Snowboarding in Saskatchewan- that is not a mountain!

Well this is a simple instalment for my blog.
I went snowboarding at Table Mountain yesterday with my youngest brother, Nathan.
I must say that after snowboarding at Mount Baker in Washington State when I lived in Langley last winter that Table Mountain does not quite do it for me anymore. Nathan and I got bored very fast! Basically every run is the same, except for a novice run that we could go up onto the side and go out of bounds with a bit.
I also must say that it is a lot more fun when I can snowboard with a group of friends, it was nice to have Nathan, but when on a hill such as Table Mountain, the visiting with friends is almost more important than the boarding. I am stubborn though, and after driving 2.5 hours I wasn’t about to turn around and go home after only an hour, like Nathan suggested!
And then I got frost bite on my big toe again! It was a cold day, and we stopped to warm up after an hour and then lunch after two hours, but my feet felt pretty good the rest of the day. So, I was shocked when they were still sore this morning! I guess I need to be careful after my experience of having that toe turn blue and losing the toe nail a few years ago! It was on my foot that was strapped in to the bindings… maybe I should switch feet part way through the day, or not make my bindings so tight! haha
But, it was nice to see some results in my snowboarding ability! It was nice that my brain finally kicked in and I didn’t have to think when boarding. My body just knew how to recover when taking a jump or hitting a rut and losing control a bit. That felt pretty neat, it is so psychological when taking jumps and stuff!
So, I want to buy new snowboard boots and I think it is important for me to get goggles and a snowboard helmet as well. Sunglasses kept getting fogged up and they just don’t do the job. And I can’t convince myself to take risks and take jumps properly, which is probably my wisdom kicking in, so I think I really do need to buy a helmet! Then watch out! haha
Then we were driving through Unity and I was like, “why don‘t we visit the Riesses?!” So, Nathan texted our friend Sheldon and he had just gotten home from Calgary for the holidays! It was really nice to see him and his parents again. It had been about 2 years since I had visited with Ken and Anne. They are such an amazing couple and I always feel so encouraged growing up and visiting with them. Even the first time that I stayed at their house I felt so comfortable and almost enjoyed visiting with them more than my friends who I was visiting! Ken always tried to give us relational advice!
Ended up being a good day if only I hadn’t got the frost bite on my toe!
Does frost bite in toes create bad dreams? I had an awful night last night! haha

Music... such a blessing!

Well, I made it safely to my parent's farm outside of Eatonia today, what a intense, treacherous drive... so foggy! There were times when I could see like 20 feet in front of me... but, at the same time it was a really good trip, has some good music and some really good time just talking with God... I needed that time, helped refresh me! I had some things that I needed to vent about, and other things that I just needed to give to Him and trust Him and others where I can just praise God for how good He has been to me!

But, to the point of this blog...

I know I often write in this blog about sports, there is so much that one can learn and apply from sport, but today I was thinking about music. As I drove back to Eatonia to visit my parents over the Christmas break I was listening to some really great music. Some of it was Christmas music, but not your regular Christmas songs, I love so many of the traditional songs, such as "Oh Holy Night," but some of these newer ones really spoke to my heart today!

An example is "A Christmas Song For All Year Round" by Aaron Sprinkle:

"I wonder if this Christmas
They'll begin to understand
That Jesus that they celebrate
Is much more than a man

The way the world is I can't see
how people can deny
The only way to save us
Was for Jesus Christ to die

And I know that if St. Nicolas was here he would agree
That Jesus gave the greatest gift of all to you and me
They led him to the slaughter on a hill called Calvary
And mankind was forgiven when they nailed him to a tree

But most of all the children
They're the ones I hope will learn
That Jesus is our savior>
And he's going to return

And Christmas isn't just a day
And all days aren't the same
Perhaps they'll think about the word
And see that it spells his name

And I know that if St. Nicolas was here he would agree
That Jesus gave the greatest gift of all to you and me
They led him to the slaughter on a hill called Calvary
And mankind was forgiven
We were all forgiven when they nailed him to a tree

So merry Christmas"

This song is a good reminder of the real meaning behind Christmas. If we look past all the hype and presents we must look to the gift that was Christ. This gift was Christ coming from heaven and being made flesh, so that He could then die on the cross to pay for our sins, so that we could be forgiven! This is often forgotten, but it is good to remember that during the Christmas season.

