Religious post

I have been posting about sports for the last couple of weeks now, I thin it is time to get back to a Pastoral type post. The thought of suffering was brought up last night in small groups. Why would GOD allow suffering if he is a GOD of love and grace? That is a very good question. Why would GOD not just give us an utopia on earth, where no one got sick, no one fought, there were no wars, no scars and no death? Well he did actually, in the beginning. GOD created the heavens and the earth and then he created all the creatures of the earth and then he created man. GOD called him Adam and Adam worked as GOD'S overseer of a place called Eden. Eden was perfect. There was no sickness, no death, even the animals seemed to get along with each other, it was paradise. But Adam was alone, so GOD created woman and called her Eve and she was to be his helper and it was all very good, until this one day. You see the Devil has been around a while already, and described as a serpent he turned Adam's and Eve's eyes to look upon the world they lived in a distorted way. He tempted them and although GOD gave them very little limitiations in Eden, they disobeyed GOD. And because of that disobedience they had their utopia taken away. No longer would they be allowed to live in paradise. And with their banishment from Eden, Adam and Eve were forced to work the land for their substanance. To depend on themselves for every need they had. And with their banishment all the things in this life that afflict us today was allowed to affect their lives then. Pain, sickness, and even death now had equal footing with Adam and Eve in this new environment. And it has been that way ever since. Because of their disobedience suffering was allowed to affect GOD'S creation, man. Now the good news. GOD realized for a true utopia to be again, he needed to make a way to purge the world of the sin (disobedience) that caused sufferings in the first place. So he offered a sacrifice, one so holy and so valuable that the blood of this sacrifice could not only cleanse a person or a family of their sin, but an entire population. The blood of the sacrificial lamb was poured out willingly to redeem man from his disobedience. The blood of Christ. One day man will once again live in a world without suffering, without war, without hate, without death, but none of that would have ever been possible without the suffering of the Christ. It is somewhat ironic that the suffering that man inflicted upon himself with his disobedience was only absolved with the suffering of GOD'S only son. Be Blessed.

It is HOW OLD?

So I live in a small town and bought this house about 10 years ago. The lady who had live there did so for the last 40-50 years and raised her family there. When she passed away we were fortunate to be able to purchase the house. Now here is where it gets dicey. We were told when we bought the house the estimated age was somewhere around 70 years. So we believed the house was built in the 1930's sometime. While I was working on my remodel of the bathrooms a few years ago I came across a couple signatures of the home owners from 1957 and their relatives from somewhere in Kentucky who apparently worked on the original bathroom remodel. That date felt about right since in our bathroom at that time it had PINK fixtures. I am sure it was called a "dusty rose" or something like that to look like one of the fancy cadillacs at the time but it sure looked PINK to me. So after the bathroom remodel I turned my attention to the master bedroom. Our house never really had a master bedroom, it had a small closet leftover from the bathroom remodel, and one large room that had a dividing wall splitting it into two small rooms, neither of which was big enough to really accomodate a king size bed. So our plan was to eliminate the dividing wall, take down all the lathe and plaster that covered the interior walls and insulate the exterior walls as there is no insulation in there now. So after spending a few days taking down all the lathe and plaster I discovered that when the house was built they used old clothe, bluejeans, burlap bags and newspaper to seal the area between the floor joist and the wall framed opening. I was yanking the old trash out of the bottom of the wall when I found a newspaper that was actually readable. I carefully unfolded it and found that it was the a paper from May of 1899! Yes, 1899! So I am trying to think how my house could have been built in the 1930's and have a newspaper put in as insulation from the 1890's? I smell a mystery here, going to break out my Scoobie Doo lunch box and go and solve this mystery!

The Underdogs...

I just love an underdog story, don't you? Take a person or a team who isn't supposed to accomplish something, have them set their minds to accomplishing that goal that seems impossible and have them overcome tremendous obstacles on the way to achieving their goal. That is a movie ready to be made! I am following the Final Four as March Madness winds down and low and behold there are a pair or underdogs, or as they call them in the tournament; Cinderallas, in the Final Four. Granted, two of them have to play each other for a chance at the national title so it is set that no two Cinderellas will meet in the national title game but still, it is great to see the underdogs doing what no one expected. Viginia Commonwealth and Butler University are in the Final Four. Now Butler was there last year, riding on the talents of a great player who now plays in the NBA. But no one thought they would be back! And Virginia Commenwealth? They were not even a lock to make the tournament, they had to play in an extra game to even get into the field of 64, talk about an underdog! The story lines of underdogs are the stuff of legend. David versus Goliath, The NY Jets and Broadway Joe winning the Super Bowl, Texas Western winning the National Title over Kentucky, and now? Who knows? But it sure makes for an interesting story.

It's Madness I tell you...

The NC2A basketball tournament got underway this week. Did you know that the first Thursday and Friday of the NC2A tournament days are the most missed work days of the year? And those that are at work are more than likely watching the live stream on their computers instead of working.
I remember the first year that CBS started live streaming the games over the internet. I had a co-worker send me a link that the games were on. I just could not believe him so I had to click the link. Of course when the game booted up I had forgotten to turn down the sound on my computer so Billy Packer screamed out of the speakers in front of my computer to my embarassment. As quick as a cobra I hit the mute button and then sheepishly looked around to see if anyone had noticed. I am sure they thought I was talking to myself in one of my many voices like a ventriloquist without a dummy.
So as I sat in wonder with live basketball playing on my computer. I was in hog heaven when I noticed a button on the bottom of the screen that was labeled, "boss button". Well you know that I had to push that and low and behold a microsoft excell spreadsheet pops up on my screen. It had highlights and figures all layed out in some accounting type function, I am sure it was probably the P&L statement for CBS sports but it was genius. I am sure our bosses wondered why everyone in the office was working on a excell spreadsheet when we normally never used that program. So I got to wondering what other uses a boss button could be used for?

How about a boss button in your car, you know when you are late coming back from lunch. You could hit that button and have your best client's voice sound over the car speakers talking to you like you had him in the car. Your boss then would understand why you took a two hour lunch and you could then expense it to the company.

How about a boss button when the boss catches you for the fifth time loitering around the coffee maker. I am thinking something like a sheet that falls in front of you that looks the exact same color as the wall paper. You are standing there and the boss glances in and sees you and when he does his double take you hit the switch, the sheet falls and when he looks again you are gone! That would be awesome.

How about a boss button when you need to leave work early? You need to get out at 3 but you have burned up all your sick time and vacation time. How about a button that inflates a blow up replica of you that looks eerily like you sitting at your desk. Of course we would need a sensor that as someone walked past the hand would raise in mock greeting. That would be great.

Of course these are great ideas but I know that many would use them for purposes other than the NC2A tournament and the productivity of the country would go down the toilet. So for now we will just have to use the boss button on the CBS live feed. Just don't forget to turn down the sound, or you may have Billy Packer screaming out of your speakers, "GONZAGA DID IT!! CINDERELLA REIGNS IN INDIANAPOLIS!!".
Have fun everybody!

Easter is coming...

With Easter around the bend we are doing a series on Wednessday nights regarding the final week of JESUS' life. Last night we studied over the Passover meal.
Did you realize that Judas had already sold out Christ at this point, willing to turn him over for 30 pieces of silver. But what I had missed in the story was not that Judas was as the Last Supper, but that Judas was also one of the disciples whom JESUS served by washing his feet.
Can you imagine the scene. The disciples are jostling for position to see who gets to sit on JESUS's left and his right. They are debating who the best disciple is, who get the special honor of sitting closest to Christ, and then JESUS comes in. He wraps a towel around his waist, gets a basin of water and goes to the first disciple and starts to wash his feet. The Bible does not say that JESUS even asked to wash that disciples feet, he just did it. All the disciples probably did not even notice when JESUS came in as they were arguing over who the best was. But I will tell you what, I am sure when that disciple felt the water on his feet and saw it was his Master who was washing them a hush fell over the crowd. But what is amazing is that JESUS even washed Judas' feet. The dude who would betray him, the guy who would turn him over, the man who would sell him out. JESUS knelt down and took Judas' foot in his hands and washed the dirt and such off of his feet. Feet which had just earlier that day trod into the High Priest presence with an offer of betrayal. Feet that would carry Judas back to the soldiers and then on to where JESUS was staying that night. Feet of the betrayer and yet JESUS washed them as well.
A true servant will even serve the one who will betray you later...

Life goes on....

and on and on and on.
I read a statment the other day that kind of shook me up. It said, "some people never start living till they are told they are dying". Have you really thought about that?
If I were told today that I had one year left to live, I would have to seriously think about how I would use that year. I can tell you that I probably would not waste a single minute of it that is for sure.
So I got to thinking what would I eliminate from my time constraints if I had one year to live.
So here are my top ten.

