything we want, and maybe more. Here are the principles that I think it should be governed by:

1.) Traditional bowl alliances should be honored.
2.) If you win your conference and played a quality schedule, you should have a chance for a title
3.) The #1 and #2 teams get a chance to play.

Here's how it would work:

- The champions from the top 6 conferences (ranked by a "conference BCS" score) would get automatic bids to their championship bowl game. Bowl alliances are honored... Big Ten always plays Pac 10 in the Rose bowl, SEC always sends its champion to the Sugar Bowl, etc. There would be four bowls each year that would be "championship bowls"
- The top 2 teams in the BCS standings not getting automatic bids would play as wild cards.
- These bowls would be played out on January 1st and 2nd, just as they are today.
- The survivors of these bowls would play in a 4 team playoff with seedings based on the BCS standings of the surviving schools.

If this system was played out this year, this is how it would likely play out (if I had my way :) )

Rose: Wisconsin (Big Ten) vs. Oregon (Pac 10)

Sugar: Auburn (SEC) vs. TCU (wild card #1)

Orange: Virginia Tech (ACC) vs. LSU (wild card #2)

Cotton (at Jerryworld): Oklahoma State (Big 12) vs. West Virginia (Big East)

Round two (predicted)

Auburn defeats TCU, plays Oklahoma State who defeats WV - Auburn wins easily.

Wisconsin defeats Oregon (who played in a weak Pac 10), plays LSU who beat VT - Wisconsin wins as LSU's luck runs out.

Championship round

Auburn beats Wisconsin in a back and forth slugfest, trading blows.

-------

You know, maybe Auburn wins in both scenarios and Cam Newton is still the #1 pick in the NFL draft, but isn't this a little more exciting than watching a bunch of overweight analysts pontificate while computers determine which two teams get to play at the end of the day?

Personally, I think so.

40 things

2010-11-19T21:27:00.000-08:00

I have just got home from a work trip to Boulder, and am still awake. My brain hasn't shut down, and I imagine that my tying on this blog isn't helping matters any.

This was an incredibly busy week work-wise, so there wasn't much margin to go out and have fun. However, it was the opening week for a lot of ski mountains out in Colorado and with my knee being healthy for the first time in 2 ski seasons (I was getting ready for, and recovering from miniscus surgery last season, so no trips) the talk around the office about skiing got my engine running. I want to go back, badly.

It also got me thinking, now, about a "40 things I want to do before 40" list that is in my head but not on paper. Ambition does that, it makes you think about "what's next" and gives you something to shoot for. Ambition can be a bad thing, if it's all about boosting ego, but ambition itself isn't a bad thing... it's what propelled Paul to go out and reach the entire Gentile world of his day.

So - in my ambitious bent, I'd like to start dreaming of mine. Those of you who know me give me some thoughts :-)

Here's a start:

- I'd like to ski Heavenly, and return to Vail and do the back bowls (which I wasn't skilled enough to do when I was learning the first time I went out there)

- I would like to have and train a dog (especially one that I can run with)

- I want to run and keep stride for an entire 1/2 Marathon and complete an injury free training.

- I want to do an extended backpacking trip on the App Trail

- I would like to have two additional mentors and develop a regular cadence of meeting and learning from them.

- I want to have traveled to Italy

- I would like to do a "guys trip" with my brothers to a really cool place. Totally mancation

- I want to visit the other 2 big National Parks (Glacier and Yellowstone)

- I would like to drive the entire PCH from LA to San Francisco.

- I would like to reduce my list of "states not visited" - perhaps a ski trip in Vermont and/or Montana/Idaho, a relaxing stay in Portland, ME... who knows? It's cool that my "states not visited" list is shorter than my "states I have visited list."

Those are some of my "late night" thoughts. I'll probably throw some more thought into this over Thanksgiving :-)

Personal Ministry

2010-11-07T18:52:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I did something a little crazy.

I missed fusion (the singles gatherings that my church holds for community)... a fusion group that I really enjoy the people at... and attended a small group leaders' training event at my church. Okay, that's not quite crazy but what was crazy was this was the session designated for the MARRIED group leaders. There's a good reason for this, and it's because when they were holding the sessions a couple of weeks ago for me and my fellow singles group leaders, I was out in L.A. running some crazy race (one that I'm very happy about running in case you missed any of the medal pictures :-) ), and this weekend was the only one available for me to pick from.

And I was the ONLY single person in the room.

Actually, that was a great thing for me tonight. First off, being newly unattached after dating a really good girl for five months, being in an environment where no one was even remotely working the room was neat and relaxing. Second, absorbing the perspective and the conversations in the room was really cool for helping me in my post-relationship processing, which God is really revealing some cool stuff to me right now in. Sadly, the last couple of weeks at work have been really busy, which hasn't really helped give me that processing time, but the time that He has given me has been really rich, and tonight (unbeknownst to the couples at my table and in the room) was one of those times.

What I observed in attendance and in conversation was a group of couples that God has called to engage in personal ministry together through leading their married community groups together, and tonight's training, as with every training that I've been to at Buckhead Church, is highly interactive which means that I had a unique opportunity to gain perspectives not only on their group dynamics but also on how they approached doing ministry together.

This has been something that I've been tossing around in my head for at least the last month now, because while it is something that I believe is valuable and desirable in my future marriage, I don't believe I've ever really, seriously, gave a lot of intense thought into what my personal ministry with my future wife would actually look like. At tonight's group leader training, seeing a glimpse of it, it stirred me to noodle and pray. It makes sense to me that if my future wife and I would have common interests and passions, that we would also share a common mission. And as a leader in my home, one of my core roles is to cultivate that in our home and to ensure that we are running the race God has set out for us together. And if I could pick out the biggest teachable moment I have had recently, that would be it.

So as I'm processing over God's plans for my life, especially in regards to my future married life, I really want to keep this in mind... and for all of my trusted guy friends, you have permission to ask me what God is teaching and revealing to me on that :-). As for now, I'm excited about what He is teaching and waiting for His timing.

And I hope that someone reading this note, that really hasn't given much thought to how they would invite their future wife to join you in ministry together and pray earnestly about that, that you would. We have not just been called to "do church," but to "be the church." And how awesome would it be if our generation not only showed the world what great families were and modeled that, but also modeled living on mission within the story that God is writing for His glory in the world?

drinking games

2010-10-28T19:49:00.000-07:00

For whatever reason, I found myself for a brief moment somehow in a somewhat awkward conversation (for me) on the subject of drinking games. It was awkward for a few reasons:

1.) The conversation was in the context of a gathering where we asked that no one drink, and because of that I'm sure that it wasn't just awkward for me.
2.) As much as I tried to steer the conversation in an "intellectual" tone, I wasn't driving the conversation and didn't really want to get in a debate with anyone at a social gathering where the emphasis was on community and having fun (and that was definitely accomplished :) ).

However, I do want to say my peace...

The Bible does not condemn drinking in moderation, and in some passages actually talks positively about wine and relates it to joy (Jesus did, for his first miracle, turn water into wine at a party). It does, however, have a lot to say about getting drunk and especially the habit of continuously seeking to get drunk. In light of that, it means that if we take our relationship with Christ seriously, then we need to have solid guardrails in this area because if we do not, then we will cease to enjoy a gift that God has given us and given some freedom in, and will instead be consumed by something that we in turn choose to make an idol (which is... something that God takes very seriously).

In light of that and knowing what I know about drinking games, I don't know how anyone can participate willingly in one of these in good conscience as a committed follower of Jesus Christ (if you can rationalize it, feel free to but I'm pretty sure you couldn't back it up with scripture). If you don't follow Christ or don't really consider a relationship with Christ an important aspect of your life, then I understand... but if you are committed to Him I can't see this being something you'd want to do. Because if you play the movie out and think for a few seconds about what's about to happen, at the end of the day you're going to be "forced" to drink a lot of really cheap/bad/gross beer/liquor/whatever and get so wasted that you'll be sick the next morning. For example:

At Indiana, there was a game that was played at Nick's called "Sink the Bismarck" in which you floated a shot glass in a lake of really cheap beer poured into a metal bucket in the middle of the table. Then people take turns pouring beer into the shot glass or the bucket (I'm not too sure, I wasn't really that interested in watching it happen) and the one that ended up sinking the shot glass (aka - the "Bismarck") ended up having to chug all of that gross beer in the bucket. As you can probably see, if you do a few rounds of this someone's bound to hurl their wings and have to be carried home.

This is a lot different than ordering a glass of wine at dinner and slowly enjoying it with a group of good friends over stimulating conversation.

This is an invitation to play the fool and join in with a few.

Like I said, if you don't care about Christ, then I suppose that you are free to trash your body and your brain as you wish. But if you like me value Christ and His Kingdom, this isn't anywhere you'd want to go and I'd really ask you to think about not only the immediate physical consequences of putting yourself in a position to get that hammered, but also the spiritual consequences to your intimacy with Christ and your influence with outsiders when you allow something that you should control to take control of you. Regardless of what your convictions are in this area, the constant that is universally true is that we need to exercise wisdom, constraint, and caution in light of the fact that we do not live for ourselves but for a Savior who paid for our forgiveness and freedom by dying a cruel death in our place on the cross.

Because if anyone or anything outside of me should be in control of me, it should be the Spirit of Christ in me. And that is something that I can revel in. I'll pass on the beer pong, thank you very much :-)

New Fave Fives

2010-10-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I got to hang out with my B-school buddy Derek and run the LA Rock 'n' Roll 1/2 Marathon. The race was good. I survived 13.1 miles with a bummed ankle (achilles tendinitis being the official diagnosis) in 2:32, which is not a bad time considering :)

But, what I hadn't realized until this weekend was how much D likes to "rank" things (and I like to follow suit), so a few "Fave Fives" in honor of Senor Lim.

Fave Five Views
1. View of Mt. Kilimanjaro from the Amboseli National Wildlife Park in Kenya
2. The Cliffs of Mohr in western Ireland
3. Pick your view from Yosemite National Park (personal favorite is the view of Half Dome driving up)
4. Lit of view of the Golden Gate Bridge and SF Bay in the twilight from Coit Tower in San Francisco
5. Sea to Sky Highway in British Columbia

I did get to see a few amazing views in SoCal this weekend (the hotel being one of them... definitely top ten).

Fave Five Races I've participated in
1.) The LA Rock 'n' Roll 1/2 Marathon (just because it was a 1/2, but it was a really fun and well organized race
2.) The Atlanta Peachtree Road Race (ran in it 5 times now)
3.) The Jingle Jog 5K in Perimeter Atlanta
4.) The Houston Uptown Turkey Trot 5K/10K (on Thanksgiving... ran this twice)
5.) Hoosiers Outrun Cancer 5K (I have to put this in here, because I have my 5K PR on this race :) - it is a great event though)

I would also add any of the Big Peach organized races and the US 10K on Labor Day in Atlanta... great events but obviously not for the top 5 :)

With Everything

2010-10-26T03:35:00.001-07:00

Lyrics by Hillsong United...

