History was made last night as Barack Obama was elected to be our new President. Now we sit back and wait to find out who he really is. There are those who believe he appeals to the left because that is who he is. Others wonder if he appealed to one group to get elected and will move more to the center to stay there for a second term. Who knows? All I know is the high school still had kids pulling in this morning, plenty of folks are still headed to work and the Starbucks line was backed up 7 cars deep. I am confident there will be a number of new laws that I am not going to be happy with in the coming years but I’m still mystified by what I hear from some people. It was an overwhelming victory and the people of America will get what the majority asked for. Now we find out what that is.
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I watched our two 7th grade teams whip up on Bridgeport last night. I figure we better get it where we can this year because the likelihood of it being anywhere near a win for Decatur on Friday is slim. My nephew QB’d one of the 7th grade teams and ran or threw for a bunch of the points scored. Pretty cool stuff for a 12 year old.
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Basketball tryouts start on Thursday for 7th graders. I have one that will be out there battling for a position on one of the teams. I think there are about 40 kids trying out for 20 spots so several will go home disappointed. I always hated tryout days.
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God is alive and well, powerful and majestic, and ready to work in our lives. That’s THE good news for today.

I’ve tried and tried and keep writing essays, not paragraphs so I’m going to try one more time to boil my thoughts on today down to a manageable length. Today is a day many look forward to and many dread. We will elect a President today that one group or the other thinks will lead us to the brink of the abyss if not take us over the edge. I just don’t believe it. Will either candidate do the things I think they should all the time? NO. Will either candidate make decisions that will harm me all the time? NO. In my lifetime, we’ve survived Nixon, Carter, Clinton and the Bushes and we will survive either Obama or McCain. In fact, I’ve too often only seen the greatness of this nation when in a crisis. When times are good, I see excess. When times are tough, I see people being friendlier, working together. I have already voted for the candidate I believe will most closely act in favor of my interests but should the other candidate win, I will wake up tomorrow and head to work and go to church just like I do most Wednesdays. Tomorrow will begin a new series of illuminating days where we learn more about the agenda of the winner. Either way, there will be some scary ideas and actions but the greatness of the American people will survive, maybe even thrive as we endure the challenges of life in this country and the world.
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In the end, we aren’t called to serve either candidate as authority over us for our greatest purpose. We are called to serve God, to be Christ-like to those around us. Our words and actions should reflect Christ and the more each of us can strive to that goal, the world will be as good as we make it.
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Tech’s #2 and Texas is #4. There’s still a decent shot the Horns can move back into contention for the national title. Surely they can whip up on Baylor this weekend and then it’s the A&M game.
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I tried to watch the Mavericks last night. It reminded me that I just don’t care for pro basketball. Catching the highlights on ESPN is good enough for me.
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Wasn’t it just January a couple of weeks ago? How did it get to be November so quickly?

Yes, it’s bad grammar. Yes, it was a horrible first half. Yes, Tech played a great game. It doesn’t make the losing any more fun though. I won’t guess what the two Texas players involved in the last two plays of the game were feeling. One let a game-ending interception slip out of his hands. The other got beat by the best receiver in college football for the game winning TD.

Texas still has a great team and if they will bounce back they may have a shot at the title before it’s all done with. I hope Texas fans will realize it’s more fun to have a team that can compete for a #1 ranking than to go 7-3 every year.
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How ’bout them Cowboys? Where have you gone Jimmy Johnson? What have you done to us Jerry? I didn’t sit down to watch that game – thank goodness – and didn’t stay up to hear Dale Hansen’s commentary but I’m thinking the Cowboys are in a tough spot right now.
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The mighty Decatur Eagles got roughed up by Vernon this weekend. Bridgeport is next week. Uh-oh.

The Phillies won the World Series last night in an odd game lasting 3 innings and played in freezing conditions. I was hoping Tampa would pull one more win out of the hat just so I could watch a little more baseball. I normally don’t like any team from Philadelphia but Hamels, Utley, Rollins and Howard are guys that are fun to watch play so I was glad they won. A little baseball redemption for Brad Lidge too.
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I wonder where the college football game of the week will be. Oh yeah, that would be in Lubbock, Texas. I was really close to going to Tech for college but changed my mind pretty late in the process and ended up attending Abilene Christian. Saturday night it will be the #1 Horns against the #7 Red Raiders. Good stuff. I’m wondering what the betting line is on the over/under. Hook ’em Horns.
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Where is Clint Longley when you need him? Brad Johnson is going to start again and Brooks who? might end up playing. Rumor has it the Mavs season is starting also.
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Today is the district meet for our cross country teams. The high school girls team has been ranked #1 in the state most of the season and the boys have been sitting at #6. The meets this year have been amazing. Over 2,200 runners were at one of the Decatur meets and I think it’s probably been close to that at a couple of other meets we went to. Run Eagles!

