Tim Tebow 'Tebowing'

When a noun becomes a verb, it has reached a level of transcendence in the vernacular of the culture.

Go and Xerox a memo. Facebook me. Just Google it.

Tim Tebow has now reached that rarified air that few nouns reach. His name has now become a verb. “Tebowing” is now the word that people use to strike a pose in the prayer position above. It is most often used derisively of the Broncos QB. (“Tebowing” has a website dedicated to it. It has become a mild internet phenomenon, a la ‘planking’) But his name has now transcended the football culture.

The fact that Tebow has transcended the NFL is clear. He’s been written about in the Wall Street Journal, the NY Times, and countless other news outlets. And I’m not talking about their Sports sections. In fact, in the perhaps the most telling evidence of his transcendence, a woman in my church just ‘facebooked’: Out of curiosity I googled Tim Tebow cause everyone has been talking about him lately. Woah, I gotta start watching some football!

Even if you’re not a football fan, you’ve probably already heard about Tim Tebow and wondered what the big deal is about him. You’ve probably heard 2 things.

Continue reading →

Jerry Sandusky

Monster. Pedophile. Deviant.

These are the words that are used to describe Jerry Sandusky after allegations of his sexually lewd behavior surfaced. Truly, this story, if corroborated, is troubling on so many levels.

And first let me say, that my heart and prayers go out to all of the children, their parents, their future wives and their future kids.

If the allegations are true (even Penn State’s acting president called them ‘victims’ not ‘alleged victims’) then the hatred and vitriol that Sandusky faces seems justified. Perhaps the monikers of ‘monster, pedophile & deviant’ are deserved.

Continue reading →

Okay, I admit. I’m a fanboy.

Steve Jobs (Credit: apple.com)

I’m writing this post on a MacBook Pro and will read it later on my iPhone. Steve Jobs and I have had a “relationship” for nearly 10 years, despite the fact that he probably doesn’t know who I am. (Although, come to think of it, he does have my credit card information…)

I’d known about Jobs’ health issues for many years: pancreatic cancer in 2004, leave of absence and liver transplant in 2009, leave of absence and resignation in 2011. His death was something that I was not only anticipating, but also expecting. When Steve Jobs died on October 5th, it shouldn’t have surprised anyone.

And yet it surprised everyone.

Continue reading →

It’s the end of the world as we know it… and I feel fine.

As you may have already heard, Harold Camping has been getting his small army of volunteers to spread the word that the world is going to end tomorrow, 5/21/2011, at 6am. So, naturally, this will be could be probably won’t be my last blog post ever.

My first reaction is to dismiss this. In fact someone first mentioned something back in November when they heard an ad on Star 99.1. And I didn’t think about it again until I heard it on ESPN radio, where they were mocking the guy about a month ago. I didn’t think about it much because I feel like the more that we pay attention to these things, the more they don’t go away.

But then, somehow, it’s hit the mainstream media. It’s on about every news outlet. Even the CDC released a tongue-in-cheek Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse primer just 4 days ago.

So, if CNN is talking about it, then I perhaps my mentioning it in my blog won’t make a remarkable difference in the amount of attention that this is getting.

Continue reading →

Here are my reflections on the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death.

• Relief – Relief that the visionary figurehead of countless terrorists throughout the world won’t be able to proliferate his message of hate and violence.

• Extreme Disgust – Once I jumped on facebook, I saw post after post celebrating the death of OBL. Some, like the Daily News (5/2 cover) used the phrase, “Rot in Hell.” No matter how evil this man was, the thought of relishing over someone’s life being snuffed out, let alone his eternal damnation, was just over the line for me. A quote from DA Carson is helpful here:

He is an evil man, and he must be stopped, but he is a man, and we should take no pleasure in destroying him. Vengeance is the Lord’s alone.

Do not offer the alternative, “Should we weep for Osama bin Laden or hold him to account for his genocide and prevent him from carrying out his violent intentions?”

The right answer is yes.

~ Love in Hard Places (Crossway, 2002), 143.

• Pride – As details emerged about the actual raid, I became extremely proud of our armed forces. As my thoughts turned to my brother-in-law serving a tour in Afghanistan with the Marines right now, I was once again reminded of the value that our brothers and sisters in arms provide. We do need them on that wall.

• Vindication – I lost one of my best friends in 9/11. And I can’t help but feel a bit of vindication for Andy’s life being taken. I took comfort that Bin Laden won’t be able to take any more lives like he did Andy’s.

• Faith – 9 days ago we were all thinking about Easter and the theories of the Resurrection. Here you have a visionary and controversial leader that was killed. And in the three days since his death, there hasn’t been any murmurs from Al Qaeda that Osama is still alive or that he has been raised from the dead. Can you imagine what it would take to propagate a lie that Osama was resurrected? How much coordination would it take? And if you only had 3 days to do it? Now, how plausible is it that the helpless, hapless disciples were able to hatch the greatest scam in the history of mankind in only 3 days? Makes you think that perhaps what these disciples believed was actually true.

Today is Blog Action Day 2010. And bloggers everywhere are joining in to bring awareness of the plight of so many across the globe.

Our church has teamed up with charity: water in 2009 and 2010 to raise over $13,000 to bring clean water to the nearly 1 billion people that are without access to it.

More recently, I gave up my birthday to raise money awareness both for charity: water (through One Day’s Wages). I was able to raise $1,660. [I'm glad, because I never got that much on my birthday!]

