Archive for May, 2007
A Decision That I Hope Doesn’t Get Me Killed.
Wayne – even though he never blogs anymore and therefore it is pointless to link him AND he should blog more because his life is interesting….at least to his own family – had a great but painful comment yesterday about closing the comments on the famous Chuck Norris post.
It is with fear and trepidation that I close the comments on that post.
May Chuck Norris have mercy on my soul.
Crazy Day
I have to put something on my blog because it’s been like 3 days.
But I’m very busy today.
Yes, Wayne, it’s the only day of the week I work.
In the meantime, ponder this question…
Will there be a sequel movie this summer that is good?
The Pool Is Open
Today our neighborhood swimming pool is open. It snowed 2 days ago.
The kids are excited, they are ready to go. Amy and I have decided to call this day “Lazy Parent Day” as neither one of us is getting in the water. Mainly because neither one of us owns a wetsuit.
It’s a very comfortable low ’70′s right now but I’m guessing the water is going to be around 40 something. I could be exaggerating.
Morning Redeemed
So I’m sitting through this graduation and to end the service, this lady walks in with a BALD EAGLE on her arm.
It is a HUGE BEAUTIFUL BIRD that looks like it would rip your face off. It just looks like a kick-butt bird with a wingspan close to 10 feet long.
I’ll post a pic later.
Poke My Eyes Out Update
This is just further confirmation I have no business working with elementary children or their teachers. They spent an hour rehearsing the program, they spent the first 10 minutes of the program telling everyone again what they are going to do, then right before they do it, a teacher stands up and describes in detail what is about to happen.
I’m guessing when this is over, someone is going to stand up and tell us what we just did.
30 Years Ago Today
The greatest movie ever made was released. My dad took me to see it in a drive-in theater on Colfax, across from Fitzsimmons.
May have to watch that this afternoon with my kids.
If I Had A Pencil, I’d Poke My Eyes Out
I’m working sound for a homeschool graduation. I need the money. I thought it would be easy.
In terms of technological ease – it is. In terms of what I have to hear and see….I just want to die.
When you think of graduation, you think seniors. Not here. Kindergarten to 11th grade. Somebody explain to me how it’s such a large accomplishment to get to the first grade? I’ve got 3 kids and have been to 2 Kindergarten graduations. I’ve yet to understand the hoopla.
So I’m sitting here watching grade school children dance on stage.
Besides that – there are two programs and everyone is in the auditorium trying to rehearse at the same time. It is the biggest goat dance on the planet and I’m just sitting back here laughing and smiling.
The real painful part is that I have to watch this again.
A New Blog
I spent sometime and helped Kitty Smith set up her new blog. I must warn you…it’s pinkish.
Lots of estrogen on the site so take the necessary precautions…
By the way – I’m not saying that estrogen is bad. (Why do I have the feeling that isn’t going to help me much.)
Snow and Slush
This morning – 60′s, sunny, shorts and t-shirt.
Lunch – cooler, 50′s, partly cloudy
Mid-Afternoon – snow, slush, ice, dark as night
Early Evening – sun peaking back out, temp rising.
Only in Colorado.
Say What?
This is part of our weekly e-journey through the gospel of John. Today is from John 5:16-47.
I loved Justin. (Name has been changed to protect the guilty.) He was a quirky kid with a wicked quick (and dry) sense of humor. Most of the time, only he got his jokes. There circumstances in which this happened that forced me to completely stop whatever we were doing and ask him to explain just out of morbid curiosity.
The problem with doing that was it immediately put us all in that moment of public awkwardness that can only be described “This guy thinks he’s funny but he really isn’t and now we are embarrassing him in front of everybody.” The benefit though was an often lengthy discussion that had absolutely no point whatsoever other than a great laugh and Justin regaining his dignity when the rest of us caught up with him.
For our group, it got to the point where we’d just wait for him to explain. We didn’t even need to ask because he knew what he said didn’t connect the way he thought it would. I’ve been told that every youth group in the world has at least one student like this. They are invaluable to a youth ministry.
As I read this week’s chunk of scripture from John, it reminded me of this. Here’s Jesus performing miracles, breaking social norms, roughing up the religious, and teaching in mystical, philosophical stories. There’s a chance that in the middle of all of this – people weren’t quite getting what he was saying. They knew he was a teacher – maybe even a prophet of some sort. A few (the Samaritans of all people) actually believed he was the coming Messiah.