Open our hearts,
To see the things
That make Your heart cry,
To be the church
The You would desire.
Light to be seen.

Break down our pride,
And all the walls
We've built up inside,
Our earthly crowns
And all our desires,
We lay at Your feet.

So let hope rise,
And darkness tremble
In Your holy light,
And every eye will see
Jesus, our God,
Great and mighty to be praised.

God of all days,
Glorious in all of Your ways.
Your majesty, the wonder and grace,
In the light of Your name.

With everything,
With everything,
We will shout for your glory.

With everything,
With everything,
We will shout forth your praise.

Our hearts will cry
Be glorified,
Be lifted high,
Above all names.
For You our King,
With everything,
We will shout forth your praise.

A life worth following

2010-10-20T16:10:00.000-07:00

I am getting prepped for my small group study today; which is about the life of Jesus as Luke has investigated and documented it in what we now call the Gospel of Luke in the Bible. This week, we are in Luke chapters 4, 5, and 6, and I gotta tell you that there's so much that we could go over about what Jesus did and said that would take the whole week... in summary I've just gotta say "wow." If you want to know how the Son of God did life, this is a worthy list of great things to be admired...

1.) He faced down the strongest temptation at the point where he was the weakest (Luke 4:1-13). Beyond going 40 days without food, you'd think that'd be temptation enough. And then if that's not enough, the Devil himself goes after him... most of us can pretty much tempt ourselves without any demonic influence... but Jesus, being God in the flesh and perfect in every way, had Hell bring their big guns out... and he struck out against Jesus over and over again... just as those Yankees' hitters were doing against Cliff Lee in ALCS Game 3.

2.) He spoke directly and confidently. Whether it was from reading Isaiah in the Nazareth synagogue, or questioning the Pharisees, or coaxing Simon to cast out the nets one more time, Jesus knew what was on the minds of the people he was addressing and spoke into it. You knew where Jesus stood. He left very little room for doubt.

3.) He was humble. You know, if I was the Son of God walking on the earth I think I'd want to let everyone know about it, and leverage my power while I'm at it (it's a good thing I'm not :) ). Jesus didn't go around Galilee parading his status... in fact he shut up the demons that were shouting "You are the Son of God!" (Luke 4:41) and told the leper he healed to not tell anyone what happened (Luke 5:14). It's as if he wanted to stay on the DL... but could not keep the news from getting out and the crowds just grew. I'm sure that He knows how Andy Stanley must feel if Andy were to walk into a Starbucks.

4.) He didn't care about appearances. He touched people that other people would not dare touch (Luke 5:13), he celebrated when the mores of the day was on ritualistic fasting (Luke 5:33-34), He did the right thing on the Sabbath instead of worrying about the multifaceted set of regulations the system had in place (a system set up by tradition, not by God) (Luke 6:1-5, 6-11), and He calls a... *gasp* tax collector (think of your modern day: "don't talk to him/bad person") to follow him and join his inner circle.

Now when Levi (or Matthew) was called, he dropped all of his tax collector friends and joined a 12 week Bible study to learn about how to follow Jesus... uh, well... not exactly.

Instead, Matthew threw a big party and invited all of his *gasp* tax collector friends and other notoriousJ friends to come (Luke 5:29), and also invited Jesus. And Jesus showed up to the party because he was the guest of honor (Luke 5:29). This didn't really work for the Pharisees because they complained about it (of course :) ), and Jesus again confidently speaks to their hearts. Did they get it... some, eventually did (Acts states that Pharisees eventually turned to follow Jesus after Pentecost, but this was a huge minority during Jesus's ministry time), but not most. Nevertheless, Jesus wasn't out to impress people with status, He was out to build relationships with people hungry for Him.

5.) When he taught about interacting with people, He taught us to give grace. And wouldn't the world be a much better place if we didn't retaliate when we were insulted, but instead did god (Luke 6:32-36)? If we loved people even if they worked to bring harm to us (Luke 6:27-31)? If we evaluated our motives before we confronted someone we thought was in the wrong (Luke 6:37-42)?

And he led by example: He healed people who were completely outcasts and untouchable in that world, He spoke forgiveness to the paralytic, and before having his hometown peeps attempt to throw him off a cliff, he spoke these words:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
  because he has anointed me
   to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
   and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed.
  to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

He wanted them to know that He came to free them. Even if they wanted to kill him.

My take is... wow! This is someone worth following, or (if you're not a Christian and reading this) someone worth getting to know just a little bit better. Knowing what I know and seeing His work in my life, He is someone to me worth giving my life to. Someone worth following and giving my complete trust over to. Perhaps you could say the same... or perhaps you may find that this is something that is not only admirable... but also desirable.

Because He is worth following. He is worth giving our lives to. He is worth our devotion.

And how He lived when he had none of that on this earth definitely shows just how much He does :-)

30 Days

2010-09-24T12:20:00.000-07:00

30 days from today, I will be standing at a starting line in Los Angeles, California ready to start my first half marathon. To say this has me a little emotional, especially considering the path that I have taken to get to this point. It's been a path that God has used not only to stretch me physically but also shape my faith in Him. To choose a different, or easier path, while I would have preferred I would not (at least given if I finish the race :) ) trade in.

I have not really always been a "runner" - I kind of resisted this whole thing growing up because I equated "running" with punishment... more specifically the PE coach's tendency to make my fat butt run laps when I wasn't following orders (I didn't really like PE growing up, if you can tell). I liked to play sports, but I didn't really like practice and discipline. Needless to say, I played a fair amount of pickup, intramural, and "church league" sports but didn't really compete, even though I love to compete.

My friend Craig got me started running when I first moved to Houston (into the city) when I was 23. It was a follow up to my "lose the Freshman 15," plus, "lose the Professional 10," plus just lose the nagging weight that came from eating a lot of fried food and gravy growing up (not that I blame my upbringing for that, I loved gravy... still do... lol). After about 4" off my waist and 35 pounds gone, I really committed myself to working out and staying in shape, and Craig would take me out to Memorial Park (still one of my favorite places to run) and would keep on me to not give up. Eventually it caught on as one of my preferred ways to exercise. I eventually started running in an occasional 5K.

When I moved to Atlanta, my passion for running had grown. When I lived in Austin for a year, running the loop around Town Lake was really my only workout option (not a bad one, by the way) because I didn't have a gym being in a nomadic state at that stage of my life... also running was also one of my coping mechanisms for getting over the disappointment of the ending of my last relationship (which is a huge reason for my 5K personal record (PR) in 2003 at the "Hoosiers Outrun Cancer" race in Bloomington during my 2nd year in MBA school... I still have the t-shirt from that race). So of course the Peachtree Road Race is a huge deal in the ATL and a famous race, so I obviously wanted to run it, and eventually ran it in 2006 (didn't run it in '05 after I moved here) and have run in the last 5 Peachtrees now.

So - to the Half Marathon - for many years a lot of people have tried to talk me into running a marathon, but I've resisted just because of the commitment level (and maybe the Houston heat indexes). I've never run more than 7 miles (and that was only once on a wild-hair MP run) before, and didn't think that 26.2 was in me, but figured that I'd do a half... someday. Well, "someday" sometimes never comes... and the way I was going for a while you may have made that judgement. I ran for exercise, not necessarily for fun even though at times it was fun. However, a year and a half ago I hosted Craig and another friend of ours, Sam, for a "Mancation" over the Fourth of July in 2009 and I got Craig & Sam numbers to the Peachtree Road Race. Craig and I did the race stride for stride the entire way, and in a way that was deja vu from those first runs down Memorial Park in February 1997 (okay, I'm aging myself now), I was somehow motivated by the experience to "do something" and sign up for a half, and shortly after in concert with a couple of friends (Bryant, Jim, and Charlie) I signed up for and started training for the 2009 Silver Comet 1/2 Marathon on Halloween.

And what happened in that time, and a lot of long runs, and overcoming barriers that only existed in my mind... I truly fell in love with this sport. Who would have known? I was doing these 7, 8, and 9 mile long runs on the Alpharetta Greenway, Virginia Highlands, and Stone Mountain to my iPod or with a friend and really getting into this "zone" that all runners talk about but until you really start long distance running you don't really "get." As October rolled around, a sense of expectation and excitement hit me as Halloween was approaching. And then...

I got a case of IT-band syndrome after running a Saturday five-miler, and then, on the weekend before the race, a 12 mile last long run, with one mile left to go, I attempt to stretch out my leg, feel a "pop," and have an immediate pain sensation in my left knee. I limp back to my car, drive to Starbucks near downtown Alpharetta (I was on the meadowy section of the Greenway when this happened), to grab a coffee, see a friend and am told about the massive swelling that's appearing in my left knee. I went to see a sports doctor the following week and got the bad news... it's injured and I cannot run the race on Saturday. I was devastated. But I wasn't willing to give up. I tried to rehab my leg for 2 months but unfortunately it didn't heal the injury, to the point that at least one friend told me that she was worried if I would ever run again. So I finally went to get it checked out, got the MRI, and...

On January 29, 2010, had surgery to repair a medium-sized miniscus tear that I got on that Alpharetta Greenway run. I was hopeful that I'd be back up and running in 2 to 3 months. And as a result, I signed up for the LA Rock & Roll 1/2 Marathon when I was at home recovering and trading emails with my b-school buddy Derek about a couple of weeks after the surgery.

On April 1st, I went in to see Dr. Wertheim for my final checkup and was given clearance to start running again. As a birthday present to myself, I made April 3 the first run since the injury. Things went well, so I thought, but my rehab wasn't complete and after a very painful third run in the middle of April, I called the doctor who ordered physical therapy.

And that was grace. In the physical therapy sessions, I found out a lot of the ways that I had not taken care of myself before and was coached into recovery (and maintenance of my body) in an encouraging and enlightening way. I was humbled. I was frustrated by the slow progress. But at the end of the day I did things the way I thought they should have been done and it wasn't working, so I was completely willing to give the lead over to someone who knew the way to go. And thankfully, 2 months later I started back up, slowly, and got stronger, and stronger... and now have run 3 10K races and have built my endurance back up to 9 miles. And now, 30 days before the race, with humility, prayer, and caution, I am entering the home stretch as a flight to LA to see my good friend and run the biggest race of my life to this point with him. It means a good deal that I'm getting to run this race with him, and I'm excited to hear that starting gun, to get that 1/2 Marathon race number, and to begin in the race.

Not that it's been smooth sailing. I am fighting off a little bit of heel pain in this last stretch and have been cross-training for a week and probably won't start running again till mid-next week or next Saturday (gotta take care of the body, right? :) ). To tell you the truth, this race is more about completing a journey than about getting a PR. And in fact, this race, no matter how slow my time is, will be a PR :-). And, it's about God's redeeming and restoring power in my life, which I give him praise for often, not only for giving me the grace to run and stay healthy, but for all of the ways that he breathes life into the dead places in my world and makes it all beautiful. And I have plenty of stories for this... God has put me into the great adventure, the sacred romance, the great story of His working in the world - and that is all grace. All of it.

