Second Chances...

Sorry it has been so long since I blogged, got tied up in life.
We had a situation this week that I thought was very interesting.
Our daughter was born with congenital heart disease and a major heart defect that required surgury at 8 days old. She has had numerous heart treatments over the years including a pacemaker at 11 years old. She just this week received a new pacemaker and is looking forward to the upgrade for the next six years or so.
So during this week it got me to thinking, if she had been born in the 1940's, she would have died before we left the hospital. There was no surgical option back then for her condition. If you are interested google "transposition of the great vessels" as it is a long narative to describe it.
Born in the 1950's? No, same result.
But back in 1963 a new procedure was perfected that gave hope to those born with this condition. The "Mustard" procedure enabled a patient to have a somewhat normal life, but the resulting problems created in the heart usually contributed to a heart attack and death by the time the patient reached their 20's. So if my daughter had been born when I was, circa 1968, she might graduate high school but college was a reach. Sports activities, no way. Basic life, barely.
But she was born in the early 1990's when a new procedure allowed her deformity to be corrected. The Jatene procedure was now being used which gave a better opportunity for life long turn. Because of some of the defects in her heart, a pacemaker was needed to regulate her heartbeat. Without that pacer she would not be able to lead an active and healthy life. She will turn 17 in a few days, plays sports, cheerleads and does everything a normal 17 year old does other than being able to go through a metal detector without setting it off.
She was given a second chance at life through medical procedures and break throughs before she was even born. She was released from the hospital on Thursday after receiving her new pacer and we came home for a time...
The call came at 1:30AM, one of our Pastor's children had ran his car head on into a tree. He was being taken to the hospital via ambulance when his father called me. We made it to the hospital about the time the patient was returning from a CT scan which showed no issues to his brain or neck. After looking at the pictures of his totalled car (they were pretty bad) and hearing the nurse say he was a "lucky boy" I told him it was not luck but that GOD was looking out for him. To confirm my statement, a EMT came in who had seen the car and said, he was indeed lucky as they had seen cars with less damage and the driver had not been so lucky. Again I made my statement about he was watched over. I do believe he received a second chance. He could have very well died in that accident. They were wearing seatbelts, an invention that many years ago has saved many a life but without them I am not sure he would be here today. He received a second chance. Cars today are made with crumple zones that protect the occupants, without those he might not be here today. He received a second chance on technological break throughs that came many years prior today. That is why he also has received a second chance at life.
The startling difference is my daughter understands the gift of life she has. She tells us when we go to the hospital that every time she is thankful for the second chance on life she received through break throughs that happened even before she was born. She even mentioned it yesterday at the hospital telling her nurse that she lives a normal and healthy life and how blessed and thankful she is for a second chance in life.
So what brings me to my point. The young man last night, I do not think he understands the blessing he has received. He still feels he is lucky, but luck does not change one's outlook on life; Being granted a second chance does. I hope that one day and one day soon he realizes just how blessed he is over being lucky and is thankful for a second chance.

The hard parts...

Being a good leader is not all fun and games, there are a lot of hard times that do come with it. As a leader you have to not only deal with your problems but deal with the problems that those you lead have as well.
As a leader you have to be able to be both an encourager and a motivator, a pusher and a holder, a helper and a hard nose, a discipleler and a disciplinarian, and a teacher and a taskmaster.
It is a fine line to walk sometimes as you lead people into areas of their lives that they have never gone to. There is the constant fear of the unknown, the uncomfortableness of new surroundings and the smell of failure lingers all around. But as the leader we have to instill confidence in our followers. We have to hold their hands until they get acclimated to their new surroundings and we have to kick them in the pants sometimes to get them to jump out of the airplane and trust that their chute will work so they can enjoy the ride down.
So if you are a follower, pray for you leader, that he or she will be able to become the person you might need at that very moment to get you to the new level in life you need to be.
And if you are a leader, pray that the great leader will help you as you endeavor on this quest.

Airport meanderings...

In my secular job there is a lot of travel involved. Some of it to nice locals like Orlando, Hawaii and the mountains of Denver. Other times the locals are like Dallas in August, or Buffalo in December. Sometimes I am looking forward to meeting clients and getting out of the office a few days, other times I dread having to leave the family and travel.
So I was in a couple airports the other day and I got to thinking about the expressions on our faces. I saw a wide range of expressions on people's faces as I waited for a flight. I saw the harried look of a Mom with three young children trying to get everything through the security checkpoint. I am not sure if she would have looked so harried had the business traveler (not me) that was behind her had a different look on his face than the one he wore. He looked severerly upset, not sure if it was because he was behind her or he was going to miss his flight or if he had just had a bad meeting, but his body language and his face told everyone to back off or I might bite your head off! Thankfully they made it through security without a tussle.
As I was watching others I saw a cute old couple walking down the aisle looking for their gate. They had to be in their 80s and they were walking arm in arm down the middle of this bustling airport, in no big hurry with big smiles on their faces seemingly without a care in the world. I watched them walk past and actually turned to watch them turn the corner because it was just too cute.
I saw people with smiles, people with frowns, people with the "don't bother me" looks, people with the "I'm disinterested" looks and people who kept their heads down and did not look at anyone.
So I got to thinking, as a Christian we should be the most smilingest, happiest and upbeat people in the world. That doesn't mean everything is rosey everyday, we have our ups and downs, but we have someone to lean on. So next time you feel that frown coming on, anger rising up, relax and smile a bit, you never know who is watching...

Outdated...

Do you ever feel outdated?
I am shopping for computers, my associate needs a new one as he is working on the Frankenstein right now that I pieced together out of old deceased carcasses. My daughter is also shopping for a laptop for college so I have been doing my research. And to my dismay, I am finding that doing research on computers is a huge waste of time, because by the time that unit gets to me it will already be outdated. They are improving computers at warp speed it seems.
I was told one time that you should measure computers in ten year cycles. That means if your computer is 2 years old, it is in real life almost 20 years old. Some of our computers would be centurians as I keep them around a long time...
So my thought for today is this, how long has it been since you upgraded yourself? What do I mean. Well you can take a computer, put new RAM in it and it runs better. Put in a new hardrive and it will contain much more. Put in a new processor and it runs faster. So what have you done to upgrade your life?
What I have found is if you do not maintain your computer it will slowly fill with junk and not be as effective as it once was. It will also start to break down without maintanance and routine upgrades. But just as we should be looking to upgrade our computers, we fail to look to upgrade our lives.
How do you upgrade? Well you pick something that you would like to add and you do it. It might be dropping ten pounds, it might be running a marathon, or a triathlon. It might be playing catch wtih the kids, or going swimming or buying some new clothes from this decade.
It might be taking a cooking class, or some other kind of education that you can apply to your life. Whatever it might be, spend some time looking to upgrade your life, you might be amazed at the results...

Swimming with the sharks...

I have never understood why people would want to swim with something that is big enough to eat you?
I swim with the sharks and aligators everyday trying to stay ahead of the projects I am working on. Here are a couple of good ideas to keep you from getting bit.
1) Keep all apendages INSIDE the vehicle at all times...
When you are swimming with the sharks and aligators trying to fight off deadlines and timelines, keep everything close to hand. You spend way too much time going too and fro trying to do too much you will find all of your time wasted in transit.
2) Watch your back...
Always look behind you so you can see what you finished and what you have not finished. For it is that one item that you left undone that will sneak up and bite you in the backside.
3) Use your head...
To many times when we are just merely tying to survive we loose our head and panic. Use the brain the good Lord blessed you with to get yourself out of the situation you find yourself in. Panic leads to chaos and chaos to death. But most times those that think their way through a situation will live to fight another day.
4) Just keep swimming...
If you try hard enough, you CAN out swim a shark or an alligator. But you have to be extremely motivated...
5) Don't worry about the sharks or aligators without teeth...
Too many times I find myself fighting off an aligator or a shark to find out later they did not have any teeth. I wasted all that effort on an advesary that looked big and bad but really had no bite. Mark the dangerous ones and fight them first, they have the worse bite...
6) And have fun...
My grandfather used to say, show me a man who loves what he does and I will show you a man who has never worked a day in his life...
Be Blessed!

Planning...

I am really struggling with something in my life right now. It is the art of planning.
Yes planning is indeed an artform. Just as someone might stare in awe at a Rembrandt or a Van Gogh I stare in awe of people who are good at planning. You know those people, the ones with every day and every minute planned out for their whole lives. I in many ways admire them, they know what they will be doing three weeks, four hours and fifteen minutes from now. But I also feel sorry for them as their lives have been enslaved by their planner.
I am somewhere stuck in the middle. Have a certain amount of grasp on my planner, but too many times do not access it to check what I have going on when I make new plans.
But just as in awe as I am with those who have the art of planning down, I also stand dumbfounded at those who don't seem to have any idea what planning is all about. Some people just expect things to fall into place at the last minute without any preperation or planning. Are they nuts? I have been known to get into something and at the last minute realize something was amiss, but to not plan at all and hope it works out? That is nuts!!
One of my board members once said, "fail to plan, plan to fail" and it has become a mantra for me. So for those of you out there with planning issues, start small and plan out just today, you might be amazed at all that you get done...

Hey, watch this...