The religious elite (commonly referred to as “The Jews” in John’s gospel) were starting to put the pieces together and figured that if they did a preemptive strike on Jesus – it would quell the whole thing down (see John 5:16-18).
To clear things up, Jesus basically says this…
I don’t do anything on my own, only what my dad tells me.
My dad happens to be God, YHWH.
I’m the judge of all humanity because my dad gave me that authority.
Your opinion of me is meaningless, only my dad’s.
If you believe and follow me, you’ll live forever.
If you don’t…well, it sucks to be you.
I’m not sure how anyone could honestly believe that Jesus was JUST a great teacher after hearing this. At best he’s some egocentric nut job. Anyone else saying those words we’d immediately call him crazy, arrogant, full of himself and quite honestly a real pain in the butt. If we only had the words of Jesus, that would be my impression of him. Jesus knows this.
I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. – Jesus, John 5:36
Jesus doesn’t point to his logic or his words…he points to his work. Raising the dead, healing the sick, restoring the broken, loving the unlovable. His work testifies to who He is. Nobody else has ever – before him or after him – done what Jesus did.
Jesus’ authority was proven with his life. His life was his explanation.
[tags]John 5:16-47[/tags]
Aftermath – Elder Meeting
As I was leaving the office, I ran into Rowland, our worship pastor. All I really knew about him was he was the sickest guitar player I’d ever been around, he’d help me find a house, fix a dishwasher, and install a garbage disposal. I decided to risk it. This whole thing was going to implode anyway, might as well figure out where he was in the mix. He was equally shocked. We made a date to show up at elders’ meeting the next morning.
To say the elders were surprised to see us would be an understatement. After prayer, one of the elders jokingly teased me – “So Grant, what in the world would get you up this early in the morning?”
“Funny you should ask that – Rowland and I were just wondering if the Elder Board wants Mark as the Directional Leader of this church or not. Because if Mark isn’t the man, I have a job back in Kansas and Rowland needs to get his resume’ ready.”
5 of 7 elders looked like they had just been dropped into the middle of a movie with no idea as to the plot line.
“Grant, what in the world are you talking about?”
I turned to the two other elders. “I’m guessing by their reaction that you hadn’t exactly brought this topic up with them before talking to me.”
As messy as you can imagine is as messy as it got.
Remember growing up and an argument break out in a game? If it wasn’t resolved quickly, somebody would holler “do-over” and that’s exactly what we’d do. It was simple. It was quick. Nobody had to prove they were right – just do it over. Somethings happens as we get older, at least to some of us. It’s like it’s more important to be right than anything else. I wish I could say that we were beyond that. We weren’t.
We sought counsel from our founding church leaders. The advise was simple. If there was not a moral issue at stake (there wasn’t) then choose to lower the intensity level by talking through stylistic and/or personality clashes. If you can’t do that, then leave quietly and quickly. If leaving quietly wasn’t possible, then the elders needed to immediately dismiss them as fast as possible.
Hard medicine to swallow but the best guidance we’d ever get. We never followed a lick of it. I understand on one hand why. The elders had just gone through hell and not one of them wanted a repeat of that. They honestly (naively) believed that they could sit down and work it out. After all, if they couldn’t do that as elders what did that say about them? Yet, the more we tried to avoid a rerun of the last split, the more we headed straight toward that exact destination.
The major roadblock to the problem was that one side of the table honestly believed that there were moral issues at stake, they had done nothing wrong in the process, and would only accept one solution – the removal of the senior leader. It left very little room for meaningful discussion.
At that point, the best decision was the hardest one. And nobody really wanted to make it. I admire the desire to work the issues out, but it was degrading fast into “Cover your own rep” mode. Rumors and half-truths were flying all over the body and advancing the mission of God was the furthest thing from our minds. The pastor and elder who started the murmuring should have been fired and removed. We should have had one announcement about it. Then the next Sunday we should have started back on our mission to Tibet and Brazil.
We did none of that. Instead we allowed bitterness and venom to leak into the church while we wrestled over our egos. We all screwed up.
It’s in the middle of this the student volunteer team meets to try to figure out what to do. Looking back – it was stupid to even have a meeting like that. I’ll never do that again. No one in the room had all the facts – only the rumors and half-truths they wanted to believe. No one had anything directly to do with the conflict among the elders. I was arrogant enough to believe that I could bring redemption and restoration to the table. Right out of the gate one of the volunteers called the senior leader evil and that he needed to be fired and hurt because of all the hurt he’d brought to the church.