For your enjoyment, here are a few facts that you might not have known, regarding the problem of water in the world, from change.org.

Water is everywhere, right? Actually, for such a plentiful resource, clean water is surprisingly scarce. Less than 1% of all fresh water is readily accessible for direct human use, representing only 0.007% of all water on earth. Bet you didn’t know that. Check out five more clean water facts and find out what else you didn’t know:

1. Unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Unclean drinking water can incubate some pretty scary diseases, like E. coli, salmonella, cholera and hepatitis A. Given that bouquet of bacteria, it’s no surprise that water, or rather lack thereof, causes 42,000 deaths each week.

2. More people have access to a cell phone than to a toilet. Today, 2.5 billion people lack access to toilets. This means that sewage spills into rivers and streams, contaminating drinking water and causing disease.

3. Every day, women and children in Africa walk a combined total of 109 million hours to get water. They do this while carrying cisterns weighing around 40 pounds when filled in order to gather water that, in many cases, is still polluted. Aside from putting a great deal of strain on their bodies, walking such long distances keeps children out of school and women away from other endeavors that can help improve the quality of life in their communities.

4. It takes 6.3 gallons of water to produce just one hamburger. That 6.3 gallons covers everything from watering the wheat for the bun and providing water for the cow to cooking the patty and baking the bun. And that’s just one meal! It would take over 1.8 billion gallons of water to make just one hamburger for every person in the United States.

5. The average American uses 159 gallons of water every day – more than 15 times the average person in the developing world. From showering and washing our hands to watering our lawns and washing our cars, Americans use a lot of water. To put things into perspective, the average five-minute shower will use about 10 gallons of water. Now imagine using just 10 gallons to bathe, wash your clothes, cook your meals and quench your thirst.

Want more info? Our friends at Water.org just put together a handy resource guide for Blog Action Day 2010 bloggers where you can learn even more about water access in the developing world.

While these facts may be grim, there is hope for real solutions as more and more people around the world are waking up to the clean water crisis. Earlier this year, the UN declared access to clean water a human right and groups like Water.org and charity: water continue to work tirelessly to bring water access to the developing world. Take a moment to register your blog and grab an action widget, and get ready for an amazing day of blog activism.

So, blog away and raise awareness.

On August 5, a mine shaft in Chile caved in, trapping 33 miners almost 1000 feet underground*. Yesterday, after 69 days, they began rescuing the 33 miners one-by-one. The magnitude of the effort to save them cannot be understated. The story can be followed here.

* That’s about the distance from the Empire State Building Observation Deck to the ground.

The weeks following today’s rescue will be filled with a mixture of elation, relief, rest and gratitude. I imagine it will be days, if not weeks, before any of the miner’s lives get back to any semblance of normal. In fact, one of the miners, only 19 years old, has written a letter stating that he believed God had a purpose for him to be down there and his life will not be the same afterward.

However, imagine, if you would, that many days from now, one of the miners decides that he actually prefers his life in the mine shelter and finds a way to climb back down the mine shaft and plans to live the rest of his life down there. At first, there would be curiosity and probably ridicule. However, eventually, there might even be outrage over the gargantuan effort it took just to extract him from that very shelter in the first place. Eventually, however, I think sadness would be the prevailing sentiment that would rule the day. How could this man, who was rescued from that prison, still desire to live in it?

It is with the same ridicule, outrage and sadness that we must view ourselves when followers of Christ return to a life of sin. You see, we have been rescued from a pit of darkness from which we could not rescue ourselves. However this pit was not just 1000 ft deep. And we were not just at risk of death. And it wasn’t just 69 days. The pit we were trapped in is our sins… and it rendered us spiritually dead.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.
~Ephesians 2:1

Having been rescued from that pit of death and raised to life, through Christ, how could we return to a life of sin? God rescued us by climbing into the pit and saving us. And the new life that we have been given is to be lived for him… for his glory.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
~ Galatians 5:1

So, remember, you have been set free by a God who rescued you and who died in your stead. He did it to rescue from the pit of death called sin and he also did it to give you a new abundant and fulfilled life. So, live with a new purpose and new perspective. And stop climbing down the mineshaft again.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
~John 10:10

I don’t really watch too much TV. I’ve never watched American Idol. Never watched Survivor. And I’ve never watched Dancing With the Stars.

However, one of the compelling reasons to watch DWTS (if I were to watch it) is to see former Sports stars dancing. This season, Kurt Warner, former QB of the NY Giants (what? he played for other teams, too?) who has been to 3 SuperBowls and won 1 (Sure makes it seem like it was with the Giants, huh?) is on the show.

Kurt Warner has an amazing story. [Both worth clicks!] But what makes it even more amazing is the way that his faith has really carried him through this amazing LifeStory. Here is just one example: a game that they play when the Warner family goes out to eat. Faith in action!

Well, apparently, he has received some criticism from Christians about his decision to do DWTS. Well, apparently, he’s written a letter that has circulated around the tubes of the interweb that let us read, in his words, the reason for doing DWTS. Enjoy!

Hey y’all, hope this letter finds you well.  Life has me crazy busy and I miss having the opportunity to connect with all of you.  But, I find myself with a little extra time on a flight to STL for a couple events & wanted to use a little of it to share with you something that God has placed on my heart recently.
Continue reading →