Can You Run That By Me Again?

Just hilarious...

Some Lessons Learned From Death

Paul begins his second (or fourth) letter to the Corinthians with a very incisive observation:

³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

With our superficial perspective, we can sometimes reason that suffering is "bad." It certainly doesn't feel "good" -- we know that much! But as it is with many concepts in the Kingdom of God, the spiritual reality is often counter-intuitive from our limited perceptions of what is "good" or "bad." Paul says that that is not true that suffering is "bad." He says that suffering is didactic. Among the host of things we can learn during such an experience, suffering teaches about the comfort of God & how to comfort those around us.

In Job 42:5, Job remarks that "My ears had heard [...] but now my eyes have seen." Before this season of my life, there were some things that I had known about suffering in an intellectual sense, or had learned by vicarious observation. And since my parents got divorced during my Senior year of high school, I had even grieved then & knew some things about suffering. But this experience has been entirely more educational than anything I could have read, heard, or experienced before.

In many ways, my mother's death will make me a better minister. If you missed it last month, I shared some insights about how to comfort the suffering. Those weren't my original thoughts, but they ring so true about what to do (and ESPECIALLY what NOT to do) when you are with someone who is grieving and/or suffering.

One other part of this grieving experience that stands out to me is how much more in tune I am with suffering in my community & throughout the rest of the world. There was a story that hit the news today that just makes my heart ache -- Army suicides are at their highest all-time levels. I just think about what men my age & younger are dealing with, not only physically & logistically but also mentally & emotionally. As this report teaches us, not all the young men who face this giant called "War" survive like David did in his encounter with Goliath. (This was also the message of an Academy Award nominated film that I reviewed here a couple months ago, "In the Valley of Elah")

I just don't know how to fathom that much loss of human life. I don't have the capacity to understand the depth of all that grief. It certainly gives me a deeper appreciation for God, knowing that He does understand & perceive ALL of that hurt. How magnificent He must be to handle all of that.

And, of course, there are all the emotions that I deal with on a regular basis. Especially in the weeks following Mom's funeral, after all the family & friends began to settle back into their lives, loneliness really grabs hold. I did some reading about this, and I found that this is not uncommon for folks who have lost someone so close. There are some very lonely nights. Its very difficult to try to maintain a sense of dignity or self-respect (namely, not being too needy around other people) while also maintaining my sanity.

All of this really serves to highlight my own weakness & vulnerability -- two things that most men, including myself, don't like to reflect on a whole lot. I haven't completely finished conceptualizing & processing my feelings of weakness, so I don't have a lot to share yet. I just know now that I'm aware of it & will probably learn more about it as I walk around with it and meditate on it some more.

But I know that the God that sometimes can't be found will wrap himself around me with His considerable capacity to comfort. Day by day, verses like this one in 1st Peter 4:19 mean that much more to me:

So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

From a Lyrical Soul

Good stuff from Christian artist Bebo Norman that spoke to me tonight:

Well of eternal things
Endless is all the life You bring
Be the water that I long for

And show me Your Kingdom Come
Father and let Your will be done
Here in me as it is in Heaven

Weezer Does It Again

The rock band of a generation of geeks has made another must-see music video. They took a bunch of YouTube viral video stars & stuck them in the video for their new song, "Pork & Beans." They have embedding disabled, so go have a look.

And here's the references I've recognized to this point:

Chocolate Rain guy
Diet Coke + Mentos Geysers
Britney Spears fan crying (WARNING: Language)
The Numa Numa Guy
Miss Teen USA South Carolina
Kids Making a Video with Lightsabers
"Its Peanut Butter Jelly Time!"
The Dramatic Chipmunk
The Nunchucks Pro
The Evolution of Dance Guy
White boys do the Soulja Boy
Guiness World Record for T-Shirts

Did I miss any?

A Dream Soon To Be Realized

I've long-wanted to take one journey in particular: a journey of realization. The kind of excursion where I experience places that I have only read about, or seen snippets of on television.