I was completely dumbfounded. I’d never seen that kind of venom and bitterness towards a pastor before. Nobody said anything.
I waited for a minute then said the only thing that had been running in my mind the entire time. “That’s demonic and not allowed in here in Jesus’ name. You can either repent or leave.”
He said nothing. I kept talking. “I really need an answer.”
“Are you saying that if we think there needs to be a new directional leader at Grace we can’t serve in youth???”
“No, what I’m saying is much worse than that. If you are so jacked up that the only thing on our mind is the removal of a pastor and hurting him when there are NO GROUNDS to do so – leave. Leave this house, leave this ministry, and leave the church. We can’t help you, we can’t minister to you and the only thing that will be accomplished with you staying is we’ll destroy each other and the church. Besides that, what is it that makes any of us think that our opinion matters? We’ve not been called, ordained, and commissioned to lead the church. Our elders have been and they’ve spoken clearly on this subject. Mark is the Directional Leader, this is what we are doing and who we are striving to be. If you can’t follow that – leave. Get over yourself and follow or leave.”
Next, the Cleanup.
Which Commissioner Would You Rather Be…
Would you want to be David Stern or Bud Selig or Roger Goodell and why?
Aftermath – Vocation Side
I was writing through a couple of months ago and for some reason never finished it. While it’s true that the subtitle for these posts could be – “My Therapy Sessions,” that’s only part of the reason of writing it out. A couple of years ago I started this blog for purely selfish purposes. Keep the fam up to date, have some fun, nothing too serious. Fast forward 2 years and I’ve got friends, mentors, peers, and mentees in ministry all over the globe. I’ve learned much from fellow pastors being vulnerable about their junk. The least I can do is get vulnerable with mine.
For every action there is an equal and opposite action. I’m not talking about physics either.
Grace had a major power struggle 6 months before I arrived. One of the teaching pastors believed he ought to be the Directional Leader, the elders thought differently. The break up was ugly, immature, and public. Friendships were blown up and a church was almost killed on the altar of selfish pride and stylistic issues. That’s the problem with stylistic issues in the south – they often get elevated to the “biblical” level.
The elders were implementing a complete DNA change in the church. Worship style, preaching style, and ministry style was all changing. Classic case of a church saying they want to change but when it comes time to actually write the check somebody balks. And there is no way around the expensiveness of change – and I’m not talking about dollars and cents. Add to this mix a pastor who thinks he should be the lead dog and you’ve got yourself a good old fashioned church split.
After the carnage (and 6 months before I arrived on the scene), there was a lot of soul searching, a lot of questions, and the hope they could assemble a staff that was unified and liked each other. The first big test was hiring a student pastor who matched the DNA of the Directional Pastor.
Two elders were leading the youth pastor search. Actually, one elder and one Teaching/Executive Pastor who was going to be an elder. I spent the most time with these men, asked them the most questions, and had the most interaction with them. It made sense. They were going to be the new student pastor’s supervisors. One was the Equipping Pastor (paid staff) and the other was the lay elder over student ministry. The pastor was in the process of becoming an elder and would be affirmed by the time I arrived.
In the interview process, Amy and I consistently slowed the process down to make sure we weren’t walking into the backwash of the Titanic. We asked all the right questions – was the team unified now? How did they know? Anyone around the leadership table having second thoughts? Are you all on board now? What major changes needed to happen? What was the health of student ministry and what was health to them?
The elders were brutally honest and fair. The staff guys were humble and open. Everything looked and felt good.
Then we actually arrived. Weekly meetings with my supervisors – the Equipping Pastor and Elder – were the norm. On one hand, I hated them. They were boring, I felt like I had two cement bricks tied around my neck. On the other hand, when all hell broke lose (see first two parts) they knew what was going on and to a man – they not only supported me, but went to bat for me.
A breakfast meeting with them on week 3 would change this. He starts telling me this football story – which is ironic seeing how he never played football – but it went something like this…
“You know Grant when you have a team that has had a ton of hard times but finally has the right pieces but just can’t seem to get over the top, sometimes you need to change the head coach for the final push. A new face, a new set of eyes is exactly the thing that is needed.”
I sat with a bagel halfway inside my mouth. The reason I remember that detail so well is that I couldn’t respond to his next question to me.
“You know what I’m talking about?”