10) Waiting in line for a fast food meal. I mean it is "supposed to be" fast food, I would walk to the front of the line and tell everyone I have one year to live and I can't stand around waiting for them to decide if they want a number one or a number two.
9) All my banking would be done on direct deposit and autodraft. Why wait at the bank to cash a a check or pay a bill. Just have them take it out and do it without you, they will get it all at the end of my one year anyway.
8) The DMV - I would never wait at the DMV again, period. I would not renew my tags, liscense or anything else by waiting in line at the DMV. If it could not get done by phone or email then it won't get done and whoever gets my car will have to pay the late fees.
7) Facebook - I know people whose whole lives are tied up in facebook. I guess they would put up a status post that they have a year to live and see how many would like or dislike that status. I would just quit it all together and let those friend request, mafia war helps, coins, pillows, flowers and whatever else gets given to your facebook account just pile up and up and up... I am sure some will get mad that I never did "friend" them after I am gone.
6) Waiting on Red Lights - Before you going calling for the Sherrif, I would just pull up to a red light and make a right turn if the light was red, even if that was not the direction I was wanting to go. Remember I am dying here, so forward moving is the goal.
5) Waiting in line for movie tickets, for movie seats for anything movies whatsoever. I don't really think Saint Peter is going to ask me if I saw "Inception" and what I thought about it.
4) Sports Events of any kind (unless I have an immediate family member participating) - Who knows, in a years time the only winter sport we might have will be hockey. But I am not going to waste my time watching guys play a game for hundreds of thousands of dollars when I can be out playing catch with my own kids.
3) Video Games - This one is going to hurt... yeah I really want to finish that seventeenth level and win the game finally but I have already wasted 12 days, 14 hours and 32 minutes sitting in front of the TV with controller in hand, no wonder I have a weight issue.
2) Home Improvements - I know that light socket needs fixed, and the receptacle by the TV needs a new plate but I figure when I kick the bucket there should be enough insurance money left to take care of those things.
And my number one Time Waster I will eliminate:
1) Blogging - I know you will miss me, you will miss the wit and sarcasm and the deep thought provoking topics and all but it takes too much time to just sit and write about things I would rather be out doing. So a fair warning, a heads up, if that call ever comes and you see that my blog has not had an update in a month or so, say a little prayer for me. Even if I have not been given a year to live, I probably need your prayers even more...
Be blessed.

Its been a while

Well sports fans, it has been a while since I graced the blogosphere. So I am back to give you some random thoughts and insights as only I can.

So the NFL owners have locked out the players? I wonder how long it will be before we start to see those guys sending out resumes to get jobs other than playing football. I would love to sit in an interview room with a few of them.
Interviewer: So tell me about yourself.
Candidate: Well, I am 6'5" tall, weight 290 pounds and can bench press 450 pounds 16 times in succesion.
Interviewer: Thats impressive, but you know that you are not going to be bench pressing anything in this office. We do internet marketing for highly competitive creative businesses.
Candidate: Well I am ultra competitive!
Interviewer: Great. Lets talk about job experience, what have you been doing since graduating college.
Candidate: Well last year I was in Green Bay, pretty much worked each and every day with an emphasis on Sunday, knocked down other people and tried to kill the guy behind the lines. You know, ran through the grunts and middle management and then tried to pile drive the CEO of the company. I put that in company speak for you so you understand.
Interviewer: Well that is interesting. What kind of goals are you setting for yourself?
Candidate: I want to get 15 sacks a year and make the Pro Bowl.
Interviewer: No one gets sacks here, and we don't have a Pro Bowl.
Candidate: Oh yeah, I knew that.
Interviewer: Lets talk compensation; this job will pay you $40K starting off, with an option on bonuses and yearly reviews for compensation increases.
Candidate: A month right?
Interviewer: No we get paid Bi Weekley. Every two weeks, understand.
Candidate: Oh that is even better. $40K every two weeks is a little under what I made at my last job but you said that was just starting out right?
Interviewer: I think you misunderstood me. $40K is for the entire year.
Candidate: You mean $40K total, for August through January? That is like just over $6,000 per month. You have to be kidding me, my car payments are more than that!
Interviewer: Uhmmm, when I say the entire year, I am talking January to January.
Candidate: What kind of company are you running here. People can't live on that kind of money in this economy!
Interviewer: Well that is our starting wage, if it is not satisfactory you might want to look elsewhere.
Candidate: Well I do have a few more interviews, hopefully those companies will pay me what I am worth!!
Interviewer: Good luck.

I have a feeling if this thing drags on you might actually see this scenario play out in real life.
Can't wait, but I will miss football too.

Snow snow everywhere.

Let is snow let it snow let it snow.
Man we are getting hammered by snow right now. As is most of the US.
But down here in the south we are unprepared for it and don't know how to deal with it.
I saw a guy go by a minute ago who had four shovels taped to the front of his car, not really but it would not surprise me.
So here are some wintery snow tips for us southerners to make it through the white stuff.
1) get a SNOW shovel. That little spade shovel is made to dig dirt, not snow. Go get a snow shovel and if you can't find one of those get you a big ole manure scooping shovel, it will work.
2) put chains on your car. Not like big old decorations but on the tires that drive your car. They will give you traction to drive out of the bar ditch you did not see, sometimes.
3) and most importantly, take it slow. Just because you have four wheel drive does not mean you are driving a tank and can go the speed limit everywhere. Take it nice and easy, remember traction is more important than anything and be safe.

Plumbing is like life...

I hate doing plumbing, it is the one thing about home improvement that I just do not like at all. Let me explain why.
1) You never have the right tools. Do you know why plumbers drive those big trucks always sagging in the rear? Because they have to have every tool known to man to make plumbing work. Usually I am using the only tool that will do what needs to be done and it is never the right tool which means plenty of bloody knuckles and lots of effort.
2) You never have the right parts. An adapter here, a reducer there, some joint compound over here. Every time you start a plumbing project you end up buying double the parts you really need and most of the time you have to make at least two trips to the store to finish.
3) It is cramped in there. Most plumbers have to work in small spaces. Under the sink, behind the toilet, in the crawl space of the house. As a big man I am space challenged when it comes to those kind of things.

Life in a lot of ways resembles plumbing.
We very seldom have the right tools to do lots of things that we are asked to do. Which results in a lot of blood, sweat and tears to accomplish something. But if everything was easy, where would the sense of accomplishment be at the end of a trial.
We seldom have the right parts laying around the house. Wether it is a bag full of money, a helping hand, an extra car, a replacement dishwasher, a replacement spouse... Usually we have to make do with what life has left us, we just can't run to the store in most cases when we are going through a trial in life. We just have to make do with what we have and see if we can make it work. And if we can't make it work we might have to ask for help or go somewhere to see if we cna get the right parts to complete the job.
And life can get really cramped sometimes. We find ourselves lots of times squeezed into small places without room to breathe. But take heart, remember that it is only for a time, it is only for a few agonizing minutes until we can stand again.
Be Blessed

Been gone for a while...

Hope everyone had a great Holiday and a great new year.
Here are some thoughts to start out the year...
1) It is never as important than you think it might be unless it is dealing with your health, your kids or your wife!!
2) Make time for you this year, sometimes we get so busy doing everything that we burn out. Take some time to read, write or even play.
3) Take time out for your family this year. Spend time with them, play, teach and most of all listen.
4) Pinpoint three areas in your life that you want to deal with this year. It might be your health, it might be family relations, whatever. Make a point to improve those three items the first half of the year and then celebrate the improvements the second half of the year.
5) Have fun. Remember, we have only one life to live. It would be a shame to live it and never have any fun!

Vacation... sweet vacation

Been gone a vacation for the last few days, much needed. Some signs to tell you that you are indeed in need of a vacation.
1) you start to dream about work. We should never dream about work, we should dream about being off of work. When you start dreaming about getting that project done on time, it is time for a break.
2) you start thinking of excuses why you should not go to work. Excuses like, maybe I have menagitus, or some unseemly rash comes on after you haven't washed in a few days, or you have nothing clean to wear. Those type of excuses that don't hold water normally, become reachable when you need a vacation.
3) you start worrying wether or not you can afford a vacation. Come on, you don't have to spend a lot of $$ on vacation, you just need some Calgon and a good hot tub of water to get away.
4) you worry what your boss will think if you take vacation. Can I tell you that he does not worry about what you are thinking as he is jet setting himself off to Cancun!!
5) your wife starts dropping hints that you are starting to look like a tiger in a zoo. Here is the mighty desk worker in his natural habitat...

What's your favorite Christmas time candy?

We asked this question of our kids and we got four totally different responses. You would think kids growing up in the same house, sharing a set of genetic codes from just two people would be somewhat alike, but not our kids, they all picked something totally different.
So I got to thinking about my favorite holiday candy, and I found that I don't have one. I know weird isn't it. All my kids have one, my wife has one (can you say chocolate covered strawberries?) but I don't have a favorite. I guess I am kind of a "one candy fits all" kind of person.
So I decided if my wife is reading my blog to give her some hints. So here are the top five...
5) The Ultimate Gobstopper. Now this isn't the little marble jawbreakers you get at the C store. Now the "Ultimate" is a the mother of all Jawbreakers. It is so big you can't bite it in half even if you tried. Actually I think you might need a diamond tipped cutter to make a dent in it. It is the greatest, and it last and last and last, and if you are in a pinch you can play marbles with it. Just dry it off first!
4) The Watchamacallit. I just love saying it when you went to the store when it first came out. You go to the counter and ask, "do you have a watchamacallit?" The clerk gives you a weird stare and you ask again. Then you look down and say, "well here it is" and you put it on the counter and try to keep the smug look off your face.
3) Mr. Werthers Original Hard Caramel Candies. My Grandfather used to keep these around the house. I assumed since he liked them they were nasty like polk greens. But one day I thought I would try one, and wow, it is like a caramel candy that last and last. I think I ate a whole bag in one sitting. Now the only problems with these are they are individually wrapped, so when you sit and eat a whole bag there are a bunch of wrappers and they are hard to hide.
2)M&M's. I don't know if there is a better candy than the good old M&Ms. Hard candy shell, with a chocolate, peanut or peanut butter center. It is one of those candys that you can feel confident eating even if you found it in the floor boards of your car. Kids, adults or even grandparents love them and a bowl of them will go for a long time. Pour them out into a bowl and unless my father in law is around they will last a long time.
1) Whoppers Malted Milk Balls. I think these are my favorites. I have always loved Whoppers, it is the only candy I have ever found that came in a recycled milk carton. I just love eating a whopper, letting the chocolate melt off of it and getting that puckered malt flavor at the end. You can eat about a handful and feel good about your self and still have half a half gallon left at the end of the day. And nothing beats those that the malt center has become gooey and it kind of like a soft nuggety center. Yum...