And interestingly enough, 30 days from today is the one year anniversary of the Greenway injury. To the day.

I imagine that you may see a scream of joy, or a tear, or a fist pump or few... when I see that finish line. I don't think I'll be able to hold back the emotion, even for a bit.

A little taste of what's to come...

Because this isn't the last race :-) - I have ambitions to build on and grow from this experience - like the 2011 ING??? :)
And ultimately, the Apostle Paul likened our God-glorifying life, if we value Christ and God's glory, to completing a race. At least he did for his own... so I definitely envision the ultimate finish to the race and that "well done" when I think of finishing something as "small" as a half marathon.

My tips to the street preacher at the US 10K Classic

2010-09-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

Usually at this point in time, I am packing myself up from LDR to head home after a stomach-satisfying breakfast at the Donut Hole in Sandestin... but alas I did not make LDR this year (can't wait to hear how it was), so I ran in the US 10K Classic this morning

(which has the opposite effect of eating at The Donut Hole :) )

I finished the race in 59:59 (yes, I sprinted to finish in under an hour), despite chilling at a few water stops and getting stuck behind a bunch of walkers and non-starters at the beginning (at least that's my excuse for not doing better :) ), and enjoyed grabbing some Publix swag, listening to some music from this local band that was playing at the afterparty, and checked out the chiropractic tent and to my surprise got my neck adjusted.

But the most interesting thing to me was that when I was going back into the main area from the concert stage, there was this guy trying to get past security that obviously wasn't part of the race crowd. By looking at his t-shirt, it was obvious what he was there for... he was the "You're going to Hell guy." Needless to say, he didn't get past security because he didn't have a race number, but he sure as (heck) tried. But after seeing him try to get in I didn't give it a second thought until I had to wait in this really long line to catch the CCT busses back to my car parked near Cobb Galeria (we were up at Six Flags Whitewater just north of the Big Chicken), and there he was... listing "our" sins, telling us that we needed to turn or go to H-ay-eeeeeeeee-lluh (Yes, I think he used three syllables in classic stereotypical fashion :) )

Not that I don't believe God can use this, but I was seriously praying "God, please tell me you didn't send that guy." And now my prayer is "God, if you DID send that guy, I pray that if you are working in someone's heart that you'll send an authentic Christian into their world that will love on them and answer their questions with gentleness, wisdom, and respect."

But I hope that God did not send him, or at least he misinterpreted God's call on his life if he was indeed to witness at the US 10K (or any other race for that matter). In case he is reading my blog (oh, please read it! Please read it!), here are some tips from me to you on how you can, if you are called to witness to runners at a race like this, be true to your calling.

1.) Get your butt in shape. Paul in one of his letters stated that he became "all things to all people" so that they could hear the gospel. Dude, it was obvious that you weren't there to run.

2.) Join a running group. You may want to get in shape before this so you can hang. But if you're going to share God's grace with people, then you need to be building relationships with them. Go where they are, and let them see the light in your life.

3.) Get your internal life in order. This is just a hint, but Paul states in Romans that perhaps, just perhaps, that this judgmental, condemning style is not holy but is flowing from your sin nature. Get grace applied to your life so that you can glorify God here, speak to others with love showing from your life, and so that you can fulfill your ultimate purpose which is to reflect who God is to a world that needs to see who God is.

4.) Actually, do #3 before you do #2... that judgmental thing will come out if you haven't dealt with it.

5.) Okay, now... rub shoulders with some non-Christians and get to know them.

6.) On #5, NO AGENDAS. Let God set the agenda.

7.) When you have an opportunity to talk about what God's doing or has done in YOUR life, share it and be excited to know a God as awesome as our God.

8.) Okay, now that you have running friends, you have a group, you've invested relationally... you sign up and run the US 10K classic.

9.) You run the whole thing :-)

10.) And when you and your friends that are curious about Christ because of you run into some other judgmental, fire-breathing, preacher dude condemning them to Hell, you can love on them and point them one step closer to a real life with Jesus (which includes but is not limited to "after we die"), which is actually much superior to the "fire insurance" that the dude standing along the CCT bus line is selling.

"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." - Jesus (John 10:10)

And then there was silence

2010-08-25T03:24:00.000-07:00

I read ahead a little in my quiet time this morning, and the verse I read ahead to caught my attention...

"When he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour" - Revelation 8:1

Don't ask me why I'm doing my devotions in Revelation... I'm loving it. This book is one that adds context to the world we live in, because it shows that God's plan triumphs admist all of the life we face.

It also gives us a glimpse into the reality that we don't see. The reality that in light of eternity, is more important than the one that we can.

And in Heaven, there is...

Singing
Awe
Loud shouting
Worship
Unbridled adoration of our God and Savior

The first set of revelations are of seven seals, each being opened reveals something new about the ushering in of God's ultimate close to history. Each of these seals is increasingly more awesomely broken than the other. And in fact, the saints had to be sealed before the final seventh seal was broken. So you'd expect something tremendous to occur when it's broken... like a huge nuclear blast, a 1,000 foot dragon, I don't know... you'd expect something climatic.

And this is what happened...

Heaven is silent.

For an entire half hour (Actually John said "about," so I don't think he was checking his sundial)

That was awe-inspiring.

That also says a LOT about how big of a deal the celebration of God in Heaven is. It's huge... and the most climatic thing that could happen with the breaking of that seal is that Heaven stands in silence.

When Heaven is silent. It is noticed.

It makes me think that Heaven is probably going to be more like a U2 concert than some of the scenes that we see in our imagery today. The peaceful by and by... perhaps there is some of that in the new Heaven and new Earth, but the theme of Heaven is the party. The celebration of God. Being raptured in who He is and pouring out our adoration on Him.

The question I have for myself and you my readers is... if that type of adoration of God is the huge, ginormous, big deal in eternity that we are looking forward to... are we getting on board on that now? Because the celebration of God, what He's done for us, and relishing in His favor of us doesn't start for us in the throne room. It starts in our hearts.

Are you? Am I... Ready for the party?

Because Heaven is only going to be silent... for about a half an hour :-)

The Health Care Debate

2010-08-13T10:07:00.000-07:00

I have recently seen a couple of posts, comments, etc. from some friends of mine concerning our new march toward socialized medicine in the U.S. (known as: "Health Care Reform," "the Health Care bill," "Obamacare," etc.), and feel a need to reply, but simply putting a 160 character sound bite on someone's Facebook wall really doesn't do what I'm thinking any justice. So, to anyone who cares what I think about the state of healthcare, "the bill," or whether the government should tax (more) to provide universal coverage, I give you my musings.

First, the bill is done and signed. It is law and for now the process has started down the path, so there's really no more debating at a national level as to whether we will have a law in place, now it's a matter of figuring out what to do with the law we now have. By all means is this not over... I do believe that the mandates it places on the States and the expansion of Federal power that it brings is unconstitutional. Under the 10th Amendment, this is something to be decided on at the state level and I know that several States are challenging the Federal mandates on these grounds. I hope that, for our wallet and relationship with our doctors' sake that we see a reversal on these grounds.

Second, let's assume that the bill goes through all of the legal review and the Supreme Court upholds its' constitutionality. Then what? Well, my friends, it's the law of the land. Unless the law changes. The great system of government we have allows us to change leadership (and in some cases like this, the law through legislative changes), and there's our recourse. Let's plan to use it and peacefully bring positive change if indeed the national climate is opposed to the bill, which I believe it is.

Let's assume, however, for a second that socialized medicine DOES become the law of the land... I'd like to address some of the rhetoric I've heard out there.

Is it "stealing?" Taxation is Biblical, so if as a nation we decide to prioritize the health and well-being of our citizens through a single-payer government healthcare system, then it is the government's right to assess those taxes. This is what we're asking for... if you don't think that your taxes will go up with this new system, then you haven't talked to anyone in Europe. According to many (based on different metrics than ours), their systems "work for them" and they willingly pay the high taxes. In Jesus' time, many people considered the Roman taxes as "theft" and considered the tax collectors as thieves for merely collecting taxes (the above the top they did was, in fact, stealing), but Jesus talked to and dined with tax collectors - he de-marginalized them and when he called Matthew at (his) tax collectors' booth, Jesus simply said "follow me" but didn't (at least as recorded in the Bible) ask him to stop collecting taxes. In a later debate, Jesus stated that we should "render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and render to God what is God's." If we are in this socialized medicine world and it becomes law, this is the way I believe we should approach it as well.

What really concerns me: When I was in grad school, I was an Assistant Instructor for a course on economics and public policy at Indiana University. In that course, we talked about public goods such as pollution, traffic, etc. and the interactions that government does (and in cases should) have when it comes to businesses and/or individuals infringing on others' freedoms through their actions. Some of the stuff we presented was left-leaning (like we discussed cap and trade) but it allowed me to see that side of the coin when it comes to these issues.

When it comes to health care and taxation (see above), what it means to me as a taxpayer is that because all health costs are pooled and comes from the single payer system, the collective health decisions of every single American impacts us through either a.) increasing the total cost of the system and thus your taxes, or b.) causing a need for rationing because demand for healthcare services can't be met with the resources that we have. For example, I love The Biggest Loser and one of the biggest "wow!" moments I got from watching the show was to see how much a contestant that was (because of their obesity) dependent on several medications to keep them regulated and that through becoming healthy saved themselves almost three quarters of a million dollars over their lifetime in prescription meds alone. In a single-payer socialized system, would those then (because we are socialized) become my costs? Let's be honest, we are one of the unhealthiest nations in the Industrialized World... do you not think that's contributing the high costs of our healthcare system?

In that case (and I'm talking hypothetically), how you maintain your health now impacts me and I would (as a rational citizen that doesn't want to be impacted by others' poor health choices) want these things to be regulated (assuming I am a healthy person taking on too much cost relative to my health care need). Now, play the movie out and it's not just soda machines in schools that are being restricted but it's about every "unhealthy" activity we could participate in. Perhaps taxes are levied on foods high in trans-fats and HFCS (not something I'm altogether opposed to), perhaps if your BMI is over a certain level that you're imposed with extra taxes, you're required to (not optional as it is today) visit the doctor for a mandatory screening every year... you see where this could be heading? The government is now (literally) in your body, and has the right to regulate how you live. Now, let me say that these are good behaviors and I recommend that everyone get a yearly physical, exercise 3x a week, and avoid trans fats and HFCS as much as possible, but I don't think that Uncle Sam should be forcing us to do these things. They are ultimately our choice... but perhaps not if we go down the current path.

We should be free people, as our founding fathers designed our system to be. The Federal government should not be our mom, telling individuals what we should and should not do when it comes to fairly private and family matters like our own health. However, socializing this system could very well change that, because when we're all paying for each other these decisions cease to be private. And that deeply concerns me.

However, if it becomes the law of the land, it's something that I imagine we'll get to live with. And Jesus did tell us that the government is there and instituted by God. Including one that mandates socialized medicine. Perhaps if we as Christians care about this direction, beyond voting and speaking our mind in our national discourse, we should also pray.

That's my $0.02 :-)

If you haven't seen Inception...