I was listening to this song on the drive to my parent's house today, I would recommend you listen to it. It doesn't have as much meaning when reading it as it does when listening... I think that is what makes music so special... one can hear a person's heart in the song and it has so much more meaning!

Music is such a gift from God, it is amazing how music and lyrics can really speak to one's soul in such an amazing way! I find that I will be feeling emotions, good or bad, and I can't figure out quite how to express them properly. But, music can express the exact emotions that I am feeling in such a meaningful way! It is amazing to just worship God in the car and just talk to Him about what is on my heart, whether I am excited about something, nervous about the next step, mad at the World, hurting... Whatever the case may be, God can take it, and it amazes me how music can help get that emotion out!

I am so thankful for the spiritual element in music and how it can speak to our souls in such amazing and meaningful ways! God wants us to tell Him what is on our hearts, whether joy, or hurt, and music helps us express that!

God definitely has a sense of humour!

A good story that I got from a friend today.
My friend and coworker, Rosemary, flew to Fort Lauderdale a few weeks ago with her husband for a conference. Well today in prayer meeting she asked that we pray for her luggage. Her luggage never made it from Winnipeg to Florida, and she has been talking to the airline to figure out where her $2,800 worth of clothes etc would be. They keep telling her that it will come tomorrow.
Well, just after we were done praying her husband phoned. It was in Iowa! A lady who had been missing her luggage for a year had a suitcase delivered by hand to her house today. It had been hand delivered from a Carnival cruise!
The Iowa lady said that it didn’t look like hers, but wondered if it was her stuff inside. What the Iowa lady found was Rosy’s stuff, including her Bible sitting on top! The receipt from Parable’s Christian Store was still in the Bible so the Iowa lady phoned them and they in turn phoned Rosy’s husband! How does the luggage end up in Iowa or on a Carnival Cruise is my question!
And another funny thing, the woman from Iowa, her husband helped run the conference that Rosy went to in Florida!God answers prayers… in funny ways sometimes… thought that was a funny story you would all appreciate!

Time for Reflection

I don’t know if anyone ever actually reads my blogs, but I figured I could get a bit more personal on this newest installment. The students all left on Wednesday, so Hepburn has become way too quiet for me liking. This means I will get a ton of work done, but with my brother gone for the weekend it leaves me feeling like I am in the middle of no where all alone. As many of you know, when I have a ton of free time on my hands and time to think my mind starts to spin like one wouldn’t believe. I start to think WAY too much, and can get myself in trouble as I get contemplative and sentimental, etc.

Anyway, I figured that a good way to focus my time would be to do some reading, and reflect on what God has taught me, and also be silent and listen to what He has been trying to say to me all semester!

As I look back on the semester God has been good to me, He keeps reminding me of that. This past semester has been a really interesting one. I have learned a ton, that is for sure, in ways that I was definitely not looking for and did not expect in coming here to the small town of Hepburn to work at Bethany College! I came here thinking in many ways like it was just a simple stepping stone to where God wants me to be in the future, I was looking past this year a lot. I quickly realized that God had other things in mind for me. There are amazing students, faculty and staff here who have built into my life in so many ways. I have really learned how geared I am toward other people. If all I did was my work and then went home and did my own thing, without interacting with the students I would feel so incomplete. But, on the other extreme, this has made me quite unbalanced. I feel like I have been trying to do so many things for other people, working all day and then coaching hockey late in the evening, and trying to hangout a bit with my brother each night before he goes to bed, etc, etc! I want to get re-focused and make some time for myself where I can just sit back and listen for what God is trying to teach me, and to talk to Him. I do not do this close to enough. I have been trying to stay in shape by going to the gym at least three times a week, and this has really fallen by the wayside. And even one of my big focuses has fallen down, visiting with the guys in the dorms! I was in the dorm the other day and a guy made a comment that he was surprised to see me in there! I don’t know how best to find this balance in the busy life at Bethany, but I pray that God will help show me where my focuses need to be and how to combine some of them… anyway, here is what God has spoken to me about lately:

Luke 11:5-13

5-6Then he said, "Imagine what would happen if you went to a friend in the middle of the night and said, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. An old friend traveling through just showed up, and I don't have a thing on hand.'

