I took my son and a friend to the Ranger game last night for their birthdays where they got their names up on the Coca-Cola board in center field. I’m ever amazed at children. I paid for pretty nice seats behind the Cubs dugout but the boys were happier when we went to sit on the top row of the stadium. I must say I did enjoy the breeze.

Sammy Sosa is swinging away for home run number 600. It seemed apparent last night that he was wanting to hit it against his old team. He was swinging away and struck out his first 3 times at bat. On his final at-bat of the night, he hit a fly ball to centerfield. There was a moment of collective gasp as people hoped it was going out but we saw no history unfolding as the outfielder caught it.

My son and friend went down before the game to try and get autographs. There was a young lady standing next to them wanting autographs also. The boys came back up after awhile because the young lady and a friend nearby used a lot of profanity and the boys got tired of that. I am proud of both of them for their desire to be somewhere out of earshot of that type of talk. My son also informed me, as we left the stadium, that the girl was offering to take off her shirt to get it signed and that “he sure didn’t want to see that.” He cracks me up.

I could use a little less humidity. I’m thankful for the rain but the humidity combined with any temperature over 70 makes me “perspire.”
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It was a party-party weekend for us. My wife’s birthday was last Friday, Father’s Day over the weekend and my son’s birthday is Wednesday. Add in a nephew and brother-in-law birthday and we rolled it into one big event last Friday night. Woohoo! Great food, great family and friends, a great time.
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I’m headed to the Cubs-Rangers game today. It will be fun seeing the Cubs play live (which would only be topped by seeing them at Wrigley) and waiting to see if Pinella blows a gasket of if Sammy hits number 600.

Have a great day.

I heard a great message last night about the church helping the hurting to heal. It was a challenge to each of us as the church to care for our hurting brothers and sisters, to love them through hard times even when those hard times shake our own foundation. He told a sobering story about an experience that had happened at the church he attends and how, while suffering a great deal of pain, the church was strengthened through their collective effort to give comfort and support to those most immediately hurt. I have seen it happen in my own congregation and know the power of working together to heal wounds.

The other side of the equation is for someone to be willing to be open about their struggle. That person needs to feel safe. They need to feel trust. They need to feel love.

All of those – safety, trust, love – we have with God but we seldom have with other people. We need to make sure as the body of Christ, we offer that, or more than offer, we resonate safety and trust and love. When we do, when we resonate those things, people will be open, they will seek shelter in God and healing can begin.

I want to resonate safety and trust and love. I want be there for people who are hurting, who are wounded, who need to heal. I do not think it’s easy but I do know the grace of God, I have experienced it, felt it, live it and because of that, I want others to know it too.

I heard on the news Tuesday night that the price of coffee beans will be going up. Does that mean more people will be sleepy all day long?
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Did you know you needed to keep certain kinds of produce away from each other? For instance, apples are a gas-releaser and tomatoes are a gas-absorber. Keeping them together will make one or both go bad quicker. Fascinating.
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Are you a conservative or liberal? It remains a question that makes me laugh when I think about it. Of course, you are liberal if you are to the left (why the left?) of me and you are a conservative if you are to the right of me. So, unless you agree with me, you may be liberal or you may be conservative. I wonder why we can’t just all get along. All it takes is everyone agreeing with me!
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Yes, I heard the combined gasp that just came from all of you after reading my last sentence.
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One more day until I’m the laser tag champion of the world. Yipeeeeeee.

We were playing baseball in Sanger on Saturday and I thought I was melting. Man, was it hot and steamy. When we arrived, the mosquitos were thick and the city sent a truck out to spray. Then the humidity really kicked in as the sun came up. I’m ready for fall!
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Were you as interested in Paris Hilton’s comings-and-goings from jail as I was? I’m somewhere between apathetic and disgusted about the amount of attention that is paid to her “story.” Same goes for that other lady that overdosed not to long ago. I feel sorry for her baby girl but I’m so disinterested in the reporting about her that I can’t remember her name.
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My son through out a question on Sunday that left me thinking. “Dad, who are our allies?” Can you name them? We went through a number of countries but there were some I didn’t know how to classify. All the while, I’m amazed that a 10 year old comes up with that type of question.

A few weeks ago, I was carting a friend of my son home from a birthday party. We were talking about careers and he stated he was going to Harvard. There was no “I hope” or “I would like to”, just “I’m going.”