2010-07-31T15:39:00.000-07:00

Then...

1.) Go and see it, and then
2.) Come back and read this blog post.

I went out to see Inception last night - and it was by far the best movie I have seen all year. Definitely the most original. Now, if you really haven't seen it and you've ignored my warnings here, then I won't spoil anything. But...

It got me thinking about Satan. And his greatest strategy for destroying our lives. I'll explain.

If you have a thought or a belief that keeps running through your mind. A thought that is ingrained in you. Something that is honestly, not beneficial and may I dare to say destructive? A thought like...

I'll never be worthy of love
I can never overcome {fill in the blank}
I'm stupid
I'll never amount to anything
I have to have {fill in the blank - something other than God} to be fulfilled and happy
I'm a failure
I'm not good enough.
I'm a mistake

I can probably name a few more, but you get the gist. Think about it, would we willingly put those thoughts in our minds on our own? Would we intentionally and consciously tell ourselves: "I think I'm going to convince myself to believe something that will kill my ability to live the life God has intended for me." No. Or at least I don't think there's a whole lot of narcissistic people reading this :-).

But we all have something like this, or had, in the core of our belief system. And yet we wouldn't put it there if we really thought about what we were doing. But somehow it got there... a lie was planted in our belief system and it took root and has has grown to define us.

The movie did get me thinking... "man, this is a really good parallel to how {Satan} does this." We are in an impressionable position: an emotional moment, a core period in our self discovery... and he in that moment plants a little lie related to how God has wired us and the moment we find ourselves, and that little lie takes root... and we nurture it in our private minds, in our subconscious, in like experiences... and it grows. And sooner or later it's a weed that's choking out the life from us.

Solomon states that we should "Guard your heart, for it's the wellspring of life." At a moment when we were not guarded, it got in and if it's taken root it's poisoning the well.

The truth is, if a thought is in your mind & heart that steals life from you and distorts the truth that God created you, God loves you, God has great plans for you that He designed for you, and God has made you as a person with great potential and loves you so much that He sent Jesus to die for you, then it's a lie. It got planted there not by God, and if we were uninfluenced by any outside circumstances, we wouldn't have planted it there ourselves. The enemy, Jesus says, has come to steal, to kill, and to destroy. These are what thoughts and beliefs that originate from his worldview produce.

So how do we get them out?

We have to expose them. We have to confront them. And we have to oppose them. And once we have, we need to replace them consciously with the truths that God has spoken about us, especially if we know Jesus. We are awesome, because we were created by and in the image of our awesome creator. That is the truth. Meditating on Psalm 139 helps me out a ton when I have self-effacing thoughts running through my mind... it's hard to argue with God when He tells me that I am fearfully and wonderfully made, ya know.

Additionally, I have found that we need to have people that love us in our lives that know what's going on and are trusted to speak truth into our lives, and that truth that will bring us life. And ultimately, I believe that God is most glorified in our lives when we are alive and satisfied in relating to Him without fear. It's something that our enemy does not want to see... but he can go to (you know where) :-)

Nehemiah 13

2010-07-10T13:57:00.000-07:00

During my recent mission trip to Kenya, we conducted our devotional studies over the book of Nehemiah. Finishing up, I presented our thoughts on the final three chapters as we left the Ngaamba community for the last time.

What was interesting about studying Nehemiah in Kenya was the parallels that the story of Israel rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem had with the story that was being written during our mission trip (not to mention, we were helping our friends in Ngaamba build a wall). A community of people galvanized by a godly leader, hardship, resolve... the whole deal. It's a very inspirational story... at least until you get to chapter 13.

In this finale to the Nehemiah story, Nehemiah has to eventually leave Jerusalem to go back to the service of the King. He serves there for a while and later asks permission to return to Jerusalem, and he does not find the people in a great spiritual position... the priests and temple are not being supported, Jews are intermarrying with their enemies, and the priests have made alliances with men who made it their life pursuit to keep the wall destroyed and make Jerusalem a disgrace.

It's sad. It made Nehemiah mad. And the final chapter of Nehemiah story is one where the once victorious citizens of the city of God are severely reprimanded for backsliding.

There is no pretty bow on the end of this story, and one of the thoughts I had as I was preparing and delivering this devotion was that the people of Jerusalem probably experienced something very close to a "mountain top experience" in completing the rebuilding of the wall in 52 days, rediscovering the Law, and rededicating themselves to serving the True and Living God with tears. And then something happened... Nehemiah left? Time passed? People forgot? Whatever happened, it was clear that the people had a powerful experience with God but did not experience a transformation in their own hearts. As soon as time passed and the leader left, they were back to being... well, their old selves.

A thought I had later was that while we guys usually read the story of Nehemiah as an example of a great and courageous leader (and it definitely is!), I think there is another moral to this story that deserves our attention. This thought is that the story of the Jews in Nehemiah is the story of every one that goes on a mission trip, to a camp, has a season of life where God really rescues them from some crazy stuff, and is moved emotionally to rededicate our lives to serving him... but at the end of the day is not truly transformed at a heart level by God's spirit and as time passes, life happens, memory fades... we go back into the same habits, sins, and attitudes that we had before we had that experience. We had a great experience... but at a deep level we never really changed.

I was reminded of this a little today. Life has been really busy since returning from Kenya. Lots to do at work, social activities, and life in Atlanta has threatened to take (and can't say it hasn't completely failed to) my attention away from the lessons that God gave me and the burdens He put on my heart in Kenya. Today, going out to Second Saturday and seeing a number of peeps from my Kenya team and going out into the projects to bring life to an area of Atlanta that desperately needs to see hope, I was reminded that I need to engage in doing what God has called me as a Christian to do, which is to shine His light into a dark world so that others may see it, be attracted to Jesus, and seek Him out. The good news that makes change possible for us, where it was not happening for Jews 400+ B.C. is that God's spirit lives inside of us if we know God and that change IS possible. We need to, as Paul states in Romans: "For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:3-4) However, we do need to let God change us, and be sensitive to put ourselves into a position where He can influence our hearts and not just our external circumstances.

Praying for Kenya

2010-05-25T19:07:00.000-07:00

I am 15 days away from hopping on a plane to serve in Kenya. I am both excited, nervous, and expectant all at the same time.

Excited: I have never been to Africa before. It's an entirely new culture, an entirely new environment, and as my shot record will show an entirely new set of germs. I love newness.

Nervous: One of my biggest prayer requests I shared during my support/dinner party a few weeks ago was that God would "prepare me to be unprepared" for what I would experience. It's been a long time since I will have "tasted" poverty like I'm expecting to see in Ngaamba. And honestly, I don't even think the trips I've had to Piedras Negras with the Aggie BSM in college (Piedras is on the Texas border) will even prepare me emotionally for the conditions I'll see there. I pray that God will break my heart, that He will stir me, and that I'll never be the same after this trip.

Expectant: Maybe this has something to do with "excited." But I do have the sense that God is going to do something huge through our group. We have experienced too much spiritual warfare as a team to believe anything less (I don't think the devil is out to distract and blow up marginal trips). In that light, I would like to be there, be available, and to let God do his thing.

I am blessed to have so many great peeps supporting me and praying for me. I can't wait to tell them what they are a part of. Only 15 more days ;-)

Shots

2010-04-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

There are two aspects of this mission trip that I don't look forward to. I mentioned the first one in my last post :). However, since I'm going to a country that has strange (to us Americans) diseases, I went out for the second less desirable "trip prep" deal last week... the immunizations :)

You're probably either thinking:

He's crazy.... or,

He really loves God.

Because I really hate needles.

It's mostly the second, but voluntarily taking needles would probably require a little bit of insanity too :)

this would be me before shots (happy)

This would be during shots (freaked out)

Why it is I do this

2010-04-11T19:48:00.000-07:00

Today, for the most part, has been all about Kenya. My team met for the third time today and I'm excited that we are really gelling as a group as we start to enter the "home stretch" in our trip preparation. We are having our team retreat two weekends from now and I'm looking forward to hearing everyones' stories.

It was also a day where I filled a number of envelopes and mailed out letters. Today was a 410 Bridge support deadline... which I hadn't met at the time I'm writing this blog (no fun). Ah, yes. All of us that have gone on mission trips know the feeling of the support raising exercise. I am one of those that don't like fundraising, I'll admit. However, during every trip the group that sponsors us both strongly encourages us and requires us to do this, so here I go again :-). Honestly, I do get why I do this... meaning the painstaking work of raising funds and prayer support for being sent out on these missions. And I wanted to tell you why it is I do this.

- I get to tell my friends about what God has called me to do on these trips, and it really gets me to examine my heart and prayerfully communicate. Especially this year, there is a sense in my life where I feel "called" to Africa and I want to share it. The support raising effort gives me that outlet, and it seems like the more I talk about Africa now the more God is giving me a heart for Africa.

- It gives people an opportunity to participate in the work, even if they can't hop on a plane and go. This is something I get a sense of when I support my friends on their mission trips... I read their stories and see the pictures from their work and know that I had a part in making that happen. I also want others to share in the same joy with my work.

- It causes me to rely on God. This is the most important part of this effort, as God always uses people that are surrendered and dependent on Him. He never uses "independent" people to accomplish His will, but instead those that realize their need for God to come through. Nothing really prepares me like support raising for these trips.

Especially in such a crazy economy like this. I was having lunch with a team member (Jonathan Maxwell) a few weeks ago and we were talking about this. One thought that came out was that it would be really cool if the support we received were small gifts by a LOT of our friends, because in reality my goal in this whole thing is to allow you, my friends, to have ownership in my ministry. In fact, if 400 people all gave $10, not only would I reach my goal (and exceed it) but I'd have 400 people spurring me on, praying for me, and motivating me to get on my knees for Africa knowing I have an army of folks behind me. I think that would be just plain cool.

In fact, if you've reached this blog and believe in bringing relief and the good news of God's love to Africa, I would encourage you to join my team and give $10. It's really easy... just follow the link below and give, send a note if you would like, and I'll add you to my news list so that you can know how to pray for me.

https://www.my410bridge.org/pledge/index/chriswillis96

Of course, you don't have to give just $10, but it's that kind of perspective (the perspective that I want you to join me in the mission of reaching out to Africa) that I want to set. I hope that many will join the cause... and that perhaps God may call you to join the cause - to give, to pray, and perhaps eventually to go.

Growing Up without Growing Old

2010-03-27T09:18:00.000-07:00

I'm about to turn 29 again in a week. I can't tell you how many times I've turned 29, but I can tell you that I'm turning 29 again in a week ;-)

It seems to me that birthdays and New Years are good times to reflect on your life over the past year and assess where I am, where I want to be, and what I would like to change. It also marks another year of growing into maturity and wisdom, which I hope that I can look back at the last 29 and say that I grew wiser and closer to Christ in the process.

But I never want to "grow old." I think that there's a difference there. Growing up is maturing, learning how to make wiser choices, reflecting more of who God designed me to be. Growing old is settling, thinking that I've learned it all, experienced it all, and have no more need to grow. This is pretty undesirable for me... and honestly I can't imagine that it'd be very desirable for anyone.

