Football Update

I would love to see Texas Tech play Florida in the national championship game.

Points on Football after this week:

1. UCF has the worst offense still in the entire country.

2. There really is nobody that can stop UF right now.  They are ridiculous and will easily throw up 40+ points on Alabama in the SEC title game.

3. Texas Tech I don't think can beat Oklahoma... but I didn't think they could beat Texas either.

4. FSU... nobody cares.

I'm honestly a little disappointed that my stupid post about politics got 15 responses, but my last one that was far amazing only got one.  

I'm going to take it as you just didn't watch the video yet.

Watch it.

Seriously, you need to watch this

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to return to my previous church and take part in a wonderful event.  It was called a healing service and it covered all aspects of life.  It was a moment where everybody that shared or asked for prayer was honest about an aspect of their life that needs healing that only Jesus can truly provide.  From serious physical problems and diseases to very real heart break over finances, relationships, loneliness...etc.  

I went that morning to share a song I had written that happened to make sense with the service.  I had written the song called "Jesus Come Be" a couple of months earlier and it basically came from the idea that only Jesus can be everything that we truly need. My favorite line in the chorus is: "Come be our love, for we've given everything"  and also the bridge that says "Shine... shine through it all, shine through us all".  

There is something very strange that contrasts with the successful American Dream way of life where in our weakness Jesus shines brighter than we normally are able to see.  Charlie Hall has a new album titled "Bright Sadness" and it portrays the idea that these two things are so opposite, but they come together so strong in Christ.  

I drove to Eastpoint that morning a bit tired and expecting church.  About ten minutes into the first of 3 services I remembered that Jesus was there.  My heart was open and sensitive as average people expressed normal insecurities about themselves and as people shared deep pain in their lives that they needed people to pray for them so that they could see Jesus in those moments.  

The following video was a part of one of the church services @ First Orlando, my new church home.  There are so many things about this video that are beautiful.  To me this is a continuation of the same spirit of the service at Eastpoint.  You don't have to watch this, but I would say that it is one of the best videos of all time and you probably will thank me after you do.  

You have to click the title of this post to get to the video.  It took me way too long to figure out how to do this.

Yes

I would just like to point out that on my last post I have 15  comments to date.  That is the most comments I have ever seen posted on a blog of someone with my stature.  Now onto the subject that is more important than politics and abortion:

Football

1. I had Georgia winning by 10 today.  Mainly because they seem to have low scoring, close games with Spurrier as the coach of South Carolina.  They won by a touchdown and I don't think they are bad for it, but I don't think they will stay #2.

2. USC is sick nasty and Ohio State is sick to their stomach.  Seriously, you know it is bad when ESPN, who used to change OSU's diapers, is stating the truth and dogging them big time for being exposed repeatedly in big games and not only not being able to win, but just being embarrassed every time.  USC is obviously #1 and if Georgia is #2 then USC should think about playing in the NFL to keep things fair.  OSU can kiss playing in championship games goodbye.

3. Mark May on ESPN is a bad analyst.  Last week when he tried to interrupt Lou Holtz in the middle of a statement Holtz said, "Oh, let's just ask Mark because he obviously knows everything there is to know about football."  Props to Lou for sticking it to the guy and props to Jesus for allowing me to see it.

4. USF keeps pulling these wins out of their butt pads and I honestly respect them now.  It wasn't just a fluke here and there, but they are actually a pretty solid mid-major team.  Grothe has a lot of heart at QB and I hope they keep winning.  

5. Miami coach should stop crying about UF coach Urban Meyer running up the score on him.  The week before when Miami was playing a no name school they were up by 35 points with 6 minutes to go in the 4th quarter and on 4th and 6 at the opponents 20 yard line they went for it.  So trying to play this card of everybody should feel sorry for us and the recruits will come to UM because they can see ALL THE CLASS that the school has compared to UF should really stop.  I believe when you play competitively starting in middle school or at least high school if you don't want the score run up on you then you should play some defense. 

6. I feel bad for UCF.  They always seem to ALMOST get the break they need to win the big games.  It just never pans out.  Their biggest problem now is that their offense struggles big time.  They are going to have problems when East Carolina plays them.

7. FSU... nobody cares.

8. UF had the day off.  They play TN next week and although TN lost to UCLA opening week, this one will be tough.  I have been to this game two times at UT and it is a tough place to play.  UF has ridic talent on offense, but they seem a little out of synch right now.  Big ups for the UF defense who is playing solid against a Hawaii team who spreads it out a lot and against Miami who has some quick players on offense.  I have UF by 17 next week over Tennessee.

Weak

We are less than 3 months away from all of this election drivel coming to an end.  There are many things that are annoying about election season, but this small writing is to focus on something that has crossed my mind the last 4 years especially.

 The "Religious Right" has given Christians the ability to become ignorant in politics.  This whole movement became popular and greatly influenced my thoughts on politics growing up.  Basically their main contention is this:

As a Christian you should not vote for anyone who takes a pro-choice stance on abortion.

Obviously there are many more arguments from this group of people involving politics, but this is their biggest and the one that defines their vote.  

My response will be numbered:

1.  This reasoning allows for incredible laziness.  That basically tells people, "don't worry about any issue besides one.  If the candidate supports pro-choice, then don't vote for them.  It doesn't matter what the other person's stances are on every other subject, if they are against abortion then you should vote for them."

2. Roe vs. Wade happened in 1973.  That is ten years before I was born.  How long are we going to put all of our chips in that hand?

