Doogie Does Deodorant

Well done, NPH.

This got me to wondering: What would a "Doogie Howser, M.D." movie look like? Instead of writing in his computer diary it could be a blog. Maybe he could be the head of a hospital by now. Maybe he could be given some life-threatening disease that makes him question his life of upward-mobility & leads him on a quest of existential discovery. Who knows...

The big question, of course, would be whether they make Doogie gay or straight. Because NPH has come out of the closet, and maybe the writers would want to explore that as a major theme of some film. Personally, that wouldn't offend me as much as it would gross me out. Same reason I haven't seen Brokeback Mountain: it was the gross-out factor that just makes me not want to watch.

A Question of Hygiene

Just one question: Who picks up a random, strange-looking toothbrush that doesn't belong to them and just sticks it in their mouth like it is their own?

These Little Wonders

• I'm amazed at the difference paint can make. Paint can really transform a dilapidated-looking room into something impressive. We've been repainting the interior of our church building in the last week, and I was genuinely wow'd by how good new paint makes our building look.

• I'm amazed at the positive power the Word of God can have over the human heart. Given the on-going transformation of our new building, I thought it appropriate to preach on transformation on Sunday. And since it was 4th of July weekend, I wanted to say some words about sacrifice also. Let's see, sacrifice... transformation... how about Romans 12:1-2! ;) So I ended up preaching probably one of the most simple, non-dressed-up expository sermons I've delivered this year. But I really fleshed out the application. Based on the participation at our Sunday night fellowship, and the response of one gentleman in particular during the invitation, the sermon had an immediate impact. Its really a fun thing to see the Word of God perform & do its work in people's lives.

• I'm amazed at how selfish we can all be sometimes. I know I can be selfish. And in being able to recognize my own selfishness, I can see it in other folks around me. I remember sitting around with some of my Mormon male cousins one time soon before one of them was about to be married. My oldest cousin, Barry, shared some wisdom when he spoke up and said, "You know... I never knew how selfish I was until I got married." Being single, I think that there must be ways that I am selfish that I'm not even aware of. But in general, it is truly a marvel to me at how myopic & self-centered we can all be from time to time.

• I'm amazed at a group of young teens who spent a week of their summer vacation serving others. A youth group from the Jenks Avenue Church here in Panama City & another youth group from the Lascasas Church up in Tennessee spent last week serving the community in a work camp here in town. They did a bunch of the work in helping my church, the Lynn Haven Church, remodel the interior of our building by putting on a couple coats of paint in about half of our building. What a wonderful, selfless thing to do: to spend their precious free time serving others.

• I'm amazed at how little we know of one another in church. We're supposed to be family, but we're more like familiar strangers. We are so skilled at concealing the possibly embarrassing details of our real selves around these people. Being a minister, I've come to sense this very well: I can sense the fear in fringe members when they don't want to tell me too many details about their own lives. I think they fear confession, and the necessary-but-uncomfortable change that would come along with repentance. And I suppose that we'd all rather be cold & distant with one another than go to all THAT trouble. Amazing...

• I'm amazed at how frustrated fantasy baseball can make me. I simply care about my team's standing too much. The last three weeks, I've lost points in the very final game of the week on Sunday night. There are usually over a hundred games during a week; and in the last three weeks, the very last game of the week affected the outcome (in a bad way... for me) in my fantasy baseball matchup. The last three weeks, I've gone to bed unsettled & stewing at the ball not bouncing my way in that Sunday night game. How can such an insignificant little diversion like fantasy baseball have such an influence over my emotional state? This should not be...

• I'm amazed at how captivating a woman can be to a man's eye. That females can virtually transfix a man's thoughts and completely dominate a man's focus. I don't believe that most women truly understand the level of influence they hold.

• I'm amazed that God listens to prayer. I think there's a sense in which I really just "don't get it" yet in terms of understanding how deep & wide God's love is for us. I think it is why I don't pray often enough -- that I don't understand His love. I don't understand how God could intently listen to numberless millions of his creatures yammer on about what are ultimately the insignificant details of their lives. The reach of God's ability & the depth of His sympathy are something that I do not yet understand.

Freedom Isn't Free

On this Independence Day, take a look at what my buddy Jordan wrote about how much some people were forced to give for what we now enjoy:

"Independence Day"

How to Charge the Mound

Since tomorrow is July 4th, I can hardly think of anything more American to talk about than baseball. And there is hardly anything more unique to baseball than the bench-clearing brawl. Utter pandemonium breaks out, and yet this is accepted. If this happens in football or basketball, we wonder if society is unraveling at the seams & if we have a greater cultural problem. But baseball -- eh, this happens every other week.

Anyway, I've always wondered about the upside for a batter to charge the mound & incite the brawl. Usually he takes the most abuse. Just look here at what happened to Coco Crisp a month ago: the catcher throws him down & 3 other guys jump on top of him throwing haymakers:


But, now, someone has taught us all how to avoid getting caught from behind or cheap-shotted by the catcher. This video is truly awesome:

An Introspective Question

Something I'm meditating on in my time with God lately...

How can I tell the difference between righteous indignation and self-righteous indignation?

That is, there are injustices in the world that should rightly rouse our passions. But how do we tell the difference between THAT or rancor from everyday petty annoyances, mere insults to our pride, or other issues that really center more on our own selfishness? Because I don't believe God would will for us to be angry at an opportunity to learn patience, humility, or some other virtuous trait.

I'm speaking in generalities, I know, and I'm not sure if any of that is even comprehensible. But this is what my mind has been wrestling with in the last 24 hours.

Confessions of a Hypocrite Continued

A college chum, Nick Faris (I like to call him "Bueller" ... get it??), wrote an interesting little piece a little over a week ago called Confessions of a Hypocrite. I've had some similar reflections of my own recently.

• I don't have delusions of grandeur. I recognize that I have a small role in God's grand design. I think that I could say I'm a relatively humble person.
• I rarely find myself in a situation where I feel less intelligent than someone around me.

• I feel like I'm a generous person
• I rarely open up my balled-up, white-knuckled fist without extensively counting the cost. I rate waiters & waitresses on a host of effort-oriented issues before deciding how much I'm going to leave for a tip. And I have an impeccable memory in terms of recalling the number of times I have picked up the tab.

• I think that NASCAR & other motor sports are an incredible waste of natural resources.
• I drive a gas-guzzling pick-up truck.

• I take preaching very seriously & pour a lot of effort into each sermon. There is little that is as important to me as my preaching.
• Mere hours after a service, I have to strain to recall what I preached about.

• It drives me nuts when my sister leaves a mess on her side of the living room.
• My side of the living room is a mess.

• I hate cleaning up. It's just such a hassle, and it's going to be a mess again anyways, so what's the point?
• After cleaning, I often think to myself, "Wow. It's clean. This is pretty awesome."

• I enjoy parking at the very back of the parking lot. I get to stretch my legs a little more & slow down the pace of life a little bit.
• I'm secretly envious of everyone with a better parking spot than I have.

• I don't at all like it when people try to put others down for how they decide to cast their vote. Whether people vote by ideology, by party affiliation, by stance on a certain issue or group of issues, or by what they think of a candidate's character & qualification, that is every person's personal decision. There are some people who demean others if they don't vote in the same way they do for the exact same reasons they do, and I think that's wrong.
• I think everyone should think the same way I do.

• I write my blog more for myself, not others. It is a way for me to exercise my mind and my writing skills (that's right -- according to my buddy Matthew, I've got skillz), which in turn makes my preaching better.
• I want people to read my blog & pay attention to me.