For starters, we are living in a world created by an infinite, unimaginable, and incredibly glorious God who the Bible itself says made this stuff for our enjoyment (1 Tim 6:17). And travelers, artists, and explorers alike know that there is always something new to learn, something interesting to discover, and interesting people to meet. What's really impressed me lately reading the letters of Paul is his incredibly rich network of relationships that he cultivated on his travels and the fondness he felt when he remembers the gatherings of believers in the cities he writes to. He stayed true to the Gospel and his mission, but he never settled in reaching out to people, which I find admirable. Read the last chapter of Romans and you get a sense of the value Paul placed on his "peeps" in the churches he worked hard to build.

In addition, "growing old," I sometimes think is to "settle" in my relationship with Jesus Christ. Given what I know about relationships and how amazing HE is, I cannot think of a more tragic thing than to put God into a C-Dub sized box and to not allow Him to work outside of that box. I never want to lose my sense of awe for God. Heck, look at Moses - his awe for God grew by leaps and bounds and he was over 80!!!! So if it's good enough for ol' Mo, then at 29 it should be good enough for me.

So - you may ask... that's great and all but how are you going to do it?

One goal I have is, whenever I travel for business that I attempt to do at least one interesting "local" thing in the city I'm working in. This isn't always possible with a busy schedule but so far I've managed to work something in.
I tried a new food this year... Vietamese Pho. I'm starting to get a little hooked.
I'm serving with a great group of individuals (nicknamed BEST KENYA TEAM EVER) on a 410 Bridge Service Mission trip to Nggamba, Kenya in June. I'm pumped about this trip for a couple of reasons... First, I'm excited about getting to assist a region of the world that desperately needs basic necessities like basic medicine, education, and clean water to have their needs met. Second: I want to see God work in this community as I've heard from many of my friends who have gone out to Nggamba before me. I'd love to tell you more, and have you support me in this work if you're inclined :-)... check out my 410 Bridge "site" to read a little more. https://www.my410bridge.org/pledge/index/chriswillis96... oh yeah... I'm not looking forward to that Yellow Fever shot but I suppose that's part of the adventure.
I'm sure that there are others... basic spontaneity has it's perks :-). But that's a little snippet.

So - what are you doing to be sure that you never "grow old" in your growing up?

What's pushing your worship button?

2010-03-21T12:11:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, I was out at Taco Mac with a buddy of mine watching a little hoops action It's the opening weekend of "the dance" as you know, and Thursday was a great day to see a slew of upsets. Because it was a "school night," we didn't watch any of the late games, but made sure to see the end of Washington vs. Marquette.

At the end of the game, the entire place erupted when the Huskies put in the game winning basket with less than 3 seconds left to play. We were pumped.... and for most of us it wasn't likely even OUR team (I'm watching MY team play in a few hours).

After getting my juices going from some great basketball action, this thought popped in my head...

You know, this is what worship looks like.

A few weeks ago, the kids in UpStreet learned about the story where David danced before the LORD when they brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. King David made a fool of himself, not a kingly thing, because in his heart he was thrilled that the Ark, which was literally where the presence of God resided in their world, was back among the people where it belonged. It was as if he was a Duke fan who just witnessed the Christian Laettner shot vs. UK for the first time. God showed up... God revealed Himself... and David's reaction was reckless, abandoned worship.

I got to thinking, we all get our "worship buttons" pushed. I know I do. When A&M wins a big game in a dramatic fashion (I'm hoping this afternoon's game is pretty locked down and not so dramatic though :) ). When a girl that I really like says "yes" when I ask her out. When I finish a big race (or complete my registration for a big race as I just did for the Peachtree). When I am out hiking and see magnificent beauty in creation. You know it when it's there... because the emotion flares up and you can't help but get fired up. When we see something great (or wrong) happen around the things that we value a lot, it causes a reaction, doesn't it?

These things are all well and good, but I have to ask myself: "Does God push my 'worship button' more than these things?"

Do I get that feeling, as David did, when God shows up in my life? He is absolutely greater and more worthy of worship than college sports, nature, and girls combined. And it's a wonder to me sometimes, considering how much He's done for us, that our churches lack the energy that is at every Georgia Bulldogs football game on a given Saturday. If our God has moved heaven and earth to rescue His lost creation, including you and I, how come we aren't more jazzed in our worship experiences?

I can't talk on a blog quite about how Jesus has rocked my world, but He has... and I love it. I honestly don't "get" how you can be in the presence of God and not be moved. But that's me. I've experienced the grace of God firsthand and I really believe that when you truly do you can't help but be unguarded in your worship. It's actually pretty cool... I won't lie.

This was my thought for the week. So, I'll ask you....

Is God pushing your worship button?

If not, what is?

Because we are all created to worship something. When it (or he/she) pushes your worship button, you'll know what it is :-).

What conclusions would you arrive at?

2010-03-09T03:15:00.000-08:00

This week preparing for small group, I read something that Francis Chan said in his book "Crazy Love" which really got me thinking, in addition to some thoughts from my Theopraxis class a few weeks ago.

The thought is this: If I was trapped on a desert island, and all I had to feed my thinking and my knowledge of God and life was the Bible. No commentaries, no other books, no teachers, no systems of theology. All I had was what was written in that book... and I read it without anything anchoring my thoughts... what conclusions would I come up with?

Add another thought: If I read Paul's letters as if I was a citizen of Ephesus, Rome, Galatia, Phillipi, etc., and did not have a systematic theology to break apart what Paul was saying (it may not be too hard to get that idea... watching Spartacus or Gladiator may be enough to at least put your mind into that of the late 1st Century Roman world) and I didn't have the letter broken up into chapters & verses (because they didn't arrive to their readers that way), would I reach the same conclusions that I arrived at through what I was taught? If you read it as if you were a 12 year old that has never heard one of {insert your favorite teacher or your pastor's name here} talks before, what would change about your thinking?

I would hope that it would confirm some things... especially if you have had the privelege of having great teachers in your life. But I do think that in all of our cases, especially in America, we would have our thinking challenged and that's a good thing. The $64,000 question then is: what do we do with that?

Grace - one of my favorite things

2010-03-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

I just got my CDs from the Passion 2010 talks this last week - I have started to listen to a few of them and I am completely stuck on this one story that Francis Chan tells during his session talk...

He tells this story about a time when his oldest daughter comes home having just gotten an "F" on a test in school. Like in my growing up, bad grades were unacceptable for her and the news of failing a test would bring unfun consequences. So after Francis gets home, she shows him the test and asks what is going to happen to her. And during what was probably an ultimate in teachable moments in her life, her dad (who is recounting this story to us) says....

I'm going to take you out to dinner...
Then we'll go out to a movie.
Then I'll take you out for ice cream.

Because I want you to experience... grace.

Quite unexpected, huh? Francis told us that when she got to school the next day that she told the story and her friends responded like any normal kid who heard of a such a thing... "I want your dad."

Because most of them wouldn't ever get that. They'd get what they deserved. Probably locked in their room for hours of study sessions. Definitely not going out to dinner, and no ice cream.

You may ask me why I get so excited when I worship.... I'm sure the 4th and 5th graders I sing in front of every Sunday probably think I'm nuts. And yes, I am one of "those people" that raise their hands in worship, and I'm not ashamed to admit that. And honestly, it's not because I'm trying to be spiritual or something.

It's because I've got an "F" on my life test, and I took it to Jesus and admitted my failure, and He responded by giving me...

Unending friendship
Blessings beyond measure
Friends who amaze me
Wise people who challenge me
Eternal Life
Love
Peace I can't explain
Freedom

It's as if He's told me... I think I'll take you out to your favorite restaurant. After that we'll go see your favorite movie and then we'll grab some German chocolate cake at the Dessert Factory (my favorite dessert).

It's not at all what I deserve. But, this is what He's given me. It's taken being broken to see it... but I wouldn't trade it at all because it took being broken to open my eyes to grace.

And it's why I still, even after over 20 years of being a follower of Christ I still get giddy when I sing certain songs, read certain passages, and get stunned by the amazingness of my Savior.

I love grace. I love it a lot... and I'm glad to have a lot of it. I hope that, too, that others will see it in my life and say...

"I want your God."

That would make me happy.

We're not alone

2010-03-07T18:46:00.000-08:00

Had to share the song that we finished up at Buckhead Church on Sunday... good song & great message.

Lyrics:

Why are you striving these days
Why are you trying to earn grace
Why are you crying
Let me lift up your face
Just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love
Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough
To where will you go child
Tell me where will you run
To where will you run

And I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life
I want to give you life

----------------

Cause I, I love you
I want you to know
That I, I love you
I'll never let you go

And I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Life's Too Short

2010-02-25T10:04:00.000-08:00

Going into Caribou Coffee the other day, I noticed that they had some really cool new napkins that looked like the "back of the napkin" writing that you'd do if you were noodling some ideas over a coffee. It was really neat. One of them said: "Life's Too Short For" and then lists a few things on their list. I have a list too, because life is too short for:

- Worrying about stuff
- Letting past failures rule your life
- Complaining
- Living not knowing that you're where God meant you to be
- Bad Mexican food
- Not living in community with peeps you enjoy spending time with
- Image management
- Withholding love from others
- Staying inside on really fantastic days
- Waiting to pursue your dreams
- Procrastinating on living out God's potential for your life
- Bad movies

I'm sure there are more. Feel free to comment.

How are the Pharisees doing?

2010-02-07T11:59:00.000-08:00

Last night and this morning, I had an opportunity to hear John Ortberg speak at Buckhead Church to a small group leader training and then at church this morning. He was talking about some of the thoughts from his new book "The me I want to be" - and how it relates to how we approach our lives and our transformation into the people that God uniquely created us to be. What's really cool is that at the re:group small group leader training, we all got a copy of the book for ourselves and now I really want to digest it.

There were a lot of thoughts that Ortberg said during those two sessions that are resonating with me, but one that is especially ringing is this thought about grace-based transformation (or sanctification if you're using "churchy" terms to talk about this) and how grace is as much required for us to be transformed into the people God designed us to be as it is to initially rescue us from a life separated from God. And then he talked about the questions we ask to assess "How am I doing spiritually?" and how often we ask questions that if we were to survey a room of people with those questions that we'd find that the people that would be considered "Pharisees" in Jesus' day would come out on top when we conducted a spiritual maturity census.

You know... questions like
- Are you having your quiet time every day?
- How well do you know the Bible?
- How's your church attendance/are you in a good Bible study?
- Are you tithing 10 percent?

Now, there's nothing wrong with any of these things... In fact, these are some great things to include in your life if you are seeking to grow in your relationship with God. However, if you asked a Pharisee about how he (or she) is doing, then they're going to probably look better than most of the rest of us, and yet when Jesus looked into their lives He had nothing good to say.

