The Good Life

• I love Pedro Martinez. He won 2 Cy Young's & helped bring a World Series to Boston. And in his prime, it was amazing to see a pitcher so small with such amazing velocity & life on his fastball. And that is part of the luster: he's so small, but he's like one of those tiny dogs who will stand up to any other big dog on the block. On the former Curse of the Bambino, Pedro said, "Wake up the, Bambino. I'll drill him in the ass!." And that was his attitude toward every opponent. Tonight he returned to Fenway, and Boston's past & future were on display. "Petey" got lit up, lasting only 3 innings. But young fireballer Josh Beckett controlled this game. The thing I love about him is that the bigger the moment is, the more he rises to the occassion. To him, this wasn't gonna be Pedro's night. This was gonna be the night the baton was passed. Just like Yankees have to "earn their stripes," I'd say that Beckett "earned his Socks" tonight.


• Church was freaking awesome tonight. Some of the guys in class are really starting to take the sexual purity thing seriously. I can tell by their reactions that some of the others haven't caught the purity fever yet, and hopefully they are seeing the excitement & hope as expressed by the guys who have caught on. And the more excited they get, the more excited C.I. & I get. After class, some of the fellowship was just really uplifting. I'm gonna start walking down the wing with the Kid's Classes more often, because all those kids still love me from VBS. I love getting their hugs & giving them back. Then I talked to F.M., my "Christian pot-smoking" buddy. We both love to read theology & reflect on some of the deeper elements of faith. And a lot of those kinds of conversations we imagine sound like the conversations people have when smoking doobies, even though neither of us have ever tried an illegal substance. Next Wednesday, we're gonna meet together and talk about some of the things we've been reading. I'm stoked about that.


• Had a little natural high this afternoon. I got together with another brother in Christ today & we spent just over 4 hours putting together a Bible Class & hob-nobbing about life. There's nothing like Christian friends, I'm telling you. I'm excited because I ran into another brother before Bible Class, and between this brother & the one I spent time with this afternoon we're gonna start a little brotherhood fellowship group. Call it accountability. Call it prayer partners. I call it my band of brothers.

Red Sox have won 11 in a row. My spirituality is on a little high. I've got my band of brothers. Life is good.