As some of our young folk were singing the offertory “I am not skilled understand” a few weeks ago, I was really pierced by the unique cost of Christianity. In no other religion does a deity sacrifice himself to save a people. I’m not sure any deity even does anything that makes him/her uncomfortable or inconveniences him/her a slight bit to save a people.

Every other religion requires sacrifice from the people, where as Christianity requires first a sacrifice from God: Himself. God the Son gives Himself up and God the Father turns His back on God the Son’s cries. Wow. The height of sacrifice, pain, and inconvenience.

I think it pays to marvel over the fact that God had to actually do something, something HUGE, to save us. Pretty cool, eh? That’s good news any day of the week, I think.

Last night my college bible study was not well attended like the week before. So the few of us decided on a movie that could at least generate some thought (and wouldn’t last too long). Some of us wanted to see The Fountain, but I didn’t push that since one dude had already seen it twice.

Instead we picked another existential movie called Garden State. The movie is rated R, and deservedly so with more than a few “f” words and one scene to skip, but it does give some helpful critique into the soul of much of our world.

On a positive note, the movie critiqued a quick to medicate, pain numbing, notion of keeping everything happy at the expense of ‘keeping it real.’ The relationship between father and son, was NEVER good, and the main character challenged his father on what it really meant when he said, “All I ever wanted was for us to be happy again.” Without confession on how each had sinned against the other, and how messed up life had become, they couldn’t move forward.

On a sadder note, though not necessarily negative, it gives me a greater picture into the mind of my neighbors (not literal because most of mine are older!). What I took from the movie was: be real and honest, embrace the uncertainty of not knowing God or the future, explore who you are because you are all that’s certain.

Last Tuesday, on the way home from eating with a friend, I purchased a kayak. I really wasn’t buying it on a whim. I had been wanting to do this for a while, investigated a few, and then decided to make the purchase.

I finally took it out for its maiden voyage on Monday. I’m glad I didn’t crack a bottle of champagne (as is customary on large vessels) or even the champagne of beers (Miller High life) on the hull because it would have made it harder to return. Yep return. The ride was awful, it hurt my back, and I almost tipped it over several times while re-positioning myself. But The Sports Authority came through in the clutch.

I learned a few things here.

1.) Always keep receipts (either by putting them in your wallet or leaving them in a bag in your car).
2.) Sometimes its better to be REALLY patient and read several reviews on expensive products before committing to purchase them
3.) If you neglect #2, then make sure you buy from The Sports Authority, which boasts (or perhaps its just me boasting about them) the world’s most liberal return policy.

“I am incapable of being an extraordinary service to God without God. That’s what He likes to do. He’ll take an ordinary person and allow the them to do the miraculous.”

It has been a rather encouraging ‘sports week’ for me. I don’t mean that any of the teams I pull for actually won a game or two (the D-Rays haven’t won 2 games in their last 14). What I’m referring to is that I’ve been encouraged or challenged in my faith recently through the sports media.

This morning on ESPN, they ran a special on Andrea Jaeger. She was a tennis phenom (at one point ranked #2 in the world) from age 13-19 before being injured and unable to play any longer on the circuit. She later started a ranch for terminally ill children, and has involved people like David Robinson, Andre Agassi, Kevin Costner, and yes, even personal friend Cindi Crawford.

In fact Cindi Crawford even commented on her faith, explaining that “…she didn’t choose to become a nun: she was called.” Fairly recently, Jaeger felt called to become an Anglican Dominican nun.

Jaeger’s quote that is posted above testifies to a sovereign God at work in her own life. When people make leaps of faith, it is out of a faith that is first given by God. Now saying that God hasn’t given you faith is not an excuse to not step out in faith; however, when you do, you can be assured that it is His work. And when you see a quote like this, you are observing God given faith and humility.

To read more about Andrea Jaeger, particularly from another secular perspective (PEOPLE, although ESPN’s segment on her life was very God honoring), click here.

Today I was listening to the Ron and Ian Show while driving home from meeting someone. The station (620 AM) that encouraged me to check out the internet babe’s on their website actually brought something of substance just minutes later. Good substance.