So... to quote something else John Ortberg said this morning:

"We have to define spiritual growth in such a way that the Pharisees do not win." Because if we look at many of the systems that we adhere to, they almost indefinitely would. Jesus said it this way: "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:20)

So what was the Pharisees' deal? It was all about what you did do and didn't do. What you participated in and what you abstained from. While it looked internal and talked a pretty good game about the internal, in reality it was all about external works you did to try to gut out righteousness on your own and attempt to be better than the next guy. These guys weren't happy... and trying to keep up with their long list of rules wasn't producing much good fruit out of them. In fact, if you read between the lines when you read the gospels, you would get the impression that they were a pretty miserable (but externally righteous) group of people. They had a system set up that if they followed the rules better than the majority of folks, then they could feel pretty good about themselves, except there's that "how good is good enough?" question so it creates (or can create) this never ending circle of frustration.

As a recovering Pharisee myself, I can tell you from my own story that doesn't produce the kind of life that God describes as the life He wants to give us.

A life that looks like Jesus. Think about what that would look like. Would it look like what we see in most of our churches, singles' Bible study classes, small groups, and ministries in America? Read the gospels and ask yourself if Jesus's life looks like what we see in our churches today. Do you think He was ever stressed out over having to conform to an expansive set of rules?

So - there's got to be a definition of spiritual maturity that does not allow the Pharisees to come out on top. In that assessment, what questions do you think you would ask?

Here are some questions that I ask myself... maybe they're still a little pharisee-ish in nature but I'm a work in progress:
- What has God been showing/teaching me lately?
- Is my personality centered around the fact that Jesus loves me?
- Am I a blessing to other people or am I using them to meet my own needs?
- Are my emotions stirred when I hear God's word or a worship song or am I just going through the motions?
- How big are the external things in my life compared to knowing Christ?

You may have some different questions... but I'm sure that if your spirituality is being evaluated like the Pharisees evaluated theirs, then some of these questions wouldn't make your list. Maybe some would, but I'm not perfect. But the critical thing that rescues us from Pharisee-esque legalism is a realization of our complete dependence on grace for everyday life and our running to that well often. That's what was missing... they thought they would make this thing work through doing the right things. It was never about allowing God to work in their lives to create a new life within them, which made the things that Jesus talked about seem crazy because they are things that we'd never do naturally.

That's what makes grace so amazing. And it's probably why that, if you were to meet someone who was truly living out this life, not perfectly but you could see this joy, peace, etc. radiate from him or her, you would meet someone that was aware that they did not produce it themselves and were completely in awe of the God who took their old broken life and replaced it with something very amazing. And when that happens and we take notice of it in our own lives, it drives us to humility and worship because we know that we got a gift and we couldn't make this happen ourselves.

Because keeping a list of disciplines, as good as having disciplines are, cannot ultimately transform our lives. They can only make us more disciplined. While that's a great thing, I'm betting that when we are really honest we ultimately want more than that.

Miniscus

2010-01-27T03:30:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a short blog this morning. I am finally going in for surgery on my knee on Friday to repair a torn miniscus that I injured a week before the Silver Comet Half Marathon that I was supposed to run. I appreciate your prayers and notes of encouragement :-)

I'm looking forward to being on the other side and back on the trails. I've already got plans in place to run the first LA Rock & Roll 1/2 Marathon in October... it should be fun.

Texas Aggie Football - Why I'm Optimistic

2010-01-23T10:16:00.000-08:00

After watching my beloved Aggies get shellacked by a subpar 2009 Georgia Bulldog football team sans D.C. in a toilet bowl, you would you think that I'd be ready to jump off a ledge. Well, perhaps then I was pretty upset, but "jump off a ledge upset?" Not so much.

My friend in Austin whom I was watching the game with was a little more so... the only mistake I made was allowing him to use my TexAgs account to berate our coaching staff and risk my account being tagged as a troll and getting banned for life. Fortunately, the latter didn't happen. Can't say so much for the former. But that's okay, when you love your friends you let them sometimes act out. Don't you? ;-)

After seeing the state of Aggie football over the last month since that poorly executed football game in Shreveport, I have a lot of reasons for optimism and yes, faith in Coach Sherman. We'll see if that plays out but looking at what's going on behind the scenes I think we're not only going to be "just fine," but we'll be very successful.

First off is the Defense, hardly a strength of our team last year.

Last year, we were ranked #105 out of 119 teams in FBS. After the Independence (toilet) Bowl, Joe Kines retired, making way for the newly hired D.C. Tim DeRuyter, who turned around Air Force's defense from a poor 78th ranked unit to the #11 defense nationally. Those stats are not an indicator that he's going to turn this ragtag group into the "Wrecking Crew" of the 80's and 90's, but he brings the attitude and philosophy that made those defenses great. Gary Patterson, TCU head coach, denoted that DeRuyter's AFA defenses "hunted together" and DeRuyter himself said that he wants a team who goes into every game "ready to rip someone's head off." (not literally) - that kind of a killer instinct in a defense is what we need if we are going to return to being the Wrecking Crew again. Come to think of it, isn't that the attitude that Bo Pelini brought to return Nebraska's defense, which was very porous under Callahan, back to the glory of the Blackshirts that played for Tom Osborne?

In addition, DeRuyter has a lot of raw material to work with. If you look at the depth chart of the 2009 Texas A&M defense, 9 players on the 2-deep chart and 2 starters were either true or redshirt freshmen. This can explain why they could play lights out and shut down Texas Tech's spread (so to speak, holding them to 30 is an accomplishment for any team), and the previous week get a 62 point egg dropped on them from a less talented Kansas State team. These players bring to A&M what has been missing in the disasterous FranPhoney years: Team Speed (which is something you need when defending a lot of pass-happy offenses every week). These guys will get better as they get stronger and learn the game... a good mentor like DeRuyter can only help them more.

And you wonder why FBS sack leader Von Miller, who is being projected as a second-to-third round pick in the NFL Draft, is staying in Aggieland for his senior season? :-)

And then there's the offense:

Did you know? Our top four recruits committed for 2010 are Offensive Lineman? All four stars. All blue chip potential. One of them, Luke Joeckel (6'6" 280#), has already signed a Letter of Intent and is going to be on campus for spring workouts. Our OL hasn't been great since the final years of the Slocum era, but we can see that Mike Sherman, who rose through the ranks as the Offensive Line coach under Slocum in the glory days, is committed to winning in the trenches and opening up Mack Truck sized holes for our already good stable of skill players like Christine Michael (who we all know is a stud). I can almost guarantee that at least one of these OL recruits will start in 2010 (in fact, we had one Fish OL as a starter on the depth chart in 2009) and most will make the two deep roster (as Sherman unlike Fran doesn't believe in automatic redshirting... he is just going to put the best players on the field).

Just wait till this talented group gains some experience and is blocking for Michael in his junior season... look out Big 12! Not only that, Tannehill, who will take over for Jarrod Johnson at QB, will have a seasoned group to lead, a darn good line in front of him, and an experienced defense with good team speed on the other side of the ball. It could be a special year for A&M. I don't think next year could be too bad either, we will make strides on defense as the "kiddie corps" matures and hopefully embraces DeRuyter's philosophy and the old Fran regime offensive lineman graduate and are replaced completely with Sherm's guys. Johnson will be a senior and will return every skill guy on offense and that chemistry can propel the Ags to improving on what was already a great offense last year.

Aggie Football's future can be really good... it just needs to now happen in the weight room, in practice, and on the field. We have the pieces in place - now we have to go make it happen.

Labels and Ingredient Lists

2010-01-21T04:03:00.000-08:00

I am reading through this book by Francis Chan for small group... you may have heard about "Crazy Love." Can I tell you... this is a challenging book. I'm loving it, but it's not a comfortable book for me to read.

I read through the chapter "Serving Leftovers to a Holy God" this morning, and as a person that has been in food marketing and a guy that is really trying to eat healthy one of the analogies he used really got me thinking.

Francis was talking about a bag of potato chips he ate, which on the front of the bag in big bold letters touted "Zero Grams Trans Fat" - as if to denote that these chips are not bad for you. As we now know, trans fat is really bad for you it obviously should be avoided if you want to live a healthy life. I was interning in the marketing department at a big packaged rice company in Houston when the news about trans fats came out and that the FDA would start requiring that trans fats be listed on the nutritional information. It was a good thing... and it got all of the nutritional analysts and food marketers running at a fast pace for a while back in '04/'05 as the new informational guidelines were being rolled out.

However, if you have seen the Smart Balance margarine ads, you know that "Zero Grams" is not necessarily zero grams. Apparently, the regulations allow the food companies to round down and there is a minimum acceptable amount of hydrogenated (or partially hydrogenated) oil that is allowed in a product in which it can continue to be marketed as "zero grams." Same thing with the bag of chips that Francis was writing about... when he turned the bag around and read the ingredients list, he found a lot of stuff like "Yellow Dye #3," some stuff that you'd have to have attended Mister Bill's chemistry tutorial at A&M (Aggie Fish Engineering students will get this reference) to know what they are, and "partially hydrogenated oil" (aka - trans fat). You see, the attractive packaging on the front of the bag told one story... the ingredient list (in small print where you have to look for it... this is required by government regulations) told a different story.

Are our lives the same way? I confess that there's a little bit (perhaps a lot) of chemistry list items, high fructose corn syrup, and hydrogenated oil type of items in the ingredient list of my life, while on the outside shining out labels like "Goes to Buckhead Church," "Mission Trip guy," "MBA," "Knows the Bible," etc. But God isn't looking at, or interested in, the packaging claims... He's going straight for the ingredient list. When He sees it, how much love, grace, mercy, passion for the glory of God, zeal for His Kingdom, etc. will He find? And will He find it at the top of the list or at the end?

The reality, and grace of the matter is that whatever's in my life that is produced by the Spirit of God "Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, etc." is there because God put in there as a result of my giving my life over to Him. The chemistry list... that's what me apart from Christ put there. This is very freeing and convicting at the same time, because the degree to which my ingredient list looks like Christ is a direct reflection on the degree that I am wholeheartedly giving Christ control of my life and what goes in and out of it.

So today, Jesus, I give you my life today... create in me what you want to create. Make me more like you today.

Single guy cooking tips

2010-01-16T10:10:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago, I made one of the best cheap purchases at Target that I've made in a while. $20 has changed my life - in the form of a waffle iron that I use very religiously now.

It's easy to clean. Simple to use. And it just sits on my counter and calls my name in the morning. And the results are really awesome...

I made this waffle out of Trader Joe's multigrain baking and pancake mix and frozen fresh blueberries from Publix. I got the fiber, the antioxidants, and the yummy goodness all in one plate. It's awesome.

Now you're probably asking, where do you have time to make this great waffle batter every morning? The answer... I don't have to, but the waffle mix is pretty easy to put together. I picked up an interesting tip from an article on reusing consumables and one tip that they gave I thought was pure genius. They recommended repurposing a Heinz ketchup bottle as a waffle batter dispenser, so I tried this and it works like a charm (it doesn't hurt that I love ketchup). So, I have about 4 waffles worth of batter in a recently finished ketchup bottle

and now all I have to do is get the batter bottle, spray on some non-stick on my Oster waffle maker, pour, make my coffee, and go.

