I spent a lot of time thinking this weekend about racism in our country and our world. Racism is and always has been a scourge of mankind. However, I don’t think racism has anything to do with race anymore. I think it is all about skin color. For me, that makes it an even worse sin if that’s even possible. In one of histories worst cases of racism, the Nazis had to force Jews to wear the star of David. Why? Because they weren’t able to distinguish them entirely by skin color and changing one’s name from a Jewish sounding name to a more European sounding one was also an option for Jews wishing to escape persecution. So, the Nazi’s made Jewish citizens wear the star of David. This brings us to the interesting case of Presidential candidate, Barack Obama. Obama is the son of a caucasian mother and a Kenyan father. To claim that Obama would be the first African-American president is only half true. But, he is considered the first because he looks African-American. There are millions of people prepared to vote for and against Barack Obama based solely on his skin color. There are also millions of people prepared to vote for and against John McCain because of his skin color. I believe that they are all wrong to do this. It’s bad enough to live in a world where race is a factor in anything because we are all created equal in the eyes of God. It’s even worse to live in a world where skin color is factor. You can never judge a book by its cover and you can never judge a person’s race or character by their skin color. I think racism is dying a slow death. Unfortunately, Skinism is alive and well. What are we going to do to defeat it?
Phillies Win!
I got a bit teary eyed watching the Phillies win the World Series on Wednesday night. I had been a life long Philly hater until moving near there last year. I thought of all my friends who had waited all their lives for this moment and got emotional. Got some txt messages today from people attending the parade. It must’ve been crazy. If the Eagles ever win the Super Bowl, the city will be wiped off the map by the party.
1. Wasn’t it great to have a World Series game end before midnight? How do sports expect to attract kids when they’re on waaaaay past bedtime?
2. Halloween is more fun as a parent because you have to limit the candy intake of your children. The best way to do this is to eat the candy yourself…in one sitting. Jerry Seinfeld’s take on Halloween will always be one of the best. “What do I have to do to get all this free candy? I can wear that.”
3. Having a situation where I want to close my eyes and hope God works things out for the best. That’s not really the responsible thing to do, but it is the lazy thing to do. So, guess I will get on that.
4. Denton does a thing called Street Treat on Halloween like a lot of small towns. The town businesses open up for the kids and hand out candy. We will be hosting a shin dig at the CHAMP Center down town. The CHAMP Center is our two days a week after school program. We are trying to reach kids at a young age and mentor them. It’s our Community Health and Mentoring Project.
5. Completed my first project on Ivideo-a church promo video for tonight’s event. There were a few frustrating moments where what I clicked on wasn’t what appeared on the screen, but I was pleased with the end result.
6. Sunday night we are having a chili cook off at the church. I am debating about entering my soon to be famous recipe. Why is there celery in front of my computer? DRAKE!
7. I am still debating on my Halloween costume. Trying not to punk out by not dressing up. I do have a football game to go to so I don’t want to get too crazy in my get up.
8. After staying up until 2:20 am Wednesday night, I have decided to never drink sugar free AMP again.
9. I think that they should save all the political ads this year and just reuse them in the future. Just change the names cause they all say the same thing anyway. What would happen if we spent all that money on providing clean water to places in the world that don’t have it? Politics now needs a spending cap on campaigns.
10. It’s supper time and trick or treat time so have a great weekend everyone!
Wednesday Already?
Well, yesterday I was helping out at the pumpkin patch at Victory Mountain Camp. It was a lot of fun.
1. Mike Singletary is my new favorite coach. He’s got a lot of Ditka in him. I did feel bad for him when a reporter asked him at halftime if he had spoken to his mentor Bill Walsh when he was hired as the 49ers coach last week. Two problems-Walsh is dead and was not Singletary’s(a lifelong Chicago Bear) mentor. It was a very uncomfortable moment for both-so much so that you can’t find the video anywhere on the internet now. However, you can see his post-game tirade here.
2. Saw the trailer for this movie last night. Looks like a must see-for me at least.
3. Bad news-I’m two games back in the playoff race in my SWU Fantasy Football league. The good news-I’ve scored more points than both teams in front of me so all I have to do is catch them.
4. HEROES gets better and better by the week. It’s cool how they can have flash back and flash forward episodes that add to the plot without jumbling it up. Told a buddy that we won’t have all the answers until the very last episode. That’s what keeps us tuning in every week.
