todd

What was I thinking...beard challenge update

Not sure why I am doing this, perhaps caught in the moment, but the Dan Lance Beard Challenge  has proved more than a worthy foe. I have lost 5 of the necessary 15 pounds to shave the stinker off, but am ready to call it quits. I can handle the gray hairs, I can handle the itching, but its the fact that my wife and two kids grimace anytime my beard stabs their face, its as though I am inflicting body harm to them. I feel the outcast. Nonetheless, I will press on, why? Because Beards are MACHO? Yes, a given, but primarily the added motivation to make the  10 extra lbs go bye-bye.

700 Billion, that's chump change for us.

Let me preface this blog by saying, our economy is in big time trouble, but the idea that 700 Billion for a bail out is an outlandish amount of money is funny. 700 Billion is the least of our worries. Now, let's begin our blog.

Let's blame it all on Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, or Bush or the Devil for our economic woes. It's someone's fault that we are about to waste 700 Billion dollars on bad loan debt. But this got me to thinking, how much is 700 Billion dollars to us as Americans collectively?

Well, in a typical year, 100 Billion is spent at our Fast Food restaurants, 150 Billion is spent on alcohol in the U.S., 100 Billion is spent on electronics, 22 Billion is spent on cosmetics, 600 Billion is spent on new and used cars, and just for fun, a low estimate, 10 Billion is spent on PORN. These numbers are just the beginning, I could keep going. Billions of dollars are spent each year in the U.S. just on stuff; Not by Freddie Mac or Frannie Mae, who do suck, but by you and I (and the world) .

Our Gross National Product, GNP, is over 13 Trillion (yes the number 13 with 12 zeros behind it) a year. Unfortunately, Americans, spend more than they make. So we borrow more money to spend it on bigger houses we don't need, and cars we are bored of in 9 months.

As far as I see life, and I have seen this in Africa and Haiti, all one needs to survive is God's Word, food, shelter, and weather appropriate clothing. The animals that live around us testify to the final 3 on that list. As Americans we live in the most prosperous nation on earth, with blessing upon blessing, unfortunately, we can't wait for the next blessing, so we borrow to get it earlier, and borrow to get it bigger, faster and shinier.

I hope this economy gets straighten out, so Bush can give me another stimulus package so I can buy a third flat panel TV for my house. It completes me.

I say all this tongue in cheek. I know the economy is hurting people, my wife's family is in the construction business and are being struck super hard by this down turn. I don't desire to see us as the American people struggle financially. I want to see our nation blessed so we can be a blessing to others. I just wanted to point out, as a nation collectively, not as individuals, but as a nation, we could consider 700 Billion chump change.

I guess Sam's mom was right, the devil wants me fat.

Some of you know one of my best friends in the world is Sam Boone , we have been solid friends since we were 13 and in Junior High together. Sam's mom Mary, who is an awesome women of God, once mentioned to Sam she was checking out a new Christian diet plan which had the tag line, The Devil Wants You FAT!

Gosh, if she wasn't right. I have taken the Dan Lance Beard Challenge in hopes of losing 15 lbs. I will not shave my beard until I drop that extra weight, but dang it, if the devil and his miscreants don't want me tubby. Those pounds just aren't dropping off like I had hoped.

Though only day 6 of the scratch my face-off mountain man look, I am succumbing to the idea I may be that guy who has food in his beard and doesn't know it, but on the bright side, I have strange visible gray hairs in my beard, thank goodness for that novelty. If you see the devil punch him in the face from me for the extra lbs, and feel free to vandalize Lance's Eco friendly Toyota Echo for the Beard idea.

On my mind...

"If we really believed we were eternal beings, would we fear death as much as we do?" Dan Morrow, who is one of our elders at Neighborhood Church,  asked me that question over lunch recently, and since then, eternity itself, has been on my mind daily. Dan is going to preach at The Well coming up October 12th on this subject and is going to challenge us to consider taking an eternal perspective as we Pursue Christ-likeness. Like the Johnny Cash video below communicates, we are here one minute, and gone the next. As followers of Christ, we must wrestle with the reality of eternity, both for ourselves and for our neighbors.

My empire of Dirt...

There may not be an American musician who has transcended generations over the years like Johnny Cash. Though a strong Christian, he never denied that he was a strong sinner, living out his up and down walk of faith very publicly. One moment serving with Billy Graham at crusades, and the next he was back to a life of addiction. I love this video, done at the end of his life. He takes a Nine Inch Nails song and turns it on it's head. We love Johnny Cash for his music, but more so for his honesty. Like the Apostle Paul, Cash felt comfortable being called the chief of all sinners, and yet he knew, as he sang about often at his concerts, he could cling to "The Old Rugged Cross"

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it some day for a crown.

Check out his Hurt video below:

Vince Carter and Pursuing Christ-likeness

If I asked you to be just like Vince Carter, that you would jump just like him, fly like him, and of course dunk exactly like him...could you? First check out his Top Ten Dunks video, then continue reading.