So what is your favorite.

Letting go...

I think with me letting go is a problem. I do not think I am quite at that "hoarders" stage but I can see the signs of that disease in my life. Now don't get me wrong, my house is not littered with old newspapers, magazines, pizza boxes and clothes strewn all over the place (OK well we are not counting the laundry room). But I find in my physical and spiritual life I have a hard time letting things go.
I was going through my closet a couple weeks ago and saw a suit that I have not wore in over 10 years. It is a great looking suit, double breasted, pin striped and about five sizes too small for me now. So instead of donating it to some foundation, I looked at it, wiped the dust off the shoulders and hung it back up thinking that I will one day be skinny again and put that dude on. When in reality if I get back to that weight I am not sure I want to be wearing a fifteen year old suit.
I was looking through my stack of stuff and found I have a briefcase fetish. I have about ten briefcases laying around my den. I have briefcases for all sorts of situtations. I have messenger bag briefcases (4), I have a briefcase that has a handle and wheels (1), I have a soft side leather briefcase (1), I have a hard side leather briefcase (1), I have a soft side egonomic laptop computer briefcase, I have a briefcase that will allow you to put a change of clothes in it as well as all the papers and laptops you might need (1) and I have a stainless steel clad briefcase I bought on a whim one time because it was cool. Okay, so I only have 9 briefcases but really how many do I need? I think I am going to get a backpack briefcase so I can have a nice round number of ten. See there I go again, adding and not releasing.
I have a hard time letting go of things. Do I need a stainless steel briefcase? No so why do I still have it? That is the hard question.
Do I need to work weekends? No, so why do I? Do I need to allow others to take on things I am doing currently? Yes, so why won't I embrace them and allow them to help me instead of wrapping my arms even more tightly around my problems?
Sometimes letting go is the hardest thing to do.

Brrrrrrr....

Was Chicago the last weekend and I have come to one conclusion, it is really COLD up there in Winter.
I started to wonder why people would want to live in an area where the temperature rarely gets up over the single digits for long periods of time.
Here are some must haves if you need to go to the frozen north sometime in the near future.
1) a HEAVY coat.
I live in Oklahoma, you know the place where if you don't like the weather hang around a few days and it will change. It gets cold here, but not cold like it gets in Chicago. You have to have a heavy coat. Something that will break the cold and keep the heat in. My coat is not a heavy coat, it is a middleweight coat, kind of like Sugar Ray Leonard. But in Chicago you need a Mike Tyson kind of coat, one that will bite the ears off of the wind if it has to. The happy people in Chicago in the winter are the ones walking around looking like the Michelin man. A Heavy coat is a must.
2) A furry hat.
Now you can do a regular hat but only the furry hats survive Chicago winters. I do not know if it is the fact that they were once alive, or at least partially alive still, but those furry hats will keep your noggin warm. I tried to wear different hats in Chicago but to no avail. You can wear a baseball hat only till the next gust of wind rips it off of your head. By the time you reach up to grab it, it will be in the next county and in 30 seconds will be somewhere over in Michigan. Plus baseball hats are meant to be worn in the summer anyway... You can try to wear a stocking hat, but only certain people can pull those off. You either look like someone spray painted your head a bright color or you look like you are somehow related to the clone heads from Jersey. And as far as keeping your head really warm, well they have a shelf life of about 15 minutes when at that time the stocking hat is colder than the outside temperature. You can also try to wear some of those "cool" hats, like a scottish driving hat (won't keep your ears warm), a beret (unless you are Phil Keagy or in the Special Forces please don't even wear these in the summer) or a cowboy hat (see wind notice here) nothing works like the animal pelt molded to your noggin. There is just something about fur around your ears and balding pate that just makes you warm. So when picking out your warm weather hat, go for the dead animal that has been turned into a beanie.
3) Gloves.
Gloves are also a must have in the windy city. And I am not talking those sheer skin driving gloves either. I am talking gloves that you can hold car keys in your gloved hand kind of gloves. Ones with fur on the inside AND the outside to keep your digits doubly warmed. My gloves are the nice looking, very distinguished leather looking gloves with a little fluff around the wrist area, that absolutely positively do not work in cold weather. I would have been better off making sock puppets and wearing them on my hands than those thin little wisp of what passed as a glove that I had. I would recommend again furry gloves that come all the way up to your armpits, if you can't get them that long at least settle for ones that will go up to the elbows. Believe me you will need it.
4) Boots.
You need adequate footwear if you are going to take on Chicago in the dead of winter. Lets just say that my topsiders and my slippers would not cut it, even with two pairs of socks. You need those boots that have insulation in them. Now in Oklahoma we have steel toed boots for rough work, in Chicago you need steel toes, heels, insteps and ankles if you are going to make it through the winter without getting frostbite. And don't get those slick soled bottoms either, get some that can grip in the winter, you might be walking on snow, ice or really cold mud that is only slightly above freezing that seeps into your socks and leaves you all day wondering if your toes actually ever did have any feeling in them. I have been in Oklahoma a little over 12 hours now and I still can't feel my toes, I hope they are still there.

So if you are heading to the great North, dress accordingly, or you might not make it back.

Staff...or Staph?

I will never forget the one time I told someone that I had "staff". They looked at me like they needed to immediately wash their hands. It was then that I realized what I had said. I should have said that "I have A staff" as there is a difference.
I am so thankful for the staff that I have. They are all pretty much home grown, came up through the minor leauges so to speak in our church.
Out associate Pastor John Dorsey is such a rare treasure. If anyone knew how much money we pay him for all that he does, they would snag him in an instant, just saying. He does it all. I used to joke with him when he was doing his studies at ORU when he was taking a carpentry or a plumbing class because all Sr. Pastors need to know how to do those things. But Pastor John really does know how to do all those things. He has a heart for our community, a real desire to make a difference in the people of our community. He even volunteered to serve on the city council when a seat became available, so he is either committed or needs to be committed, as to a psych ward. But he loves helping people. There is no one I know that if a widow woman calls because her toilet is leaking will get all giddy and excited about fixing a leaking toilet than Pastor John. When we first arrived in Welch he was a teenager just out of school and off chasing skirts and big money in the mining towns of Neveda. When he returned to Welch he started leading worship in our church and we had to put some limitations on him. Boy he did not like that one bit, even walked away for a bit but I am so glad he stuck it out. GOD is really making him into one in whom he delights. He took his schooling and applied to get credentials and for a while actually held higher credentials for a while than I did. It was at that point he was pushing me onwards and upwards. And his wife, Christina, she is the director of our day care. She is as much a blessing as Pastor John is. Servants one and all.
And then we have Pastor Mike and Pastor Katie, our youth Pastors. They are so much like my wife and myself it is scary. Katie is the pushy one, always on the run and always planning something. Mike is like myself, thoughtful to the point where we forget to move on sometimes. But they are really being shaped by GOD to be the couple that he will use for decades to come. I sometimes forget they haven't even hit 30 yet! They were not always on staff either. Katie grew up in the church, her and Mike got married and they kind of did their own thing for a while. I remember some of the gifts that were given at their wedding and thinking that they might have some problems later. They did, but they worked through them and GOD called them to do ministry as only they can. Katie leaped first in getting credentials and Mike followed soon after matching her. They are still working through their ministry style, still raising a family and working in carreers but the sky is the limit for them. One day the light will turn on and they will find their groove and then watch out world...
Pastor Charlie and Elaine are our music/performing arts Pastors. My wife and I have known them for a long time. We actually attended church together when we were all riding a pew instead of standing on stage. They were a crazy pair then, still are today. Elaine is a PK (Pastor's Kid) so she has been doing this all her life. She has seen it all and then some. Elaine was a stay at home Mom who took care of their SIX kids and Charlie was working for a dog food company as a design engineer. Our wives had a mutual interst in sign language which meant they left Charlie and I with his six kids and my three. So after one night of that Charlie and I found we both loved music and we both played trumpets so from that night on the screams of the kids were drowned out by the blasting of our trumpets. I probably owe my musical talents that I have today to Charlie, without him showing me, training me and challenging me I would have never rediscovered my musical talents. We spent a number of years with Charlie and Elaine until they decided to change churches. A situation came up and they left to attend another church, it wasn't long after that we took the Church in Welch. We of course asked them to come and be part of our new church when we started in Welch but they were just getting settled at their new church so they declined. Of course the relationship faltered as our common interaction dissolved into a once a month or eventually a once in a while visit. It was not until we opened our new building that we invited Charlie and Elaine to come entertain us with some music and acting. After that interaction my wife wanted to reach out to them but we put it on the back burner to make sure that GOD was speaking to us and not our own desires and wants. About two months later we met with them and offered them a staff position to be our Worship Pastors. I was not sure they would accept, but when they told us they were feeling called we rejoiced and they came and joined us at Gateway. It has been a few years now since they joined us, Pastor Charlie is now credentialed, and they are using their talents and their kids talents to bless our people. It is amazing how GOD has used them for his glory.
Pastor Lynda and Darrell are our Childrens Pastors. They have been with us since the beginning. Not as staff but as a part of our family. Darrell is my wife's brother, my brother in law. We had some childrens pastor at the time that they started at our church and Lynda mentioned that she would like to work with kids sometime. Unknown to us, GOD was working to prepare them for that work as our childrens pastors left about a month later and Pastor Lynda and her husband moved into that position. They served for a while before we asked about them getting their credentials and found out that Pastor Lynda actually graduated from a Bible College with her degree in teaching. Lynda applied for credentials and with her schooling was able to get credentials as a minister as well. Darrell decided he did not want to pursue pastoring was was willing to be a helper and a helper he is. They have been such a blessing, spending each and every sunday working with our churches kids, ministering to them and investing in their lives. I tell them all the time that their efforts are like planting an oak tree. They dig the hole and put in the acorn but it will be years before their labors are realized. But over the course of time GOD will reward them for their efforst.
So in our little old church, we have a gold mine of staff. And each and every day that I work with them I am blessed.
Many churches have staff, our staff is like a shepherds staff that you can lean on and will help you reach areas that you could never reach.
Other churches I have heard about have said that their staff is like staph, an infection that causes discomfort. I am so glad our staff is not like that.