Here’s the final verses of Mountain of God by Third Day:

As I travel on the road
That You have led me down
You are here with me
Yes, You are here with me

I have need for nothing more
Oh, now that I have found
That You are here with me
Yes, You are here with me

I confess from time to time
I lose my way
But You are always there
To bring me back again

Sometimes I think of where it is I’ve come from
And the things I’ve left behind
But of all I’ve had, what I possessed
Nothing can quite compare
With what’s in front of me
With what’s in front of me

I get tired on the journey and I have taken wrong turns. It sounds so simple to say that when realizing the hurt and pain some of those turns have taken but what has happened, has happened. Learn from the past and live for what’s in front of you. What I was and did, what you were and did yesterday can be so much difference from what you and I can be today and tomorrow and the next day. It’s the beauty of the journey…the difficulty scaling the mountain while seeing and knowing the majesty of the summit. I want to see the summit, to stand atop the mountain of God.

I know our collective journey will be filled with inspiring peaks and dark valleys. It will be filled with the beauty God puts around us and with rocks to climb over and holes to climb out of that satan will try to put in our way. Our Savior hung on a cross, suffering, bleeding and dying. The valley of darkness he traveled is something most of us, maybe all of us will never know but our Savior also walked out of a tomb, alive, changed from death to life. The end of His journey was to live again but in a new way, a better way than I can even imagine. The beauty of my journey is that through the mercy and grace of my God, the end of my journey will be to live again. To live with Him. To share in His glory, to revel in His love.

I was telling a friend the other day how my first trip to Brazil changed my heart in so many ways and put me on a new journey with God that has opened my eyes to things I really didn’t see or understand before. I wish I had the words to describe what I have experienced the past 2+ years but I don’t. I have experienced a closeness to God I’ve never known. I’ve experienced spiritual highs that are literally breathtaking. Along the way, I’ve also experienced spiritual lows that have crumpled me to my knees in tears.

While driving home last night, I listened to a song that I have heard many times but never really heard. I’ve listened to it many times, maybe even sung the words but last night I heard the words through my heart, not my head. Below is part of The Mountain of God by Third Day.

Thought that I was all alone
Broken and afraid
But You were there with me
You were there with me

And I didn’t even know
That I had lost my way
But You were there with me
Yes, You were there with me

‘Til You opened up my eyes
I never knew
That I couldn’t ever make it
Without You

Even though the journey’s long
And I know the road is hard
Well, the One who’s gone before me
He will help me carry on
After all that I’ve been through
Now I realize the truth
That I must go through the valley
To stand upon the mountain of God.

Those of you who know me well know I think that Heaven on earth resides in South Fork, Colorado. It’s the most beautiful, most peaceful place I know. To get there, I have to go through the San Luis Valley and drive up some steep mountain roads. It’s taxing for cars to drive up it at times but the time it takes, the effort to get there brings me to the most wonderful place I know. It’s all I have right now to compare with the valleys I will travel through to get to the mountain of God but I do know that as hard as they may be and the pain they may bring, the trip will be nothing compared to the beauty and peace and joy and glory of reaching the destination God has prepared for me.

A faithful reader (I always wanted to say that) asked about the new picture on the blog. It was taken as our bus rolled through the countryside of Brazil on our journey to a retreat site on our trip this summer. After spending a few days in the city filled with high rise buildings and crowds of people, it was a beautiful view of peace and serenity.

I spent the weekend on a similar journey. I had the good fortune of going to Camp Deer Run with our youth group to study and talk about the theme for this year – The Journey. It was a great experience and one that I will probably have several posts about over the next few days and weeks.

No cell phones and no iPods and I think a lot of the kids really liked it that way. There were moments of peace and serenity, TAWG (time alone with God), group study and active games. The most incredible part though was hearing some of these young people really open up and be very honest in talking about their lives and what they need to change. It was both beautiful and challenging to hear someone so young be so real about who they are and where they have got off course in their walk with God.

Thanks to Jacob for letting me be a part of the journey. I am closer to God today for being a part of it.