“No. I’m not. What are you trying to say?”
He gave me more examples from sports.
I finally asked “This doesn’t sound like we are really talking about sports. Pretend for a moment that I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer and I have no idea of what you are talking about.”
“We don’t think Mark should be the Directional Leader at Grace.”
“We? Who is ‘we’?”
“The elders.”
“All of them? Really?”
“Well, not all of them.” (Long pause.) “The teaching pastor and I do.”
“You’d think that little detail would have popped up in the interview process, wouldn’t you?”
He continued to point out all the mistakes and problems. As the only “degreed” guy on staff, my opinion had weight with the board. I just sat there nodding my head. I don’t remember much else of the meeting.
I do remember getting back to the office, closing my office door behind me, and just staring out my window. I felt betrayed, alone, and stupid. I wondered out loud with Amy how in the heck did I make this kind of colossal goof.
“Maybe we didn’t” was all she said.
The good news was that my faith was growing up. In my immaturity I looked at stress and hardship as evidence of being out of God’s will. Scripture says the opposite. The bad news was it was going to get very combustive in the office.
As the teaching pastor knocked on my door, he asked how my meeting went this morning.
“Interesting” was all I could mutter. The Elders met the next morning at 6 AM. As much as I hated meetings, hated the early morning, and especially hated early morning meetings – I decided I’d show up just to get some clarification.
Richard Ross and My Parking Lot
So Ray and I get back from lunch and there is a convention going on in our parking lot. There are some engineers in one corner trying to figure out how to keep the lakes from showing back up and on the other side is an older guy sitting on a chair in the middle of our field and two other guys filming him.
Ray waltzes over to the film crew, I talk to the engineers. Ray comes back and says – “Hey, that guy is a prof from Southwestern Seminary shooting a promo video for this thing called Paradise ’08. Last name is Ross.”
“Like Richard Ross.”
“Yeah, how’d you know that?”
“I’m a closet Southwestern Seminary grad. Richard Ross was the state director of youth ministry for Texas and the SBC for a long time. He’s like next to God in Texas Baptist circles in matters of student ministry. I walk over, introduce myself, tell him I remember him at seminary and his first comment to me was this – “Man, you are old!”
“Not half as old as you but thanks for the encouragement.”
After a great laugh and other pleasantries he explains to me what the heck he is doing out in the middle of nowhere.
He’s filming an invitation to Paradise ’08.
It’s going to be a worship experience of students for God in the middle of the country (Paradise, KS). They are going to build a platform with the dimensions of what they think the throne in Revelation is, surround it with crosses and do worship there. Only there will never be ANYONE on stage. Nor will there be the promotion videos, the merchandise tables, or the hero worship. All of the leaders will be hidden from site, Jesus will be the true hero and focus of worship.
I was speechless.
We exchange email addresses and promises to talk more later.
I visited the website and after my head had kind of settled, I wrote him this email.
Dr. Ross,
I really don’t know where to start this email. Meeting you (again) in the middle of our field today couldn’t just be some coincidence of the space-time continuum.
I met you first through Gene Wilkes at a Texas Youth Rally. Then again through Phil Briggs at SWBTS. I escaped SWBTS in the spring of ’96. I use the word “escape†because between the firing of Dilday, the growing moderate vs. conservative vs. fundamentalist debates, and the BGCT and CBF and EIEIO controversy – I was pretty well sick of being a Southern Baptist. I hated the baggage I was immediately branded with by having that affiliation with the lost world as well as the larger body of Christ.
I remember shaking my head at the time thinking – with all those resources and talents it’s a shame we spend more time arguing than we do glorifying Christ, attempting to bring unity to the Body of Christ. For all the good we do, we sure do have a habit of being very noisy and argumentative about it. So like many my age, instead of fighting and arguing – I just left to do non-denominational work.
When you told me about Paradise ’08 – my first thoughts were – another great idea that is going to lose its original vision and goals in the midst of the SBC branding and promoting. I was mildly curious as to how in the world the SBC was going to pull this off.
Then I visited the website.
Dr. Ross – if this actually gets pulled off the way your website reads…..I don’t know if I’ve got words to describe the implications of such a venture.
Is it possible to pull off an event where only Jesus gets center stage and not the Christian Celebrities?
Is it possible to have a place where all races and denominations can gather for worship in unity?