How in the world did I survive?

I was thinking of my childhood this weekend and as the memories continued to flow by as I strolled down memory lane I had a dramatic moment where I realized I was lucky to be alive...
Let me recount some of my experiences...

I rode in the back of a pickup truck going down the highway. Yeah, I know what were my parents thinking? I guess they were thinking we only had a pickup truck, and with my Dad driving and Mom riding shotgun there was only enough space between them for my two youngest brothers. Which means me and my next youngest brother got to ride in the back.

I went through a auto accident once with my Mom and I was not wearing a seatbelt. I think we were in this big old station wagon. I remember brakes squealing and then hitting the big padded seat in front of me and ending up on the floor board. Then I remember Mom saying something she shouldn't have...

I remember owning a BB gun at the ripe old age of six, and I never shot my eye out with it. But I did shoot my brother once, right in the keister.

I remember drinking water straight out of the water hose...multiple times. I know, I was a daredevil.

I remember making a gasoline bomb out of a beer bottle and a hankerchief. It burned up the entire backyard and an acre of pasture.

I remember running through the house while my brother threw LIT matches at me. I grabbed a can of hair spray and just happened to catch one of the lit matches in mid flight with the spray, viola, FLAME THROWER.

I remember putting a speedometer on my ten speed and going down the biggest hill I could find. I got a little scared when I hit 70 about halfway down the hill. I think I coasted about a mile.

I remember eating dog food on a dare; trying to get the swing to go ALL the way around the pole it was hanging from; having BB gun wars with friends; and riding inside a tractor tire down a hill till I got stopped by the barbed wire fence.

And that is just the half of it... yeah, I am indeed lucky to be alive.

Its the most wonderful time of the year...

I always love to hear that Christmas song because it means we are getting close to Christmas. The Holiday decorations go up, the Christmas tree goes up and the presents start showing up under the tree.
But for many this is the hardest time of the year. They are reminded of past joys that multiply the sorrows they feel in their hearts. They may have lost a loved one this year that will not share this special time. They may have relocated because of careers putting them in a position away from family and friends for the first time. They may have lost their job this year putting presents on the tail end of the to do list behind the mortgage, insurance and food.
So as you enter this Holiday Season, as you pass one another on the street, in the mall or at Wal Mart. Remember there are those who are having a hard time right now. Do something out of the ordinary this Holiday Season.
Invite a homebound neighbor over for Christmas dinner.
Buy the person behind you a cup of coffee at the donut shop with a hearty Merry Christmas.
Shovel the snow out of your neighbors driveway.
Drop off a present at that Single Mom's house that is just for her.
Know a family struggling to pay their bills? Pick one of their bills to pay for them.
Adopt a child in your neighborhood and leave some gifts at the front door. You could put a note that Santa gained weight this year and couldn't fit down the chimney and the front door was locked!
There are a million things that we can do to brighten someones Holiday season, get creative and see what you can do to turn this into the most wonderful time of the year.

If I had hair...

I would be pulling it all out sometimes.
There are things about human nature that just astound me. Let me give you a couple of examples.
Iwas watching some TV the other night while on the road and saw a show called "Jail". It is filmed in local lockups as they bring people in who have been arrested that night and go through the booking process. It amazes me how people who have handcuffs on, who are being fingerprinted, and put in a jail cell keep telling those people who arrested them that they did not do anything wrong.
There was one lady who was clearly intoxicated, slurring her words and could not walk a straight line. And as they put her in the cell she shouted out for all the hear, "I not drunk, no drinking I have done." So from translating those words, either she is Yoda's padawan trainee or she is drunk as a skunk. She proceeded to later try to tear a phone off the wall before she was restained in the restraining chair.
And another guy who was being arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, could not figure out why he was being arrested. He did not actually shoot the guy, he missed, so why should he be arrested for shooting at a guy and missing? Iwas thinking are you serious?
I guess I should not be amazed at what I saw on TV, I see it all the time in the church world. People who profess to be Christians doing things that they should not be doing and when they are caught in their lies and their sin their first inclination is to blame others, or if there are not others to blame to ignore it and pretend it did not really happen. And then there are others who take on the victim mentality that it is not their fault, the world is against them and they should not be held responsible for their actions. Are people so blinded that they can't see their forest of sin and rebellion for the trees in front of them?
Just wondering...

So I am sitting in an airport minding my own business...

When a lady's voice comes over the speaker and says my name and that I needed to go to the gate counter. I had flashbacks to my grade schoold days when you would get called to the office that way. I could nopt figure why I was needed there as I had already checked in for my flight, had my ticket in hand and was starting to get upset because I was afraid they were going to bump me from the flight. The earlier flight had some electrical problems AFTER takeoff and had to come back to Omaha and the flight was cancelled. So I get up there ready to tell the woman that I am a PLATINUM frequent flier when she hands me a different ticket and says she bumped me to FIRST CLASS. I was kind of shocked and then she said "is that OK?". I was almost speechless and finally got out, "you bet".
Well I went up to that counter ready to give that lady a piece of my mind, tell her where the corn grows and the cows graze. I went up there ready to battle, ready to throw down and get down because it was on like Donkey Kong. And it was all for nothing as she did not mess me around but blessed me abundantly.
So have you ever been called to the principal's office thinking you were in trouble only to find out you were being blessed?

My Favorite Commercial

I just love the Gieco commercials right now. The introduction dude always gets my attention when he says, "can switching to Gieco really save you 15% or more on your car insurance? Does ..."
So I decided in this blog post to rank the top five Geico "Does..." commercials.

1) Does an ex drill instructors make really bad councilors... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhlWddAXSRA
Drill Instructor berates an emotional young man who is expressing his feelings. Favorite line, "well let's go over to Mamby Pamby Land and see if we can find you some self confidence"

2) Does the little piggy really cry wee wee wee all the way home... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F_G2zp-opg
A lady is driving her SUV with the eerily high cry of WEEEEEEEEEEE reverberating through the car. We finally see a little piggy crying WEEEEEEEEEE out the back window all the way through the commercial even after the car stopped in which the driver says, "Max, Max, MAXWELL, YOU'RE HOME" at which time the little pig stops saying WEEEEEEEEE.

3) Is Abraham Lincoln honest? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdy3orO6tQA
Old grainy black and white footage show Abraham Lincoln in a room when his wife walks in and ask "does this dress make my backside look big". Abe is certainly flustered as his wife's backside is indeed big, after a moment he raises his hands and puts his fingers just so far apart and says "Perhaps"...to the angst of his wife.

4) Is having a snowball fight with pitchig great Randy Johnson a bad idea? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yenuvSUKugc&feature=channel
The Big Unit Randy Johnson throws a snowball through a guys arm, feathers from his down jacket falling out as Randy picks him up. The look farther on and see holes in someones garage in a snowball shape...

5) Does Charlie Daniels play a mean fiddle? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aZLw_KBdqc&feature=channel
Country Western star Charlie Daniels is seen playing the tar out of a fiddle. As he finishes you realize he is in a fancy restaurant as he hands the fiddle to a man wearing a tux and says, "That's how you do it, son."

Did I mention that I don't even use Geico? They couldn't save me 15% on all my insurance needs but I love thier commercials non the less.

Christmas is coming...

We always decorate our church so the Sunday after Thanksgiving we have our Christmas Decorations up. It is a real pain in the neck for our staff as we kind of go overboard for Christmas. At our church it is not acceptable to have one little tree on a tabletop with some twinkle lights. No, we go BIG. Multiple trees, lots of light and lots of Holly everwhere.
I know many times as a staff as we are dealing with hanging the lights and the greenery, we probably look at it as a temporary thing that we have to take down in a little more than a month. But JESUS is the reason for the season, and I think we should do it BIG to celebrate him.
So pray for our staff as they bring the seasonal items out of the attic, dust them off and put them on display for all to see as we celebrate the coming of the Savior.
Do you do it BIG at your church or do you just get by?

Shattered lives...

We have the pleasure each weekend before Thanksgiving of hosting a Teen Challenge program in our area. Each year we have ten to fifteen girls from that program grace us with their presence for our service. And each and every year I am beset by tears and emotions as these girls share the stories of their shattered lives. Many of them abused as children by those close to them. Many of them turning to drugs, alcohol and self mutilation to ease the pain of their suffering souls. But each and every year as I cry tears of sadness hearing the stories of their lives, I also cry tears of joy as I hear the redeeming stories of their lives by the living GOD.
Where pain and shame once lived, now joy and pride of a newfound life is testified to all.
These young ladies are a living testimoney of how GOD can truely change a life.
GOD is still today taking shattered lives and mending them once again into a life worth living.
Shattered lives to Redeemed and repaired.

Planning...

