The X-Treme Team have come and gone.  The total list of items destroyed / broken / ripped: 6-pack of Sprite, 7 phonebooks, 6 iron bars, about 50 bricks, one frying pan, and 7 boards all to the gyrating sounds of electronica. 

The 6-pack was interesting because I had never seen someone smash a filled, un-open can of pop.  I’m going to try it at our next church picnic.  The brick-smashing was sort of impressive.  I say sort of because Josh M. and I have broken bricks before and the only X-Treme characteristic I have is good-looks.  Therefore, it wouldn’t make sense for me to break bricks with my face like one guy did. 

All in all, it was an OK evening because the Team was a lot of things; especially long-winded.  Chalk this one up as having greater anticipation that experience. 

Tomorrow night the X-Treme Team will be at church.  These are guys who wear coordinating outfits and smash stuff to classic Christian rock-n-roll then give an altar call.  What better way to spend Ash Wednesday than sitting in the front row for this spectacle?!? 

We’ll be taking Isaac and Grace.  Isaac is x-tremely x-cited about going.  We are thinking of putting him in his Fantastic Four Thing costume with the padded muscles.  Can you imagine the ideas that are going to be put into Isaac’s little head?  “I can rip the phone book in half.”  “I can smash a board over my sister’s head.”  I can run through that wall over there.”  “I can grow a mullet.”  “I want to listen to Petra’s ‘This Means War.'”  He is going to be so juiced up that we’re going to have to install wrestling pads in his room to keep him from breaking stuff.

Not that I haven’t read your suggestions on a Chapel topic but I am leaning towards speaking on forgiveness.  I originally intended on speaking about the seven different words that Jesus said while he was hanging on the cross.  This has always been a facinating subject for me and it seemed appropriate because of the Easter season.  But instead of speaking on all seven sayings, I intend on focusing on the first two sayings found in Luke 23: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” and to the thief, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.”  Both of these sayings seem to summarize the meaning of the cross: immediate, free, and full forgiveness; no questions asked.

I’ve been given the opportunity to speak in Chapel on Tuesday, April 4th.  Does anyone have a suggestion for a topic?

As exciting as Spring Training is, nothing compares to the excitement of completing your taxes.  On the 6th day, God completed his taxes.

We have an indoor / outdoor track  team at HU.  The greatest benefit of having a track team is the pole-vault pit.  This area is about 400 sq. ft. of  thick foam which makes for a great wrestling mat.  Today, it was put to good use because my patience had worn thin as tissue paper.  Flips.  Tackles.  Take-downs.  More flips.  Pony rides.  Static electricity which causes thin, blond hair to stick up on end.  And no tears.  The kids had fun too.

Some thoughts on a balanced lifestyle by John Ortberg’s The Life You’ve Always Wanted pp. 194ff:

… balance is not the Holy Grail.  A balanced lifestyle is not an adequate goal to which to devote our lives.  The problem with that goal is not that it is too difficult, but that it is too slight.  Balance is not the most helpful paradigm for an ideal life.

The quest for balance can contribute to a tendency to compartmentalize our faith.  Often a balanced lifestyle is pictured as a pie chart with life divided into seven or eight slices, one labeled “financial,” another “vocational,” and so on, with one slice reserved for “spiritual.”  This paradigm encourages us to think of matters such as finances or work as “non-spiritual activities.”  It blinds us to the fact that God is intensely interested in our every moment and activity.

… What does it mean to tell someone with a terminal disease or a street person or a single mother with a physically challenged child that she needs “more balance”?

Balance tends to carry with it the notion that we are trying to make our lives more manageable, more convenient, more pleasant.  After all, we ultimately decide for ourselves what balance looks like.

Balance is a largely middle-class pursuit.  It lacks the notion that my life is to be given to something bigger than myself.  It lacks the call to sacrifice and self-denial- the wild, risky, costly, adventurous abandon of following Jesus. 

For those of you that have not made your pilgrimage to Huntington, Indiana to visit Coffee d’Vine (the other sanctuary in my life), here is a link to check it out:

http://www.coffeedvine.com/

In less that 15 days, Major League Baseball players will begin to converge on small cities in Florida and Arizona where they will spend sun-drenched days being overpaid to play a children’s game.  The beginning of spring training should be considered a national holiday.  Four of my favorite words are “Pitchers and catchers report.”  At this point in the year, hope springs eternal; every team has a chance to win the World Series.  Granted that some teams have a greater chance than others but you can’t help but hope that “this year will be the year.” 

The best parts are the rumors and predictions.  Will the Blue Jays finally be able to finish above 3rd place in the AL East?  Is it possible that the White Sox pitching staff could actually be better than they were last year?  Hopefully not.  How will New York treat Boston defector Johnny Damon?  Can Ryan Howard replace Jim Thome?  Will the Mets finish above .500 with their gigantic payroll?  Will Barry Bonds hit 10+ homeruns to pass the Babe on the all-time homerun list?

Soon we will be finished with the Major League Baseball off-season.  You may refer to it as “Football Season” or “Basketball Season.”  That’s nice of you (insert pat on the head here).  But no game compares to baseball.

The word “obviously” is overused in conversations.  In some conversations it can be used interchangeably with “um” or “ah” or “you know”.  I sometimes wonder if they are searching for the next words to speak but not retrieving them as easily as they had hoped.

My point is: the words that you are about to say may be obvious to you but they aren’t always obvious to those around you.  But even so, I will continue to shake my head in agreement as if I had already drawn your conclusion.