Did you watch the video? So I want you to be just like him. Not kind of like him. Just like him. Good luck. I can't wait to see the one handed-reverse-360 dunk you will pull off, in an NBA game, on TV, in front of thousands of viewers.

The only way you could be like Vince is if his athletic genius and gift was supernaturally infused into you.

Now, forget telling you to be like Vince Carter, consider God's agenda that we be like Jesus Christ. It seems an absurd request from our Creator. It would be unfathomably easier for us to dunk like Vince Carter, than be exactly like Christ. Don't you think?

Consider this closer, consider Christ, He is the God of the Universe in the person of Jesus, lived a perfect life, with perfect love, always doing His Father's will, and never, ever, not even once, did he sin, not even in his mind or heart. No sin, even when being crucified on a cross for our sin. (All I need is to go to Walmart and the temptation to sin is easy pickings.). I digress. It is that perfect life of Christ that God desires us to be like in thought, word, and deed. Now let's be reasonably, even on our best moral day, it ain't going to happen.

The only way you or I can truly be like Christ is if Christ's Spirit was supernaturally placed inside of us, giving us the power to be truly like Him. Brilliantly, not to mention sacrificially, this is what God has done for us. If anyone has put their trust in the atoning work Jesus Christ did on the cross, they, as Galatians 2:20 states, can say:

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."

I've taken the "Dan Lance Bearded Challenge"

Blogger extraordinaire  Dan Lance has motivated me to follow in his footsteps. Dan has recently declared he will not shave his facial hair again until he sheds some unwanted pounds. Brilliant. I too, will not shave until I drop 15 lbs.

Deborah is super stoked about this...the sarcasm is thick...just like my beard. She hates facial hair, but is allowing this endeavor for the sake of not having to buy me more "big boy" clothes. This is really a money saving, "slash", life saving intervention.

I have gotten a few people who think beard's are gross, to them I say, clogged arteries are gross, beards are MACHO.

Who knew? Hagquist has the best blog...

Some, perhaps many, may not know I was smitten, nay, privileged to be the non-band-member-roommate of the band Ember (formerly Ediger 309) years ago. My favorite, again, nay, most memorable roommate was Josh Hagquist by far.

Josh, thoroughly talented as a guitar player, bass player, half-court shot specialist, and magazine collector, spent most days playing Madden Football with me. You would find him at all times in his underwear, controller in hand, and a 64oz Big Gulp within arms reach. We would only take a break for a little "porch" ministry and then back to the video games. Where Josh would get mildly pissed-off when the "computer (PlayStation) picked me to win" over and over again.

Now, years later, I find my fine feathered friend writing the smartest, funniest, and most clever blogs; probably still in his underwear, and I'm betting a Big Gulp in tow. Check out his blog, it's worth it. Josh Hagquist

The Chill Kid

Micah, soon to be 4 months old, is the chill kid. He only cries if he is hungry or super, super, super tired. Once fed, we lay him down and he is out. This seems to be opposite world for Deborah and I. Kole didn't sleep through the night once for 8 months straight, and cried, before, during and after crying. Sleep deprived??? I don't even remember my life back then. I was walking around in a fog.

Enter Micah, the exact opposite of Kole as a baby (Kole is the greatest kid in the world; all the sleepless nights with him...priceless..pure bonding time). Deborah is back to wanting a big family. Thanks Micah, my chill kid, we needed you to be mellow. If God allows more children in the future for us, we would like to put in for chill kids.

Dominating Kickball may have been short-sighted

Everyday I ask Kole how his day at school was. Recently he answered by telling me that he learned about mammals. He said, "They have hair, they have babies, don't lays eggs and aren't cold blooded." Then to my demise, he asked me if I knew that. Honestly, I couldn't tell you what a mammal was. I said, "Bud, daddy didn't know any of that." To which my wife looked at me with a dumbfounded stare, non-verbally informing me she wanted the last 12 years of her life back. Now realizing I had without a doubt just proved she had married down, and she was stuck with an idiot, I defensively said, "Public school sucked."

So, I have told a few people my story of "Being dumber than a pre-K-er", and everyone else in the world, who also went to public school, already knew the definition of a mammal. Am I the only one on the planet who didn't know the definition of a mammal? What was I doing in school during mammal week?

That answer is pretty simple, I was dominating in Kickball, foursquare, Russian dodge ball and basketball during mammal week. The main reason I went to school was not to learn, but to hone my athletic abilities on the playground. I would just about cry on days we didn't have P.E. or outside recess due to rain. And don't even get me started about the days we decided to stay inside to do arts and crafts or talk about mammals, or math or whatever and not PLAY KICKBALL.

I did my time in the classroom, so I could live life to the fullest on the playground. The playground was my sanctuary. If the classroom clock was within 25 minutes of recess or P.E. I went into lock-down mode and began mentally envisioning my playground glory.

This now all seems to be have been short-sighted if I am already getting stumped by Kole in Pre-K; I am pretty sure I am screwed. Sweet. Should have pulled it together educationally early on, now I am really paying for my misplaced focus. Let this be a lesson to all you kids...kickball is just for a moment, but mammals, they are everywhere.