I am remodeling my wife's closet. It was not a planned remodel. After our bed disaster we had to take everything out of our bedroom to dry out the floor. So the closet got trashed and today my wife complained that she did not have enough closet space because the closet was unorganized.
So I jumped into my SuperHero tights and thought I would save the day. Alas, I think I am more prepared to be a SuperVillan than a SuperHero.
You see SuperVillan's usually plan some monumental disaster but forget one little thing leaving room for the SuperHero to save the day. That seems to be what is happening on the closet. I am always a half inch this way or that way from making something work. It seems that everything is just a hair too big or a hair to small for it to work and it is frustrating me.
Now I should not expect some miracle, I am working with absolutely no budget and I am cobbling things together that were leftovers from something else.
I am not sure why I jumped into it without doing some proper planning. Well I do know why I did not plan, and my excuse is not good. My reason for not planning was the job was too small to plan. I figured by the time that I worked out a plan on paper I could have the entire job done. But alas my fiendishly clever plan to conquer my closet has turned into a nightmare. I guess there is nothing that is too small to plan. I just need a SuperHero to come and finish the job.

Drip, drip, drip...

For the last twenty or so years I have slept on a waterbed. Yeah I know I should have grown up many years ago but stay with me.
When I first got married back in the 80's waterbeds were all the rage. My wife and I however went conventional and bought a standard queen size matress and box springs to start our house. However not long after that we developed a hatred toward that matress and box springs. If I remember we bought it used, and we were starting to figure out why its previous master released it. My mother though was dealing with arthritis and the queen size waterbed she had was bothering her joints so we agreed to a trade. We took over our parts, swapped out with her and soon we were floating on a bed of water, warm water to be precise. It was one of those bladder type waterbeds where if your spouse was sleeping too close to the edge, you could actually send them flying out of the bed with a well timed flop. We absolutely loved that bed, it was warm as soon as you got in, soft as a pillow and the gentle waves lulled you to sleep. Waterbed 1.0 was great, then we got a pair of cats.
Yeah those cats ran through our bed one night while we were sleeping and we awoke with wet sheets from about a hundred claw marks that had penetrated the bladder. It is never a good thing to wake up feeling wet and cold in your own bed. It brings back bad memories of childhood that no one wants to relive. Well that was the end of that water bed, waterbed 1.0 died so we went searching for another bed.
What we found filled our hearts with joy. My brother in law was moving and decided he did not want to move his KING size soft side waterbed and offered it to us. It was the best of both worlds!! It was WATERBED 2.0! The hard wooden sides that greeted you every morning with a smack to your ankles or cut into your thighs as you manuvered yourself out of waterbed 1.0 had been replace with soft foamy edges on the 2.0 model. The free floating bladder from model 1.0 had been enhanced with some kind of foam in the middle that made bed 2.0 "waveless". Now I will tell you in just certain situations a flop from enormous heights still will create enough of a wave in a waveless waterbed that is capable of spilling your spouse right out into the floor. But the smaller waves of just rolling over disappeared overnight with that magical foam. The other great thing about this bed was it took standard size sheets. No longer did we have to shop at "Waterbeds R Us" to get our sheets. No longer would we awake in the night to find the sheets had slipped off and we were laying on a cold plastic filled zip lock bag. We could shop at normal stores, buy those neat frilly sheets that were in style today and they fit like a glove. We were so happy... and then it happened.
We had our first experience with a leak late one night many years into our ownership of waterbed 2.0. We probably had that bed at least 10 years before we ever had a leak. It had this thick cover that wrapped around the entirity of the bladder so cat claws would never come near to penetrating the liquid filled center. It was made of such thick plastic I actually considered putting some goldfish in there so they could swim around. It would be so cool to actually sleep in an aquarium. Of course my wife would never go for that, it would freak her out knowing that she was sleeping actually WITH the fishes!!
So it came as a shock to me when we first experienced a leak in waterbed 2.0. I remember waking up in the middle of the night feeling cold and clammy. As I laid there I realized that I was wet from chest to toe. My first instinct was that I must have had an "accident". I know, I know, I was at this time in my mid 30's, mature and still the first thought I had was that I had wet the bed. As I laid there, cold and wet I suddenly realized that I really had to go to the bathroom, and if I had to go to the bathroom then I could not have wet the bed. It was then that the most horrible thought came to my mind. My thirty something wife must have wet the bed and I am laying in HER "accident".
As a young child I always had to share a room with someone. And because of that sharing my brothers and I always had bunk beds. You know where I am going with this, but don't jump to far ahead. There is a reason why the OLDER sibling always gets the top bunk. There is nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night to the feeling of rain falling on your body. Nothing worse except when you realize that you are indoors, and that is not rain that is falling.
So as I laid there, cold and clammy in my wife's "accident" I did what every husband, father, and grown man would do. I yelled at the top of my lungs, "YUCKKKKKKKK!!! YOU WET THE BED!!!!" which immediately waked my wife who was still sound asleep. as I jumped out of bed my hasty exit created another problem. You see in a water bed, the heavier of the two individuals displaces more of the bladder's water creating a hole or a depression in the bed. That hole or depression will collect andy and all liquids that are on top of the vinyl bladder of the bed. As I rolled out of the bed the depression that I had been causing was suddenly no longer there and the water quickly found the depression that my wife was now occupying, soaking her from chest to toe as well. She quickly awoke only to tell me she had not had an "accident" ("Yeah right" I thought to myself) and that I was a moron for thinking that of her. Actually she did not call me a moron, I added that part as that was what I thought of myself after I falsely accused her of being a five year old with a bladder problem. Anyway after a night on the couch (both of us) we discovered what had happened was that somehow something sharp had slipped down between the bladder and the soft edge of the bed and poked a hole in the bladder. We did a patch job on that hole the next day, dried out the covers and had a good laugh at our "accident" and went back to enjoying our waterbed 2.0.
That is until this last Monday. I had to catch an early flight that day so I was getting up early anyway but I was not planning on getting up quite that early. About 4:45 AM I heard the distinct sound of "drip", "drip", drip" which I chalked up to an early morning thunderstorm. But then I realized that the sound of this drip was not falling from the gutters outside but sounded like it was coming from inside the house. Since we had just finished remodeling out master bathroom I just knew that we must have broken a hose or the sink faucet had sprung a leak. My thoughts were derailed though when I put my foot upon the floor and found the carpet to be cold and clammy and really really wet. Not just soak it up with a towel it will be OK wet but water standing on the floor wet this is a sinking ship wet. It was then that I realized waterbed 2.0 was out for the count. I grabbed a towel and tried to stop the outflow of its precious liquids but it was beyond what I could repair. As I began to gather my things to quickly put it out of its misery and as humanely as possible drain its remaining fluids this thought caused me to choke up. My days as a waterbed owner were coming to an end. No, I would never again be lulled to sleep by the slow rocking of the waves, or have the opportunity to fling my wife out onto the floor with a well timed flop. No, that morning as I drained the last of its still warm water from its radidly deflating shell I realized that I had finally grown up, no more waterbeds for us. Sleep is too precious a commodity now than to wake up wet, cold and clammy every so often. But it was sure fun while it lasted.

What do you do, when you don't know what to do?

That is a question that many have been struggling with lately. I have counciled many people lately who have asked that question. What do we do in this situation?
Well the answer is not always what they want to hear. It is not always the situation that they want to go through. And it does not always lead to an area of their life that they want to explore.
But through every situation we need to remember that GOD is still there. Many times we feel like GOD has abandoned us, that he has left on vacation and is not returning our calls.
But GOD has never left us or forsaken us. He is still there even when we feel like he is not.
But many times his answer to our cries is "not yet" or "no". And when we do not hear what we want to hear we think that GOD is not there. It is not that he is not there, it is just that he is not telling us what we want to hear.
So when you don't know what to do, make sure you are listening for everything that GOD is saying even those things that you may not want to hear.

Coffee... yum

So for Pastor's Appreciation day the church got me a coffee maker. Now before you go, "well they must not like him too much" they got me the bomb diggity coffee maker ever made.
It is one of those that makes one cup of coffee from those little packets you insert into the machine like loading a shotgun. The only way for it to be cooler would be if it made some sort of whoosh whish noise like on Star Trek.
So with the maker which is too cool (Oh I have already said that) came all these different kinds of coffees. There is of course the typical girly coffee, Hazelnut, Irish Cream, Vanilla, but there is this stuff called BOLD, Caribou, Columbian Roast that look promising. See I grew up on coffee made in a percolator, on a stove top. That coffee was the kind where if there wasn't grounds in the bottom of your cup it wasn't REAL coffee.
So I made pancakes for supper last night and decided, yum Coffee! So I made a cup and then I see my kids bringing cups in filled with... wait for it... HOT CHOCOLATE!
My coffee maker makes steaming hot cups of HOT CHOCOLATE also!
So I got to thinking, what other options could I put in that machine?
So here are FIVE things the little coffee packagers should put out for my do it all coffee and more machine.
1) Chicken soup - now I am not sure how they could get the noodles and chicken chunks to go through the little strainer but I am sure they can figure it out. Something like those sea monkeys that when they were added to water expanded and get bigger. That would be great to get a steaming cup of soup without using a can opener.
2) Milk - now stay with me. Nothing can cure insomnia like warm milk sipped from a mug. Not an every night drink but maybe one where you keep a couple of those little canisters next to the antacid in the medicine cabinet.
3) Sweet and Sour Sauce - pop some frozen chicken nuggets in the microwave and cook on nuclear. Then drizzle some HOT sweet and sour sauce on them. YUM!
4) Gravy - I can not make gravy to save my life, but if they had one of those little canisters, I could make gravy all day long!! Oh we ran out of gravy for the potatoes? Let me pop in one of these little canisters, whoosh whish and Viola!! Gravy nice and hot!
5) Pudding - Everyone needs a quick and easy desert every so often. How about a pudding canister that pops in there and out comes some chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, caramel, butterscotch or any kind of pudding you can think of.
It won't be long now when we stand in front of a little door and say, "computer, I would like a chocolate shake please" and whoosh whish the door rises and there is a chocolate shake.
I can dream can't I? Captain Pat, star date 76985 signing off.