7"The friend answers from his bed, 'Don't bother me. The door's locked; my children are all down for the night; I can't get up to give you anything.'

8"But let me tell you, even if he won't get up because he's a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking and waking all the neighbors, he'll finally get up and get you whatever you need.

9"Here's what I'm saying:

Ask and you'll get;
Seek and you'll find;
Knock and the door will open.

10-13"Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in. If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider? As bad as you are, you wouldn't think of such a thing—you're at least decent to your own children. And don't you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him?"

A practical example of this is using basketball… I am not a three point shooter at all, but I told myself that I would keep attempting them today until I made one… usually I can make like one out of five or six, but today I could not hit one if my life depended on it, but I kept pushing at it and finally I made one! That felt so good! I decided to keep shooting until I missed (risky for me, because I am stubborn and like to end on a good note). Well, I made the next four. It just clicked! As soon as I released the ball I knew the ball was in the net. This is a good analogy, because sometimes no matter how hard we try life just doesn’t seem to work the way we want it to, but finally it clicks and just feels right. We need to be persistent in following God’s will for our lives and praying consistently and persistently. He knows what is best for us, and sometimes that is a no, or a wait. These answers are hard, but they make us stronger, and when we finally get a yes it feels so good and right, just like when I finally made a 3-pointer. If I had made the first one then it wouldn’t have felt even close to as good as when I finally made one after so many attempts!

God will grant us our prayers, we must be diligent in our prayers. He has our best in mind though. I am so thankful that some of my prayers were answered with a no, instead of a yes right away. There are others where I still don’t know what the answer is, perhaps it is just, wait. I find that one to be the hardest one of all. I think it is one that I have been learning the last couple of years, but in particular this year. I feel in so many ways like my life is in a hiatus. I am in an interim athletic director role until April and then have no idea where I will be after that. Right now I try not to think about that. God has it in control, but at the same time it is kind of scary. I have moved a lot the last few years, from Eatonia, to Eston, to Regina, to Langley and finally Hepburn. Each place has helped me grow on this journey and I have learned something new and different!

God has His timing, and I know it is right… sometimes it is “wait.” I am not very good at waiting, I want to figure out a solution all of the time.

But, when God finally gives a yes to each of my continuous prayers I know it will be sooo right! He knows what the perfect job is for me, and where I will be of the best service for His kingdom… that could be in Saskatoon, Regina, Alberta, or maybe even a province I have never lived in like Ontario! I want to be open to His guiding! There are always factors that enter in to decisions, but God has continuously put a peace in my heart when he says "Yes" or "Go."

That is all for now…
Jadon "The Rambler" Frank

Marion Jones

I received this from a British man who writes alot on Sport as ministry and worship, Stuart Weir. I thought it was worth posting.

“If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules.” 2 Timothy 2:5

I was saddened by the recent press reports on Marion Jones. In the 2000 Olympics Marion won gold in the 100 metres, 200 metres, 4 X 400 metres relay and bronze in the 4 X 100 metres relay and the long jump. Five medals in one Olympics. Now she has handed all the medals back after admitting to using steroids.

Marion was blessed with an immense talent. To be world class from 100-400 metres as well as long jump is awesome. Somewhere along the line she decided to step outside the rules. She made a big mistake and has paid a terrible price.

At one level she deserves no sympathy. She broke the rules. She knew what she was doing. She lied about it. Her actions deprived someone else of the chance of a medal. She is guilty and deserves her punishment. But then there are the words of Jesus ringing in my ears. "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone” John 8:7. There but for the grace of God, go I.

Marion made a serious error and she will regret it for the rest of her life. As Christians let us pray for her rather than add to her condemnation.

God works in and around us... even where we think there is no way!