Those three words have cost so many people so much pain over the years. So in thinking back I have listed my Top Ten "Hey, watch this" moments in my life.
10) Was with my brother riding bikes on day when I said, "Hey, watch this" and tried to stand up on the seat. I still can't figure out why the boys bikes have that straight bar and the girls bikes have that angled bar, it seems backwards. It REALLY seemed backwards then.
9) Was again with my brothers when we found some bottles and gasoline. A few minutes and a ripped up T shirt later I held a lighter in my hand and said, "Hey, watch this" right before I set the entire backyard on fire.
8) Was with a couple of buddies doing donuts in our cars one time when I decided to engage the emergency brake on my Mercury Bobcat (AKA Ford Pinto), I screamed out, "Hey, watch this" as I revved the motor, got a good run and yanked on the hand brake. After the fifth revolution and a bar ditch quickly approaching I was spared any further injury or car damage when I hit a dry patch of asphalt and came to quick stop. It was almost a disaster.
7) I was showing off to some opposing cheerleaders who were checking me and my fellow teamates out when I told one of teamates, "Hey watch this" as I received the ball in the layup line and attempted a one handed dunk. Unfortunately the ball hit the side of the rim effectively blocking my dunk attempt. Unwilling to give up I persisted trying to get the ball THROUGH the rim now instead of over it and found myself almost perpendicular to the floor as gravity took hold. I bounced up pretty fast after the crash; nothing hurt but my pride and my backside.
6) "Hey watch this" was the last words I said while trying to water ski on one ski. Oh and I forgot to let go of the rope till I was ten feet underwater. They never did figure out if my "watch this" was for the skiing or the diving.
5) "Hey watch this" was what I said before I took a bow and a target arrow and shot them straight up into the air one time. Silly me; I forgot that what goes up must eventually come back down. While scrambing for cover the thought occured to me that I might just have accomplished something no one else had ever done, shot themselves with a bow and arrow. It was a narrow miss.
4) I was riding a BMX bike through a make shift trail one time when I decided to jump a small ravine. Pumping my legs furiously I called to my friends, "hey watch this" as I approached the crest of the ridge. As I hit the bank of the ramp, my left foot came off the pedal in mid pump causing me to pull not only to the left but to decrease in speed as well. Instead of soaring majesticly over the ravine, I hit a tree to the left side of the ramp and landed IN the ravine, not on my bike.
3)I remember saying "Hey watch this" once while playing with an electric fence (yeah I know, country kids). So I was touching right next to one of the conductors on a fence post and apparently there was just enough charge leaking into the conductor that it made the hair on my head stand on end. With my 1970's bowl cut it was a really funny looking thing. I did it about three times when I saw some of my family come around the barn, and you guessed it, I ran to the connector, said "Hey watch this" and wham! Next thing I remember is someone shaking me like a rag doll and throwing me to the ground. It was the wrong connector...
2) I was playing with some friends one day when we decided to play stuntman. Stuntman is a game where you make up and do your own stunts. There were a lot of "hey watch this" that day with most ending rather badly. But I had this great idea to run along the top of a concrete wall and jump off the end into a tree and climb down. It was going really well till my left foot slipped off the wall and I fell into a rose bush in the neighbors backyard where their mean dog lived. I don't remember saying "Hey watch this" but I am sure I must have at least thought it.
1) And my greatest "Hey watch this" moment? Swinging on a wild vine in the woods. We had swung on that vine the year earlier after we cut it off with a machete and had a great time swinging out over the 20 foot drop off of the ravine. I remember seeing it the next year and remembering all the fun we had on it. Running to it first I cried out to my friends, "hey watch this" as I pulled it back, took a run and swung. It went well for the first five feet but I started to hear this cracking above me and I felt myself falling a bit but I continued out to the apex of my swing when I heard the snap that spelled doom for my return trip. I had cuts and bruises but no broken bones when they finally fished me out of the ravine. My grandfather asked me if I had thought that after cutting that vine off at the ground if it would still be somewhat alive a year later. I told him no, all I could think about was how impressed my friends would be after I said, "Hey watch this!"

The Power of the tongue, and the ears...

The Bible warns us about the power of the tongue, it says it works all kind of evil, is untameable and on and on. We have heard it a hundred times. But what about the power of what we hear?
We recently had a situation where someone said something and it was taken in the wrong context. It got a lot of people worked up and questioning the person's character. I just hate it when that happens.
I had a situation not long ago where someone accused me of saying something that was not good. They went around town telling people what I had said, using it out of context of course. I was not shocked or even surprised that this person had done that, their character is well known and they love to stir it up. What really got me was the people who know me coming up to me and telling me what they had heard what I had said and that THEY HAD BELIEVED IT!
We need to not just guard our tongues that we not allow them to run rampant, but we need to guard our ears and not just hear what is being said but take in all the context around it.
If you hear that someone has said something, first evaluate what was relayed to you. Does it meet the character test of the person who said it? If not it is probably not truth. Does it sound like something that person would say? If not it is probably again not truth. And then thirdly if it is something that is causing a problem with you, go to the person who is bing accused and find out for yourself what was said. You might find yourself in an awkward situation but it sure beats finding out that you misinterpreted something and caused harm to a relationship.

The POWER of PRAYER...

Many believe that prayer is ineffective today. Many believe that GOD has turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to this world and that we are on our own. Many believe that GOD has ceased to exist. And yet many believe the exact opposites than what is listed above. Let me share in the power of prayer.
My nephew was diagnosed ten days ago with Leukemia. He has been a healthy and happy ten year old and then all of the sudden he is sick with cancer. So our church goes into prayer mode. So he gets diagnosed and goes in for chemotherapy, one of the side effects of chemo is it dirties the blood up so bad that dialysis becomes necessary for most patients. His parents called and said his blood levels were within a point of having to go on dialysis. This was early evening, and the call went out to pray. They kept testing it until the next morning when it had dropped nearly three points and the doctors decided dialysis would not be needed. Then after his chemo treatments started he did not want to eat. So we prayed again that he would regain his appetite. The next morning he woke up and told his mom and dad that he was hungry. He wanted pancakes, custard and beef jerky!! His appetite soon started to return and he became more active. Then the other day they reported that he was still pretty tired and to pray that he would regain his strength so he could go home. So we prayed again. And yesterday I am happy to report that he got to go home. Although he still has a long process to go yet, we are praying for a complete recovery. And I believe that those prayers will be answered as well.

Fireworks are over...

Each year our church does a fundraiser in which we sell fireworks to our community. For the last four years we have operated a tent on our church grounds. It is a great time for all of our people to mingle with the community we are here to serve. The great part is it allows us to connect with our neighbors of the community and provide an answer to a need in our small community. The bad part is it is seven non stop days of fireworks. So this year we were approached with the opportunity to man a different tent in another town as a fundraiser. We opperate the tent in our community as an outreach and we get paid a little for that service, but this other tent, well that is another story. This one was a HIGH traffic tent and we were doing it mainly for the money. We had problem after problem thrown at us but my staff of volunteers did a great job making both tents a success. After the final packs were loaded back up on the trailer to go to the warehouse for storage every one seemed to breathe a sigh of relief that it was over. Physically I am glad it is over as my body is still lagging from lack of sleep. But spiritually, I am somewhat saddened that those quality hours we got to sit around and visit are over. That the people who loved to serve won't be bringing by lunches and dinners and snacks for those that were working. All in all through all the hard work, when we look back we get to see the blessings that were there for us.

Addicted much?

Addictions are something that most Americans associate with drugs, alcohol or something really bad in life. But I have found that addictions rule most of our lives. No I am not saying that everyone is a crack head or an alcoholic or something like that. But I would say that we all have addictions in our lives.
I know I do.
"hi, my name is Pat and I am an addict"... "Hi Pat..."
I am addicted to many things, so in full diclosure I am naming them off in order of need.
1) Coffee - I am a coffee addict. I found myself the other day ordering coffee at 7PM. That is a like a drug user mainlining heroin or something. Only old people drink coffee that late, or addicted coffeeaholics. Of course I was eating breakfast (its just not for mornings anymore you know) and it seemed resonable, but I felt the prying eyes of my boothmates staring at me and I could feel their inperceptable head shaking as they thought, "that is so sad".
2) Technology - I am a technology addict. The other night I could not get connected to the internet to find out what was happening. Wireless was down, I did not have a cord to plug into a wall outlet and my Crackberry wasn't working as a modem. I finally in a fit of rage turned all of it off, and then tried again to get it to connect. Yep I am addicted to technology. If the solar flare everyone keeps hinting about really does happen and we loose all of our technological marvels, I will probably just curl up and cry for a day or two...as I try again and again to log onto the web.
3) Radio - When I am in the car I have to have the radio on. Driving without sounds is like, well not like driving. Without the radio you hear the thump thumps of the stereo next to you and you get jeleous. Why does he have a stereo and I don't? You only hear the sounds of the engine, the road noise, the wind noise. You mind starts to wander and you think things you never thought before. Like do those people know they look rediculous playing air guitar and drums behind the wheel as they lip sync to their favorite songs coming out of their radio. Reality suddenly settled in when I realized that I was once one of them. Banging on my stearing wheel with my hands in a desperate attempt to play the drums. Bobbing my head to the sounds of the beat, singing at the top of my lungs.
Well maybe one of my additions I will try to adress this week. First I will get my coffee and boot up the computer before I switch off the Ipod, one thing at a time...

How to lead when you are scared to death...

How do successful leaders lead when the place they are leading their followers scares them to death?


1) They keep their eye on the finish line.


I think one of the greatest leaders of all time was George Washington our first president. But before he was president he was an officer in the army. At this point the United States of America was just a vision, a dream of our founding fathers. George Washington did not have an experienced group of soldiers, he did not have an intelligence network, he did not have anything at his disposal but a group of rag tag frontiersman who were used to going it alone, and a bunch of soft city dwellers who probably couldn't tell you which end of a long gun to put the powder in. But even though the odds were against him, George Washington kept his eyes on the prize. The crossing of the Potomac is my favorite George Washington picture. In it George is in the front of the boat, foot on the gunwhale ready to be the first to jump to shore. He was not steering the boat, there was better men to do that. He was not rowing the boat, there were better men to do that. He was standing lookout, ready to spring into action when the unseen became known. He was staring at the finish line, independence.


2) They think of themselves as less than others.