Surprised? You should't be...

When the church helps people with no strings attached, why are the people being helped surprised? Isn't that what we are supposed to do?
We had a house in our community burn down the other night so my wife sprang into action. She started finding out what they needed. It is amazing the little things that you find you need when everything is gone.
So the people of our church started donating things, little things like razors, toothpaste and a hairbrush. My wife handed the hair brush to the lady of the home and she immediately ripped it out of its package and started brushing her hair. She said she had been wanting to do that all day.
And last night at church my wife mentioned that they were getting settled into a small RV but that they still had some needs. She had asked them if they needed a coffee maker (some of us would run out of a burning house clutching one thing, it might be the coffee maker) for the morning. They said yes but that they like to perculate their coffee on the stove top. They did not like the "drip" coffee makers. Well we did not have one of them but a lady in our church had two. So she offered it to them. My wife takes it out last night and pulls it out of a bag and says look what one of the ladies in our church had and the lady smiled a little bit. Then she pulled out some creamer and said she had found this also, and the the lady smiled a little bit more. The my wife pulled out two coffee cups and the lady's smile lit up the room. She told my wife that the coffee pot was good, and the creamer was good but they would not be able to drink it because they had no cups to put the coffee in. My wife is the bomb! She was told over and over how surprised they were that total strangers were helping them out. Church, we need to step up and quit helping people with hidden agendas and trap doors to get them in our church. We need to help because that is what Christ would have done.
In the end those people lost their home and everything that they owned inside went up in flames. But this morning as the sun rose once again they were able to sit together, side by side, maybe even holding hands and they get to drink a cup of coffee together. I am glad we got to surprise them.

Cowboys fire head coach...

Yeah I know it is old news but I just can't get over the look on Wade Phillips face as the Packers just beat the tar out of his team on Monday night football. He looked lost, he looked disappointed, he looked like his world had just turned upside down and he was the only one that was still with his feet on the ground.
Now I am not going to get into should he or shouldn't he have been fired. I probably would have fired him a few weeks ago before the season totally got out of hand. But what I want to discuss is what happened?
The Cowboys have all the talent in the world. Now don't get on the our star QB got hurt and that is why they are so bad train. He got hurt two games ago, and they only had ONE win then. They have arguably the most talented offense in the leauge. Their defense is not that much different than the one that ranked in the top ten last year. So what happened?
I think it is something that happens to many "teams", they get to believing in their own success and forget how hard it was to get successful. Stay with me a moment. To be successful in anything it takes a lot of effort. Nothing can replace hard work, nothing. But many times we become victims of our own success and we begin to feel entitled and that we have arrived. It is at that point that you have to check the ego at the door and put on the hard hat and go to work. When I looked at the Cowboys in the preseason they made all sorts of mistakes, missed assignments and yet all everyone talked about was that they were going to be the first team to host a Super Bowl. This was all before the season started. Some of the NFL commentators said there were big problems in Big D but most of the talking heads just brushed it off and said once the season started they would be fine. Well they are not fine today and because of it Wade Phillips is on enemployment.
So what can we do as leaders and coaches to avoid the pitfalls that snared the Boys this year.
1) Don't buy into the lie that you are all that and more.
Many times we get enamored with our success that we forget we are all still human and do not have GOD powers to simply speak something into existance. We still have to do the little things right, still have to lay the foundations and work hard.
2) Don't get complacent.
Abraham Lincoln said "the enemy of great is not bad, but good". I try to live that because there are a lot of people who could be great but settle for good. And the problem with that is the same problem the Boys are having today, they were pegged for greatness, just being good is not good enough.
3) Do the little things right.
GOD promises in his word that if we are faithful in the little things he will give us the larger things in life. It works like that in all aspects of life, start small and slowly as you gain experience you get bigger things to work with. But if you never do the little things right, you will keep repeating that job until you do.
4) Do your job with all your heart
I have watched some of the Cowboys play their tails off, and still I have seen others, well not look like they had their heart into it. I would be the last one to ever question an athletes heart, but I know that during my athletic carreer there were times when I just gave up when there was still time on the clock. Working in a losing effort is not fun, it is work. But that work will pay off later in life, trust me.
5) And finally, Sometimes change is needed.
Do I think that the new coach will do any better? Probably not. But I will say this, I guarantee you that this week in practice and in the locker room things are different. It may not be large change, it may be something as insignificant as a change of pace of schedule but many times change is needed to jump start our lives. As humans we love to be comfortable, but only in our uncomfortable state do we truely start to look for opportunities, for options to make life better. The world is changing around us and we need to be ready to change with it or we might find ourself on the end of a loosing record and a boss looking to fire somebody, think about it.

Conflict...

Man, who does not love conflict?
I love to watch conflict happen, especially when it is not happening to me. How many times are you drawn to a story becuase of the conflict found inside?
Think of all the great movies. What do they all have in common? They all have conflict. Great books? They all have conflict. It is part of the story, it is part of the backround, it makes life exciting. Yep, I said it, conflict makes life exciting.
It is that part of life that is unpredictable and uncontrolable. It just happens and how we deal with it defines our lives in so many ways.
Now when I am in the midst of conflict, I am never happy. I do not like conflict, I avoid it like the plague. But in every season of conflict I have come through I have changed and learned from it.
I have become a "better" Pastor because of conflict. I have become a "better" person because of conflict. I have learned to be a "better" employee because of conflict. I have learned to be a "better" boss because of conflict. I have become a "better" husband because of conflict. I have become a "better" father because of conflict. In every situation that has arose the conflict within it has made be "better". That does not mean that they were not painful, that they were comfortable and everything was rosey as I was going through them, but they all made me "better".
That is the key, for you see in every conflict there is the opportunity for you to get "better" or for you to get "bitter". The only difference in those two is the second letter. For when you get "bitter" it most times revolves around the "I" part in your life. When you get "better" is when you resolve the conflict and the we part of it becomes the central part. When you are wrong you get to appologize. When you are pridefull you get to be humble. When you are right you get to be a gracious winner, and when you are vindicated, you get to be free.
But when you get bitter, it becomes all about the "I". I have been made to look bad, I have been attacked, I have been wronged, and I have done nothing wrong. Sound familiar?
That attitude can cause bitterness to creep in and the conflict will never go away because it soon becomes a part of you. Instead of freedom being found when conflict is resolved you stay inside a prison made from bitterness.
So the next time you are in conflict, choose to be "better" than get "bitter".

So what move what moves you?

Remember that car commercial a few years ago whose tag line was "what moves you?"

Well I got to thinking about that yesterday in relation to my life. What really moves me, to action that is. See there are many things that move us emotionally. A scarry movie, speaking of, I hear they are making a remake of the "Thing". I will never forget that movie the rest of my life. We were living in Odessa, TX and during one of those free cable months we got HBO. Well I waited till all my brothers went to bed and Mom and Dad had turned in and I snuck back out to the living room to catch some late night TV (who am I fooling it was probably around 8:30, Mom and Dad were freaks like that). So anyway "Thing" comes on. The premise is these people in the artic find an alien frozen in the ice, after it thaws it comes alive and starts killing everyone. That movie MOVED me. I did not sleep a wink for the next few weeks just knowing "thing" was out there stalking me. I was emotionally scarred.
And who can't cry when they have to shoot "Ole Yellar" in the end. Oh and "Chariots of Fire" when the race is going on and your heart starts pounding like you are running for you life. And how about the original "Rocky" when he is running through the streets of Philly. All those things move us emotionally, but do they "move" us to action?
I am seeing a trend in our society that people are not as easily moved to action anymore. Is it because we are more educated? Is it because we are more selfish? Is it because we are too busy?
I do not think so, I think it is because we are oversaturated with suffering and needs. I will never forget the first time I saw a starving child in Africa. It was burned into my mind so badly that I wanted to box up the leftovers we had after dinner (it was goulash I think) and send it over to those starving kids. My Mom said it would spoil before it got there (I am not so sure) and not be any good to them. She then said that we needed to adopt a child, send money each and every month so that they could be fed and taken care of. The problem being, there were four young boys in our household and if we sent off money to feed someone in Africa one of the four in our home would be going hungry (we were really poor, yet I did not know it till I was almost grown). Even though I was unable, I was moved with compassion to the point that I was willing to DO something to help. Today we are so inudated with the needs of the world that I think we become insulated to the suffering and needs of people today. It all becomes white noise to our receivers and just does not garner our attention anymore. So much so that we even filter out the needs of those that are living right down the street from us.
So wake up America and see the needs around you for they are many and be moved to do what you can to make a difference in someones life.

Allegiances...