One caller complained of how bad Red Sox fans are: making fun of Devil Ray’s hair do’s and making it hard for their broadcast people to do interviews (apparently even the little one’s shoot birds). He said that when the Red Sox come into town, they better watch it.

There are two things questionable about this proposition. First of all, when the Red Sox play the D-Ray’s at Tropicana Field, the stadium houses at least 3 times more Red Sox fans. This creates all kinds of ‘match-up’ problems for retaliating D-Ray’s fans. D-Ray’s fans are not like the 300 (or whatever number they had) Spartans at Thermopoli.

But surprisingly Ian Beckles responded in a very biblical manner, questioning the 2nd problem with this statement, and neglecting to point fingers at other fans. If you claim other team’s fans are so evil and bad, and you threaten to do back to them what they do to you (more or less), then you’re no different. Ian said, when they yell stuff, “Just look the other way.”

Simple truth, hard to apply, but very Christlike: “When he reviled, he did not revile in return”
-I Peter 2:23. Sometimes non Christians can really challenge us. I wouldn’t have condoned responding maliciously to Red Sox fans, but I surely would have joined in some Red Sox fan bashing before responding the way Ian did.

It’s amazing how often God protects us from stuff we don’t even realize. For instance, watching fireworks on July 4th. We gathered, as has been Henderson family tradition (although I admittedly have been gone the last 4 July 4ths) at my grandmother’s condo on St. Pete Beach. The city of St. Pete Beach usually puts on a kickin’ show. Apparently this year, they had some new folks in charge of the pyrotechnics who kicked a little too much.

We watched the dramatic conclusion of the fireworks display outside by the pool, not more than 75 feet away from where they were shooting them off. And then came a boom much louder than any other boom we’d heard or expected. Something blew up.

But the show must go on. So with people running from the boardwalk into the pool area, some more fireworks went off, and then another BOOM. That, as far as I remember was the end. The ever so explosive end.

The newspaper recorded 12 injuries, with the hotel next door loosing many windows in the explosion. I recorded one more injury, lucky # 13: my sister-in-law took a huge splinter to the thigh, with some burns as well. The splinter has been removed by my Pop’s, but the burns are a different story.

We were all very fortunate nothing hit our faces or eyes-since, unlike the 80’s song, I don’t wear my sunglasses at night (or protective goggles either). And my wife noticed on the way home that a ton of things can always go wrong, at virtually any point in time. But it is not until something goes wrong that we thank God for His protection (or blame Him). Perhaps we should thank God more often when things go ‘right.’

If you want to read about the explosion to end all explosions, the Chernobyl of St. Pete Beach check out the St Pete times coverage of the story by clicking here.

Amy and I watched the first two episodes of “Age of Love.” In case you haven’t heard of it, Mark Philopousis (probably incorrectly spelled, but a pro tennis star pictured here nevertheless) is the Bachelor and he has to choose a potential dating partner (that’s usually as far as these relationships go) from a pool of women in their 20’s and 40’s. He has to eliminate one in each age group each week. Well, we’ve stopped watching the show, because it is, frankly, kind of sad-among other things ( many other things). But after we finished watching our DVD last night, I did catch the tail end of the show (so I guess I haven’t quit yet).

One of the women, aged 42, had clearly said there was a ‘feeling’ going on within her, and she resolved to not accept his invitation to stay. Well as she approached Mark, this 42 year old really caved. He explained how great of a time they have together, and she expressed her reservations. But he still wanted her to stay, and so she stayed.

Who knows what was going on within the heart of this 42 year old? I’ve learned better than to assume I can completely figure women out (and this is a good thing-this is not a knock: it means you’re not shallow!). But as soon as another man expressed interest in her, she totally changed her mind-despite being firmly resolute in her decision to leave.

I don’t question her character or decision making, any more than any of the others who’ve subjected themselves to the experiment of whether Mark will include age as a deciding factor in love. But this example I witnessed on TV probably goes on within the hearts of so many people looking for love: they just settle. They feel valued and cherished, and are made to feel important-so they settle. And its sad to me, much sadder than “Age of Love.”