Is it possible to have a place where the emphasis is on vertical encounter with the Holy One and not the merchandise table on our way out?This gives me hope. Not just for the sake of unity but for the sake of Jesus’ word ringing true to our world – They will know you are mine by your love.
I can only imagine that for a man in your position it’s a hard ‘sell’ to do something like this with no self-promotion. I imagine you’ve had to fight at every turn to resist the branding and promotions and the commercialization.
Know that a little church on the prairie that you used for the commercial is not just praying for this…but is committed to being a part of the solution. We will be part of that day of worship. (Or any other role you may need us to play.)
My heart is hopeful…from one “old†youth pastor to another!
Now we get to see if this actually becomes a reality.
[tags]Richard Ross, SBC, Paradise ’08[/tags]
What Do You REALLY Want?
This is part of our weekly e-journey through the gospel of John. Today is from John 4:43-5:15.
“Do you really want to be the person you are becoming?”
“The reason I’m this way is because my parents are recovering alcoholics, divorced, and workaholics. I’ve had a hard life.”
Eventually you’ll have a conversation like this. I’ve struggled with exactly how to handle it. The “spiritual side” of me wants to nod, listen, encourage, and try to be as positive as I can. The “dark side” wants to jack them upside their head and say “Yeah…you are the only person on the planet with a hard life and somehow someway that justifies your anger, laziness, bitterness, or whatever other emotionally/behavioral issue that is going on. Get over yourself and grow up.”
Really and honestly – do any of us know what Jesus would really do? And if we did – would we dare?
A man comes begging for Jesus to heal his son, he’s crying on his hands and knees in front of him. Jesus says “So your faith in me is only based on whether or not you see a miraculous sign? Go home, your son will live.”
How coarse is that? It had to SOUND like Jesus was blowing him off. It had to have the AIR of – you are bothering me but if you leave now, I’ll heal your son. It possibly could be the most heartless, arrogant, thoughtless statement said to another human in that situation. Unless of course, Jesus is God and has power over death to the extent he doesn’t even have to see or touch the person who is dead.
A few verses later we get a crippled man telling Jesus his myriad of excuses of why he can’t get in the Pool when the angels stir the water for healing, how long he’s been crippled and the whole sob story.
To which Jesus says to him – “Do you WANT to get well?” Do you enjoy the complaining and self-pity or do you really want to get well? Do you like all the attention or is there something deeper going on?
The guy goes into chapter 2 of all the excuses and Jesus finally says to him – “Get up and walk.”
Go downtown, find a homeless guy in a wheelchair, ask him his story. When he gets done telling you the story – ask him if he wants to get well. If you are still breathing, tell him to get up and walk. That’s what Jesus did.
Notice that Jesus didn’t belittle their problems. He didn’t question the hardship of their circumstances. He did in a way questioned their heart and faith in the middle of their circumstances. He challenged their victim mentality by basically asking them – what do you REALLY want? Will you do what it takes to get what you want?
If you REALLY want your son to live – go home now. If you REALLY want to walk – get up and walk. If instead you like the attention or the hurt or the excuse making – do nothing. Decide what you really want, then make the steps toward that. Faith results in action, not inaction.
What do you REALLY want?
I want to be closer to God but finding time to spend with Him is ridiculous.
I want to be a better prayer without actually praying.
I want to know more of God’s word without actually studying it.
I want to grow in Christ without actually serving others to do it.
I want to be a leader without actually having to make hard decisions.
I want to be moral without changing the chinks in my character.
I want to be accountable but I don’t want to quit blaming others for how I turned out.
I want to be a conqueror without giving up my victim status.
To which I think Jesus would ask – is that what you REALLY want?
[tags]weekly devo, Gospel of John[/tags]
Further Confirmation that Joe Theismann is an Idiot
ESPN moved Joe out of the MNF booth next season in favor of Jaws. Thank you, ESPN for that dim light of hope but you’re still allowing him to write articles like this.
The 5 Breakout Players for the 2007-2008 Season.
Let’s review his picks, shall we?
1. Randy Moss, WR – JT says with NE will win a Super Bowl. I say take a look at Dallas and their experiment with TO. I’m NOT saying it was a bad deal for the Patriots – heck, they only gave up a 4th round draft pick. I’m just saying for Moss to have a breakout year he’d have to have 200 catches with 30 TD’s. That Patsies don’t care about numbers or touches or style points. They care about winning. Moss will be a great possession receiver for them.