Anybody staying up with me and watching baseball? If so, you might have seen David Price throw a few innings for the Rays. Price was pitching for Vanderbilt last year, he’s thrown in 5 big league games prior to the playoffs and he came in to close Game 7 against the Red Sox and closed the game last night to tie the World Series 1-1. This kid is lights out. A lefty throwing 95 and some wicked sliders and he’s a cool operator on the mound. Overall #1 pick last year in the draft. Wow.
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The current economic situation and the “bailout” have really had me thinking about a lot of different things. Yesterday, I was thinking about all the folks who used to say AIDS was God’s punishment for homosexuality. I wonder if they are getting ready to start screaming that the financial crisis is God’s punishment to a country who lives in excess and is quickly drifting from His word. Now, I didn’t agree with the idea that AIDS was God’s punishment any more than I believe lung cancer is God’s punishment to smokers and I don’t believe that God flipped a switch on our economy either. Actions have consequences…that’s it…and sometimes it brings some pain. I’ve been there and I bet you have too. The good thing about the pain is that it often drives us to get healed and that often sends people running back to God. I know it has in my life.

America is a nation of stuff. Many of us have lots and lots of stuff (physical, emotional and spiritual) and sometimes the stuff has to be stripped away to realize that all we need is a very, very, very close relationship with God.

I don’t think God is driving this country’s problems but I do see it as an opportunity for people to get rid of their stuff, maybe even experience a painful crisis for it to happen, and return to a much simpler existence with God as the most important thing they have. I don’t know…just thinking.

I got another Muslim-bashing email yesterday titled “Can Muslims Be Good Americans” and then it went on to list issues of why Muslims cannot be good Americans. Wow. The two things that got to me in the email was another reference to America as a “Christian nation” and shots at Obama for taking his Congressional oath using the Quron. On to my soapbox…again…

First, Keith Ellison from Minnesota was the first Muslim elected to Congress, not Obama. From a report I read, the official swearing-in process for Congress does not have anyone placing their hand on a Bible or anything else. Some people elect to have unofficial pictures made afterwards that show them with a Bible or some other book and Ellison did in fact have his picture made with a Quron in his hands. It is also reported that the Quron he had was first owned by Thomas Jefferson. Now we all know what a scoundrel Jefferson was don’t we?

Second, America is NOT a Christian nation. It is a nation filled with a lot of Christian churches and a lot of people who profess to be Christians. Look at the movies we see, the TV shows, the clothes people wear, the ads in magazines and billboards proving that sex sells and tell me we are a Christian nation. If we were, I don’t think those shows and ads would exist. I don’t think drug and alcohol abuse would be a problem if we were a Christian nation. What we all have to quit doing is projecting the idea of Christian on our nation and start living it in each and everyone of our lives. God does not call us as a nation, he calls you and me as individuals to be Christ-like. Imagine if everyone lived like Christ.

Colin Powell talked about a soldier in the US Army who died recently from an explosion in Iraq. He was a Muslim and wanted to be in the Army since he was 10. He’s buried in Arlington National Cemetary and his Muslim parents are proud of him and his service to this country. Muslims can’t be good Americans? I know some Christians who aren’t always good Americans.

I’m ranting because I’ve grown disillusioned with politics. I’m ranting because I’ve disappointed myself in the way I have thought and talked and treated people who had different views than me. I’m ranting because the bar for what is right and good and honorable and admirable continues to slip further and further down. I’m ranting because too often we are projecting our Christian duty onto our political leaders and church leaders instead of taking up the cross and following Christ. I’m guilty.

Here’s to the hope that as our nation slips further and further into crises of many kinds, we will respond with Christ-likeness. It will not happen in my life as easily as I can write about it but I hope everyday you and I are one step closer to walking in Christ’s footprints.

No, I’m not a fan and don’t listen to his show but over the weekend a dad from my son’s baseball team told me about a segment Stern did where he sent a “reporter” to Harlem to ask people whether they would vote for Obama or McCain. The trick was, they attributed Republican ideas to Obama. For instance, they asked people if they were voting for Obama because he was pro-life or because he would keep the military in Iraq (different people were OK with both) or they asked if they like Sarah Palin as Obama’s running mate (they did). I’m not quite sure if these people were voting for Obama because of race or media frenzy but either way it’s a bad reason to vote someone to the office of President.
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I wonder if people who talk in sign language ever say something in a way that comes across as rude. I’m guilty of saying things in a way I wish I wouldn’t and hear other people do it at times. I never feel good about it afterwards and wish I would have kept my mouth shut and I bet some of you may have felt that way. I would probably be better off if God had made me mute but I know that wasn’t His will for me. Instead, I need to watch what I say so that I show Christ in my words and actions. I just wish I was better at it. I remember the song Angry Words that we used to sing in church and wish I did a better job of living it. Angry words, oh let them never, from the tongue unbridled slip. I pray today that the words from my mouth will come from the love God has shown me instead of my selfish emotions.