Countdown 1 Day

Merry Christmas!

Behold the Lamb of God - Andrew Peterson

Countdown 2 Days

Merry Christmas!

Silent Night - Sixpence None the Richer

Great Tackle

Referee Garth DeFelice made a strong forearm tackle on St. Louis Ram running back Kenneth Darby.  As a 49er fan I was especially grateful.  

Countdown 3 Days

Happy Incarnation!

Better Days - Shaun Groves

Gloria! Christmas Tour 2008 (Better Days) from Shaun Groves on Vimeo.

Countdown 4 Days

Merry Christmas!

Love Came Down at Christmas - Jars of Clay

Happy Incarnation

I listened to this sermon recently entitled The Left Brain of Christmas by Andrew Kirschner, and it is absolutely great!.  I really want to encourage you to carve out 32 minutes this week and give this a listen.  I'm sure if will only enhance this time of year for you.  

Also I think by the end of it you too may just be blessing people a Happy Incarnation!

Sharing Christ

Penn (from Penn & Teller) has some challenging words for us Christians.  

I want to be like this man that he speaks of in this video.  Compassionate towards the lost.  Passionate about what I believe.  Confident enough to do something about both.

Thanks Los.

Countdown 5 Days

Merry Christmas!

I Believe in Father Christmas - U2

Quote: Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A man becomes what he thinks of most of the time."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lord, 

May you become greater, and I become less.

John 3:30

White Christmas Elephant

Last night we had our HS Christmas Party.  While the place didn’t have a very Christmas-y feel to it (Journey needs to invest in some holiday decorations) it was a pretty fun night.  Here are some of the highlights:

• Emily Dye brought me cookies.  And not just one kind of cookie, but a variety of cookies.  There was the staple chocolate chip, and these pumpkin bar things, and chocolate cover pretzels and these others things.  Awesome!  
  
• I forgot to wrap my present (Karate Kid DVD) so I found a copy sheets of wide-ruled paper, a plastic grocery bag and clear duct tape.  In just 5 minutes I went MacGyver on that gift.  Unfortunately for the tiniest gal in our group she could rip the gift open.  Also unfortunate for her, I stole the DVD the first chance possible.  Unfortunate for me, it was stole from me, and “locked”, by the second to last person.
  
• One student kept to the $5 limit by buying a Subway $5 cold cut trio footlong sandwich.  This made me laugh the most.
  
• At the end of the Christmas gift giving and stealing Travis Rogers gave out random gifts (back scratches, dish soap, a bird house, trash bags, etc.) to students and urged them them to “be a blessing” to someone in their community with these gifts.   At our first gathering of the new year we are going to have the students share how they blessed someone else.  I’m looking forward to seeing how this goes.

Fantasy Football

I'm in the Championship Game. 

My fantasy football team, the San Antonio Hombres, has survived a rough 7-7 season to make it to the playoffs and win the first round game.  Several weeks I forgot to even look at my tean and set up the appropriate players for that week.  Next up the Kraft Mayo team that went 11-3 this season.  Can this be the end of a miracle season?

Here is the current game day match up:

Tell me who do you think will win?

The prize for a Yahoo Fantasy Football championship?  Pride baby, pride!

Uncool

AP source: Furcal stays with Dodgers

You have to wonder which side is to blame in this media mess, Furcal or the Braves.  It sounds like Furcal, in which case...uncool dude.  You chose 3 million dollars over your word.  Sure for the average Joe-schmo like me that's ridiculous money, but for a guy who is going to make $30 million in three years...well I hope you sleep well tonight.

I Couldn't Even Dance Like This:

Headline

Kate Hudson Trying to Stay Single as Long as Possible

 

I saw this headline today and thought that I had to use this as my new excuse in life.  I’m “trying” to stay single as long as possible. 

It ain’t easy either.  There are offers daily.  I literally have had to avoid mousetrap-like contraptions where people are trying to ensnare me into a relationship.  I swear my dating relationship resembles the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indy has to avoid poisoned darts, booby traps, deep pits and one huge rolling boulder.  But just like Indy I seem to make it out each and every time; with my trust hat to boot.

Yep, me and Kate Hudson sure have it hard.  We have to actually work at not having relationships.

“Trying”

Good Lord, if only that were the truth.  That I was actually “trying” to stay single. 

Bless your heart Kate Hudson…here I was thinking you were single because people were afraid that by dating you they would have to watch one of your awful movies.  Even worse, they might have to watch one of your every-other-movie-starring-Matthew McConaughey (one of these worst actors ever!).  But I admit when I’m wrong; you were trying to stay single.

The End Begins

I love the Terminator movies. And I'm sticking to the TV show (in hopes that it plays into the upcoming movies). And I'm really excited about this:

Still a Comic Book Geek at Heart

This looks fun.

Jingle Bells

Thanks

Praying

I thought I'd share something that has been on my mind since Thursday.
Where I work, there is this young dual military couple, Charles and Isis, with two children. Recently Charles was sent to Korea for a brief assignment leaving his wife Isis here to manage the home front. While in Korea, for reasons uncertain as of Thursday, Charles blacked out and fell. As he fell he hit his head on something and may have broken his neck. The details were still unclear Thursday as Isis was busy trying to get to Houston to get a passport so she could fly out on Friday morning to be with her husband.
I have been praying for them since she came into the Center, eyes red and tired from having cried more tears than she probably felt were helpful, asking God to be their healer and comforter. If he has broken his neck the circumstances of their life are going to be dramatically altered, and without a bigger-than-this-world God I don't know how one could endure.
I am however, really proud of how the military community has responded and provided for her. Everything from actually having another soldier drive her back and forth from Houston to the quick communication from Korea. It's love displayed outside the context of the church that gives me hope for an even greater vision of what the Church could/should become and sometimes is.

Need Some Inspiritation?

texting

How often do you clean your phone of all those old text messages?
If you and your phone are anything like me and mine you have months of old text messages just sitting and consuming phone storage space.
Somehow, and I don't know how, I have a routine of erasing all those old messages once my unread amount reaches 100. You know how it is; you receive a message, but you don't open it up because you clearly can read it the whole message in the preview space. Nevertheless your phone continue to safe and count those unread texts.
Currently I have texts going back to September, and I'm only at 80 unread messages...