5. Much has been made of the decision to try to play game 5 of the World Series in the rain Monday night. To me, baseball is kind of unfair in the sense that 75% or more of it’s season is played in summer type weather and then the most important games are often played in brutal cold and conditions. This can be an unfair advantage for some teams and regretably makes many fans long for more domed baseball stadiums. Of course, you can have 10 years of great World Series weather and then one game blows that all away. Of course, Bud Selig is not the greatest example of superb decision making either.
6. Anyone have any good experience making requests from local and large businesses?
7. I had a really bad dream last night that the next Batman movie came out and it was only an hour and a half long and was terrible. I remember thinking in the dream-“Oh this can’t be right. They wouldn’t do this. I must be dreaming.” Also dreamed that I was somehow playing a Mac in a praise band at a big conference, but the leader kept leaving me out of the loop so I was left playing the Mac in the back of the auditorium. I remember waking up thinking, “I’m really mad at him and he doesn’t even know it. Maybe it’s because he made me mad in a dream. That doesn’t change the fact that I’m mad at him(someone who is a dear friend). Hopefully I will sleep it off.” I guess not. I’m just glad I remembered my dreams. Means I got decent sleep. Two different dreams is a really great night’s sleep. Weird that I just thought yesterday that I hadn’t remembered a dream in a while. I’m telling you-our minds are wondrous creations.
8. If you were a parent and your child were hanging around people with Anti-American and racist views would you ground them? What if some of their aquantices had been arrested for illegal activities that they admitted too, but technicalites lead to their release? Would you let your kid go to a party where many of the guests were anti-Semitic and the guest of honor used to be the spokesman for Yassar Arafat? Would you be worried that these people would have a strong influence on your child and his/her belief’s? Wouldn’t people fitting these descriptions constitue “the wrong crowd” and therefore be the kind of people you wouldn’t want your child around? Just wondering. Here’s another thought:
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Hellooooo Monday!
1. The BBQ Festival was a huge letdown. I was expecting various types of barbeque with different sauces and such. I was disappointed to find that most of it was only served on a bun and sometimes mixed with slaw. Personally, I didn’t care for the food, but it was a good event with stuff for all ages. So, next year I will know what to expect. It was great to have my parents with us this weekend and know that my dad’s BBQ would have beaten any at the festival.
2. The Phillies are one win away from winning the World Series. There’s only about 125 people besides Tamba Bay Rays’ employees who will be upset if they lose and that’s why they shouldn’t win. Plus, Philly is a better team with a much larger fan base. Across the sports world, teams with larger fan bases winning championships is good because it keeps more people involved in the process. Large fan bases=ratings which=$ which is good for the sport. That’s why the NFL is so great-revenue sharing. As soon as the other sports take grasp of this concept in full then they will thrive as well. If only we could make it work in our denomination. Wait, is that redistribution of wealth?
3. Here’s my political rant for the day: I have to say there are many things that have disappointed me about the Bush presidency. He touted “compassionate conservatism” as his theme and we took that to mean that he was going to enact programs to help people help themselves. My disappointments are with his failure to curb government spending, his reliance on people, like Donald Rumsfeld, to run a 21st century war with 20th century tactics, the No Child Left Behind bill which seems to be leaving lots of people behind, the enitre Katrina fiasco, and his failure to enact any sort of logical, ethical immigration reform. Now, he has done a lot to keep our country safe since 9-11 probably much more than we realize. What I’m trying to say is that sometimes the candidate you get is not the one you voted for. That’s my fear with an Obama presidency. I think many good people have found good reasons to vote for him, but I fear that his presidency would be completely different than his canidacy. If a President McCain allowed government spending to continue to grow unchecked then that would be a complete shock to all of us. My question for Obama supporters is, what would shock you the most? For me, there is still a lot of uncertainty as to who he really is. I just think that there are going to be a lot of disappointed people when the rubber meets the road.
4. Did I hear incorrectly, or is the bailout bill that we couldn’t live without not working?
5. I heard that Halloween is now the #2 holiday in terms of money spent. I just don’t understand it. Personally, I’m not going to pay $20 a car to drive down a country road to get frightened. I think it’s our cultures addiction to adrenaline and caffeine. I’m really thankful that my mom set boundries on what costumes we could wear. Hopefully all those old plastic(and flammable) costumes will be valuable one day. I was Batman, Superman, Plastic-Man, and GI Joe. How did we breathe out of those masks?
Hope everyone has a great day and week.