2. Kellen Winslow Jr, TE – JT says he has the potential to be one of the best TE’s in the league. JT is on crack. Winslow has yet to play more than 5 games in a season. Let me name 10 TE’s better than him off the top of my head…Gates, Gonzales, Heap, Shockey, Crumpler, Witten, Lewis (Jags), Davis (SF), and Clark. That’s only 9. Let’s throw in Heath Miller just for grins. Besides that – Cleveland has a rookie QB.
3. Cedric Benson, RB – Anything having to do with offense in Chicago is offensive. This pick has potential to be right since Thomas Jones went to NY and Sexy Rexy is still the QB there. We’ll give JT some grace here.
4. Jason Campbell, QB - We’ve seen the Campbell experiment. It wasn’t pretty. Pray that Clinton Portis stays healthy.
5. Tony Romo, QB – Romo did great last year. Last year was his breakout year. The question now is – can he keep it at this level.
4 out of 5 picks are ridiculously stupid. At least I don’t have to listen to him on MNF anymore.
[tags]NFL, Joe Theismann, MNF[/tags]
The Categorization of Slim Jims
My son and middle daughter love Slim Jims. 
There is just something warm and cozy about hearing your 7 year old princess yell – “Snap INTO A SLIM JIM!”
As a food (?) they are not my favorite. Translation: I think they are nasty. They make up for it with cool commercials and one of the coolest websites around. You’ll get lost there, trust me on this.
That however is not the subject of this post. Amy made a grocery run last night and instead of going to our normal shopping place, she ran into another store. And that began the problem. Where are the Slim Jims? In our normal store, they are located in the snack/peanut aisle. But alas, they were not there.
She asked a worker and was informed they were in the meat section. That’s a bit disturbing on many levels.
So where should they properly be categorized?
In the peanut section with other snack foods?
In the meat section?
Do processed “foods” deserve their own section? Vienna sausages, Slim Jims, and Cheeze Whiz all go there?
[tags]slim jim[/tags]
The Return of the Bus Nazi
Just when you think it’s safe to go back to the bus…
Another new bus driver this morning. I heard her yelling this morning, over the bus across the street.
Amy walked over to check out the situation, a couple more moms were there as well. As the bus drove off, there was a conspiracy to call the bus driver assignment department. Or whatever it’s called.
My opinion – there is only a couple more weeks left and this little bit of torture could work in our favor down the road.
Like when they get upset at us – “At least we’re not like your bus driver.”
Making them eat food they don’t like – “Hey – we’ll invite your bus driver over.”
Alas all hopes were dashed when the kids got home this afternoon and the report is that she’s not that bad.
Senior Banquet in Arkansas
I wasn’t planning on doing this but hey – it’s my blog. Last night was a special night if you happen to be in Little Rock, AR. It was the Senior Banquet at Grace. Of all the stuff I’ve had the privilege to be involved in, this is my favorite. It’s a night where we sit around as a community and brag on our seniors how we’ve seen God use them during their time in middle school and high school.
Lot’s of laughter, tears, and stories combine to make a spiritual marker for all involved. It’s the perfect closure/launching point as well. Specifically for my Little Rock crew, what a special group of students. We literally traveled the world together. So many involved to that level is rare and the God-stories that were written and have yet to be wrote is humbling.
Here is the mp3 if you’re interested.
[tags]Senior Banquet, youth ministry ideas[/tags]
The Bonds Idiocacy
The Human Steroid is 10 dingers away from tying Henry Aaron’s all-time home run record and the intensity and opinions will just get hotter from here.
Curt Schilling popped off his mouth…then apologized.
Henry Aaron will NOT be at the ballpark Bonds breaks the record.
Bud Selig might.
We’re getting polls everyday telling us who thinks he should be honored and who doesn’t.
What’s ironic about the mess is the overall message it sends when on the brink of arguably the single most beloved record being broken, it’s divided the sport – not united it. And the apologists FOR Bonds sound just as bitter as those AGAINST him.
My favorite is Ortiz’s comments that he doesn’t think that steroids really gave Bonds an advantage in hitting the ball. That’s coordination. Yeah, that’s great insight there. Never mind that the ‘roids have probably allowed the injury prone Bonds to play 5 to 6 years longer than he normally would have…but other than that…no effect at all.
On the other side, the fact that Bonds is a jerk should diminish the career he’s had. But it will. And to some degree…it should. He’s been a jerk since he wore those ridiculous hats in Pittsburgh. Remember those things? Straight out of some Disney nightmare sequence.