I will never forget the first time I was with my future wife's family for Sunday lunch. After lunch it was onto the TV room for some football. So I walk in and say "who's playing?". My future father in law, and two brother's in law as well as a cousin or two respond, "the Broncos and the Raiders". Now let me stop right there and explain a few things. The Broncos and the Raiders hate each other and their fans feel the same way. It is not one of those type of hates where you hate on someone for being too good looking, or way to athletic or too popular. This kind of hate borders on the excessive type of hate like you have for that girl that dumped you to date that nerdy kid in your class. The type of hate you have for that kid that stole your bubble gum in class and then blows bubbles right in front of you to rub it in. That kind of hate.
So after they say "Broncos and Raiders" I blurt out to my embarrasment "Go Raiders".
Have you ever been in one of those situations where the music is so loud and the noise so deafening that you have to yell to the person sitting next to you to communicate? So you know how it feels when you are sitting there yelling to be heard and all of the sudden the music drops out and you are yelling at your friend who is sitting two feet away and all the people look at you like you are a moron. Well I got those kind of looks and then looks of menace and mayhem.
My father in law said something like, "what did you say?" and my two brothers in law started to rise I changed my allegiance right fast. I was born in the Bay Area, my mom and dad were Raider fans because only the wealthy were 49 fans. So to step foot in a Bronco fan's house and to date his daughter I had jumped right behind enemy lines. So I became a Bronco fan. I converted and placed my faith in John Elway and the Blue and Orange.
So yesterday was a little hard on me as I saw the Silver and Black just beat the stuffing out of my adopted Raiders. I wonder if it is too late to recant...

Difference between faith and trust

I was doing some study for a sermon the other day and I came to a startling conclusion. Faith and Trust are not the same thing.
I used to believe that Faith and Trust is the same concept, interchangable one with the other. But in studying I have found out that they are entirely different and that Trust believe it or not is actually a step up the spiritual ladder than Faith.
I know, I know, I am in major danger of going off the deep end here, getting a call from the head of our denomination for speaking heresy but hear me out on this.
Faith, the evidence of things hoped for, the substance of things unseen. Sound familiar? Paul wrote those words and I have lived by them. I have faith that GOD is going to bless me, he is going to keep me safe, he is going to keep me and my family well. I have faith that he is going to bless the flock he has entrusted me with. I have faith that the Broncos will pull out a win against the hated Raiders even though they are down 21 points... well I kind of hope they do... but really don't think they will. So my faith is not so well with the Broncos...
So that is really what faith is, the hopes that all those things we hope for and the unseen workings will work out for our good.
Well I came to realize this... I can be standing at the top of a 1000 foot cliff looking down at the rocks below. And as I stand there I can have faith that GOD will send an angel to catch me should I jump. I can have faith that should I fall that there would be a soft landing at the end of the fall and I would survive and be OK. I can have faith that halfway down I would grab a branch and it would swing me into a sea cave where thousands upon thousands of dollars of Pirate gold was stashed...sorry there I go hoping again.
Faith is one thing standing at the top of a cliff and declaring that GOD will catch you. Trust is a whole other ballgame. Trust is actually taking that leap from faith into action.
I realized that Trust is really when we put Faith into action. We can have Faith without action, but Trust kicks in when we begin to act on our Faith.
It is Trust that the three amigos stood down Kind Nebekenezer when he threatened to throw them into the firey furnace. They trusted that GOD would deliver them out of the King's hand either by being burned up or saved from the fire.
Oh GOD that I would have Trust to feed the fire of my Faith!!

Under the weather...

I just hate being sick...
Number one my wife is not the sympathetic type. She doesn't baby me around, make me chicken soup and keep orange juice and toast at my bedside. I guess that is OK, but it sure is nice to have someone wait on you hand and foot.
So as I sit here my nose is stopped up, my throat raw and my head is pounding. I have taken drugs to help with the symptoms but the end result is I still feel bad.
I think we can relate this to a lot of our lives. We have issues that come up and we take the necessary steps to correct them but they still plague us. Maybe not as bad as when they first started but they still cause us discomfort.
I know in my life there have been financial issues that still continue to raise their heads that cause discomfort. There are car repairs, house repairs, football expenses, cheerleader expenses and lets not forget college!! All of these are not incompacitating on their own but when they gang up together watch out!
I saw a cartoon the other day with a harried lady who was quoted as saying, "normally I take each day at a time, but recently a number of them have been ganging up on me." I kind of feel like that today, head cold, cough, congestion... all ganging up on me.
Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

A dangerous trend...

There is something that is happening among our churches today that is somewhat disturbing to me. I do believe this is just a trend or a fad or whatever you would like to call it but I have seen that once something like this happens others are quick to jump on board and they take it a step further and then once again someone else jumps on board and they take it a step further and pretty soon we are so far off from where it started that we are in left field.
What am I talking about? The use of secular music in our churches.
I have been told that if you think it is too loud, then you are too old. Well I have never gotten into that position ( I have been known to pump up the volume in my car ask my kids, nothing better than a little Stryper in the morning to get your blood going!) so I do not think I am too old to adress this. And as I was raised heathen so many of the songs I am hearing in churches today I was banging my head to as a young adult.
Let me put some examples out there. A few months ago there was a video of a church service where the worship band was playing "Highway to Hell" from AC/DC as an introduction to a sermon series. Now they did a very good job with the song and they seemed to be enjoying themselves but all I could think was, why? Were there not any other songs that would have introduced the series better? How about "To Hell with the Devil"? I think I have echausted my Stryper references for this post...
I thought it might have been a one time event but I also attended a conference a month ago where "Dream On" from AeroSmith was on the worship set list along with a "Star Wars" montage. They were all well done, performed admirably. But again I had to ask, why?

I had one of my worship singers ask me a few weeks past to do a secular song. When I asked why he wanted to do the song he really did not have a reason other than it was not what the congregation was expecting... So do we need to be "shocked" to pay attention today?
I know we live in a age where the Lady Gagas, the Marilyn Mansons and the Rob Zombies shock and awe us so much with the look at me and what crazy stuff I am doing that we can't take our eyes off of them. I remember as a young adult there was this guy named Alice Cooper who bit the head off of a live chicken. And this guy named Ozzy Ozborne who bit the head off of a bat. That was like so 80's gag me with a spoon and take away my high tops kind of shock and awe of the day. But I see it coming back in society today where we have to one up each other to get attention. The things done on todays stages make chickens and bats seem like child's play.
So as the church do we have to resort to shock and awe tactics to gain an audience? Do we not have enough Chrisian music writers writing songs to keep our attention today that we have to dig into the classic rock albums to stay relevant?
I am all for classic rock, but is AeroSmith really relevant today? I mean Steven Tyler is like 60+ and the rest of the band is up there in age as well... how would you feel if your Grandpa got up on stage and began singing "Dream On" in his highest falseto and his skinny leather pants?
And AC/DC? Well they were really good back in the late 70's and 80's. How do I know? I had their albums in my cassette tapedeck that I just upgraded from my 8 track player.
People that was THIRTY years ago, come on! Tell me they still aren't relevant today and there is not something else.
So as I thought about this culture we are in today, the church is usually about 50 years behind the world. And looking at the music choices being empowered in our churches we might have caught up a few years. So now we are only about 30 years behind!!
So I am thinking that this Sunday, I am breaking out the pastel blue sport coat, the white t shirt and I am going to push the sleeves up to my elbows. I need to find my white shoes and my white pants, I think they are in the back of my closet and I guess get a wig so I can feather my false locks back on my head like I did when I had hair. Dig out my 501's and my white hi tops and my Op T shirts and it will be on like Donkey Kong! I will be relevant again to kids who will say something like, you look like that guy I saw on TV Land...
What's next? Is someone going to start bringing back Parachute pants and we will all start doing Hammertime on stage as the spirit moves? I hope not, I am not sure my back can handle it anymore...

Waiting... part 2

I have been writing a lot of sequels lately... go figure.
But last night something really cool happened in small groups, guess what the lesson was...
Yep you guessed it, waiting on GOD.
I thought it was pretty cool that what I was dealing with was covered in the lesson the very day I blogged about it.
So what I learned, well I guess the waiting part is a test as to wether I trust or do not trust GOD.
The story in our lesson last night was about Lazerous. How he died and Jesus did not get there in time to heal him. I really related to how the author describe the angst that Mary and Martha must have been going through "waiting" on Jesus to show up and heal their brother.
I made this point. They sent a message off to Jesus and when Jesus received the Bible says he stayed there another two days. So Mary and Martha send a message that Lazerous is sick and they are expecting Jesus to come a runnin' as we say in the south. But Jesus doesn't come immediately like they expected. Can you imagine Mary and Martha watching the road for Jesus and his followers to come walking over the hill. They send the message and the next day they are thinking well if he is close he should get here today. And the sun sets ending the day and Jesus still has not arrived and Lazerous is getting worse. So the next morning they just know that this is the day when Jesus will arrive. So they set about getting the house ready, looking and yearning for Jesus' arrival because Lazerous is really getting bad now but still no Jesus. Imagine this if you will. Lazerous is fading fast, his breathes are becoming more and more shallow, he hasn't opened his eyes or communicated with his sisters for a few hours now. He is at death's door and I am sure Mary and Martha are just waiting for Jesus to bust in the door and make their brother well. Imagine you are sitting at the bedside of Lazerous and he takes his last breathe and dies. Mary and Martha at his point must be thinking, well Jesus must be really close now and yet Jesus still does not show up. An hour goes by and Lazerous starts to look real pale as his heart has ceased to beat. Four hours go by and rigamortis sets in. Eight hours goes by and the family is telling Mary and Martha that he is gone and we have to prepare his body for a funeral. The next day they have the funeral and they put Lazerous in the tomb and roll the stone in front of the door.
When do you think Mary and Martha felt that GOD had let them down? At the point of Lazerous' last breathe? When rigamortis set in? When they rolled the stone in front of the door. You kind of see Mary's faith when Jesus does show up when she said "if you had been here you could have healed him". To Mary the promise was dead, laid behind a stone in a tomb.
How many of us are in that situation today. Promises and dreams given by the Lord dead and gone, the breath of live no longer living in them?
I know that I have felt that way. That GOD had missed the deadline, if only he had acted then...
But with GOD, he can bring back to life the dead and buried dreams. He can breath life back into the promises of yesterday with just the sound of his voice because he is GOD.
All he had to do was say, "Lazerous, come forth", and he did!
So trust in GOD, even when the cold hard fingers of death have gripped your dreams and promises and remember that death has no hold on him who has the keys!!

