During a few minutes of my 15 hour trek up to West Virginia, I heard a radio ad for a gym advertise, “So come in and be in charge of the one thing you CAN control: your body.” Hmmm…..We all love the idol of control, don’t we?

Yesterday, Gaines Adams, a former 1st round (#4 overall) in 2007 draft of the Buccaneers died at age 26 from an enlarged heart. Click here to check out the story. Strange how some athletes in tip-top shape seem to die early (he was the 2nd one this week) from heart issues while I don’t ever remember a coach (and some of the lads are quite big because they work 100 hours in a week and don’t have time to sneeze much less exercise) passing away due to heart issues. Sometimes it makes you wonder the value of cardio-vascular exercise (at least over weight training)….

Though I was glad to see Gaines get traded to the Bears earlier this year, it is definitely a sad day for the Bucs’ and Adams family.

Different pastors will differ in philosophies of ministry on how to best reach out to and shepherd a community. Some believe the best way is to have a mega-church and gather people to itself through advertisement, programs, and relationships. Other models, like where I am currently serving at Redeeemer, will put next to no money in advertisement (outside a website), and rely totally on members and regular attenders inviting folks.

Perhaps influenced by growing church plants, pragmatic economics, or God’s Spirit, some mega-churches may be re-thinking their strategies for reaching people. Instead of building the biggest congregation possible, they are considering becoming locally smaller and more incarnational. In other words starting new smaller communities, either satellite or self governing entities (from what I can tell) may lead to an overall large number of folks brought into Christ’s Kingdom and Church. Check out this article by a very missional small town pastor Chuck Warnock.

Well, for those baseball fans who already knew that Mark McGwire used performance enhancing drugs, he finally actually admitted it. When testifying before Congress, he coined the infamous phrase, “I don’t want to talk about the past.” Translation: I used drugs. In a recent interview McGwire finally fessed up to it. Kind of.

Apparently he took the HGH (human growth hormone) simply to make him recover from injury faster, and had nothing to do with his then record breaking 70 homers. Hmmmm………Now none of us can confirm or deny his simply-t0-recover-motivation (that one’s getting old), but performance enhancing drugs usually enhance performance. I think that’s where they get their name…

Again, I don’t know his real motivation, but since 99 % of athletes simply lie, it is hard to believe. Regardless, this is a good reminder to all of us of what shallow repentance looks like. “I did ______, but its not like you think…..” Chapter 2 in the book of Jeremiah gives us a great picture of what sin really is: forsaking the stream of living water and THEN building broken wells to replace that stream.

The more and sooner we admit what sin really is-that it is an attempt to get an edge in life and find a temporary replacement god-the more and sooner we can get back to the stream of delight and living water (Isa 55, John 4). Skip the honest weeping and you’ll skip joy and delight when you realize how loving and forgiving and glorious our Father really is.

On a baseball end, I think we should at least appreciate Big Mac’s admission to some extent. But I’m still waiting for the dude who says, “I just wanted to enhance my performance.” Bonds, Clemens, are you next?

Well its been a long time since I’ve got “my blog on.” Today is the first semi-normal day on the job (everything will only be semi-normal until Amy and Connar get up here on Friday, and then only after we find a house/condo to rent….) so I’m hoping to get back up and running.

I was introduced to the church yesterday and so met a ton of folks; I’m just going to have to work hard to get all of the names. For those of you who are not my “friends” on facebook, here are some pics of what life “looks” like here in Hurricane WV. Hasn’t been above freezing yet, and I think its snowed everyday. Actually its snowed most every hour with a break yesterday. But its going to pick back up today.

Here are some pics of my poor car, which has done surprisingly well, even while driving in the snow. I kind of like it. And the condo which one fantastic couple has graciously allowed me to stay in.

I should be back up to speed and posting regularly from here on out. At least that’s the plan. Hope everyone is doing OK. Keep me posted. Peace.

Despite winning the last two games in a row (I guess that’s as good a winning streak as we hoped to see this year), Buccaneers football coach Raheem Morris has had to field questions about his job security. There are many rumors suggesting the Bucs are interested in bringing in Bill Cowher, former Super Bowl winning coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. But Raheem has repeatedly confessed he is simply going to work as usual and will coach as though he’ll be around longer.

This is really the same kind of attitude Christians are to have in regards to the Return of the King (Jesus). In regards to when Christ will return, since we’ll know neither the day or the hour (Matt 25:13), we’re to be busy discipling others (25:15-ff) and working hard in our jobs.

Uncertainty of the future shouldn’t make us stop working, become slothful or sensational, but keep working hard until the end. Even though I’d love to see Cowher, Raheem does set for us a great example.

A little while ago I wrote an article for the Bradenton Herald about David Goldman and his quest to bring his son back from the Brazilian captivity. Well he finally brought his son back (this picture is way old by the way). In an interview today on “Today,” he called his son’s return a “Christmas miracle,” and that “somebody’s definitely up there.” He’s right. Someone is definitely up there, and finally brought justice to this complete travesty of justice, much less travesty to common sense.

Apparently his son, still doesn’t call him “Dad” yet, which breaks my heart. But the kid is now 9 years old (been away for 4-5 years), and
David believes it will take a little time.