It’s About To Get LOUD…
And that’s okay.
The Smith Family Colorado Adventure officially starts sometime tonight. They’ll roll in this evening…close on their house on Friday…take possession and unload their stuff on Monday. In the meantime – we are all living together in this house.
I thought about inviting a film crew to film the chaos that will be in this house with 7 kids – all but one under the age of 9.
The good news is that they are going to be put to work on Saturday to finish my rock project!
Response from my Boss
“Dear Jesus …
Please help Grant to have patience with those who are less technologically in the know then he. Remind him, that unfortunately, it is a PC world (by over 95%), and that he needs to love those who persecute him (Microsoft, et al).
After all – you died for Bill Gates too. May he love his computer – the only one right now that the church will give him – because computers respond well to those who let them do, whatever the heck they want. May he rant less, compute more.
Amen.”
I’m guessing you can figure out the subject of my email that provoked this.
You’re Talking To Who???
This is part of our weekly e-journey through the gospel of John. Today is from John 4:1-42.
One of my first post-seminary job interviews was for a student pastor position in a large church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. One of the interview settings was a dinner with key leaders of the church. There were around 30 people in the room and the basic, safe interview was conducted. To wrap up the evening, I was asked if I had any questions of them. I did.
“What’s going to happen the first time a black kid comes to church here?”
This would be the first of many moments when Amy has had to wrestle with her doubts of exactly why did she marry me.
The shock of the evening wasn’t my question but the silence that followed it. It felt like hours. No one even tried to answer it for the longest time. I was so stunned I couldn’t even cover up the silence with another question. We all just sat there staring at each other. Finally in the back of the room, a volunteer from the student ministry spoke up.
“The kid would be welcomed and loved here because that’s how we run our student ministry. I have less confidence his parents would be treated the same.” And he sat down. The silence broke into a cacophony of voices trying to contain the damage.
If we are honest, every one has a “off-limits” list. Race may not be your issue but it could be skinny people, fat people, smart people, dumb people, rich, poor, sophisticated, unsophisticated, athletic, goofy – the list is infinite. We have an innate ability to find reasons for not liking each other. What’s your list look like? Who’s on your “I can’t believe you’re are talking to them” list?
What’s convicting is how obvious barrier breaking is in the fabric of the gospel story. Jesus hangs out with Jewish party-goers, dialogues with the educational and religious elite, ministers to the servant class, and now this – a Samaritan woman who had a rep. It’s just going to get worse from here, you know. Jesus had worldwide redemption on his mind…not an elite society.
Another observation of Jesus – He didn’t ignore cultural and racial differences. Instead He pointed them out! He tells the woman here – YOU SAMARITANS worship what you do not understand and WE JEWS do. The racially sensitive side of Jesus.
Jesus’ handling of race/culture differences is brutally practical. Can you love Jesus and be a Samaritan, Jew, Gentile, whatever? Yes. You don’t have to abandon your heritage to follow Jesus unless that heritage demands to take God’s place. Then your heritage is idolatry. The Rich Young Man is example here – money wasn’t evil, it was the place of money in that man’s life that was evil. True worship is about spirit and truth (see last week’s thoughts). Race, heritage, and social status are idols when they take priority over Jesus and the story he’s writing.
The end result for this story is that the whole town of Samaritans run out to engage and ultimately follow this Jewish man from Bethlehem. A Samaritan following a Jew? Crazy but it’s the heart of the gospel.
[tags]John, Samaritan Woman[/tags]
The Bus Driver Saga
Current drama around the English household has revolved around our school bus driver.
The old bus driver was a guy that all the kids liked, gave out some “free/extra” pe pass for good behavior.
Last week a new bus driver showed up.
Day 1 – Camber comes home crying saying the new bus driver is mean. Cooper says – she’s not terrible.
Day 2 – still complaining, Camber calling Cruella, Cooper saying she’s a bit strict.
Day 3 – Amy walks out to the bus stop and observes the bus driver assigning seats to EVERY CHILD as they get on the bus, tells them to keep quiet because “I’m the king of this bus.” Camber presses her face against the window of the bus and looks at Amy as if to scream “GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!!”
Day 4 – Cooper has changed his opinion.
Day 5 – Amy is standing at the bus stop and ALL the kids are complaining. Bus drives up… another new bus driver.
The entire block cheered and starting jumping up and down.
Ding Dong, the witch is dead.