I Don't Have A Plan But I'm Still Not George Bush

So, the frequently used Democratic line in the last election of "at least I'm not George Bush" seems to have notched up to the next level this year. Last night, I saw an ad for someone running for the mayor of Philadelphia, and his number 2 reason why people should vote for him was because "we need to let these two [pictures of Bush and Cheney pop up] know that they're accountable." Wow. I didn't realize that the President and Vice President of the United States actually had to report to the mayor of Philadelphia. That's fascinating considering they won't even listen to the UN.

Look, I disapprove of the current administration as much as the next guy, but I'm not going to vote for you for mayor simply because you don't like them either.

More Music

Committed to bringing you more music than MTV, this song has been going through my head the last few days.




Oh, and David previewed a song he is working on Saturday night. Sweet.

Congrats

Congrats to Red Sox fans everywhere in their World Series victory. Just think, there are some 3 year olds in Boston who had to wait their whole lives to see this.

Going Through The Valley

I want to give kudos to the one and only David Hynes who gave his first sermon message last night. He gave an excellent talk on going through the valley of the shadow of death but knowing that God is with you, has a direction for you and is guiding you there. I thought the message was an excellent balance of drawing on the authority of Scripture with the credibility of personal experience. Even a wayward microphone did not distract him and he spoke with a confidence and posture that made it seem like it was his 1ooth message and not his first. I found it to be a spiritually nourishing message for me personally. It was great to sit under the teaching of this gifted, mature and humble young man. Oh, and he also led the worship music and was rockin' out with that. Well done sir.

Sad Songs Say So Much

On the Falling Water trip, one of the questions from the question book was along the lines of "What song has the ability to move you to tears?" These are my two songs. What are yours?

Fascinating Verse

A little while back I came across this verse and it's been bouncing around my mind again the last few days:

"The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might . . . "

How do you think this verse ends? If you are not familiar with this particular passage, what would you guess it says? What is this focused purpose and intention of Christ?

And the answer is " . . . destroy the works of the devil." (1 John 3:5).

In the midst of this great story of love, grace, mercy and redemption is also the story of warfare. We would do well to not lose sight of this.

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep." (John 10:10-11)

"I have written to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one." (1 John 2:14)

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses." (2 Corinthians 10:3-4)

The Least And Most Important Thing

A few weeks ago I was driving to church and dusted off an old school Skillet CD. For some reason, it was really speaking to me that morning and I was kind of tearing up. Then when I went into church a song was playing and, while I am sure it was a very nice song, it didn't resonate at all even though it may have been along a similar theme.

I was thinking about that and noticing how extremely different the styles of the songs were. I was kind of chastising myself because style should be the least important element of musical worship and it's so individualistic one should be very careful to not impose or demand their style preferences onto a corporate body. And yet, the style of music can allow the words to evade and penetrate the stubborn defenses of one's heart.

At any rate, on the drive that morning the angels sang a song over me.

How Hard Can It Be?

While my parents were visiting, my mom was perusing my bookshelves and commented on the large number of relationship and communication books in my possession. "Yeah, I've had to go back to the books a few times" was my sincere statement to which she empathetically replied along the lines of "It shouldn't have to be that difficult."

I have been mulling that over since then and have sort of settled on another great paradox of life. On the one hand, when you love someone there are times when you will have to fight for the relationship like you would fight for your own life, and there is always ample room for self improvement which will only aid the relationship with someone else. And on the other hand (as I recall my father once quoting), "If it don't come easy, you better let it go."

Ughh

It's 2:42 AM. I have a migraine. And Cleveland will not be going to the World Series. Good times.

Chillin' with the Folks

I have enjoyed a fantastic visit with my parents this past weekend and early this week. After a few directional challenges, they arrived late Saturday evening. On Sunday, we enjoyed a visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art followed by dinner with Jake and Rita. It was cool to connect my family with some of my great friends out here. Then on Monday, we went up to Valley Forge. It was a beautiful day to take in the history of the place.

We wrapped things up yesterday with lunch at Chatham followed by a trip to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.

Oh, and I also hit a hot streak and won 8 of the 11 games of shanghai. Sweet.

Great times! I can't wait for the next visit.

Fitness Challenge

The gauntlet has been thrown down. I am in a friendly competition with someone, and my goal is to gain 12 pounds (preferably of muscle and not gut). I am excited because I finally found some helpful training videos that clearly demonstrate proper form for exercises that are actually easy enough for me to do (and have been doing though perhaps with questionable form.)



