Scripture

I quoted one of my favorite proverbial saying (Eccl 6:11) in a response to Graves this afternoon and it got me thinking of the verses which are most meaningful to me. So here is a list of three verses that currently have the most influence in my daily prayer life, my perspective on God/World and my teaching.

Gen 12:2,3- "I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."- (Plus Isaiah 42:6-"I, the LORD, have called you … to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles.)

John 1:4- In him was life, and that life was the light of all people.

2 Cor 3:18- And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

What about you?

Finding Happiness

Our good friend had been stressed out by a pressing appointment on top of her usual stress of having four kids. Her busyness frustrated her three-year old daughter, Reagan, because she wasn’t getting enough attention. Reagan demanded for more attention, but to no avail. Reagan stomped up the stairs in protest.

“Where are you going, Reagan?” her mom asked.
“I am going to my room to find happiness.”

Five minutes later her mom saw Reagan come down the stairs.
“Did you find happiness, Reagan?”
“Yep.”

If the pursuit of happiness for all of us only required five minutes alone in our room…

Books

Sunday I started reading Donald Miller's Through Painted Deserts and it wasn't as interesting to me as some of his other books which I have really enjoyed. But I have a 50 page minimum read before giving up on a book. 50 turned into a 100 and now I am over halfway through and just have to finish it. But here is a stinging quote about the hometown of my beloved Cowboys.

"It's an odd town, though. A big, Republican, evangelical city where you can't drink, girls wear black dresses for dates on Wednesday, and the goal is to join the local country club like your daddy and his daddy before him. When you build a city near no mountains and no ocean, you get materialism and traditional religion. People have too much time and lack inspiration."

I can assume Jerry Jones isn't going to invite him to Dallas to give a chapel talk to the Cowboys any time soon, but he wasn't half as critical of Dallas as Mark Gimenez was in his great book Color of Law.

Bucket List

We watched the Bucket List last night, and the quality of the movie pleasantly surprised me. Two people on opposite ends of the socio-economic spectrum were merged together because of illness (sounds like Jairus and the bleeding woman in Luke 8). In the process each found a bit of salvation from each other.
The obvious premise of the movie was fulfilling a wish list of things to do before you kick the bucket. So it made me think of my own bucket list. I couldn’t think of many yet, but here’s my list so far:

-Have a Sunday afternoon nap with my daughter/son
-Cage diving with Great White sharks off the coast of San Francisco
-Take my wife to New York

Anything you definitely want to do before you kick the bucket?

The Mark of the Priest

I went to lunch with a new friend, Father William Bell, of the Holy Nativity Episcopalian Church. As the two ministers walked to the front to check out, William with his clerical collar, and me with my gap sweater collar, we received an ominous total for our lunch that was received with much hilarity by the cashier.

16.66.

Kids

We have a weekly chapel service for our CareCenter, which is a highlight of my week. After doing my usual reading, our children's minister talked about the story I had just finished reading. She explained that God didn't want us to say bad words. A four year old interrupted her to correct her.

The four year old said, "No Mrs. Jane, only big people can say curse words."

One at a time.

As I grasped the lat pulldown bar at Gold’s Gym I was taken back to a foggy memory from college. Actually every time I intentionally grasp something in this manner, one finger at a time starting with my pinky and rolling on to every finger, I think of my one rodeo experience.
My senior year in college I somehow ended up in the bareback bronco section of the ACU intramural rodeo even though I had never even seen at rodeo. I remember borrowing a hat and a pair of boots and driving to the event center, but for the most part the rest of this story is from oral traditions passed on to me by my roommates and my then girlfriend, now wife, Lindsay. I entered the shoot (I think that’s what rodeo people call it) and once my name was called I found myself on a very upset horse. Some nice Ag department guys sat me on this awful animal and then yelled to get a glove. They scrambled to find a yellow left-handed glove for me. As the days went on after the incident I remember what happened next. With the yellow glove on my left hand I grasped a rope wrapped around the bronco, intentionally and dramatically one finger at a time, starting with the pinky and rolling towards my thumb. The picture of my left hand grasping has indelibly been burnt into my memory. As the story goes on, I ended up lasting four or five seconds on that cursed creature, which was second best, but my place was the least of my concerns when I came to that next day. I woke up with vomit in my mouth and on my shirt, a terrible headache, an inability to move or even deal with any noise and a great deal of confusion as to why a city boy would enter a rodeo.
The memory of grasping, intentionally and dramatically, oddly comes back to me almost every time my left hand grasps, including today in the gym. I was reminded by this weird memory that when you get in a situation in which you feel overwhelmed and disoriented you need just two things; First, friends that will get you on the horse; Second, to take it one finger at a time, patiently and intentionally. One step at a time. Sure, you might get knocked off, but that’s a given in life. But you might just make a memory that’s worth keeping forever.