And as a single guy with a busy life, I love finding great ways to live healthy & convenient, and create margin.

And by the way, I did try that "Batter blaster" product when I originally bought my waffle iron and it is UN-worthy. There is so much air in that batter that it makes very substandard waffles. If you care about quality, don't buy that stuff - even though the spray on thing I have to admit is pretty cool.

Lane Kiffin

2010-01-13T10:04:00.000-08:00

Did I call it or did I call it? In my October 2009 blog about Lane Kiffin at Tennessee, I called out this guy as "unworthy."
http://cdubsmusings.blogspot.com/2009/10/worthy-and-unworthy.html

Yesterday, Kiffin solidified that position. One year, and a 7-6 (4-4 SEC) record, and Lane Kiffin and his daddy are bolting from Rocky Top after getting beaten like a stepchild by the Florida Gators, whom Lane Kiffin won't ever be getting to beat the Hell outta because he's LEAVING. For... USC.

Nevermind that Pete Carroll is bolting that program now that he has to compete with Rick Neiuhesel for recruits and the coaching talent pool in the Pac 10 has greatly improved. I wonder if Southern Cal is going to want him back after tanking another NFL stint (did you see what he didn't do with the talent that Bill Belicheck had won 3 Super Bowls with in New England?). Pete Carroll... definitely unworthy. You should have stayed in school.

And Lane... I can continue to dis you and like the Vols, because a coach with a LOT more class is going to be taking over. And I'm happy you're at a school that I dislike as much as you (boo to the University of Spoiled Children). As for the Vols, I'm hearing some rumors of Will Muschamp... he'd be a STEAL for Tennessee (much better than the Horns stealing weak take Chris Simms from Rocky Top in the 11th hour recruiting wars a few years back)

As for the players you left, I hope that you (unlike Pete) didn't notify them of your departure with a text message.

My favorite memory from Passion 2010

2010-01-12T19:30:00.000-08:00

Monday night.

Being led by the Hillsong worship team.

Thousands of students

Hands raised

Voices united

Passionately focused

Singing to the One who is worthy of our lives

In one voice. In one accord


So I’ll stand
With arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all
So I’ll stand
My soul Lord to You surrendered
All I am is Yours

More fun than a barrel of monkeys

2010-01-08T20:02:00.000-08:00

Today was fun. I say that loosely.

For those not living in Atlanta, today may have been the coldest and iciest day I've had since I've moved here. The high was somewhere around 25-26 degrees and it stayed in the teens for most of the day. The coldest I've ever experienced in a place where I lived was second year at Indiana where the high reached only 16 degrees.

But, that's Bloomington, Indiana. They know how to deal with snow and ice there. Atlanta, Georgia... not so much.

When I left my place to drive (so I thought) to the gym, I discovered that I was a prisoner to a 50 foot streak of black ice in my community's parking lot.... in front of my car. This became very real when I got into it and had the gas to the floor, my speedometer reading 45 mph, and the car not going anywhere. The skidding and spinning sound added to the effect. I was stuck. What was frustrating was that my freedom was 50 feet away in the form of dry pavement, but alas my car couldn't get there.

This would be okay, but I had a long-awaited orthopedic appointment with Dr. Wertheim this morning. So I called a cab company to get me driven out to St. Joseph's for the appointment... one hour later, the cab arrived and took me out there. Fortunately, I did get to my appointment and got the prognosis on my knee... surgery is coming soon but fortunately it is the kind that will have a quick recovery. I should find out specifics soon when the MRI is completed and I have the surgical appointment.

45 minutes after my appointment, I finally arrive home (due to a short supply of good cabs) and find that my car is still in it's icy purgatory, at which point I called into work and officially was working from home for the day... which was all good because most of the work day was conference calls with my colleagues in Seattle. It was a productive day.

The great news is that, for some reason the black ice receded to a place where I was able to get my car "out of jail" around 5 this evening and managed to, after a few rounds of spinning, drive out and into the dry pavement. There was great rejoicing (well, not really... but one neighbor came out to see the attempt).

The story does have a happy ending... my plans fell through tonight so I called a few friends to see what was going on and ended up going to Martini's and IMAX with a group of friends tonight and seeing the Wild Ocean video there. It was cool... especially seeing these birds dive-bombing the ocean in search of sardines.

Good times.

And yes... I did park my car far away from the "black ice zone" tonight when I got home :-)

This is what it's all about

2009-12-25T13:16:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone! :-)

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' " From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known."

- The Gospel of John (John 1:1-18)

Buddy the Elf may be onto something (Part 2)

2009-12-24T13:02:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas Eve. Santa's coming tonight....

SANTA!!!!! I know him.

I couldn't resist. I've had a lot of fun with Buddy the Elf this Christmas season. I'm going to miss him.

I wrote earlier that Buddy the Elf was onto something when it came to worship. Santa was coming. It was a ginormous deal, and by golly he was going to make sure that everything in that store was first class and ready for the big man's arrival. In the same way, are we giving Jesus the King of Kings and redeemer of our lives that kind of energy from our own lives?

But not only that, I think Buddy may be onto something else.

When "Santa" arrives to the Macy's department store, Buddy has all of his expectations built up and wants to reunite with his long-lost friend from the North Pole. However, when Buddy sees the fat man sitting on the throne, he is sorely disappointed because...

"Who are you? You aren't Santa!"

Of course, Buddy didn't "get" that stores in malls all across America get guys to dress up as Santa to attract customers to their stores during this season. All he knew was that he was expecting the real deal and this yahoo isn't Santa.

So, Buddy has an argument with this guy... in front of a bunch of kids.

"So what did I sing for you on your birthday?"

"How can you live with yourself? You sit on a throne of lies."

"You stink. You smell like beef and cheese. You don't smell like Santa."

All of this drama reaches its climax with Buddy pulling the beard off this guy, yelling "ITS A FAKE! ITS A FAKE!," getting into a brawl with the Santa impostor and eventually finding himself in jail.

Okay - Buddy didn't get it. He didn't act in a socially responsible manner, either (but he made us all laugh) :-). But, what he DID get was that he knew Santa and this joker wasn't him, and Buddy wasn't going to put up with it.

Buddy knew that the Santa on the "throne of lies" was a fake not because he had been trained to point out fake mall Santas, but because he hung out and was intimate with the real deal. Santa wasn't a category or a character to be believed in to Buddy; Santa was a person he had a relationship with. It didn't take him too long to spot a fake when he knew by instinct what the real Santa was like.

The same thing goes for us with Jesus. Let's be honest, there are a lot of fake Jesus's being talked about in our culture and a lot of things being attributed to Jesus that aren't really things that Jesus would be about. In our culture, we can do the politically correct thing and accept that these different views of God may be valid (as... the mall Santa might be Santa, so let's not judge) -or- we can do the legalistic thing and take on falsehood like Buddy the Elf took on the mall Santa. I do think that both of these approaches are not helpful... challenging falsehood needs to be done in love in the context of a relationship with plenty of trust and authenticity.

However, could we actually discern what's real versus what's unreal if we don't really spend a lot of time with Jesus. I mean, Buddy HUNG OUT with Santa. And guess what, Jesus wants to hang out with us too... if we are in a relationship with Him based on his grace then we have access to intimacy with God (John 15:15). In light of that fact, it's kind of crazy to think that if we had access to something that cool that we wouldn't take advantage of it.

Having been in theological conversations before, I know from my experience that many discussions on what Jesus is REALLY like tends to focus more on theological talking points than the character of the person of Jesus or what He's done in our lives. Don't get me wrong... correct experience and correct doctrine must be married. However, if all we "know" (as in relationally know) Jesus by is our theology and our doctrines then we're a.) missing out of the life He intended for us, which is much better than anything we can ask or imagine, and b.) we can be drawn into something that's not entirely true because at some level the theological talking points tend to blur together. Relationship shows up in our lives and in our fruit... this is ultimately that is how Jesus told us that we could discern between "mall Christs" and Him.

The question is... are we living in relationship so that the fruit of relationship pours out of our lives, or are we strictly making sure our theology's correct? Buddy's "Santa theology" was correct, but married with relationship it became alive and powerful.

And while I will never advocate you doing anything that would make a scene and get you thrown in jail (Please don't :-) )... the question I would ask you especially if you know the truth and believe the right things is:

How is your relationship with Jesus going?

Because when you KNOW Him, it'll show... and you won't settle for a fake.

And that's what Buddy got.

Best and Worst Proposals

2009-12-20T13:28:00.000-08:00

I saw a tweet while waiting at Tin Lizzy's with some friends to sit down that made me both laugh and groan. Following the Texans progress this morning, this one tweet read that this couple got engaged at the Rams-Texans game on the jumbotron. I "laughed" because I am amused that any guy in their right mind actually thinks this is a good idea, and groaned because some poor girl (if she goes through and marries this guy) is going to have this memory etched into her mind as the single memory of the beginning of their marriage.

Of course, she may be that rare 5% of women that actually like sports that would think that a non-intimate proposal on a jumbotron at a major sporting event in front of 80,000 people that care more about who the Rams are going to get with their high draft pick than their relationship is a good idea. I would hope that, for her sake, that is the case. But chances are, should was probably hoping for another way of getting asked.

While this didn't get me thinking about what would make a great proposal (or a bad one), it did catch my attention. Seeing as though I'm in my 30's and single, I have heard a lot of engagement stories and have noodled over how I would propose when I'm ready. While I would not say how I would do it (partly because perhaps my future wife may read this blog), I do know that I would put a lot of thought and TLC into it. The way I look at it, this proposal is the event in which I will officially never date anyone else, so I want it to be something that she will always remember with fondness, and perhaps with a little laughter. There are many things in life more tragic than a mediocre proposal and a marriage is built on much more than a single event, but in my mind I want to do the event up in a way that will make her feel like the luckiest woman alive.... she deserves that.

It's easier to talk about a bad proposal, of course... because they are cliche. There's of course the "jumbotron/announcement board" sports event proposal, for reasons I've already talked about (and of course the pressure this puts on the girl). I would also put the over-the-top high-dollar restaurant proposal up there, not because it isn't romantic but because it's so... standard, and somewhat anti-climatic. I want this story in my own relationship to be a story that gets talked about - often - with laughter and amazement, and I can't imagine a Saturday night at the Rainbow Lodge doing that, personally.

Those really are the only two "standard and cliche" proposals that I can think of. If you're reading this and put "Will You Marry Me?" on the jumbotron or dropped $400 in a great coat-and-tie dinner and proposed during dessert, I hope you're not offended :-). It's just me... in one sense I know that this is a one-time experience, both for me and her, and as a "hopeless romantic" I would like to do something that no other guy (or no other guy I know) would do, and that would be talked about for a long, long time. Given that I've had a lot of friends wow their now-wives, I have a lot to live up to. When it's my turn (and she says "yes"), I'll have to tell the story, but until then I'll keep you (and me) wondering what I'll do.

I do love hearing stories, so I'd love to hear some of my married friends' stories.