Still Trying to Catch Up
So much has been going on that I completely forgot Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday night. The Phillies won and now the Series is tied 1-1. I used to hate the Phillies, but I have embraced them after I lived in the area for almost a year. Philly needs a title, but nothing would be as big as the Eagles winning the Super Bowl. The Phillies remind me a lot of the Red Sox in that they are a scrappy bunch. They would do well to mimic the Red Sox patience at the plate though.
1. My parents are coming up for the Barbeque Festival in Lexington this weekend. I am excited and hope the rain holds off until after the event.
2. I’m preaching this Sunday morning. Got the sermon ready to go. Wednesday night was exhasuting as I really tried to pour out my heart on the importance of memorizing scripture. I know there is a big difference in paying attention and actually hearing what is being said, but several of the teens were impacted by the message. Next Wednesday is on tithing. Get the Skittles!
3. I picked up a bunch of books while in Indy. Haven’t had the chance to start any of them yet. Some of them are geared toward teens, but I wanted to check them out for myself. Most of the reading is to prepare for our new Sunday night Bible study in January. I want to make the format similar to what John Wesley did in England. They pulled no punches and accepted no mediocrity. I think that is the heart of Wesley and we are far from it.
4. It’s hard to sympathize with the difficult economic times when people still find the money to put hundreds of dollars of Halloween decorations around their home. “Yeah, our car got repossessed, but this lifesize mummy groans when you walk by it.”
5. I have been so tired the past 3 days. I think those late nights with Matt and Gary took a toll on me along with the jet lag. However, we did solve the world’s and denomination’s problems between the hours of 11 pm and 1 am every night. And then there’s Texas.
6. Undercooked hot dogs and tire swing g forces do not mix well together.
7. The election is almost over and we may not agree on who to vote for, but we can agree that we’re happy it’s over. From start to finish, Barack Obama’s organization has been tremendous and has brought him from unknown to favorite. McCain’s campaign has been in disarray from day 1 and I believe we will look back on his presidential campaign as one of the worst ever. Even if he wins, it won’t be because he ran a great campaign. I think Huckabee would have waged a better campaign, but probably lost to the better known Obama. Either way, this will all be over in a week and a half, and it will be the responsibility of every Christian to pray for our president-elect and his staff.
8. Clemson has a bye week this weekend. Somehow, they will still manage to lose a close game and have several key players suffer injuries.
9. I just got notified that I am now officially an ordained minister in the North Carolina East District. For a few weeks, I was just an unknown as my paperwork was AWOL.
Have a great weekend and Go Phillies.
Where do I begin?
Since my last past, much has happened in my world. Here’s hoping I don’t miss anything.
1. Tommy Bowden “resigned.” Do you know how to tell when someone was really fired? When the boss has to constantly remind people that the coach “resigned?” And if Bowden resigned then why is he getting the $3.5 million buyout? I like Dabo Sweeney, but he’s got his work cut out for him to overcome the culture of mediocrity. Due to Deb’s urging, I will give them until the end of the season before renouncing my fandom.
2. Assumed the unofficial title of special assistant to the assistant as I went to FUEL at Wesleyan HQ. There were three benefits from this trip. 1-Got a behind scenes look at FUEL and HQ. 2-Got to hang with Matt, Deb, and Gary T. Rich. 3-Got to recharge my batteries. I also got to see these two videos.
3. More on FUEL-Matt did an amazing job leading this event. It was more laid back than years past and Kevin Myers hit the marriage covenant pretty hard. The final session was the best FUEL moment ever with transparent speakers and a foot washing ceremony. Did I mention that Dustin and Miriam Ah Koui did an amazing job leading worship? It was great reliving some SWU days and hearing the name of Steve Chandler uttered. I think Tom Giljam was mentioned as well.
4. God is amazing. Matt had been in a car accident the week before and somehow God used that to lower their debt, connect them with another believer(who just happened to own a great car), and buy a Honda Element for an amazing price. It was cool to be with them and just to witness the miracle happening in their lives. Yeah, and Leo bit me on the face…kinda.
5. Karen ran in a 5k race on Saturday while I was gone. Her goal has been the half-marathon in Raleigh on Nov. 2. She ran 10 miles yesterday. It’s been pretty inspiring to watch her train for this. It’s pushed me to announce the 34 by 34 initiative. I basically have half a year(178 days) until my next birthday and I want to weigh a healthy weight by then. For progress reports, check out the 34 by 34 link at the top of the page.
6. I finally got my NC East jersey and it fit and felt great.
I have so much to do and so much to say, but I don’t know if today’s post truly explained how awesome my trip to Indy was. More manana.