3. Every conservative candidate that has been on the ticket for the Republicans since Roe vs. Wade has been in favor of allowing abortions in certain circumstances (mainly if the life of the mother is in danger).  If I were in a debate and I had the Repubs declaring that it was murder to abort a baby I would easily argue that there is no way they can allow for abortions in certain circumstances because that would still be murder.  But you don't hear pastors that bash pro-choice say anything about that.  It wouldn't be good for their argument.

4. The last poll on Pres. George W. showed that only 64% of Republicans favored his leadership.  That is incredibly low for your own side.  But even now if it were George W. vs. Obama or anybody for that matter the Relig Right would still tell you to vote for W. even though you know how terrible of a job he has done.  No matter how much money he wants to waste on sending our troops to die for a meaningless cause... abortion would still be more important.  No matter how shady and secretive his administration has been... the only thing that would matter would be his stance on abortion and you would still be told to vote for him.  That is stupid.

5.  This is probably my last point on this.  All of this nonsense assumes that God would be surprised if a Democrat won the election... and if that person did then God couldn't carry out His plans for the country or whatever you believe in that matter.  Do you really think that religion plays that big of a role in politics?  Maybe the church should be under more persecution in this country so we actually have something to fight for.  Maybe we should not be allowed to go to church anymore or read our bibles.  Maybe then we could actually care about carrying out the plans of Jesus and not think that it all depends on who is in the White House.  Maybe we should take more responsibility in our homes and fess up that our families are a mess because of us and not because of Washington.  

Nobody wants to take responsibility for anything and that is what is frustrating.  We minimize this election to abortion and stupid commercials.  McCain is running ads that compare Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears and we laugh even though we know that is weak and stupid.  Obama runs a strong and positive campaign and it is hard for us to find things wrong with him.  He has integrity, he respects his opponents and he speaks as well or better than Ronald Reagan.  So we go back to the abortion issue.  

Weak.

Reasons Why The Olympics Are Amazing

1.  At no other point in 4 years would I call my friends at 11pm knowing that they would be awake and we could scream and giggle like little girls over a swimming race that we just watched.

2. I love volleyball.  Specifically...guys indoor volleyball.  This is the only time that I can watch guys volleyball at 3am by myself and nobody thinks I'm a fag.

3. I wake up exhausted every single day.  Yet I feel amazing because I'm an American.

4. My eyes are opened to new amazing things like handball.  Then I dream that I will begin the American Olympic team for that sport.

5. I still don't understand what is so great about watching the 100m sprint.  But it is so great.

6. Shawn Johnson

Camp

3 days ago I was white water rafting with some friends and a guide named "Trashcan" in Tennessee.  A couple days before that I conquered a huge fear of mine and went down an 80 foot water slide.

2 months ago my former youth pastor asked if I could lead worship at his church's youth camp.  I could bring anybody that I wanted to play in a band with me.  The camp speaker that week was a guy who was my counselor my first ever camp the summer before I started 6th grade.  The schedule at last weeks camp was almost identical to the camp schedule I knew growing up and going to every year until I graduated high school.

I don't think anybody really knew how much I needed a break from my job as a server at a restaurant and just to get away from orlando for a short time.  I was feeling as though I was almost useless in my friendships and relationships with people because I was always so fatigued and just unhappy many times due to schedules and not being able to see my wife as much as I have wanted to.  I just needed a breath of fresh air.

There are many great things about camp.  Rafting, cabins, music, cafeteria food, crazy kids.  I used to go to camp to experience some super high emotion and I would relate it to my relationship with Jesus.  If I didn't experience that then camp wasn't as good as the previous year.  I'm a bit older now and a little wiser, but sometimes I don't allow my heart to be open at all to experiences of any kind.  For this trip I just wanted to experience something....anything really.  I needed to feel an emotion of any kind and not just continue in the mundane way of life I was growing accustomed to.

As I look back on this last week many things stick out in my mind, but the one that is overwhelming is the thankfulness of real friends.  The group of people that traveled with me to TN was made up of people that I think everybody should at least meet once in their lives.  I laughed more with these people this week than I have since we found out a year ago that my mom had cancer.  I know a lot of people may not think of laughing as super spiritual, but I can tell you that the laughter of last week healed my soul in ways that I cannot express and in ways that nothing else has been able to do.  We would sit around in the cabin and play nerdy games like scrabble (which I love and am amazing at) and chess (which I don't understand) and checkers as well.  We would just sit and watch youtube videos or just sit around and relax and talk with each other.  We had a car packed full of people for a 9 hour drive and although at some points I thought there might be a murder about to take place... we laughed so hard... and it was so good.

We get to split a check 7 ways for leading worship all week at the camp, which isn't a whole lot of money after the split, but it is still nice to get paid for having a blast all week.  Yet I feel like even if I could give every person that went with me $1,000 that wouldn't be enough for me to thank them.  

I am a quiet guy a lot of times and I internalize so much and people have no idea what is going on or how to help or anything... and mostly I like it that way.  But Jesus has a way of knowing everything and he knew that more than needing to feel some spiritual high or anything of that sort that I needed to laugh and I needed to laugh hard.  Thank you to everybody that lived with me in a cabin last week.  It reminded me of how lucky and blessed I am to know all of those people and that they would take a week to come with me to the middle of nowhere.  Some were family, some were friends that are like family, and some weren't even close to either of those statements... but the reality is that they were all like Jesus sitting around laughing with me last week and in an subtle way reminding me that Jesus laughed and He cried and understands because He once was here.  

You never hear in the bible about Jesus laughing because it was probably of little importance to the writers, but I often wonder what the sound of his laugh was like.  If he wept then I'm pretty sure he had a great laugh.