It has been told many time about a leader giving himself up for his men. Great leaders think of others first before themselves. Recently one of the ships sailing around the horn of Africa fell prey to pirates as they boarded the ship and took it over. The Captain requested that the pirates take him captive and let all of his other men go. That takes guts!! You have no guarantee that you are going to make it through, no guarantee that your captives won't mistreat you or even worse take you life. There is only one guarantee in that situation, your men will be freed. A great leader thinks about other first than his or herself.



3) Great leaders lend a helping hand.

I think Nehemiah in the Bible was a great leader. He was able to not only lead those that followed him from Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem's walls but he was also able to rally the ragged, miserable outcasts who lived within Jerusalem's broken down walls. These people were not living in houses but under the stones that had fallen when the city was sacked by the Babylon army. Nehemiah was able to form a cohesive group out of people who had been living in captivity in Babylon and the remnants of Israel who still lived among the burned out walls of Jerusalem. Even when those around him rose up to oppose his objective of building the wall he was able to hold together every faction at his disposal. How could he accomplish that? I believe that Nehemiah did not just organize the wall building, but that he got his hands dirty actually building the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah jumped right in to lend a helping hand to rebuild the walls of Jersusalem. Great leaders don't just organize and delegate, they get down and dirty in the trenches with those that follow them.

Scared Spitless...

We got a call from my in laws last Friday that our nephew is being diagnosed with Luekemia. Yeah it was a shock to us as well. He is the same age (well 6 months older) than my youngest son. He and his family are part of my church body and his mother is a staff Pastor. And this just frankly stinks that he is going through this.
The Bible tells us that it rains on both the godly and the ungodly and that means both good and bad. But many people tell us that as Christians we are exempt from trials. Oh not so fast... we are not exempt but we do have a power to lean on.
Jesus said that we can cast our troubles on him, that he will supply all of our needs, and that no weapon formed against us shall prosper.
Well my church has decided to stand on those promises, to pray and intercede for a miracle in this young ones life. There is a passage of scripture that talks how JESUS did not do any miraculous things while he was in his hometown. Was he weak from doing miracles, did his miracleometer run out? No, he did not do any miracle because the people of his hometown did not believe. Well we are believing for a miracle, no matter what report we might receive.

Father's Day

Well yesterday was "officially" Father's Day, but really today is my 18th anniversary of Father's Day. 18 Years ago I was blessed with a baby girl on Father's Day in 1992. She was my first child and with her being born on Father's Day it made it that much more special. But today I am sitting here realizing that I have a young woman's birthday to celebrate today. She graduated high school earlier this year, has her first car, and is off to college in a few months. She is legally an adult today. Wow, I am getting really old.
My associate pastor just celebrated his first Father's Day yesterday, although his daughter was not born on Father's Day, she was just a few weeks early, I thought to myself as I saw him walk into church with that baby in his arms that just a short time ago I was in his shoes.
It seems like only yesterday we were learning how to bathe, feed, burp and change diapers on this small little helpless infant that joined our family. She was so fragile, so defenseless, so tiny. Now she is not so fragile, not so defenseless and not so tiny. It probably won't be too long when she will find someone to spend the rest of her life with, and they too will begin the process of begining a family. Then there will come a day when I will get to celebrate Grandfather's Day...
OK now I officially feel old...
So Dads, as we remember Father's Day, remember, it will be gone before you know it, and that bundle you once carried home will be placing a new bundle in your arms...

My first accident...

Well I have been driving now for 25 years. In that time my wife has had a few accidents.
Before we were married she actually hit a motor home. I was like, wow that's pretty bad and it got worse when I found out the motor home wasn't moving!! Then she hit a cow in the head with the mirror of my car and later in the same car got backed into by a 4x4 pickup that knocked the grill almost off. So here was this car with a missing mirror, a damaged grill but still driveable. Well she was sitting at a stop sign when a semi ran over her back end. Yep went right over the backside of the car. So for the last many years neither of us had an accident. So I got to tell the horrifying stories of HER accidents and laugh at her. Well all of that changed on Tuesday.
I was in a rental car in Birmingham Alabama and was hit in the driver's side door by a Toyota Yaris. I saw her coming, braking hard and all I could do was BRACE FOR IMPACT!!
Damage was minimal, the door was smushed in and the front of her car wore a piece of my door in her bumper but all in all both drivers were fine. Air bags did not deploy so it was not that big of a crash. But it ruined my record.
Now I have been involved in an accident. Yep my spotless record is now tainted, no longer can I point my judgemental finger at my wife and imply she is a bad driver. Now when I feel the need to laugh at her expense I can't point the finger because I will have three others pointing back at me.
Many have asked if anyone was hurt, and thankfully no one was. Really nothing was damaged that could not be repaired, other than my perfect driving record. Oh well it was a good 25 years.

Whew, who knew?

When I think of hard things to do, work out wise, I think of iron man type things. Like bench pressing a truck, doing deep squats with 500 pounds, running five miles. Of course that is because I am a couch potato. Sometimes I don't even get up off the couch to run to the fridge because it is too far. Anyway I digress.
This weekend we had somewhat of an adventure including riding ATVs over hazardous terrain, rope swings and canoeing. Who would have thought those activities would put my body on life support today.
First my fingers don't work properly. I am pretty sure it was the rope swing as I went to grab a spoon this morning and my finger joints almost locked up. It was a pretty easy thing, just climb this tree (that was the hard part) and grab this rope above a knot and swing out holding onto the rope and then drop in the water. Well when gravity takes over, well watch out, first swing the adrenaline was pumping, I was sure I would end up in a coma or at the bottom of the lake so I hung on with dear life, some on the bank began to point and yell like those people on the Godzilla movies. "HE'S COMING BACK!!!" The second time the fingers just did not have the adrenaline to hold on, so the rope whip up between my legs, (yes painful) and burned through my fingers as I plumetted off the platform into the water, not near as graceful or as far out as the first time.
Secondly, I went to close the sliding door of the van and the muscles behind my arms and my shoulders cried out in such agony I actually looked behind me to see where the sound was coming from. From there I gathered that the canoe trip we took on the river had itself taken a toll on my upper body. My shoulders and back seem to want to stay in the hunched over position, although swing the paddle back and forth they are not so cool with. It was not like we took a forty mile trip, we were gone less than two hours, and did not travel that far. Actually I think my wife paddled more than I did. Something about splashing her while I paddled made her tell me to stop paddling.
Thirdly, I leaned to the left to pick up a book that had fallen and found that the muscles on the sise of my body and the back of my thighs have recently engaged in some activity that made their presence known. I think it was the ATVing, we were riding some pretty rugged areas so your were always leaning this way and that ducking tree limbs or just trying to keep your seat in the saddle. Apparently my thighs were gripping that gas tank like Suzzanne Summers and the thighmaster. Well at least I did not fall off of course the dents in the tanks made by my knees was a little embarassing.
So here I lay on the couch in utter agony from a little weekend adventure, I wonder if my wife would get me something from the kitchen...

Songwriting is like life...

In so many ways. Most times the best songs are written about true life events. I have written a few songs in the last year and it is really hard work. Most of them were just poetry that we put a rythm and melody to. But I am working on one right now that was a scary time in my life and I am finding my emotions are getting the best of me. Everytime I sit down to write I remember things about those days and it all comes flooding back, the fear, the uncertainty, the grief and I seem to relieve those days all over again. It is almost enough to put that song away and forget about it. But then the story would not be told and the glorious ending would never be found out.
Life is kind of like that, we live through hard times in our lives and we would rather forget them than relive them. But when we do we fail to get to share in the triumphs that come out of the hard times.
So as your life is lived out loud in front of others, sometimes we need to relive those hard times to let the triumphs truely sing out.

10% inspiration, 90% persperation...

I think we sometimes get those things backwards. We think to really accomplish something it takes 90% inspiration and 10% persperation. Reality shows us that the inspiration part is sometimes the easiest, the real work is in what comes after the inspiration.
I see people fall into that pit everyday, who am I fooling, I fall into that pit daily too. Each and every day I have great ideas. Songs to write. Books to pen. Bathrooms to remodel (hey I am getting really close on that one, of course it was about 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration). And even though we know the 10/90 rule we always seem to get it backwards.
Mark Batterson always says, "plan as if it depends on GOD, but work as if it depends on you". That will preach in most churches I have been in.
So how do we go from the 10% of inspired thinking to the 90% of the grunt work? We just have to do it.
As a young man I worked on my grandfather's farm during the summers and almost every weekend till we moved away. At grandpa's farm, there is always work to be done. I remember one day we had an especially nasty job to do. We had some cattle who needed to be cared for. This amounted to injecting antibiotics into them, making the little bulls into steers, and de-horning those that had horns. Now the first two are no big deal, but that dehorning, that was a NASTY job. There was no way to not get bloodied, bruised and banged around when you are de-horning cattle. So I asked my grandfather, do you think we could just not de-horn the cattle. And he explained that we had to de-horn them so they wouldn't hurt each other. I asked him if there was another way we could do it where I would not get all bloody and nasty. He scratched his chin and thought for a moment and said, "well I guess we could just leave the sheers (big sharp clamps that you clip the horns off with) and the paste (a mixture of antibiotics and medicine to get the blood to coagulate) out in the field and see if the cows will cut their own horns off." I remember looking at him and thinking he really had lost his marbles. I blurted out, "grandpa, those cows can't cut their own horns off" and he replied, "well I guess that means we have to do it."
Sometimes in life we just have to do it. It won't get done unless we do it. It won't happen on its own, it won't just magically appear or even go away no matter how hard we want it to. Sometimes we just have to buckle down and prepare to PERSPIRE.

Am I the only one?