I got an email the other day from a friend who I hadn’t talked to in years. I was open with her about my faith and sent her updates every once in a while about what was going on in my life, prayer requests and all. I had no idea where she was in her spiritual walk, but I just kept being real with her.
Well, I hadn’t communicated with her, except for my Christmas, and moving updates, etc. Then a year since I had last heard from her I got an email thanking me for my friendship and asking for prayer! I found this so encouraging, I had no idea if I had had any impact on her life, but apparently I had!
Keep being a light and being real with those around you, you do not know what kind of impact you might be having!
God is so amazing… this happened later that same day again! Someone who I had been praying for for a long time and hadn’t heard from in about a year sent me a message encouraging me to keep following Christ and that the words that I shared with them have helped and encouraged them a lot this last while.
I was having a really rough day when I got these emails… God has His timing and knows when we need encouragement!
Then the other day we were having a chapel at school where everyone was supposed to take time to encourage someone who is on their hearts. This is always a neat experience, it is so surprising who makes a point to encourage me. People that I think I have not connected with at all, or who I think I have just not been able to gel with at all end up walking up to me and thanking me, praying for me and encouraging me. I find this so interesting! People who I think I have not had an effect on at all end up thanking me for who I am and what I have done in their lives!God works in people, even when we don’t know it!

Pollution from the heart

I was reading my Bible the other day, I have decided to focus more on the Gospels, just to read the words and life of Jesus from the different perspectives is a pretty cool experience.
Well, I came across the following verses from Mark 7 and they really spoke to me:

The Source of Your Pollution

1-4 The Pharisees, along with some religion scholars who had come from Jerusalem, gathered around him. They noticed that some of his disciples weren't being careful with ritual washings before meals. The Pharisees—Jews in general, in fact—would never eat a meal without going through the motions of a ritual hand-washing, with an especially vigorous scrubbing if they had just come from the market (to say nothing of the scourings they'd give jugs and pots and pans).
5The Pharisees and religion scholars asked, "Why do your disciples flout the rules, showing up at meals without washing their hands?"
6-8Jesus answered, "Isaiah was right about frauds like you, hit the bull's-eye in fact:
These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
but their heart isn't in it.
They act like they are worshiping me,
but they don't mean it.
They just use me as a cover
for teaching whatever suits their fancy,
Ditching God's command
and taking up the latest fads."
9-13He went on, "Well, good for you. You get rid of God's command so you won't be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions! Moses said, 'Respect your father and mother,' and, 'Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.' But you weasel out of that by saying that it's perfectly acceptable to say to father or mother, 'Gift! What I owed you I've given as a gift to God,' thus relieving yourselves of obligation to father or mother. You scratch out God's Word and scrawl a whim in its place. You do a lot of things like this."
14-15Jesus called the crowd together again and said, "Listen now, all of you— take this to heart. It's not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it's what you vomit—that's the real pollution."
17When he was back home after being with the crowd, his disciples said, "We don't get it. Put it in plain language."
18-19Jesus said, "Are you being willfully stupid? Don't you see that what you swallow can't contaminate you? It doesn't enter your heart but your stomach, works its way through the intestines, and is finally flushed." (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.)
20-23He went on: "It's what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution."

There is so much packed into this chapter on so many levels, that now writing about it I don’t know where to start and stop. I think we often act very religious with how we act, we feel that is we dress the right way, say the right things, or are at the right places at the right times then we are religious and better than others. But, God cares about what is coming from our hearts, not from our vocal chords, or what others can see us do.
God cares about our hearts of worship to him, not what we look like.
I yearn to be more like Christ and to keep my heart pure in worship, not to care about doing things the way that is socially acceptable to those around me. I pray that God will keep me pure, so that I do not vomit filth, but instead have the aroma of Christ all over me!I don’t know if this made any sense to you, but it is what God has been telling me lately.

Testimonies are a gift from God!