"I hate waiting"... Inigo Montoya "The Princess Bride"

Remember the scene where Inigo is waiting for "the "man in black" henceforth known as Wesley" to reach the top of the cliffs so he can kill him?
Stop right now. If you have not read or watched "The Princess Bride" get your Kindle and download it or go to Blockbuster or your movie store of choice and rent it, either read it or watch it and then you can continue reading.
Okay if you have read it or watched it please continue...
So Inigo is waiting at the top of the "cliffs of insanity" for Wesley to either climb to the top of the cliff so he can kill him with the sword or for Wesley to fall which accomplishes the same result as the sword, death. So Wesley is taking his time climbing the cliff, which is a very laborous task. Inigo looks down on Wesley as he climbs and asked if he could possibly speed things up, meaning either go ahead and fall to your death or climb up here so I can kill you. I love Inigo, a man of action!
But what happens when men of action have to wait... and wait... and wait... well we get frustrated.
I have been waiting on a lot of things in my life lately. GOD has given certain promises and directives that I know are to come to pass but have yet to show up. I feel like Inigo looking at GOD and saying, "could you possibly hurry things up?".
It is frustrating to sit around and wait for something to happen. It is like watching paint dry, you can blow on it, wave a piece of paper and fan it, but it really does not dry any faster. All you can do it wait... and I hate waiting.
Waiting is a waste of time. It is non activity, it is fruitless. There is nothing worse than doing nothing. And yet that is where I am at today, waiting on a GOD who is not hindered by seconds, minutes, hours or even days and years. Time for GOD does not exist as he exist in a place where past, present and future all intersect. In actuality GOD exists in a place where he just revealed to me the directives and promises in days past. He is in that place where fear and excitement both ran the gaunlet of my emotions. He is also in the present where the frustration and anxiousness of something to come which has not yet arrived clouds my mind with doubt and fear that I might have missed it. And he also exists in that future place where the promises he made come to pass, where he sees the joy on my face as the dreams are realized. Where the excitement of the fulfillment of promise raises the faith level in my heart.
I guess as I walk through this I will hold onto the scritpture that says "they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall walk and not grow weary, they shall run and not faint, they shall mount up on wings as eagles..."
I may not be flying today, but one day it shall be.

Airports...

My daughter is going to take her first solo trip on a plane coming home from college to see us this Christmas. So I booked her flights yesterday and sent her the e-mail acknowledgement so she would know what is heading her way.
She sends a response to her mother that she received them but then asked, "what am I supposed to do?"

I have found that there are a lot of travelers who have no clue how air travel works today. As a frequent traveler (approaching 100K air miles this year) I will offer some handy suggestions for you so frequent travelers like myself don't walk by you shaking my head in pity as you get the full body search from the TSA..

1) Pack light. I know that airlines are charging for bags to fly now so many are resorting to trying to carry on as much as they can. You get TWO carry ons. Only TWO no matter how small that fanny pack it is considered a carry on. That small infant in your arms? Well unless he or she is crawling on the plane, you are carrying them on so they count as well, just kidding. Oh but that diaper bag counts as yours unless you purchased a seat for the little one. So back to the carry on bag thing. You get TWO bags to carry on and they have to fit in the overhead compartment. Do not stuff that bag so full it won't fit or you might have to offload your undies into your other bag while your seatmate checks out wether you are a boxers or briefs kind of guy. I don't even want to go there with the ladies.
2) If you do carry on TWO carry ons, you only get to put one in the space above your seat. The other MUST go under the seat in front of you. Now there are some seats which do not have a seat in front of them, mainly exit rows and bulkheads, but unless you are a frequent flier you are not likely to get those seats, and frequent fliers know the rules anyway so this really doesn't apply to most of you. So you put the larger one in the space above and cram the smaller one under the seat in front of you. Now at this point it is YOUR decision to bring on TWO bags, and that does not give you the right to take the leg space of your neighbors on each side as your own leg space has been confiscated by your carry on bag. No one appreciates when you rub your sweaty legs against ours trying to get a little extra leg room because of your oversized carry on. Oh and share the armrest, think of it like the DMZ in Korea, no one lives there, you occasionaly get to rest there but it doesn't belong to either of you, it is just a buffer to keep your sweaty parts on your side and my sweaty parts on my side.
3) Once we start boarding, get your behind on the plane and sit down. You know where your seat is (unless you are flying Southwest and then just grag the one closest) get to it and sit down. We are not shopping for furniture, all the seats are the same. And the number order goes, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ect from front to back and the seats go ABCDEFG (just like the song) from right to left across the plane as your board. So if you are in seat 29B, just get on the plane and walk as fast as you can to the back, you are somewhere way back there. And if the flight attendant says, "please take your seats so we can leave the jet bridge" they are talking to you, yes the one standing in the aisle. If you do not sit down they will get rude and call you out in front of all of these people like Mrs. Smith used to do in fourth grade. Of course they won't make you wear the little pointed hat that has DUNCE written on it but we will all think it in our minds.
4) Be courteous of the person next to you. There are many of us that are business travelers who take the hour and a half flight as a little down time. We like to read, catch up on the news, listen to music and relax. The last thing we want to hear about it how long it has been since you flew, and where you are going. I am sure your cousin Vinny is an interesting character but unless he is in the mob and works as a hit man I am probably not that interested.
5) The flight attendants are there for YOUR safety. They are not there just to give you pillows or blankets or serve breakfast like down as Mo's Diner. Unknown to most people there are tazers on the airplanes and the flight attendants will use them on you. So say in your seat, obey them like they are a drill instructor and behave and you will be fine. Cross that line and you might find yourself strapped to the seat drooling out of the side of your mouth.
6) Going back to arriving at the airport, there are two lanes when you drive onto the airport, one for departures and one for arrivals. Think of it this way, the departure lane, that is for those that are leaving. And the arrival lane is for those getting home. Simple? No one likes the guy who keeps trying to pick up where everyone is dropping off.
7) If you are not checking bags there is this thing called the internet that Al Gore invented which will allow you to print your tickets BEFORE you get to the airport. Yes that is right, you can go right from the car that dropped you off straight to the security gate without bothering the nice ladies at the ticket counter. Leave that area alone for the poor people who did not read this blog and travel once a century.
8) At security the TSA will want to see your ticket and your PHOTO ID. And no, a year book will not count. Please have them out when you get to their podium or you will get the glare from the TSA as they are waiting on you. If you are still fumbling with your ID when you get to the security officer you will see a very indescreet nod from him or her to the screening area. What that is a signal for them to do a full body search on you because you broke their flow. And a full body search will mess up anyone's day.
9) Going through the screening area is a very important area to keep your wits about you. If you see kids, avoid that line at all cost. You can not believe how long it takes kids to take their shoes off, get all their electronic gadgets out of their little backpacks and get through security. Old people are even worse. They will almost come to blows with the TSA because they have to take their shoes off. One lady made a comment about "how stupid it was to take their her shoes off, what are they looking for a bomb?" The TSA heard that and she ended up behind the screen... just saying.
10) So we have already covered shoes, lets go onto other accessories. Make sure your socks do not have holes in them as you will not get your shoes back till after the screening. And if you are not wearing socks, well that is really gross for the rest of us as you walk your barefeet through the little narrow tunnel that ALL OF US have to walk through as well. Have some decency and bring some booties or something.
11) Ladies (and some guys, you know who you are) take your jewlry off and put it in your carry on bag BEFORE you get to the airport. It takes you like 15 minutes to take off the necklaces, the bracelet, the anklet, the earings, the toe rings, the belly button rings, the nose rings, the tree rings and all those other rings. Save some time and put them in a bag in your carry on and AFTER you get through security put all those things back on. Nothing worse than to stand behind a lady as she takes off all her jewlry and you start thinking, "man I am a schmuck, my wife doesn't have nice rings like that..."
12) Some airports are now equipped with full body scanners that will take your picture and even though you are fully clothed will show up on the screen with you naked. So don't go thinking you can hide some contraband on your person, they will find it and you will be in big trouble. Also when you stand there you need to put your hands over your head like you are getting arrested. I know it just makes it easier on the TSA when they find your contraband. Oh and guys suck that gut in, it might be a gal doing the screening.
13) On your baggage that you put through the scanners, you have to take your Laptops, MP3 players, gameboys, playstations, XBox, PSP, and any other kind of electronic equipment out and put them by themselves in the big grey tub. If you try to send it through and hope someone won't noticeit, well it is like when you put gum under your seat at a restaurant, we all notice and they will too.
14) Liquids, you CAN NOT take liquids or gels into the secure area of the airport. They have to be 3 onces or less and in a clear quart size ziplock bag that will be taken out of your carry on and inspected by the TSA. I can't tell you how many BIG bottles of shampoo have been thrown away at security. Think hotel size bottles and you will be fine. Nothing worse than to have to wait on your stuff to come through and see someone has a gallon size bottle of shampoo, a gallon size bottle of conditioner and a gallon size bottle of mouthwash and the TSA has to stop the line to check those things out.
So all in all flying is as frightful or as peaceful as you would like to make it. Just remember these simple rules and you will find yourself flying the freindly skies in a matter of no time. If you decide to skirt these rules, well have fun in the private screening area...