Who really doesn't care for Shrek? My wife and I saw parts of the first one when it first debuted and we walked away thinking we wasted an hour and a half of our lives.
I just did not think it was that funny, sure there were a few funny lines but I am so over the old physical gags routine that burping, passing gas and boogers just aren't funny to me.
I guess part of it is growing up with three younger brothers. When someone flips a booger at 100 miles per hour and it impacts on your forehead it just isn't funny anymore. I remember taking a nap one time and awaking to my brothers backside right in my face. Yep he did it. And burping, well one of my brothers CAN burp his ABC's and sing that little diddy right at the end too. You know the one, now will you sing with me? Well he inserts "burp" in the sing part.
And then I had kids. Yep nose residue (ie Boogers) and all those other icky bodily functions I had to deal with as Dad. It becomes no fun after a while, actually it begins to grate on you. "Didn't I just wipe your nose?" I think I needed to hook the shop vac up sometimes and just attach it to the kid's noses and maybe just maybe I would get all that yucky stuff out at one time. And the diapers...well lets not go there. And then the kiddies get a little older and they start to do icky stuff to each other. And then Mom and Dad yell at them for doing things to their siblings that we did to ours years ago. It is the circle of life...
So Shrek I won't miss you now that your fourth film is done. My kids are almost grown up now, and I stress almost...and I am looking forward to a life without icky bodily functions happening every minute.
Ahh peace... ---Burp!!!!---and quiet.

Motivation...

I remember that old Sprite commercial with the three hip hop looking gang member dudes are shooting the commercial, talking all ghetto and such till the director yells cut and the main guy breaks into this prim and proper English and asks, "whats my motivation?".

I think of that a lot when dealing with motivation.
What I have found is this.
Any time I am motivated to do something for myself it is usually self serving, self centered and self indulging.
Any time I am motivated to do something for someone else it is usually selfless, appreciated and I get a better sense of fulfilment out of it.
Paul said that we should do all things as if we are doing them unto the Lord. There in lies all the motivation that we need to succeed in what we are doing.
I started thinking if I did everything as unto the Lord, wow, how motivated I would be to do a lot of things for him!
So tomorrow, in your cubicle, work for him. When your wife asks you to do something, do it for him to please her. When your kids need your help, help them as you would help him! It will change your life!

Golf Tournet a Success!

Well the golf tourney went over great, well pretty good.
First started at 5:30AM when the alarm went off as we had an early morning tee time for the players. At 6AM I was running a skill saw (to the angst of my neighbors I am sure) cutting stakes for our sponsors signs. At 7:30AM we were on site getting everything together. At 8:20 we had a meeting with the players to go over the rules. At 8:30 they teed off and began play, after the teams filed past the first hole we politlely "golf clapped" each drive. And then we went and had breakfast. There was nothing else for us to do till the end!
So all in all, every team won something, some had a member win a hole challenge, long drive or putting contest. Fun was had by all and even the workers seemed to enjoy themselves in thier baby blues.
So see you next year golfers!

Overwhelmed...

Have you ever felt overwhelmed? I know I am going through it right now. Work has been non stop, the entire months of April and May I was all over the place, to give you an idea, I was in Iowa, South and North Dakota, Minnesota, Ohio and Kentucky (twice), California, Florida (three different times so you can't feel to sorry for me), and Missouri. I feel like Johnny Cash (insert "I've been everywhere man" soundtrack here). This is all for my regular job.
Now for my other job as Pastor, we have a golf tourney fundraiser slated for this Saturday to pull off, Sunday services to minister in, Monday is Berean School where I will teach on the entire Old Testament in three hours time, and then we have a staff retreat to organize for next weekend, and also TWO different firework tent fundraisers that will start in a couple of weeks. Throw in the occasional funeral service, counciling sessions, and hospital calls and it gets to piling up on you.
Oh and lets not forget being a husband and a father. I have a daughter who just graduated, another getting ready for her senior year who decided to play sports this year so we have summer softball to arrange around, a son who is playing both summer baseball and basketball, as well as youth camps, I camps, football camps, softball camps, scouting camps, PK camps and any other kind of camp you want to throw in there. Oh and my wife is wanting out bathroom done that we have been remodeling for five years now. She thinks it might be a good thing to have the second bathroom BEFORE all the kids leave the house.
So what do you do when you feel overwhelmed?
Let go... yep, do the exact opposite of what you should do.
Remember when you were a kid and got on your first roller coaster? You gripped that bar in front of you so hard you thought it was going to break in two? You were just sure when the guy let you out there would be fingerprintes embedded in the metal? After your first ride what did your more experienced roller coaster friend tell you to do? Yep, let go and raise your hands in the air. It was scarry, insane and not rational all at the same time. But the first time when you raised your hands and the coaster built up speed and you took that first downhill plunge you would never hold onto the bar again.
So when you are feeling overwhelmed, let go, relax and let GOD take care of you.
Raising your hands is optional...

Childbirth...

My associate pastor and his wife are expecting their first child any moment now. It has been a pretty good pregnancy for both of them. She has been very active throughout the pregnancy (she was helping dig out post holes two days ago) and really has seemed to be in good shape throughout the entire nine months, fourty weeks or 280 days. So why is it since she is at the hospital that we expect that little baby to just pop out in no time flat. It seems like the last couple of days no one wants to wait for the birth. It was funny on friday that people were throwing around having a C section so it would be over. We get in such a hurry to see the completion we miss out on the glorious thing it is seeing something come to be.
We are kind of like that in life, moving from one thing to another as quick as we can and never really getting to enjoy the little miracles that happen all around us. Working so hard to get a project complete but never really relishing the finish line because we are onto the next project that needs our attention.
I know that when that baby finally makes her appearance, there will be time well spent cherishing and enjoying the moment of the miracle. And it won't just be Mom and Dad who are going to share in that accomplishment, there will be great granparents, and grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends who will all join in the celebration.
Here's to wishing that all of our accomplishments could be celebrated the same way as we wait for those things to come to completion.

Do what?

I was preaching a funeral this week when in studying I ran across a particular section of scripture. It is in 2 Samual chapter 15. Let me set the stage for you, Absolom has taken the kingship from his father and David is fleeing in an attempt to save his household. Absalom has taken the city and as David is leading his family and those men loyal to him out of the city. As they leave David holds back to make sure everyone is making it out OK when something strange happens. Ittai a Gittite is in among David's followers. David asks Ittai what he was doing? You see Ittai just showed up in Jerusalem the day before. No one knows who he is, he just arrived and yet he is leaving with the deposed King? Crazy huh? Well David thought so too. He tells Ittai to go back and serve Absolom as David does not know where he will go, wether they will be overtaken and killed by Absolom, or even if they will have enough provision for everyone. David says go back because that is the rational choice. Ittai says he will stay with David through life or even death, that wherever David goes he will go as well even though it is as Spock would say, Irrationtional...
Following GOD is a lot like that. We really don't know what the future holds. We may think we do but how many times does it really work out the way we think it should? We don't know what will really happen tomorrow. I have never got ready to leave for work and saw I had a flat tire adn thought, well I knew this morning I would have a flat! It is always a surprise.
So back to Ittai, how did it work out for him? Well he followed David in chapter 15. In chapter 18 it tells that David split the country into thirds and gave three men rule over each third. Yeah, you guessed it, one of the guys was Ittai, the crazy dude that followed when following was not rational. Who pledged his loyalty when pledging loyalty was not rational, who became a ruler even though he just got to town yesterday...

Wow.... and again I say Wow....

I just sat through a 2 hour awards assembly at my daughters high school. Now granted we have a little school so the Jr. High was there as well and received awards which I am sure added to the lengthy time, but wow, when did we start awarding kids for mediocrity?

When I was in school, you know when the snow was four feet high and we all walked to school barefoot uphill both ways, well we only got an award if we did something really significent. Like discover a new star, discover some kind of roto virus, or figure out how to pasturize milk. I saw kids get awards today for mere academic mediocrity and it got to me to thinking. Is it better to get an award that is lessened because everyone got one or not to get one at all? I was the kid on the playground who always got picked first. I could not help it that I was bigger than everyone else. It was not my fault that my genetic genes somehow aligned to make me a decent athlete, musician and scholar. I was labeled early on to be a success when I grew up. How I wanted to go live under a bridge and show up at our twenty year reunion with a ratty beard, dirty clothes and an old shopping cart. I just know it would give those kids who always got picked after me a thrill. Anyway I digress.
So when did we start rewarding mediocrity? I remember at my high school graduation the only thing I really figured I would get was a diploma. At least I hoped I would get a diploma. Actually they gave us a blank piece of paper and told us to come back on Monday so we could find out if we had passed all of our courses or not. Not that I was worried, I had good grades but not "that" good that I was up for any awards. I remember getting called across the stage and I got my diploma and the "Presidential Academic Fitness Award". I did not remember registering for it or even applying for it but Ronald Reagan must have caught a press clipping about my 10 points and 4 rebounds when we played Claremore. Anyway I got back to my seat and one of my friends, Keith Anderson (yeah the country western singer) leans back and points at my award and says, "what is that?". So I tell him what it was and he gives me a weird look and says, "I lettered in four sports, why didn't I get one of those". It was at that moment I saw in his eyes the haunted looks all of those kids who got picked last for the kickball game. I felt bad for the all stater, the supreme athlete that everything came easy to. I actually had something that All American Keith Anderson did not have, a Presendential Award to say the least! So I have always felt good about that award, until today that is. They were handing out some award that one of the kids said Barak Obama had signed. I mentioned it to my wife, who did not play sports past the 8th grade year in school, when she said she had gotten that award too and Ronald Reagan had signed hers as well! It was then that I realized that they have been awardig mediocrity for some time... I just did not realize that I was mediocre until today...

That old time religion...