This morning I was reading my Bible and thinking about life. I started thinking about heaven and the afterlife. Just wondering, what if I am wrong, then what would happen after this life is over! Life seems so surreal so much of the time… it almost feels like a dream. And the fact that I am so busy that I never even take time to relax and think doesn’t help it not feel like a dream! Days fly by so fast… that is another posting though, so I will get back to the topic at hand.
I started to wonder if my faith and choices were just because of my upbringing, kind of scary. But, then it dawned on me, as it does whenever someone asks me that question, I just need to look at my life and the lives of those around me to solidify my faith again! When doubts enter my mind I just need to think about my testimony. And look back on what God has done.
So, I was so encouraged, to keep the faith we just need to share with each other what God has done in our lives. I look back at the changes that have happened in so many of my friends from high school and it is incredible. One cannot argue a person's testimony! A person cannot argue what God has done in my friends’ lives. One does not change in the ways that they have without the supernatural being involved!
I think we need to share our testimonies with each other more often, they are so encouraging!
I think that is so incredible, simple, yet incredible!
God is so good to us,

Jadon OUT

PS. I don’t think of death all the time… just was thinking about where the backbone of my faith was situated!

Definition of Worship

A definition of worship as an activity that we practice on a Sunday morning between 10.30 and 11.30, mainly through singing ‘worship’ songs, is inadequate. Of course, corporate public worship is an important part of our spiritual lives. However, the biblical view of worship is a seven-days-a-week lifestyle activity, rather than requiring but one hour on a Sunday morning. This point is made clearly in Romans 12:1: ‘Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.’
We are to worship God and represent Christ all the time in all things. That is, everything in life is to be an act of worship to God. It is a million miles from the religion of ‘keep Sunday holy and do what you like the rest of the week’. The Christian is to please God in everything, by doing it as if for God. That includes sport.
This thought is well encapsulated in the scene from the film Chariots of Fire, when Eric Liddell’s thoughts as he runs are, ‘God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast and when I run, I feel his pleasure.’ More and more Christians have come to see sport, played with the right attitude, as something that can bring pleasure to God.
Those twenty words from Chariots of Fire are very familiar but how many people know how the quotation continues? The full quotation is, ‘I believe God made me for a purpose —for China—but when I run I feel his pleasure and to give it up would be to hold him in contempt. To win is to honour him.’ In the second sentence, the idea is that not to use the talent he has been given would be to dishonour God.Thus the full picture of sport is as part of God’s creation, spoiled by sin, redeemed by Christ so that we can worship God in sport as in everything else.

What is Worship

I wrote this in mid-September, and sent it to quite a few people, but figured I could post it, since it is still close to my heart... I want to be held accountable on this!

September 7th, 2007

God spoke to me today and then again this evening. I feel that I am supposed to share it with you while it is still fresh in my mind.
It isn't that profound or anything, but I would really appreciate prayer in this as well. I apologize for its length, or even for some of you, possibly its feeling of irrelevance, but this is on my heart.
I have found that I keep focusing on logistics and I have gotten really frustrated with work. It is amazing how I have maybe worked a total of 6 weeks at this job and I already lost focus. There have been several really big programmatic things that have arisen and I have found that I became really focused on trying to do the right thing and to please everyone around me as much as possible. I was doing it all on my own strength and kept running into walls.
It is funny, because as I was doing all of this I was talking to everyone about how sport can be used to glorify and worship God, but at the same time I wasn't doing that. I found that everything was head knowledge but I wasn't applying it. Well, today we had a meeting to discuss a few of the topics in a faculty meeting and God just worked in my heart. Throughout my life I have seen how so many people think of sport as a secondary activity, and sluff off the idea of it having any real significance beside being a fun activity to get exercise. That music, drama and the arts are a worthy form of worship. I am not saying that anyone was saying this specifically, but it was something that got in my head and woke me up. I know how sport is such a universal language and how amazing it can be to use it to worship God and I kept saying this to people for the last two months, but getting frustrated finally woke me up!
In chapel today we had a sharing time and one of our athletes said that Romans 12:1-2 had really spoken to him about how worship is not just music. This stirred my heart again and kind of sat there until this evening. I want to offer my body and life as a sacrifice to God in worship, every part of me!
I saw the gym open tonight, and decided to just dribble the ball around the gym. It was such an amazing time of worship and just talking to God and listening to His voice, no music, just me, the ball and God! It felt so, so good to just release all my thoughts to Him and give Him control again!
He really spoke to me about my heart and focus. There is nothing wrong with me wanting to do the right thing or trying to get the logistics right, but there were some foundational, simple things that I was missing, and that is to take the real time to worship Him and use the opportunities that He has given me!
All these things that I worry and work at must be worked at, but I need to still have my eyes focused on Him!
Even in my preparation to do a session with the athletes on the Audience of One Principle, I was focusing on every audience but this One important Audience of CHRIST!
I have such awesome opportunities here, and I have neglected them so much! I want to take the time to pray with each coach this week and with each athletic team, and just cast the vision that I think God has for this Bible College through our prayer time together!
I also have the privilege of being an athletic director in a league with four other Bible Colleges, why don't we take this privilege to pray together!
Anyway, that is my sermon today, I am never short winded. I would just like your prayer in this and I pray that maybe it might have encouraged a few of you as well! I want to do the right things and help the students on this campus worship Christ with every area of their lives, including through sport! I want to be a living example of that. I pray that Christ will give me confidence with students, coaches, staff etc, to share what He has put on my heart!
Thank you,
Jadon

