I’m Excited for Football Season

I am REALLY excited for football season. I’m not really a baseball fan, so usually around August 1st I begin to get excited for the season to start. I am only in one fantasy football league, so I am not that bad. But I found this clip to share with you. Though this is a CFL (Canadian Football League) clip, it’s still really funny and involves football.

Bikers Beware: An Open Letter to the Fairweather Bike Commuter

Dear Mr/Ms/Mrs I-commute-during-the-warm-season-only-bike-rider,

If you are going to ride on the road, please follow the rules of the road. I applaud your wanting to save money and the planet, but I am saddened by your lack of common sense. This includes your failure to stop at stop signals and instead blow through them, not being aware of the cars around you, and your failure to signal your turns. Also, if you are riding on the sidewalks, please know that the rules of pedestrians apply to you then. Don’t just be on the road and then off the road. Choose one and go with it! Oh, and also please wear a helmet, fool.

The Brown Kid

I’ve Come To A Realization…

Last night on American Idol, Adam Lambert killed it with this song:

This is the only song that my dad knows on guitar. Seriously, I remember going to parties with my parents, he would play guitar, and this was the only song he played. My realization that I’ve come to? This is the only “good” memory that I have of my dad. I have some daddy issues (wasn’t good enough, neglected, came from a single parent home, etc.). Cynthia pointed this out to me when I told her the story of this song and my dad. She was talking about how it was sad that I don’t really have good memories of my dad.

I wrote about it before, but man, I am glad that I learned to love and trust God as my father…

I Will Not Let You Grow Old (An Open Letter to My Friends)

This was inspired by a lady I saw at Starbucks one day. I wanted to share this letter that I wrote with everybody to let you know what kind of friend I can be. I care too much about all my friends to let this happen to them, as I hope you do also. If you know the kind of person being described here, please pass this on to them. enjoy!

2/27/09

Dear Friend,

I won’t let you grow old with you believing that you are younger than you truly are. Talking and dressing like you are 40 going on 20. Eventually, it might become embarassing.

Low rise jeans with muffin tops or Abercrombie fashion on a JC Penny body. Faux hawks at 50 and puka shell chokers choking out the last bit of sense that you might have.

Front butts playing peekaboo out the bottom of camisols and beer guts in a wife beater are never sexy. Both seem to reveal denial and freshly inked tribal tattoos.

Fake tans and highlighted hair make for an interesting contrast. Not intersting like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but more like Michael Jackson and Priscilla Presley.

So it comes to this: I promise as your friend to inform you rather than embarrass you if this happens to you. I would rather inform you than allow you to become red in the face. I would hope that you do the same for me. Let us grow old and move forward rather than trying to deny the inevitable. Growing old is a rite of passage and it is for you and me.

Sincerely, Your Friend,

The Brown Kid

Is it me…

or did McCain come off a little snarky last night? That’s right, I said snarky. To tell you the truth, it was a bit of a turn off. Now I know that Obama had his times of side comments, but I felt that McCain was really overdoing it.

just another reason I’m not going to vote for “that one over there”, and by “that one…” I mean McCain.

Here is a positive though: For a drinking game, someone can watch the debate and drink everytime McCain says “My friends…” or mentions Ronald Reagan, or when Obama says “rather I say out loud…”.

I’m Kind of Sick of Matthew McConaughey

He makes me uncomfortable with my self image and he makes movies like this one:

 

Though I’d go see it to see Willie Nelson.

Wanna See Something Funny?!?

In honor of the Football Season starting and my Fantasy FB team being awesome in the first week, I give you this. Yes, I realize that this is arena football, but it is still hilarious. You’re welcome.

The Numbers Game of Churchdom

Something that really frustrates me in the church world is the importance of numbers. Case in point: in the past two days, I’ve talked to people who went to the church that I used to lead worship at. Both people asked me where I’ve been, to which I replied that am leading at Roosevelt Community Church. First question out of both of their mouths (at different times of course) was “How are the numbers?” Augh! it’s so frustrating! Something that our culture has taught hte world is that numbers = success. But what about numbers says that your church is successful? We continue to live the lie that we have been taught that says that the more butts in the pews (or seats) that you have means that you are making a big impact.

My question is this – What about attendance says success? Is it really the number of people that dictates how well you are doing? Another idea: is it the purpose of the church to be successful? Is it our goal to have thousands of people coming to the church?  How does this measure the impact on the kingdom?

Maybe it’s not the idea of the successful church but instead it is the idea of the thriving church. Maybe it’s the idea of what you do with the numbers as opposed to just having them come to your church. It reminds me of the parable of the talents. When given many, if you stay within the walls, you will answer for it. But I wonder if it is bigger than we all could imagine. Imagine if you took the biggest churches in your town and began quarterly service projects. Service projects where they get no recognition and nobody wears shirts or hats with church names on it. Imagine if this was a regular thing.

I guess I just get angry at teh numbers game. It’s basically a pissing contest between people who are a part of the same body of Christ. Why do we divide ourselves over something as stupid as numbers? I once went to a service at a rehabilitation center and a guy who was there was telling us how he goes to the big church up the street and that they have over 3000 peopel and 5 services. How is Jesus moving in the church? That’s the question. Luckily I know that Jesus is doing incredible things there, but what are they teaching this guy who lives in the rehab center? Who is visiting him? Has he created an idol in his head over the size of the church? Does he realize that we are all God’s children and that it’s not just the church we go to that determines us christians?

I’m starting to rant. Any thoughts on this?

Blessed are the Sex Offenders

I was at Jack in the Box yesterday, when a lady who comes off and on from my church saw me and asked me to send out a prayer request to people in my church (if you are comfortable with it, please join me in praying). She asked me to pray for one of her sons who was going to reveal to his fiancee that he is a sex offender. This started me thinking…

I began to pray for him, but the prayer felt so recycled. It was the normal, “give him strength and wisdom/ soften her heart/ let them see eye to eye”. Then I began asking God for some understanding. How do we pray for somebody who has done something that society deems so atrocious? Can we honestly look into the mirror and say that we are okay with this because God can redeem it? I wondered these questions to myself as I walked out.

I know a few sex offenders, in fact, I am directly related to one. When I look at a sex offender, I try not to see an ugly person. I try not to see the broken past that they left behind for me or my family. One thing that I do see when I look at them is somebody that society has forgotten and the only way that they are remembered is when they have to check in with probation officers. Are these one of the least and lost that Jesus spoke of? Are even the sex offenders included in the Beatitudes? If so, then how do we love the Sex Offender? How do we show them compassion and grace without seeing the ugliness of their sin? These, to me, are the questions leading toward true Christianity…sometimes I find myself far from it.

I Miss Ray of Hope.

 

This summer has been kind of sad for me. For the previous four years, I had been working at Ray of Hope – a summer day camp for kids who had been through various forms of physical and emotional abuse, are socially awkward, or just plain forgotten or given up on. I really miss it. My job was to give a summer filled with fun for the kids who otherwise would be stuck at home in not so ideal conditions or in front of a television alone. It was one of the greatest jobs I’ve ever had. I see kids once in a walking past starbucks. That rules. I just really miss having fun with the kids. Giving them a summer was one of the best things I could do.