I am reading "Like a Prarie Fire", it is a book about the beginnings of Pentecost in Oklahoma. As a minister I am always looking to expand my knowledge and understanding, and sometimes you need to go back before you can go forward. I am just slightly into it and two things have stood out to me.
Point number one: The author writes about the early church pioneers in Pentecost and penned this point. "Their consecration was so deep that there was no room for anything other than GOD and his will in their lives". Wow. If we could tap into that we can change a world. We need a church today who is willing to give all they have to the cause of Christ. Where there is no room in their lives for anything other than GOD'S will. We have so many other distractions that keep us occupied and lead us away from GOD'S will. Wether it be hobbies, relationships, work, home, addictions or anything that seperates us from GOD, we need to willingly give those things up and replace them with GOD and GOD alone.
Oh LORD that I would surrender everything to you, and allow you to fill every part of my life.
Point number two: The author writes about the singing. Now if your church has not had a split over worship at this point you are probably safe or still singing these songs that the early pioneers sang. What really grabbed me was this quote. He writes; "Only the "worldly" would dare sing a fast song. Pentecost changed that forever. The new Pentecostal songs - even the old Holiness hymns - were sung at a breakneck speed. It was if the joy of the Lord was so built up in them, they exploded during the song service." Wow again. Can you imagine the things that were said? "They keep singing that same chorus over and over". "They are singing about their love for GOD, they should be singing about the Bible." Mainly led by an acoustic guitar and a tamborine they sang loud and long. Well it sure seems like some things never change in the Pentecostal church. People are still griping about the musis being too long and too loud.
Oh GOD, that I would sing as loud as I can so that anyone within earshot can hear. That I would sing as long as I can so those that have yet to pass by would hear your glory.
Sometimes I think we need that "ole time religion"...

Hanley Ramirez...

Have you seen it yet? http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/Marlins-Ramirez-should-sit-051810
Hanley Ramirez of the Florida Marlins loafing after a ball? Here is the scenario. Hanley is a remarkable athlete and the highest paid player on their team who plays the most difficult position short stop. So there was a bloop single that fell in front of the left field and behind Ramirez. Both players gave chase and arrived about the same time when the ball hit the turf, but an unexpected bounce found the ball striking Ramirez's foot and he accidentally kicked it into the left field corner. Now that is a little weird but what happens next is even weirder. Ramirez jogs all the way out to the fence to get it. There was no sense of urgency, no sense of busting it to get the ball back into play, did I mention there were men on base at the time? So Ramirez takes his sweet time to get the ball and throw it back in. His manager is displeased with his effort, his teamates are displeased with his effort and Ramirez doesn't undertand what all the fuss is about. Now before you think I am bashing him, I want to assure you that we all act the same way.
Have you ever mailed it in? You know, you were supposed to do something and did it half way, or not at all or just enough to get by? I know I have. I hate to admit it but there have been times in my life that I really did not want to do something and I put it off and put it off until I had to do it and then I did with with a half hearted effort. It always seems that those things come back to bite me in the backside.
I even had my grandfather get onto me once about doing a half way job. He really let me have it and I decided that if it was worth doing it was worth doing well. I realized my mistake and instead of trying to blame others for my poor efforts I realized it was me that needed to change. Instead of ignoring it I realized I had to deal with it to get it to go away.
I hope Hanley realizes this as well, he is still a young man and will be better for it, I know.

Children are an inheritance of the Lord...

I am so proud of my kids. Proud in a good way not the my kid is better than your kid kind of way.
My youngest is such a great kid. He is smart, sometimes too smart for his own good but has a heart of gold. My next youngest is smart, athletic and funny, so he will either be a businessman, a comedian or an athlete or maybe all three. My next oldest is my youngest daughter, who has so much talent she hasn't even tapped into it all yet. She is a model, honor scholar and soon to be athlete after a four year layoff. But today I want to talk about my oldest, who will graduate school this spring and will be heading off to college in the fall.
She has always been the "big sister". My youngest son until he was around six years old did not even know her name, she was always "big sister" to him. She is the motherly sort that looks after her younger siblings like Mom would in her absence. She is tough on them one moment and then lets them lay all over her the next like a big old family pillow. She is smart, better than a 4.0 GPA, and is in line for many scholarships next fall because of her academics. And she is athletic, gaining a scholarship for basketball in the fall.
She is responsible, accountable, a leader, a teacher, a friend and just a down right good kid. I am so proud to be her dad and I am looking forward to all that she will accomplish in her life.
I can't take all the glory for her, for she has some of my genes, and some of her mom's, but she was formed by the very hands of GOD.
Sierra I am proud to be your Dad, do all you do for the glory of GOD and I know he will bless all your ways.

B A L <> A N C E

Have you ever noticed that you need balance in your life?
Remember when you were a kid? You had to have balance to get through life. You could not ride your bike, play on the monkey bars or be good at sports without balance. I remember thinking I would never be able to balance my bike when I first learned to ride. My father did not believe in training wheels, at least that was what I thought. He just sat you on the bike and told you to pedal while he held the seat, then when you weren't looking he would let go. Many times I did fine till I realized that he let go, then I focused on him letting go instead of balance and I crashed and burned.
Well we serve a GOD that never lets go. He is always right there even when we don't see him. But to really be able to sense his presence in our lives we have to have balance. When we get so caught up in the things around us we start to do things in our own power, with our own skills and we forget that GOD is right there helping us through. It is at those points in our lives where we are in a dangerous position, thinking we are doing it on our own. What I love is that before we get to caught up in our own abilities GOD takes his hand off the seat for just a moment. Our balance gets bad, the handlebars start to sway side to side in our hands and it appears that we are about to careen out of control and we are headed for a nasty crash and GOD reaches back and grabs ahold of us and puts us back into balance. It is a scrary place to be when you see things starting to shake, sway and go out of control in your life. But it is at this place when you realize that you need to let go and let GOD do what he is always trying to do in out lives, give us balance.

Mother's Day...

How we should love our Mothers...
First we should thank them every day for bringing us into this world. I know many times they second guess their decision making process that day of our birth.

Second, we should lavish praise and adoration on them. You are never too old to have your mother get the switch and give you an attitude adjustment.

Thirdly, we should thank them for being our mediator, our lawyer and our probation officer. You know the time when Dad got really mad at us for something, and Mom (The Mediator) went to our defense and told Dad that we were just kids and did not know better. And that Dad was partially to blame for our offense (the Lawyer) because he did not put his stuff away, and that Mom (The Probation Officer) would punish us by sending us to our room with a stern talking to. Dad would have just killed us and told the neighbors that we ran away, Mom though knew the neighbors would not buy that...
That is why she is Mom...

where are you headed?

I remember asking this question one time to a person in our youth group. He got up as we were having a discussion at a restaurant. At that moment in time the question came to my mind about his future, so I blurted out, "where are you headed?". He looked at me kind of funny and said, "I am going to the bathroom, is that OK?".
You see the question I asked what not where he was headed right now, but where he was headed to? In the whole scheme of things, where are you headed?
Too many times when we are asked that question we respond like my friend did with the destination that we have in our sights right now. The short term destination. But I have found that the really successful people in life don't think in terms of short term destinations, but in long term destinations. Short sighted people look at short term solutions, short term destinations and short term dreams. But long term thinkers dream better solutions, better destinations and better dreams, because they are usually bigger, take longer to get there, and solve problems to an even greater degree.
So I will ask you, where are you headed? And don't say to the bathroom...

I just can't stop...

Traveling.
My job requires a certain amount of travel as I need to go see customers and attend trade shows. It seems lately that I have traveled at least part of the last six weeks straight. I am my own worst enemy with scheduling my travel because there are trips that I have to make, conventions and such, as well as customer trips that I have to make as well. It seems they are all wanting me at the same time and when I get an opportunity to spend a week without traveling something else comes up.
So how do I learn to just say no?
I have not figured that out yet but I am going to have to get my mind wrapped around it as with the schedule I have been keeping, ain't nobody happy.
So my mantra now is "no, no, and no again" until I get a handle on it.