Bracketology Faith by Ben Humphries from the Magazine "Relevant"

Thought it was a really good read, so wanted to share it with you all.

I cannot remember a world without bracketology. The word first emerged in college basketball circles some years ago to describe the annual, addictive process of selecting the 65 teams for the season-ending, championship tournament. Everything before that time in my life exists as darkness and chaos.

In the early days, I used to read this word as tongue-in-cheek, a cute exaggeration of one of life's trivialities. But bracketology is no longer a flippant matter.

The word is everywhere. Once solely the possession of ESPN, other networks have seized upon it, because we viewers cannot grasp the magnitude of March without it. If ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi has a business card, the title under his name would be "Bracketologist," and it would not be a joke. A new book has even hit the shelves entitled The Enlightened Bracketologist which utilizes tournament-style brackets to determine what we really love and hate in various categories ranging from “fruit” to “inventions” to “Tell me again why they're famous.” (In case you were curious, peach edged apple for the Fruit Championship, sliced bread won easily over paper in the Invention competition, and favorite Nicole Ritchie beat out cinderella Jeffrey Dahmer for the Tell Me Again Why They're Famous title.)

This book describes the science known as "Bracketology" in its introduction:

What is enlightenment? Better question: What is bracketology?

Bracketology is a way of seeing the world so that we can become more enlightened—about what we like, favor, prefer, abhor or abjure. (Bracketology can even help us determine if we prefer the word “abhor” to “abjure.”) It is a system that helps us make clearer and cleaner decisions about what is good, better, best in our world.

Bracketology—the practice of parsing people, places and things into discrete, one-on-one matchups to determine which of the two is superior or preferable—works because it is simple. What could be simpler than breaking down a choice into either/or, black or white, this one or that one?

The book is incorrect about the simplicity of Bracketology concerning field selection for basketball's NCAA tournament. Bracketology has become standard linguistic fare these days, because choosing the 65-team field has become a science. A group of people, known dauntingly as “The Committee,” compiles mounds of evidence about every team and uses these heaps to whittle the 300+ college basketball teams down to 65. The statistics are mind-boggling—conference record, RPI rating (which, like the NFL's quarterback rating, no one understands), strength of schedule, balance of the conference schedule, record against tournament teams, conference tournament performance, "good" wins, "bad" losses, total team height, average shoe size, grade point average, number of pizzas eaten during the year … the list goes on. The Committee supposedly uses all of these statistics to determine the best 65 teams. Then, onward we march.

ESPN analyst Jay Bilas, a Spartan commentator amidst mere Persians (by 300's historical interpretation at least), commented during one segment of ESPN's daily 25-hour coverage that he just wished the chairman of The Committee had defended the selections, not with bracketological stats, but with the simple statement that they thought these were the best 65 teams in the country. Bilas's point: with all of this "bracketology" science, one tends to miss the forest for the trees.

As usual, Bilas's point was as solid as a Greg Oden blocked shot. Statistical arguments about the worthiness of teams are futile. With such an array of data available, anyone can make a case for any team. Except, of course, for the Clemson Tigers.