I think that if women felt a little more valued, cherished, important (all proved true by the price it cost Jesus to make us Christians), perhaps they would settle less often, and look for more in a mate. But the same is true for all aspects of life regardless of sex-if we would realize how much we cost, we might settle far less in other areas as well.

It is very clear to me that God is faithful and good to me regardless of how few fish I catch. I’ve been forgiven, blessed with a wife, church, house, food, etc…

But sometimes he provides just a little bit more to remind me of how great He is. I vacationed in the Keys all last week, and had the opportunity to fish for Tarpon twice. The first day, I almost landed one, but it was one that the guide had hooked, and then given to me (so it just didn’t feel right).

Fortunately we had another trip, but all I had to show for 3 and a half hours of fishing were some 6-7 foot nurse sharks (they are lazy sharks that don’t swim fast, look cool/scary or fight well). With only 20 minutes or so left on our trip, I hooked a monster tarpon (conservative scientific estimates put him at 135-140 lbs). After about 30 minutes or so of fighting him, we snapped these pictures, and let him go.

God didn’t have to give me a fish. But I thank Him that he did. There are tons of our brothers and sisters in Christ who suffer daily in a number of ways. And these sufferings are more serious than catching fish. But nevertheless, I still think it brought Him some bit of glory to see me smile, sweat, and thank Him for the great fish.

After a week on vacation with no cell phone use (personal preference) and no internet, I’m enjoying being back. However the week in the Florida Keys was certainly a blast, and I forsake not the Keys.

I was reading Psalm 92 (I try to read a Psalm each Sunday morning before I leaving the house for church) today. For some reason, I usually read a Psalm in the 80-‘s to 90’s. Perhaps because those were the best years for music, or perhaps because most of them have to do with praise.

Anyhow, I came across a puzzling verse, at least at first.

“The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green.“

This passage ought to bring one back to the first chapter of Psalms, as the righteous are considered to be like trees planted near a stream. Thus they flourish because the Lord makes them grow.

But what struck me as odd at first was the fact that the trees are ultimately referring to people. You would expect older folks to be those who bear fruit in life, and younger ones to be less fruitful (general trends are that those who grow up in church stop going once college starts).

However, if you really think about it, the parallel for Christians really does make sense. If you get past simple church attendance statistics, it can be very difficult for older folks to bear fruit. Our sinful nature doesn’t get better over the years-if anything I could say it gets worse (there’s quite a battle still ahead for all of us). Someone like me who struggles with an acrid tongue or jealousy, and has struggled with it for a long time, would not find it easy to bear fruit in this areas 20-30 years from now. After all, I would have been battling these for some time. But this verse gives me hope that I can still bear fruit, even in these tough areas.

So in my opinion, on further glance, and a small bit of reflection, this verse really does make a TON of sense to me. Old people, (I’m losing hair and going grey-so I can be called old, even though I’m still ‘hip and down with the times’) do have hope for change despite years of sinful habits. Amen, eh?

Someone asked me the this week, “What do you mean ‘you listened’ to some movies last week?” And a good question indeed. Most people watch movies, but when you’re driving a mini-van home from a mission trip (if it was a volvo, I might have actually felt safer watching a few more scenes), you listen to them while the people in the back seats actually watch them.

We had the privilege of watching the classic film Billy Madison on the way back from MS. One scene hit me particularly hard. Ms. Vaughn (Bridgette Wilson-Billy’s recent 3rd grade teacher) told Billy (Adam Sandler), “It doesn’t feel so good to be called a loser. Perhaps you’ll be nicer to those whom you called loser when you were in high school.” In the movie he immediately calls up Danny McGraf (Steve Buscemi) and apologizes for the things he said 10 years ago. It moved Danny so much that he erased Billy’s name from his “People to Kill” list.

The neat thing is that I was actually quite convicted while watching, or rather ‘listening’ to the scene (when you watch a movie nearly 20 times, you don’t really need to actually ‘see’ it). I had referred to someone as a ‘loser’ the other day, and God really convicted me. I will hopefully be erasing that word from my vocabulary.

Even something as stupid (though incredibly funny) as an Adam Sandler film can serve devotional and didactic purposes if we are actively engaged with the film. But it can do the very opposite if we become oysters and just take in everything.