Todd Agnew

We hosted a Todd Agnew concert last night. Wow, what a fun time it was. I came away feeling somewhat conflicted though.
First of all, we did not have as many people there than I thought we would. We had around 200-250 people total, not bad for our first production but still we are talking Todd Agnew here. Not Stephen Jones and his talking puppets but Todd Agnew, you know, "Grace Like Rain", "This Fragile Breathe", that Todd Agnew, the one that gets played on the radio? But oh well, I am sure there was something really good on TV that will never replay on TV Land one day that you could not miss. But for the people who were there, they all walked away pretty much blessed by the time they got to spend worshipping with Todd.
Second it was that worship thing that kind of surprised me. I mean he does this for a living. He goes some place, tunes his guitar and sings and plays for work. But he never made it sound like work. He truely enjoyed connecting with the audience and leading them into a place of worship.
Thirdly, I really expected him to plug his newest album, "Need'. You know, the new album is the one that makes the money. I do not think he did but a couple of songs off that album the entire time. If you pick it up check out "Writing on the Wall", I was kind of disappointed he did not do that one but acousticly it probably doesn't have the kick it would with a live band.
Fourthly, I know I am still going. He was a really good guitarist. That impressed me a bunch, it wasn't just up, down, up, down and chord changes but he added some riffs and kept a pretty good groove going the whole time. And trust me people, he did not have any help. His guitar went into a tuner and then into a direct box that went into the sound system. There was no track machine, click track or anything else to help him out, just Todd and the guitar.
Fifthly, I really like the guy. You know he is like famous and all but he was really a down to earth kind of guy. He carried his luggage in, we finally did relieve him of that but he wasn't demanding or expecting something, he almost seemed somewhat embarrassed that people were trying to treat him like a star. I guess I know why I am probably not a famous musician now, I would be big headed, obnoxious and demanding so GOD keeps me humble by being not so famous.
Sixthy, the dude has a sense of humor. He had everyone laughing and crying, singing and worshipping and laughing and crying some more. There was a point he kind of broke into a stand up comedy routine then realized that he had a guitar and kind of looked at it like, "I guess I should be playing this thing...". He was a riot with the stories he told and the theology he brought to the table.
Seventhly, He is what he is. When you see Todd, that is what you get. I was running around in a pair of cargo shorts and a polo trying to get dinner ready for everyone, making sure my wife was not too stressed out and then had to change to get "Pastorly" for the service. By the way my "Pastorly" dress was a pair of jeans, printed T shirt with a button up patterned shirt over the top. No suit and tie for me! Well Todd, he came in wearing this "Chuys" shirt right from the airport. "Chuys" is a Dallas restaurant that I was at years ago, so I keep waiting for Todd to go get into his "performance" clothes. We leave him for a few minutes and when he comes out on stage, yep front and center "Chuys" is heralded to all. Todd should hit them up for some burritos or tacos or something as the food sponsor for "Need" tour. Something like, "we all "NEED" to eat, at Chuys!!" Saying all that, he was real, transparent, and humble. Hopefully next time we have him I will get to set with him for an hour or so and just play guitar.
Eightly, that dude has a set of pipes!! I love Todd's voice, when "Grace Like Rain" came out my wife wanted to do it for worship. Now I am a baritone/bass by nature so I was loving it when she said she wanted me to sing it. All was good until the "Hallelujah" part where I pulled a hamsting trying to get that high. But Todd can just fill a room with his voice. Little guy, big voice. (disclaimer, Todd is not that little but I am 6'3" and 3 bills, he seems a little guy to me for that voice).
Ninethly, he got married a little over a year ago. A ready made family with a 8 year old son and a 6 year old daughter. His son's birthday was the night of the concert. He could have cancelled, I would have understood but he didn't. He told me that they got up that morning, and had Birthday Cake for breakfast before he flew out. That is a pretty good dad! I hope Sandy remembers the day that he had Birthday Cake for breakfast, because his dad was a man of honor. So much so that when the concert was over he went first to call his family. That was too cool, he wanted to share the worship experience with his family.
Tenthly, he was so nice. My wife is a control freak and she plans everything down to the minute and event. Well we were leaving having sent Todd off to get some sleep, finished cleaning up and I asked her how we were supposed to pay for the remainder of the bill to bring him to Miami. She kind of went white and started calling trying to find out what happened to the check. I kind of chuckled because I once had a guest speaker's offering check in my pocket when after I took him to lunch he had to kind of hem and haw and finally just asked me, "that offering you took for me, well are you going to mail it or did you write me a check?" I was so embarrased, I had it in my pocket and forgot to give it to him. Well we forgot Todd's check. Yep, sent him off without paying him. My wife ran him down at the hotel and he was like, "no problems, just mail it to me." He met us all of three hours ago and yet he trusted us with this living and said to just mail it. Well Todd, I will make sure the "check's in the mail" today for you.
Thanks for all you did, you were a blessing.
Pastor Pat

Ordained...finally.

My wife and I finally received our ordination last Tuesday night with the Assemblies of GOD in Oklahoma City before a whole bunch of people.
It was quite a significant step for us; for you see we were not even supposed to be ministry types growing up. I was so shy, reserved and would throw up with even the thought of standing up in front of people, let alone having to talk to them. My wife, well being in the in front of people never bothered her, but the idea of being a "pastor" never really was a thought she dwelt on. But GOD had other things in mind as he called us after we both had careers, children and car and house payments. We filled out our applications in the summer of 1998 and received a provisional certificate granting us credentials as long as we completed our "training" in the next two years. We did finally complete our training on the 23rd month, just in time, and stayed that way for almost 8 years. According to the timeline given to ministers, we were supposed to move up to a higher level of credentialing in the next two years but we are a little slow, it took us six to move on but once we got going we got our liscense and two years later our ordination.
I kind of poo pooed the idea getting ordained. I mean right now I am a senior pastor, leader of people; all ordination would do is give me something else to hang on my wall and cost me a few more bucks at the end of the year to renew my credentials. Oh and it also relieved me of the responsibility to attend the annual sectional ministers insititute that is mandatory for all credential holders that are not ordained, that was probably my most driving factor in it all.
But what I found out is receiving ordination was much more emotional that I thought it would be. As we got closer to the service time I felt myself getting more and more nervous, why I have no idea, they had already told me I was good, had my interview and had all the requirements covered but I still got nervous. All it was to be was a ceremony. We would get our names called, shake the district superintendant's hand, have him whisper in our ears, "good job" and then go and sit back down. no biggie. But when it came time that our names were called, when we walked across that stage a sense of honor came over me. Not the proud type of honor, but the "I can't believe that this is happening to me" type of honor. I am not something special, I don't have thousands of followers, I am not a great orator, writer or singer, I am just me, ordinary. So I walked hand in hand with my wife toward our leadership who placed a mantle on our shoulders, whispered in our ears and hugged our necks and we walked off to the side of the stage. I think it was then that it hit me. I looked out into the crowd and I saw my kids smiling at me. Even my youngest who had his Nintendo DS had taken a game break to watch the action of his Mom and Dad. My older ones (the ones who can't get away with not paying attention) were even smiling at us. My Father in Law was about to burst his buttons as his daughter and his no good son in law were receiving this high honor. My associate pastor and his wife, my youth pastor, my music pastor and his wife, my Mom and my Aunt who came in from Texas to witness this event and a mature couple from our church were all sitting there clapping for us as we were honored. It wasn't necessarily the honor from the district council, the words of praise from our fearless leader of the state's assemblies, or even the prayer of support given from our good friend and presbytrer Arliss Moon at the close of the service as he annointed us with oil and prayed over us that gave me a shudder down my spine and caused my eyes to fill with tears. It was the faces of those that love us, shining with pride over their pastors who were receiving a piece of paper and a draped cloth around their necks that brought tears to my eyes and filled me with such humility and honor I have seldom felt.
You may now call me your most honored revered ordained ambassador of the gospel when you see me... yeah I think the humility has worn off... :-)

To Tie or not to Tie, that is the question.

One of the guys in my church posted a facebook question as to what a "Pastor" should wear to church. It generated a lot of different replies and I found that the scope was very wide on what people "think" that the Pastor should portray.
I have found myself in the business world seeing the same thing. When I first started, sans late 80's every function you went to from a business meeting to a convention to a lunch date was suit and tie. I have pictures at my desk with me in a "pink" shirt and tie, had to be the 80's!
Somewhere in the middle 90's the shirt and tie were replaced with the "Polo" colored shirt. I loved it when that happened. No more stragulation, no more getting hot under the color, you could even golf without changing clothes. I really think that was the reason it happened, easier to go from the desktop to the green in no seconds flat.
Then somewhere around 2000 the tie made a comeback, it got really fat and the wide windsor knots were back in but men realized quickly how confining they were and we saw the Polo make a resurgence again.
So what should the Pastor wear at the church?
Well there are times I wear a suit and tie, there are times I wear a polo and slacks, and there are times I wear blue jeans and a T shirt. So which one is right?
I will never forget my first Pastor, the man was born wearing a suit I figured. I always saw him in a suit, on Sunday, during the week even on Wednesday he wore a suit although he would take the jacket off most times. Then we had a church work day and Pastor showed up in a one piece mechanics set of coveralls. They were bright baby blue colored and I just knew he had a suit on under there. But I could not get over the coveralls. They were the ugliest things I had ever seen. Functional but ugly.
So I made a decision that day, I would be functional but never wear something that ugly. So I alter my attire to suit the needs (that was a pun, get it, suit the neeeds!!) So sometimes I wear a tie, sometimes I option the tie and wear a jacket, other times I wear a polo and slacks and still other times I wear a "fashionable" T shirt and jeans.
GOD is not concerned about our outsides, but the condition of our insides. He is not concerned with how we clothe ourselves but that we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
So with all of that said, I get ordained the end of the month, I am going to be in front of a whole delegation of people. Some will think I need a suit and tie, other a Polo and slacks and still others will want me in a fashionable T shirt and jeans. So who do I want to look cool for? I think I will go with the Don Johnson look, blue jeans, fashionable shirt, tie that has been loosened and the sleeve rolled up on the jacket, that should make everyone happy, except my wife, she will think I look like an idiot...

Just some random thoughts...

Sometimes I think really weird things.
Like,

Why is Weird Al Yankovich famous? All he did was take other people's songs and write new lyrics. He should get sued for "sampling" the music riffs in those songs...

Why is Galahgher famous? You know, the guy who smashes watermelons, honeydews and anything else he can with a sledgehammer? And how do you get that gig anyway? Was he swinging the hammer down on some melons one day and someone said, "you know, you are pretty good at that, you should do that professionally..."

Why do we celebrate Easter with hard boiled eggs that have been died in food coloring, left overnight to dry and then hide them in the yard for small children to find? Do the kids really want to eat an egg that has been died in some toxic formula and left unrefridgerated all night? I don't think so...

Why do we call Mom's who carpool their kids to sporting events "Soccer Mom's"? I have never heard a Mom called a softball mom, or a basketball mom or a football mom or even a baseball mom but apparently there are a bunch more kids playing soccer.

Why do we have to take our shoes off at the airport screeners? Well because a dude put explosives in his shoes that is why. But then it goes to question, what about the guy who had explosives in his underwear...

Remember the days of the Record player? What did they play? Records right? No everyone called them albums. The we had the 8 track tape players and they played 8 tracks. Then we had cassette tape players and they played cassettes. Then we had compact disc players and they play CD's. I am just wondering what the next kind of player might be and what we will call the things that it plays other than what it really is.

My first car was a Mercury Bobcat... rally wheels, four on the floor, sunroof. Sounds good doesn't it, until they ask what it looked like. The only way to descibe it was, "it looks like a Ford Pinto" in whcich people would say, "oh....."

I drive a box, yeah really a Scion XB. No one really told me what XB stood for, I guess I just figured it meant Xtra Boxey. So you see why I have these random thoughts...

I took my brother to jail today...