Bilas's comment convicted me of the "bracketology faith" to which I often subscribe. I spend so much time trying to understand theological RPI ratings, attempting to figure out God by looking at a variety of details. How does God want me to feel about the death penalty? Is the Calvinistic worldview more correct than the Armenian one or can a dizzying combination of the two exist? Should I volunteer at the church nursery or spend that time in Sunday school?

Now, do not get me wrong, I believe these are valid and important questions. After all, the average margin of victory does provide information about a basketball team just as coming to grips with certain questions helps to better understand God's character. However, a tendency exists in my life to lean legalistic, often times placing too much emphasis and too much stress on these questions at the expense of something greater. This is why the book of Galatians and its statement that “a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Christ Jesus” (2:16 NASB) is so easy for me to read yet so hard for me to live.

God is not a science. He is not bracketology (though I bet He understands the RPI rating). When I focus solely on logical and empirical evidence, when I use Him to try to make the right 65 decisions, when I refuse to pull my eyes away from one tertiary detail, I miss the majesty and beauty of the Almighty Sovereign.

God is big.

Jesus died on a cross for me and rose from the dead so that I do not have to die.

The Holy Spirit lives in me.

To cop a phrase from University of North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams, Team Trinity is pretty doggone good.

Theology has great utility; divine questions deserve much attention; the search for God's desires demands real sacrifice. But these things will never satisfy. The person of Jesus Christ is the living water for which I thirst, not any logic or any ministry or any political opinion or any works of the law. These will never be enough.

Here's to resting in the reality of the living God, to being still and knowing God, to adhering to Bilas's encouragement to say that God is best and refusing to stress over the static reasons why I know this to be true.

Angels And Airwaves - The Adventure - Final

I was talking to a friend today and he asked me how I am serving God. He then continued that in everything that he and I do, we can and should be serving God! I thought this was a good way to look at it!
I can find God in everything, and He can speak to me in amazing and powerful wasy in everything, even in obscure music. Which leads me to this song. I don't know what Angels and Airwaves were thinking with this song, maybe just a love song. But, on so many different levels it inspires me! It talks about being renewed and I take this as being renewed in Christ each and everyday. Life is hard and I often wonder how I can continue on, but with Him carrying me I know that I can do it!
He has made me new through dying for me!
I especially like the lyric near the end:

"I cannot live
I can't breath
Unless you do this with me [6x]"

That lyric inspires me so much, as those are my sentiments each and everyday, and I ask Christ to make this my prayer each and everyday, that He will be working, and molding and using me! More of Him and less of me.

"The Adventure Final" by Angels and Airwaves

I wanna have the same last dream again
The one where I wake up and I'm alive
Just as the four walls close me within
My eyes are opened up with pure sunlight

I'm the first to know
My dearest friends
Even if your hope has burned with time
Anything that's dead shall be regrown
And your viscious pain, your warning sign
You will be fine

Hello, here I am
And here we go
Life's waiting to begin

Any type of love it will be shown
Like every single tree reach for the sky
If your gonna fall I'll let you know
That I will pick you up like you for I

I thought this thing life can't replace
Where everyone was working for this goal
Where all the children left without a trace
Only to come back as pure as gold
To recite this all

Hello, here I am
And here we go
Life's waiting to begin tonight [3x]

I cannot live
I can't breath
Unless you do this with me [6x]

Hello, here I am (You do this with me)
And here we go (Do this with me)
Life's waiting to begin [2x]
Life's waiting to begin

Ugly Words

OK,
I have neglected to write blogs for quite sometime... so, I figured once a year would be OK! haha. I will try to write here half often now... I will start with a few things I have worked on over the last year!
I seem to have conversations with people about gross words and brought a few examples out, well I figured that I should make a master list of what I can think of, feel free to add to it as you see fit, I did not add all that I could think of... some are a bit too innapropriate:
crevice
gyrate
lubrication
lubriderm
firm
lobes
viscious
loin
nuzzle
protrude
swollen
salivatory gland
legume
naples
suckle
cess pool
penetrate
chortle
hork
yokefellow
mucated
bogie
exfoliant
cuss
moist
supple
shweaty
urge
custard
gurd
chotch
prong
swab
lush
lollygagging
scum
scrum