Before you know it, I'll need to start playing this video.




I am a sexy beast.

Vote Them All Out

Wow, and for a minute there I thought Congress couldn't get worse. It's a good thing Congress is taking a break from irrelevant current issues facing Americans like the war, healthcare, social security reform, and resolving current global humanitarian crises, to comment on events that happened in Turkey nearly 100 years ago.

I hope this pushes their approval rating into the single digits.

What A Sad Mess

What on earth is it going to take to get things moving in the right direction in Darfur?

Game 4: Yankee, Go Home

After a game 3 loss, Cleveland rebounds to win the series! Grady Sizemore led off the game with a homerun for the Indians and they led the rest of the way. I was impressed that manager Eric Wedge went with pitcher Paul Byrd with the start instead of rushing ace C.C. Sabathia back on three days rest. He took a lot of heat and criticism for the decision, but if you look back at history, both Cleveland's own and throughout baseball, you see the averages are definitely against starting someone on short rest. Clearly, he didn't read the Mike Hargrove Guide to Postseason Management with forward by Bobby Cox and for this I am thankful. Plus, Cleveland now gets to match up their aces well against Boston.

I'm so happy! I hope Cleveland goes all the way to the World Series, but just knocking out the Yankees feels so good. In the epic words of Curt Schilling, "I can't think of a better way to make 60,000 New Yorkers shut up."

Rules of the Forward

I have a few simple rules I would like to recommend to everyone in the universe regarding e-mail forwards. Please consider the following.

1. Never send a forward. Yes, I know, you want to be the one who saves the world against people who want to take Touched By An Angel and all televised sermons off the air because they mention God, or you want to share an inspiring story of heroism to everyone you know. But if everyone followed this simple piece of advice, the world would be a better place.
2. If you refuse to follow rule #1, at least check the facts for accuracy before proceeding to hit send. Go to Snopes.com and filter it through their collection of urban legends and other myths. This little rule would probably cut out 90% of spam forwards.
3. Never send a forward to a mass distribution list, like say, the Kairos list. If you really want to tell the world about it, put it on your blog. If you don't have a blog, start one.

Game 2: The Cardiac Kids of the Cuyahoga

It's Game Two of the ALDS. Game tied 1-1 in the ninth inning. AL MVP Alex Rodriguez at the plate for the Yankees with a man on second and a 3-2 count . . . strike 3!!! Carmona gets out of the inning!

The most epic closer of all time, Mariano Rivera, takes the mound to face the bottom of the Indians line-up and quickly disposes of the struggling hitters. We go to the top of the tenth.

The Indians bullpen responds in kind and we go to the bottom of the tenth.

After a crazy at bat by Grady Sizemore, the Indians end up loading the bases only to strand them all and go into the top of the 11th.

Somehow the Bronx Bombers stay off the board and we go to the bottom of the 11th.

Kenny Lofton leads off with a walk then Franklin Guiterrez singles. Good execution with a sacrifice bunt puts two runners in scoring position with only one out. Grady Sizemore is intentionally walked to load the bases. With the game on the line, Cabrera steps up . . . and hits a weak fly (infield fly rule!) and is retired. This brings up slugger Travis "Pronk" Hafner. The count goes full. Bottom of the 11th, bases loaded, two outs, and a 3-2 count . . . base hit!! The Indians win!!!

They had no business winning this game after stranding 14 runners but with the help of some swarming nats the Indians come through and win against the Yankees and will head to New York needing one more win. And who will they face in game three? None other than the most dominant pitcher of his era, Roger Clemens.

What a game!

Game 1

Cleveland Indians: 12
New York Yankees: 3

Come on guys, keep it going! Tomorrow is a new day and you don't get to carry over any of those runs with you.

Another Cause For Celebration

I won an award for my speech (not the cow one) tonight in class! That makes me very happy. I wasn't quite as articulate in speaking as I had scripted it, but apparently I said it with conviction which was the theme of this week's lesson. That's two in a row! Next week's assignment is a two minute speech to teach the class about something I do at work. Since Chatham's business tends to be technically complex, I think I am going to break it down and talk about the simple but powerful underlying concept that underlies so many of our transactions: compound interest as illustrated by the Rule of 72.

Yeah, I'm not expecting a three-peat at the awards ceremony.

This Is A Story About A Cow

One of tomorrow night's stories for class has to be about a personal experience that is very animated and physically expressive. I think I am going to talk about a cow.