Rough Day for Cowboys Fans

It was a rough loss for Dallas, but here are two things that stuck out to me.

While watching Marion Barber run yesterday, Lindsay made an adroit analogy, "He runs like a 1988 Ford F-150. He's not that fast, but he just keeps on going." Yeah, that's my baby's momma.

Watching Terrell Owens get emotional sticking up for Tony Romo reminded me that people can change (http://www.dallasnews.com/video/dallasnews/cowboys_gen/index.html?nvid=208250) . A player who has been labeled as a bad teamate (for good reason) seems to have grown up. Last year, he was the one encouraging Romo most after his slipup in Seattle. Yesterday, not only does he not castigate the QB who missed him on what would have been a game changing TD pass in the third quarter, but he passionately stands up for him.

Flawed Heroes

The annoying thing about Superhero’s is that they cannot hide their flaws. Both the good guys and the bad guys know that Superman cannot be around Kryptonite, Spiderman cannot stay away from MJ, and Tony Romo cannot stay away from famous women. Those who are supposed to be the heroes eventually need redemption just like the ones they are trying to save.

Here’s an NT Wright quote from “Paul in Fresh Perspective.”

“Put simply (Paul’s) point…is that Israel too is in Adam: the people who bear the solution are themselves part of the problem, and the good and holy Torah, to its own surprise, one might almost say, simply intensifies this problem, partly by pointing at sin within Israel, and partly, as a second level, by apparently encouraging Israel to make it an idol, to use it as a way of establishing an inalienable status of national privilege."

God’s people who bear the solution to redeem the world, first Israel and now the Church, end up needing redemption just like those they are suppose to redeem. The solution becomes part of the problem. I guess every hero ends up needing help just like everyone else.

Boundaries

The new parents were having a tough time imitating the swaddling their child received at the hospital, which seemed to cause his sleeping to be too sporadic. When we were at their house they asked Lindsay about tips to swaddling their son. After talking about the best blankets for swaddling, she proceeded to turn their infant son into a stuffed burrito. Lindsay said, “Parents usually think they can wrap their baby too tight, but when they are in the womb they are in a much tighter space than any blanket. Boundaries are a big deal to babies especially at this stage. When babies are in the NICU we swaddle them so tightly they cannot move and when they go home their parents are too afraid of hurting them so they leave it loose. What ends up happening is in their attempt to not hurt the kid, they don’t give them what he wants, security. ”
I don’t think people ever really outgrow this need for boundaries. We can look at countless child stars that had the “luxury” of finances and fame to loosen boundaries that most have to live by and the result is typically heartbreaking. Many people that never heard “no” as a child grow up as socially awkward adults because no one gave their narcissism boundaries. This is why having good friends is so vital. We all need good friends who will still give us boundaries.

EDIT- I've been instructed by my favorite neonatal nurse to say that you can wrap a baby too tight. If they start to turn purple-ish colors or stop breathing that is too tight.

LSU and Clemens

Last night I watched the LSU game with a friend who had 450,000$ worth of business riding on LSU winning. Half a million dollars has an amazing ability to increase one’s interest in a football game. His company has the license for the official BCS championship apparel, but his region (southeastern) covered only LSU. Needless to say he enjoyed the victory. And we all will enjoy the nice dinner he promised us when his commission check comes in.
___________________
Speaking of sports, Congress has called Roger Clemens to testify regarding his use of performance enhancing drugs. I have to wonder if there isn't anything more important for Congress to be doing than chasing down retired baseball players about HGH and testosterone? On the one hand, I understand how pro athletes’ use of drugs affects teenage athletes, and we do need to protect kids. But on the other hand, isn’t there anything more important for our government to be doing than getting retired athletes to admit or deny using steroids?

Optical Illusion

1) Stare at the 4 little dots on the middle of the picture for 30 seconds
2) then look at a wall near you
3) a bright spot will appear
4) twinkle a few times and you‘ll see a figure
5) What do you see? Or even WHO do you see?

Perspective

On Monday I was visiting some people in the hospital including a wonderful lady with an amazing attitude who seems to be at the hospital more than my wife (a NICU nurse). This time her physicians warned her that if her leg doesn't get better during her two month hospital stay it will have to be amputated. Without missing a beat she turned to her noticeably upset kids, and simply said, "That would be OK. I would just have to work at IHOP."
If all the coaches who told me that life is 10% percent what happens to you and 90% how you respond were right, this woman exemplifies for all of us living in the 90% successfully.