I took my brother to jail today. I blogged earlier that I was proud of him for entering the teen challenge program to get his alcohol problem resolved. Well yesterday he was going through the entry process when he mentioned that he had a court date in the morning. That got the wheels turning pretty quick as the councilors have to make arrangements to get their students to the courts and with under 24 hours to prepare for a six hour car ride they were a little freaked out to say the least. What freaked them out even more was finding out that my brother had a warrant issued for his arrest for probation violations three weeks ago. Apparently he never got approval from his probation officer to attend a rehab program. When my brother told me he got approval we assumed the courts were in agreement, that was not the case. In doing the due dillagence what we found out is my brother pretty much ignored the court's mandates and was "willingly" entering a program to stay out of jail. Apparently he was arrested last November on a warrant and was given a second chance to take care of the court ordered mandates from the year before. He ignored them once again, proclaiming his innocence (he pleaded guilty), the stupidity of his lawyer and the money grabbing court system getting the blame for all of his problems. After we made the six hour drive back home I told him he had a choice to make, he could keep ignoring the problem that would never go away or he could step up and take care of it. Again he wanted to ignore it claiming that it was not important, his crimes were misdemenors and no one would come get him for those in violation of probation. His plan was to jump state and live with my mom. The only problem is my mom said living with her for the last two and a half years done her in to his problems and he could not stay with her any longer, that he needed to take responsibility for his own self made problems. So then it is back to me. "I guess I can stay with you?" he asked on the way back. "Yes" I said, "for one night" meaning he would in the morning have to make a decision on where he would go. I counciled with him and told him to face his fears (three years in prison) and deal with his issues or keep running and never find freedom. I finally convinced him to turn himself in was the best thing he could do and hope for mercy from the courts. We made the journey to the jail in silence as the tension weighed down on both of us. For me it was a freedom of having to take care of him, plan for him, baby him. For him it was giving up his freedom to face the unknown. It was somewhat bittersweet in that moment when the cell door clanged shut locking him behind prison bars knowing that he was finally taking his first steps to a life of freedom by giving up his freedom.
I pray that he will find mercy in the courts. I pray that he will find help to help him be able to deal with life so he can start over and live a life filled with hope and not despair. I pray that those around him encourage him to take the path least traveled as that is the one that leads to true freedom. I pray that I will never have to take anyone else to jail...

Tomorrow it starts..

Tomorrow my brother is entering a Teen Challenge program to get treatment for his Alcohol problem. I am really proud of him for finally acknowldeging that first he has a problem, and then secondly doing something about it. What really made me think of blogging about this family issue is something he said to me. The program is 13 months, and he was somewhat taken aback by the length of time it was. "It is a whole year of my life" he said to me once. That got me to thinking.
What is a year of your life worth? In the span of an adult life we spend more than a year sleeping. We spend more than a year probably watching TV. I know my kids probably have already spent a year of their lives playing games on the Playstation or the Wii.
So is a year of your life spent in treatment worth it? I think so, we spend so much of our other time doing other things that really won't affect our lives that much. But getting a problem fixed, well that is a life changing.
So I am hoping that his life will be so different in 13 months and it will be a good investment in the course of his life.

Changes in the weather...

Well we have been having some end times like weather here in OK. Lets see, we had almost a foot of snow at Christmas, another 6 inches a few days after, some other snowfall through January and then we had 6 inches of snow the first day of Spring, March 20th. MARCH!! What happened to Global WARMING? It has been so cold this year that I saw snowmen wearing sweaters.
So Sunday before last we had to cancel church because of the snow. Now many would ask me, why do you cancel church for six inches of snow. Well first, we do not have snow removal tools for people to not have to walk through the snow to get to the building. Second our building faces the North which usually means with six inches of snow we will have two foot drifts in front of the church and thirdly I have some elderly people who feel if the doors are open they need to be here. I went to a church that never cancelled, and it scared me every time that someone would fall and get hurt. We have had people fall on a regular sunny day so I decide not to risk it. So we cancel on occasion.
But what was weird was on Monday the high got to the low 50's and melted all the snow away, and a week later the high was in the mid 60's on Sunday this weeked. We are supposed to get to the 80's before the next weekend.
So what gives, well it is Oklahoma, as they say, "if you don't like the weather, hang around a few days, it will change."

Matchups...

So I have been following the NC2A basketball tournament the last few weeks and I am amazed at the teams that have made it through so far and those that have fallen out. The mighty Kansas Jayhawks, probably the number 1 team in the country gets knocked out by a cinderella team that no one picked to be there. We saw Syracuse, another team that spent some time at number 1 and they don't make it either. How about Kentucky? They have the best freshmen in the nation but they won't be playing for the championship either. See the NC2A tourney is all about matchups.
All teams have a weakness, wether it be a soft inside game, or a poor ballhandling game, or bad outside shooting each and every team has a weakness somewhere. The difference is the good teams can hide their weakness, accomodate for their weakness, keep their weaknesses from being exposed. The good teams also are able to attack and expose the other's teams weakness.
How do they do that? By practicing and watching and planning.
We all have weaknesses in our lives, and what we need to do is be able to improve on our weaknesses. The great teams see their weaknesses for what they are and they improve them so they are no longer a weakness in their game.
So go out and work on your game, work on your weaknesses so you can be complete and then the opposition won't be able to be victorious when the game is on the line.

So the other day...

OK, I need to rant a little...
I was listening to this woman at a restaurant in the airport behind me go off on this guy who was on the earlier flight with her who could not keep his eyes apparently off of her chest. She was just going on and on about every time she glanced his way he was staring at her chest. She was talking about how big a pervert he was, that he was probably some kind of child molester and a guy who "must have some problems" according to her.
I loved evesdropping on thier conversation until I got up to leave. As I turned around I took a glance at the gal who felt so "violated" by her fellow flier. She was wearing a cotton T shirt with a neck cut that would fit an NFL offensive lineman's neck as it ran down to about the top of her stomach. To paint a picture, it appeared that she had strapped two volleyballs to her front and they were threatening to jump out of their holsters and bounce all over the floor.
Now here is the point that I want to make. When you wear something like that, people are going to look, especially those of the male persuasion. I just don't understand why girls would wear something like that and then be insulted when someone stares or glances at them.
So ladies and guys, if you want to avoid the stares that come with provacative clothing, wear a turtleneck...
OK rant over.

Purpose?

I have been thinking a lot about purpose lately.
When you read the Bible, you see the great stories of people of purpose. The Old Testament prophets who parted seas, kings who slayed giants, prophets who did miracles. In the New Testament you see men like Paul and Peter who did great things. So I started thinking, why is the church not doing these great things today?
We were in a small group class one evening when one of the children (we usually don't have kids in our adult small groups but she was being rowdy and got stuck with Mom and Dad) speaks up in the middle of our discussion and says quite loudly, "BORING!".
We all kind of chuckled but it has haunted me. Christians today do live Boring lives and it should not be that way. We find ourselves bound by our own prison walls of work, home and church and never get far enough from the shore line to experience anything new.
When we were in the middle of building project, life was anything but boring. There was work to do, bills to pay, shedules to keep. I have never been so proud of my people as seeing the grandmas making dinner in an unfinished kitchen, teenages painting doors and men and women laying carpet base to get ready for our open house. But once the building was completed life got boring again.
We do have our fare share of excitement, just this past week we had two people in the hospital. We had a family who were having some drama that spiced things up but what I found is I like boring. I am comfortable in boring. I love boring and it should not be that way.
So I have purposed in my heart that life is going to quit being boring and we are going to become a church where crisis, drama and conflict become a way of life as we are going to get out of the normal and get out into the world to make a difference.
So what are you doing today? The same old boring thing? Well join us in getting out of the rut and into the fray.

Real life...

I have to tell you, sometimes real life is scary. You know we watch TV, go to movies and have our hobbies to escape from real life but sometimes it sneaks up on you. When it does it is like that ax murderer film where at the time you least expect it the bad guy shows up and slices and dices his way across the screen.
My wife and I are experiencing that right now. I feel like I am running in quicksand and not getting anywhere. I feel like my mouth is open in this horrifying terror induced scream but no sound is coming out. I see the world around me spinning faster and faster outside of my control.
You see, my oldest daughter is graduating high school in a little less than nine weeks. Yep, in nine weeks the little girl who was just learning to brush her hair and teeth, ride a bike, hit a ball is going to be an ADULT! (Insert woman's high pitch scream that last forever here!)
Now I realize that just graduating High School does not make one an adult. I know people that are less mature going on 50 than they were going on 5, but at graduation the world recognizes you as an adult (insert I still can't believe this is not butter ad here- that is how I feel, I can't believe it).
My daughter is filling out scholarship applications, making plans for the future and she is not doing them the way Mom and Dad feel she should. I guess that is real life, and why it is so scary. It is turning your child free to make their own decisions. You just hope when the scary music starts that that they don't go to the window to investigate that strange sound from outside...

So how do you want it?

I remember being asked this as a child when I got into trouble. It usually revolved around me doing something I was not supposed to do and getting in trouble for it. I usually had two choices, one was to get detention, grounded, miss recess, something along those lines. The other involved my backside receiving a blow from a hand, paddle or fly swatter. I to this day can tell you which was worse. Sitting around in detention, or being grounded or missing recess was always worse. I believe it was because I had to sit around and think about what I had done. Whether it was for a day, or an hour or a week, knowing you were in trouble and still having to pay for it long after it happened was torture for me. I would rather take a paddling any day, it was painful but it did not linger as long as being grounded. It was humiliating, but only for a couple of seconds and then you were off to do whatever again. It was carried out quickly and the punishment ended just as fast.

As an adult though I have found out that sometimes my resistance to punishment has increased (that means my behind has gotten bigger and more padded) that GOD has to resort to extreme measures to correct me.

I find myself now thinking more about my lack of discipline, pondering the mistakes I have made more and being more introspective of myself and my shortcomings. I have found that is a miserable place to be. It is kind of like watching all the kids from the windows of the classroom while they are on recess. They are all out there playing, swinging, running and you are locked down in a maximum security classroom.