It was crisp, chilly autumn day so I donned my full orange hunting outfit and set out into the woods. It was a beautiful 250 acre farm, and I was enjoying my walk in nature. As I was walking towards my favorite spot I noticed a cow up on the hillside. I'm sure you've all seen a cow up-close before, just hanging out chewing the cud and being all docile. Don't let it fool you. They're just trying to draw you in with a false sense of security.

It seemed kind of odd that it was so far from the barn, but I just ignored it and kept walking. After awhile I looked back and noticed that it was following me. I kept going and still it was trailing behind me. Then all of a sudden, BOOM!, in the distance a shot was fired. At that very instant, without realizing it, my boot had gotten stuck in the mud, and I suddenly fell and hit the ground. I look down, thankfully realizing I fell because of my boot and not because I was shot, pulled myself out of the mud and kept walking. And still behind me is the cow, though perhaps now slightly agitated by the sound of the gun. I decide it's time to pick up the pace, but I look back and the cow is keeping in step. I go a little faster and look again and barreling towards me like I'm a human matador's cape is 1,000 pounds of Grade A beef. At the sight of this I take off in a full sprint and narrowly make my escape. I chance a look back over my shoulder and the cow is just standing there, looking at me with a smug look on its face. I walk back home with my tail between my legs, thankful I had survived the Running of the Bull.

For Those About To Rock

Monday's Lifehouse concert was awesome! When I last saw them at the House of Blues in Atlantic City they were much more mellow; Jason played a couple songs on the keyboard and as a whole they were somewhat low-key. This time however, Jason didn't play any songs on the keyboard and it was a much heavier, guitar driven, edgy rock sound. This pleases me greatly.

The only negatives were that their guest lead guitarist seemed like he was trying to steal the show a few times. I was like, dude, you're pretty good, but this isn't your band so just chill. The other is that they didn't play Everything which was a big let down. But, they did close with Broken which is my favorite song on their new album.

They played a good mix of old and new songs and did two cover songs including Beast of Burden by the Rolling Stones with Bryce on lead vocals.

Yet another fantastic Lifehouse concert.

Prediction

Okay, I need to get this in before games start:

Phillies over Rockies
Diamondbacks over Cubs

Indians over Yankees
Red Sox over Angels

then . . .

Phillies over Diamondbacks
Indians over Red Sox

then . . .

Indians over Phillies

We're Men. It's What We Do.

What's the first image that came to mind when you read that statement? What was the "It" in question that flashed before your imagination? Was it of something negative, perhaps belching, farting and scratching? Something more negative like going to Hooters and getting into a drunken fight? Possibly something worse?

Or was it something positive? Like having a door held open for you, your heavy groceries carried for you, or a seat offered in a crowded place? Perhaps having someone to defend you?

I am still reading through Elderidge's most recent book, and in it he recounts a scene form the Western Open Range:

Typical of westerns and their mythic simplicity, the town has been overtaken by bad guys, as John says the world lies under the power of the Evil One (1 John 5:19). The crooks have installed their own sheriff, and hired gunslingers to frighten the citizens into submission. Two cowboys come to town to get some justice for the murder of their comrade, and the near murder of a boy they have befriended. In the saloon, they try to rouse the men of the town into action. One of the local tradesmen says, "It's a shame what this town's come to," to which one of the cowboys replies, "You could do something about it." "What?" the frightened man replies. "We're freighters. Ralph's a shopkeeper." Then my favorite line: "You're men, ain't ya?" The assumption being that whatever else a man might be, he ought to be a fighter.

I was kind of wrestling with that statement, not completely convinced of its validity. And then, in curious timing, I read something on Paula's blog that really seemed to speak to this very question. She is retelling the story of a nightmare she had dreamed and notes:

When we drove up, Steve was parked outside in a white pick-up truck. This is especially odd since Steve drives a Saturn. I sent Melissa in to get fries and a table while I stayed out to talk to Steve. However, in my dream I didn't talk to Steve, there was like a total scene skip and then Steve wasn't in the dream anymore. (Despite the fact that I wish he had been because he's a good friend plus a man and this situation ended up getting scary.)

Fascinating, isn't it? Here is a serendipitous and uniquely personal validation of a concept I was wrestling with. Here my friend wanted me around because (a) I'm a friend (b) I'm a man and (c) things are about to get scary. Instinctively, I love it and could scarcely hope for a better compliment.

An interesting question could be raised at this point along the lines of "What should women be able to expect from men? " (And vice versa.) I would say that every woman should have the right to expect nobility, courage, and honest strength from a man. I would also add though, that while it should be expected, it should never be taken for granted when it is received or witnessed.