I'm speaking, of course, of my upcoming Pilgrimage. I've thought about & wanted to do this for a long time, as evidenced by this blog entry a year & a half ago. Oh how naive I was about the costs, or at least of the Fed's ability to regulate inflation. Gas will NOT be cheap. Neither were these:


Beautiful, aren't they?

Anyway, this pilgrimage was always something I had in the back of my mind that I'd do "someday." You know -- "Oh, yeah, I'm gonna get to that... someday."

A popular, recently-released movie, "The Bucket List," serves to remind us that sometimes someday never comes. Lucky for the two characters in the movie that they got to do some of the things they always wanted to do in life before they "kicked the bucket" -- ergo the moniker "Bucket List." A soon-not-to-be local friend in ministry (just the local part... hopefully not the friend part) was inspired by the movie to contemplate his own bucket list on his blog. In doing so, he inspired me.

So, in almost a week, I will be the envy of all my married buddies as I trek from city to city to admire the cathedrals of our Nation's Pastime. I've bought all my tickets. I got my rental car reserved. And thanks to Uncle Sam's stimulus check & inheritance from Mom, I also have plenty of discretionary income to patriotically spend along the way.

(Don't worry, Mom -- I already took a bunch of it & filled up my IRA. You didn't raise a dummy!)

"Getcha Popcorn Ready"

I hope to be able to journal at least a little each day about my reflections of each experience on my "Ballpark Pilgrimage" blog, which I linked to above. There's also a link on the side panel under "Me Elsewhere." Also, this will be the first time I will have ever been north of North Carolina. So I hope to experience a little bit of Americana along the way, also.

Anyway, for those of you who read me via RSS, you may want to go ahead and add that blog to your reading list. And as for you non-RSS readers, I also wanted to let you know so you can start checking that blog regularly for entries. I even plan on being very open about costs & such, so I'll fill in those of you who are interested on the logistics of such an undertaking as this. A little FYI: when I make it to Manhattan, I will NOT be eating THIS.

So, I hope to share as much of the joy of this Pilgrimage with you as I can. I don't have a digital camera, though, so I guess I'll have to write a few thousand extra words to make up for it. But I hope you follow along, and I hope it inspires you to start pursuing the items on your bucket list as well.

The Difference Between Judas and Simon Peter

"Would I ever leave this company? Look: I'm all about loyalty. In fact, I feel like part of what I'm being paid for here is my loyalty. But if there were somewhere else that valued loyalty more highly, I'm going wherever they value loyalty the most."

- Dwight Schrute

I just started reading a fun little book by James Carville called Stickin': The Case For Loyalty. I'm not always a fan of his politics, but I love James Carville. He's just so blunt & witty. In the book, he explains why he stuck with Bill Clinton through the whole mess with the Monica Lewinsky affair, even though it would have been EMINENTLY more politically & professionally expedient for him to throw the President under the bus. And he explains what would make him pack his bags & leave someone he had been loyal to: someone who would leave their wife & abandon their kids is at the top of the list. Basically, if anyone demonstrates that they are more loyal to money, power, or convenience than they are to their fellow man, Carville ain't stickin' with you.

Its got me to thinking about stickin'. So there may be a few more thoughts like these coming over the next few weeks...

I was at a Bible Study last week where the leader (a more-or-less irregular reader of this blog) was talking about the difference between Peter and Judas. He took the position that what Judas did in selling out Jesus was much worse than what Peter did in denying Jesus. I just don't see it that way. What Judas did was BAD -- low-down, dirty-snitch bad -- but what Peter did was inexcusable, too.

Bottom line: Peter was ashamed of Jesus. Ashamed enough that he didn't stick by Him when the heat was turned up. He saw the ship sinking, and he didn't want any part of drowning. When his faithfulness was tried, Simon Peter was a deserting, disloyal disciple.

Here's where the difference comes between Judas and Simon Peter...

Judas GAVE up, and Peter GOT up.

Judas selfishly took his own life. He couldn't deal with his shame. He couldn't run far enough way to escape the dastardly deed he had done. And so he went to the one place he could go where he wouldn't have to deal with the guilt: suicide. Judas gave up.