I long for the day when I will be released from this time of inner examination. I look forward to the day when I can just go play because I have fulfilled the demands of my sentence.

Next time GOD, I think I will take the spanking. Maybe...

UNDER the OVERpass

I just recently saw this book sitting on my coffee table. Where it came from I found out later to be the school's library (go figure that!) but on the cover was this hippie looking guy in shorts, a cutoff T shirt and flip flops strumming a guitar sitting on a backpack. What I came to find out was this guy was Mike, a college student whose faith was challenged one day sitting in church. Yeah I know, having your faith challenged in church, who would have guessed it. Well Mike wondered if he could be "content in all things" as Paul had written. So Mike decided he would take a semester off from school and travel to five US cities as a homeless person. Could he survive on nothing? He had a partner go with him, Sam from OU, and their journey began at a drug treatment center in Denver. I was first drawn to the story with the thought how they were going to survive and if they would make it. Life on the streets is hard, rough and down right dangerous and here were two college kids taking it on face to face.

I won't ruin the story for you, you will have to read the book. But I did bring something out of it. How do we as the church react to those that are less fortunate?

Unfortunately in the book many times that the duo encountered the church the results were not so good. Actually it seemed that the members of the homeless community acted more like true Christians than those who filtered into the large cathedrals and proclaimed the name of Christ.

I know that I have many times have wondered what horrible things the homeless must have done to arrive there. I know others who have called them lazy, druggies and other derogatory things just because they do not have a roof over their heads to call their own.

I have come to realize that we live in an entitled society. We feel we are owed a roof over our heads, food on our table and the happiness that everyone else seems to have.

What bothers me is I see that same mentality in the church. It is not "but for the grace of GOD go I" but a warped mindset that those less fortunate are somehow under a curse of the maker. I know there are many who made bad decisions in their life that led them there, but there are also those that are there by circumstance. I hope that I never have to sleep on the street, scrounge in a trash can for a meal, or fights rats off of my bed at night, but I used to also feel somewhat entitled since I work hard and provide for my family. I needed to realize that my source is not my job, my talents, or my genius (I am really smart :-) or so I think) but my source is my GOD. Mike and Sam proved it over and over again how GOD provided for them on their journey. GOD was their source in every situation in life. I think when we begin to think that way our attitudes toward those less fortunate will change, but for the grace of GOD go I.

So I will challenge you, look through the eyes of Christ, where every person is formed and shaped in the image of GOD.

Bad things...

I have been asked this question for some time now and I feel it is time to address it.

What do bad things happen to good people?

I know we ask that of ourselves so many times. We are doing our best to live good lives and out of nowhere something bad happens.

I have been swamped with these situations this past week. Let me give you a couple of example.

One of my coworkers has been diagnosed with cancer and given a year to live, he is three years older than I am. Has a wife and a young son, mid forties is way to young to be evaluating the end of your life. We have a mother with a new born son who is in the hospital battling pneumonia. They are running test after test and everyone is scared to death of what they will find. We have another family that is going through a bad situation that just recently came to light. We have another couple who are expecting their first child in a few months who just had to come up with a significant amount of money to cover some dentist bills and a hot water tank that just died.

I won't even get into natural disasters like the earthquake in Haiti, or the mudslides, flooding and other disasters that have ravaged the earth.

So the question is why? Why would GOD allow such things to happen to good people.

I can only say this, I can't see what the future holds, but GOD can. He does not exist in a single space of time but he exist in all times, past, present and future. And the situations that happen in our small point of time affect the situations that happen in the future.

I had a man tell me once of being in Dallas on the outer loop traveling along and finding himself in an exit only lane and unable to get out of it. So you guessed it, he got off on that exit, had to backtrack to get back on the outer loop and added about five minutes to his trip. As he finally got back on the outer loop, a couple of minutes later the traffic came to a standstill and he was caught in a traffic jam. When he finally got to the problem he found out that a plane had crashed on the road trying to land. When he read the reports later he realized that he would have been right in that area of the crash had he not taken the exit by accident.

I know you are thinking that no one lost their life. No child was left fatherless or motherless. No husband lost his wife or vice versa. That seems to be the most tragic thing that can possibly happen. Whether it be from sickness, accident, disaster, the death of a loved one is hard to explain.

So I pondered this and thought, what did GOD feel when his son was dying on the cross? He could have stopped it with a spoken word. He could have changed the scenes that would be played out when JESUS prayed in the garden, "take this bitter cup from me..." So if GOD had changed what would the consequences have been. First we would not have the sacrifice of the perfect lamb to wash away our sin. Secondly, there would be no bruises and stripes to pay for our healing. And thirdly JESUS would not have died and therefore would not have rose from the dead on the third day giving us the hope of a resurrection as well. If JESUS had not have died, he would have continued his earthly ministry and the gospel would have never gone beyond the area of Judea and Jerusalem. JESUS would have lived to a ripe old age I am sure but the promise of healing, resurrection and the sacrifice for sin would have been compromised. Did JESUS suffer while in the hands of the Romans and the Pharisees? You bet he did, and he did not deserve any of it. It is the classic case of bad things happening to good people. But GOD sees ahead of time, and as soon as Christ ascended he was made aware of what his sacrifice meant in the span of time. And because of his sacrifice we who surrender our lives to him are promised of an eternity in his presence, never to face sickness, disaster or death ever again. So yes, bad things do happen to good people, and in many cases even better things happen farther ahead in time because of our trials today. Just remember it is all in GOD'S hands, and he works for the good of those that love him.

Weird...

I am writing this blog report from my wife's old computer which has one of those angled keyboards. Needless to say my fingers are wondering what we are doing on this funny layed out thing. It is amazing how comfortable we get with the norm.
Normal is like plain old tap water, pretty good but add a little tea bag, some sugar and it gets a whole lot better. The only problem is that many of us never get out of the norm to experience anything different.
I remember the old TV show, Cheers. In that Sam Malone (why I remember this stuff and can't remember what my passwords are, where my car keys are or what my travel plans are for next week is beyond me) anyway, Sam has this bar where "everyone knows your name" and there are some regulars like Cliff, the know it all. Dr. Crane the guy who doesn't belong. Woody the bartender and this guy named Norm. Now Norm had his own special place, it was where he normally sat. When Norm came in it was normal for everyone to call out Norm! I remember one episode or maybe I dreamed of one episode where Norm came in and no one called his name and there was someone sitting in his stool. So Norm sat as close to normal as he could, right next to his old barstool like he was waiting for the guy to leave. But the man didn't leave. Norm sat there for like three minutes and finally got up and said, "this is not normal" and headed for the door. Everything was out of sorts for him. He came back later and his stool was open and they all cried "Norm!" and everything was back to normal.
So why did I type all of that? Well normal sometimes can become a prison that keeps us from enjoying things in life outside of our "normal". So try doing something different, you just might like it.

Is it just me?

Or was the Pro Bowl last night uninspired? I used to love to watch the Pro Bowl, there were so many tangibles you could grab onto. First there was the coaches, those guys usually decked out with team paraphernalia sans sleeves or not, with scowls on their faces during the regular season always seemed like real people during the Pro Bowl when it was in Hawaii. First they were all sporting a tan, these guys who are used to 14 hour days under the fluorescents or in the darkened film room actually seemed to glow at the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. And those Hawaiian shirts, didn't you just love that look? And add a lei to it and you have Ground and Pound turned into Surf and Turf. You have Cover Two turn into Hang Ten. You have these guys strung tighter than a banjo string, all of the sudden flashing a "hang loose brah" sign from the sidelines.

And the players, they actually seemed to enjoy themselves. I know no one is going to light someone up on a screen pass, that receivers actually feel safe going across the middle, unless Ray Lewis is in the game and then you kind of worry if he might think it would be funny to blow you up when you least expect it. But the players seemed to relax, to chill, to just soak it all in, to enjoy it.

Last night's game although in Miami had all the glitz and glamor of a Pro Bowl but it was lacking those intangibles that made it must see TV. It rained, for the entire game. It never rains in Hawaii, not at game time. It was cold, well by Miami standards it was cold, lower 60's which I am sure the players enjoyed but this game is for the fans right? Who wants to sit through a rainy cold game when their is nothing on the line? In Hawaii it was 80 and sunny! Where else do you want to be if you are a Minnesota Viking, or a New York Giant or Jet when it is close to ZERO degrees at home? You betcha, Hawaii and its 80 degrees. You could almost see it on the players faces last night, there was no waving at the kids in the stands, there was no looking up the wife to make sure she has the car ready to head to the beach after the game, there was no offensive lineman sitting on the bench with his neck stretched out to the breaking point trying to grab a little sun last night.

And not to mention scheduling to play the game before the Super Bowl therefore robbing the fans of seeing Drew "Cool" Breeze chanting up the guys before the game. Or seeing Payton "RoboQB" Manning call somewhere in the neighborhood of five audibles before he hits the line of scrimmage and has the defense looking at each other like he is speaking a foreign language. It robs the fans of seeing Dwight Freeney fly around the edge. Of Reggie Wayne racing under one of those Payton bombs, or of Darren Sharper tracking that ball down to return the interception for a TD. Not to mention the numerous players who were picked for this game and ended up declining an invitation. Come on, no one declines a trip to Hawaii, are you kidding me? Who goes home to his wife and kids and says, "honey, I made the pro bowl, but I am thinking of not going." You would be hit faster than a New York Jet's blitz by your wife and kids telling you that not only are you going, but they are going with you. Skipping out on Miami? Well that is really possible and apparently a lot of players and families decided to do it.

Yes, I do believe the Pro Bowl has lost something. It has lost the purpose it was created for. To be an entertainment extravaganza for the fans and a treat for the players.

So NFL, hang ten, hang loose and get the game back where it needs to be, for all our sakes.