Unless you proposed at a football game :-) - but knowing most of you I don't think that's the case.

This is why I do what I do on Sundays :-)

2009-12-17T15:29:00.001-08:00

Good times!

Wouldn't you want to serve in a ministry to kids that's THIS cool?

Buddy the Elf may be onto something (Part 1)

2009-12-16T19:06:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, I hosted a dinner party for a group of friends where the menu contained something from the four "elf" food groups (candy, candy canes, candy corns, and.... syrup). The menu was actually quite good and the movie was of course hilarious.

It's also the only Will Ferrell movie that I'd allow my nieces to see without reservation.

The way that Buddy, the human raised by Christmas elves, acts in the movie is in many ways absurd. However, there is one scene that really got me thinking that Buddy the Elf has some great insight into something that many of us pass over at least once a week.

There is a scene where Buddy the Elf finds himself in the "North Pole" section of the "Macy's" department store, and the store manager walks in and announces to the store that they are closing and to be sure to get there tomorrow because "Santa's coming tomorrow"

And of course, if you've seen the scene, you know that Buddy goes nuts. He's excited as all get out.

The cute blonde girl he meets in the store isn't quite as jazzed about this. She's anxious to leave and get through another day (and realizes that it's not really Santa coming). Buddy doesn't see it this way... SANTA is coming to town and there is work to be done to be prepared for the big man's arrival. And the design and welcome package he prepares (courtesy of some of the items for sale in the store) is breathtaking.

We laugh, because it is ridiculous and Will Ferrell is a very funny guy. But it also got me thinking that Buddy the Elf was onto something... Santa coming town was a really, really, really big deal and he wasn't going to miss it. He knew how big and important this new visitor was and he was going to do everything in his power to make sure that everything was prepared.

This seems very different from the way a lot of us approach church.

Wait, where do you go from Buddy the Elf and Santa Claus to "church?"

Well, I've been in church world for a while now, and from my experience many of us approach church with a "oh whatever" attitude like the cute blonde girl or with a "I'm here doing my thing" attitude like the manager of the Macy's store there. But here's the deal... whenever a group of Christians get together in the name of Jesus... JESUS says that he's going to show up (Matthew 18:20). And... JESUS is much bigger (and more real) than Santa Claus. If we really "got" how huge a deal that is, we'd probably be as emotionally and physical engaged as Buddy the Elf was at Macy's when we get to church. We're in the presence of holiness, awesomeness, power, and grace all rolled up into One and if that doesn't make us happy then perhaps it's time to check where our heart is. Just saying.

Because as goofy and fun to laugh at as it was, when it came down to knowing when to get excited in the presence of someone who should be revered in a fictional sense he was spot on. Can we get very excited in a real sense when the authentic hope and joy of our lives is physically with us and actively at work in our lives?

I may actually learn to make those paper snowflakes.

To know your name

2009-12-08T19:38:00.000-08:00

The precious blood of Jesus Christ redeems
Forgiven I'm alive restored set free
Your majesty resides inside of me
Forever I believe
Forever I believe
Arrested by Your truth and righteousness
Your grace has overwhelmed my brokenness
Convicted by Your spirit led by Your word
Your love will never fail
Your love will never fail

[c]
I know You gave
The word Your only Son for us
To know Your name
To live within the Saviour's love
He took my place
Knowing He'd be crucified
And You loved
You loved a people undeserving

He is the everlasting God

2009-12-08T03:36:00.000-08:00

Our God, You reign forever
Our hope, our Strong Deliverer
You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint
You won't grow weary

You're the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on wings like eagles

Hope and Hopelessness

2009-12-05T13:19:00.000-08:00

This morning, I was out with my small group at Lenox Mall helping Atlanta Union Mission raise awareness and donations through doing a free gift-wrapping service for shoppers at the mall. I will say that it was interesting having a gift-wrapping crew of 4 guys and a 7-year old boy there, but volunteer talent sometimes doesn't bring much talent.

My role, once we got started, was to stand at the main booth and drive traffic toward the gift wrapping area. In my station, there was a sign on the back with these words: "Hope for the Hopeless." I thought it was a good slogan for a ministry that rescues homeless people from the streets and puts them on a path to recovery and hope.

I had a lot of conversations with folks this morning, a lot of those looking for the food court, but the most interesting one I had was a guy that took some offense at this sign's words. He said basically that if they have hope, then they're not "hopeless." He started to talk about the term that his organization used to describe them as "People in Transition" and that nobody wants be called "hopeless."

While I agree in principle, that we need to avoid labeling people and groups negatively, I don't know if I'd agree philosophically about the reality of many folks that seek help from organizations like this. In fact, I'm sure that in reality the situations that many of them find themselves in would truly make them hopeless and helpless. Many people who find themselves on the street have a lot of cards stacked against them... no money, addictions, depression... it's not pretty. In many cases, they themselves would admit that their situation is indeed... hopeless.

So how did they get hope? First, they made strides to find help, but even more than that they received hope because someone stepped in the gap between their dire circumstances and recovery and gave them hope. That's what the people working day-after-day at Atlanta Union Mission do -- and now men, women, and children are off the street and have hope because they stood in the gap and worked on their behalf.

But they can only do so much. There is more work to be done. And yes, there are many on the streets that need someone or a group of someones to come and stand in the gap so that they can make a step toward hope. The question you can ask yourself is: What can I do to stand in the gap for one of them? Can you serve? Can you give? Can you invest time to mentor? There's so much that we can do, we just need to step out and do it.

And Christmas is a good time to start. After all, this is the season that we celebrate the moment in time when God stepped in the gap...

For you and for me.

Counter Productive?

2009-12-04T03:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I saw a billboard sign on the way to work on 285 that caught my attention.

It said: "Spouse Cheating?" and was inlaid with a graphic of a gigantic magnifying glass with some information to call a private investigator to spy on the supposedly cheating partner.

My first thought when I saw that was: Why would anyone that's in this situation that is truly interested in saving their marriage call someone like that? I'm pretty sure that if your goal is to reconcile that this would be the last thing on your mind.

I later thought that this was actually a good example of the kind of person that I read about in Romans 2 as I've been going through my quiet times there. This is the part that I'm thinking about:

"You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?" - Romans 2:1-4

The pushback, of course, to this whole discussion would be (assuming I'm talking to a guy friend here)... "Well, she's cheating. Or... I've heard she's cheating. I can't trust her! So I'm going to find out... and then if I'm right than she's got something coming to her." And you know, if you're in a marriage and your spouse has been unfaithful, then in a world of "you do to me and I'll do to you" tit-for-tat that would be a perfectly justified response.

But if you're (guys, swap for girls) expecting to have a conversation with her where her response to the tone of "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry... I know I've messed up and I want to work through our marriage. Please forgive me. I'll do whatever it takes... let's find a counselor and work this out." Which entry point is going to give you the most success in working towards restoration?

"Honey, I heard that..... I gotta know, and please know that whatever you've done, I still love you, have forgiven you, and want to work through this to be the kind of man to you that Christ has been to me." -or-

"I've got these pictures! Yeah, I hired an investigator. I know where you've been! Please explain yourself!"

Like the man in Romans 2, when someone in that situation pulls out the pictures, he did the same thing to her that she did to him. He betrayed the trust of his marriage. He acted in judgement toward her and while he didn't have the affair, isn't the act of going behind her back and getting someone to spy on her not just as betraying to the trust of his marriage? Yeah, he may have been in the right, but is he.. really?

And if you and I were in this circumstance would say "Yeah, but... she cheated," or "Yeah, but... she promised to be faithful to me and she wasn't" or "yeah, but... I wasn't the one who slept around." And you know what, we may possibly be justified in that. There is only one problem.

That's NOT what God did to us.

If God just simply watched us to continue on in our sinfulness and allowed us to all go to Hell, then our "Yeah, buts" when it comes to forgiveness would be justified. But he didn't do that did he?

What He did do was that he stepped into our situation, put His Son up on the cross to pay for our sins and invites us into an eternal, blissful relationship with Him based on that gianormous sacrifice Jesus paid for us and His perfection... he did for us what the family in The Blind Side (a true story, btw) did for Michael Oher. They invited him out of the slums and into their family. He accepted their invitation and received the privilege of being "in the family." And when you really think about what God did for us, you and I really don't have much excuse to, when we've been betrayed, act in judgement but instead we should do for them what Christ has done for us. We show mercy, because we have ourselves if we know Christ have been shown a LOT of mercy.

And you know what is also true? This works even in healthy marriages. The people I know that are in healthy, vibrant marriages know how hard that relationship is to maintain are are intentional both in investing in the relationship and making sure that trust issues are communicated, dealt with, and mutually forgiven when they are small. Dating and continuing to invest in and pursue your wife is not always easy... life gets busy, especially when kids are in the mix, but it's the only way to keep the fire alive. None of us is perfect (aren't you glad :-) ).

Additionally, there is really nothing that, when you think about the extent of grace we've received, that can't be forgiven. It's all about perspective. So what is really more important: To be RIGHT? -or- To live in community and relationship?

One way may give you a good leg to stand on but very lonely. The other way may require some humbling and not always feel good, but I think you may find yourself happier at the end of the day :-)

A while back, I found this was true of myself. I can speak from experience that judgementalism does nothing to endear you to other people and even less to draw you closer to God. In fact, it does just the opposite. When I realized that I needed to let go and forgive, what I found was that I was the person that was freed and that I could then receive in my heart the mercy that God has given me. He has invited me to live in the mansion of His grace, and now I can live there freely and without guilt. It's a good place to be.

And I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Sights and Sounds of the South

2009-11-29T12:35:00.000-08:00

This blog is a tribute to my family Thanksgiving trip up to Wilkesboro, NC and the journey through western NC and north Georgia that brought us there...

I give you, sights and sounds of the South. What can you expect when you leave the Perimeter?

SIGHT: Lots of boiled peanut stands. If you didn't grow up in the South, then you probably didn't think you could boil a peanut, much less think that you'd want to.
SOUND: I kid you not, the Christmas song playing on the Western NC country station on the way back was "Santa's Got a Semi."
SIGHT: Way too much "Indian" (Native American) collectables in roadside junk stores. Who doesn't need a totem pole in their front yard to impress the neighbors?
SOUND: Listening to the man at the quickie mart who is trying to set the Guiness world record for most cigarettes smoked in a lifetime negotiate with the cashier.
SIGHT: Happy pigs on t-shirts advertising barbeque joints. Do they not know that they're on the menu?
SOUND: People who really believe they have to hold down their hand on their horns because you didn't hit the gas as soon as the light turns green. A slight tap would work just as good. Seriously.
SIGHT: Christmas tree farms lining the NC High Country. Very cool sight.
SOUND: NC Southern accents with a bit of a mountain tone. Hard to emulate online but cool to listen to.
SIGHT: Obama's "Cash for Clunkers" program, have no fear, did not manage to take all of the old cars off the road. There are plenty of "clunkers" left driving loud and proud.
SOUND: See above.
SIGHT: Good down home country cooking.
SOUND: (satisfaction)