But Peter got up. Sure, there was a little intervention from Jesus to bring him back. But Peter faced the shame face-to-face over breakfast -- he didn't run away & hide from it like Judas did. He allowed Jesus to pick him back up, dust him off, and use him again. And its just a couple chapters later that its the Day of Pentecost, and who is it but SIMON PETER preaching the first Gospel sermon.

When it comes to our Heavenly Father, stickin' means getting back up off the mat. None of us are perfect. It'd be great if there was something magical about those baptismal waters -- something mystical that burned away all our sinful & transgressing inclinations. But there isn't. And so faithfulness to God -- loyalty to His name & Kingdom -- I believe will be judged in part by those who choose to get up instead of give up. As did Moses, who finally chose to lead God's people instead of wallow in his guilt for another 40 years. As did David when Nathan confronted him. As did Peter a number of times in the Gospels, and even once in Galatians. Not even "Limited Edition 1st Century Holy Spirit Power" could keep Peter from screwing something up!

Stickin' with God means facing the music. It means not running away & hiding from whatever it is that is shameful that we've done. God can't do anything with that. God wants folks who won't give up on Him and who won't give up on themselves. We may not be as far along spiritually as we oughta be -- we may not even be as far along as we WANNA be. But even though Satan comes up & roughs us up from time to time, and even though its shameful to face the aftermath, stickin' is staying on that straight & narrow road even when it would be more convenient to find some other path to walk on.

Judas gave up. But Peter got up. And that made all the difference.

A Special Night at the Ballpark

Tonight, a young Red Sox pitcher threw a no-hitter against the Kansas City Royals.

And that sentence really says so little.

In June of 2006, after a rash of injuries to the Red Sox starting pitching staff, rookie pitcher Jon Lester made his major league debut. The 22 year-old was a sensation. A couple of months later, Lester had to miss a start because of soreness in his back. It was originally thought that his ailment was related to a car crash he had been involved in a week earlier. But as further tests were done, Lester was diagnosed with a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

Cancer.

Jon Lester moved back home & underwent chemotherapy treatments. And by December 5th, 2006, he was pronounced cancer-free.

He resumed baseball-related activities by Spring Training of '07, but the Red Sox organization wanted him to take it slow. So Lester pitched in the minors for several months, regaining his strength & velocity. And by July 23rd, he returned to start a major league game against the Cleveland Indians at Jacobs Field.

I remember watching that game on ESPN. We had just moved my Mom down to Florida, and the game was on, and I told Mom how that young kid had licked cancer & was now back to full strength. The ESPN cameras found his parents in the seats, and it was evident that it was a big night for them. With tears in their eyes, they passionately rooted on their son as he got the win that night. I'll never forget the image of his mother pumping her fist with tear-filled eyes as he finished off his final inning of that game.

Jon Lester made it through the rest of that '07 season in rocky fashion. He didn't pitch poorly, but he wasn't yet making the kind of progress folks expect a 2nd year player to make. He really just wasn't back to full strength.

But October came around. The Red Sox won a draining 7-game ALCS to advance to the World Series, and almost immediately had to face the Colorado Rockies. After the Red Sox won the first three games, their top four starting pitchers were all a little too taxed to pitch Game Four. So Manager Terry Francona gave the ball to Jon Lester. And all he did was go out and win the clinching game of the World Series, less than a year removed from battling cancer.

Still, he had help in those games. He only pitched 6 innings (18 total outs) against the Indians in his return, and 5 and 2/3 innings (17 outs) in the World Series clincher.

But tonight was different. Jon Lester pitched all 9 innings & recorded 27 outs. He face 30 different batters, and not one of them could get a hit against him. Jon Lester was center-stage, and tonight he was the strongest man on Earth. He threw 130 pitches -- about 30 more pitches than the average starter throws on any given night. And even to the very end, Lester was throwing heat. His fastball was clocking in at about 95 MPH.

For Red Sox fans, it was a fun night. But for people who have been touched by cancer, and especially Jon Lester and his family, tonight was a special night at the ballpark.