What a good example of the pursuing love a Father has for His son, even when the son doesn’t seek him out or even call him “Dad.” He just never gave up no matter how bleak it seemed. I don’t know David Goldman, but I sure would like to meet that joker and rejoice with him. Maybe we could talk about God’s pursuing Fatherly love (which I reflected on in the article which is lost in the Bradenton Herald cyberspace). Since Amy and I have been following this story, we are really stoked about this homecoming. If you read the article here, I think you will rejoice and also want to pray imprecations on these Brazilians (but please resist because Jesus says we can’t!).

I think I’m going to make it one of my Christmas traditions to reflect on this quote from Bono. I put it up last year, but to me it never gets old. Just like the Christmas story. Every part of it seems counter-intuitive to me: God in flesh, the use of shepherds (sketchy fellows), magi (also sketchy), that Jesus was laid in a manger. How crazy is that? Where dirty animals feed. The king of the universe laid where animals feed. I hope we never fail to realize how crazy that is. Blaise Paschal hit it on the nose in his Pensees (I’d love to give the reference but all the books are packed up!) when he said it is not that God has hidden this message so high so that folks can’t understand it, but so low, as many will look over it.

Here’s Bono’s quote:

“The idea that God, if there is a force of Logic and Love in the universe, that it would seek to explain itself is amazing enough. That it would seek to explain itself and describe itself by becoming a child born in straw poverty, in shit and straw…a child… I just thought: “Wow!” Just the poetry … Unknowable love, unknowable power, describes itself as the most vulnerable. There it was. I was sitting there, and it’s not that it hadn’t struck me before, but tears came streaming down my face, and I saw the genius of this, utter genius of picking a particular point in time and deciding to turn on this.”

Yesterday I saw a church marquee marquee that reads, “Merry Christmas, not Merry Xmas.” Now that is by no means in the same category as this “Eat me Jesus Hater’s Trollcat (that’s seriously what the picture is called!). But I have recently noticed a bit of confusion on the origin of Xmas from a number of well meaning Christians. Or I should I write “Xians” to save space? I can.

In fact that’s what I did on my resume to save space. During one of my interviews, one woman actually asked me why I put on my resume “Xmas” instead of “Christmas” to refer to my “Xmas Outreach parties” that we hosted at our house.

Now I found it incredibly counter-intuitive (to put it nicely) to think I was embarrassed to put Jesus name when it was He who our youth would be proclaiming during the gospel presentations! Needless to say, all doubt was removed in regards to my desire to not work for this church.

I explained to her that “Xmas” saved space on a one page resume, and that “X” is the first letter in “Christ” in the Greek spelling of it. Here’s a helpful explanation by R.C. Sproul of why you may with good conscience write “Xmas” to save space on a resume or Xmas card. It is not dishonoring to Jesus in the least.

So please don’t put “Xmas” in the same category of the I-don’t-want-to-offend-anyone-“Happy Holidays”-even-when-Hanakah-is-over category.

On a side note, Good Morning America introduced the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir this morning as singing a “Holiday Medley.” The beautiful irony of it all was that “Holiday” was said not to offend anyone, yet the choir sang nothing but Xmas carols, and concluded with a singing something to effect of “I’m not ashamed to proclaim His name…Jesus, there is no other…” I love irony!

Just about every year for the past 20-25 years or so, my mother has put on a neighborhood Christmas pageant. Now my folks and I have lived in 4 different neighborhoods since the onset of the pageant, so the play has changed a bit over the years. At times, there were animals like sheep and donkeys, and at times there were professional musicians (of course no one could forget my “Silent Night” on electric guitar where I missed every other note). While the central message of the drama doesn’t change, lines have been tweaked and added/subtracted throughout its, and my lifetime (I’m only several years older than the pageant myself).

Last year Connar was baby Jesus, but this year he outgrew the part and my brother’s son Ben starred as the Savior. Having been to nearly 15-20 of them, I routinely notice line changes. The story is always first contextualized with narrators, and then the drama unfolds. And this is the part where I could tell my mother changed some lines up.

This year’s pageant began with 2 kids at the bus stop fretting over their 401 K and homeowner’s association (this one can be extremely anal and “fine happy” at times). Then it ended with the same conversation continued, where one kid said to the other, “That’s why we can have hope despite what may happen with our 401 K and association issues. But I still wouldn’t open that envelope till after Christmas if I were you!”

Everyone laughed. But it was more than funny. The gospel story was connected with real life, offering real hope, to real problems. It wouldn’t have been nearly as funny with our first neighborhood in South Tampa. Different audience with no strict HOA and different socioeconomic group.

This is a fine example of healthy contextualization. The message doesn’t change, but what parts of the gospel are emphasized (new record, new heart-in this case it was “new heart” and the ability to live at peace in an unstable world-new world, new family……) will and must change to reach different people.

My Mom will be on TV this Wed on CTN at 1 pm to discuss the neighborhood pageants and will have some pictures of the most recent one.

Here’s a challenging blog post on relating with extended family during the Christmas season. For those of you reading this blog who happen to be my extended family, please know that you’re not the reason for the post. Regardless, I found it a helpful look-at-the-plank-in-your-own-eye-first type attitude we all need to embrace when interacting with believing, unbelieving, or nominal extended family (a different dynamic than spending time with friends).