Much better stuff than Paris and the other junk I hear too much about.
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We’ve got a laser tag birthday party coming up later this week. I can’t wait. Last year was paintball and I’d love to be doing that again (it seems that me against 11 year olds is more fair than me against old competition) but laser tag is in doors with air conditioning. I think I love laser tag now!
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Stay cool.

Our youngest returns from church camp today and both mom and dad are looking forward to seeing him. We have seen a couple of pictures of him at camp and based on the fact that he was standing in a murky creek with a smile on his face indicates to me he was right where he wanted to be. I am looking forward to hearing his stories.

I have missed him but his mom is hurting for him. I wonder if most families are like ours. When our children are gone for a few days, I miss them and am happy when they return but I get the feeling my wife almost hurts physically awaiting their return. I know we both love our children deeply. I am already telling my oldest the virtues of attending the local community college so she will not go off far. Yet when they are gone, it seems my wife and I look forward to their return in the same but different ways.

God was so good when He designed parents. We have different roles and we provide different things for our children. I marvel at my wife and all that she does for her family but particularly I take joy in seeing her care for our children.

I cannot understand why people abuse kids and I cannot fathom the idea of same-sex parenting. I grew up in a home that was nurturing as did my wife. We are trying to provide the same environment for our children, to lift them up, to encourage them, to help them, to prepare them. I am thankful that the people we have as friends are the same, that are families are incredibly important and that the health and well-being of the family is one of our highest priorities.

In the end, I do know this. Both my wife and I look forward to the return of their baby today.

It’s summer and vacation time. Where are you going?

Our plan is another trip to Colorado later in the summer and maybe a few short trips sprinkled around. My son is at church camp this week and my daughter goes to a church camp in July. The kids want to go to Schlitterbaun (don’t count off for bad spelling) and I want to see the Bush Presidential Library.
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I heard a great message last night on the lies that Christians believe. The point was that Satan wants to get the church believing things that really aren’t true so that he can destroy the church. When you hear some of the lies brought to lie, it’s silly that we would ever buy-in to them yet we do at times. I hope each one of us will only buy-in to the only story that is real, the one of our Savior.
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I’m on the road today – it seems I’m on the road waaaayyyyyyyyy too often these days – visiting stores and bringing joy and good cheer to those I see.

Have a great day!

I have wondered what it would be like to live on the coast. I feel like I’m getting a better idea of late while I watch the water flooding through my yard and the question of whether I need a boat to paddle out of the driveway drifts through my head.
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I taught the high school class Sunday morning discussing the topic of hypocrisy. I couldn’t help but think of things in my own life that I say and then do something differently. It’s agonizing to think about.

As part of the my preparation, I went to dictionary.com for the definition of hypocrisy. Interesting, the Unabridged Dictionary stated the definition as a pretense of having virtous character, moral or religious beliefs that one does not truly possess. Wow! I didn’t know only people who put on a show of upstanding character could be hypocrites. I scrolled down the page to find the American Heritage definition stated as the practice of professing beliefs, feelings or virtues that one does not possess.

I don’t know that the definitions mattered because we were discussing hypocrisy from the viewpoint of calling ourselves Christian but leading a life that is different from the example of Christ. It left me with a great deal of needed self-examination that still carries forward today.
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I find a lot of negative things to point out in my blog. Those are easy to rant and rave about. So, to find something good today, I look no further than the high school class I taught yesterday. 18 really, really neat kids. 18 nice kids. 18 kids who appear to be sincere in their faith. 18 kids who are grappling with choices and decisions they are and will make. Spending time with them, I am encouraged that they are 18 kids who will make good decisions and will be good leaders in their own ways. 18 kids who make me smile.

Tod and LeeAnn (Bailey) Brown were classmates of mine at college. This past week, they were in a terrible accident that took the life of their 13 year old son and has their daughter going through several surgeries to repair damage to her legs. It is heartbreaking and I cannot begin to imagine their pain.

Tod and LeeAnn are incredible people who have a deep and strong committment to God and faith in Him. It was evident when we were in school and it is evident today. A web site has been set up to keep people posted on what is happening with their family and it includes a guestbook where people have left notes. The sheer volume of notes to the family speaks volumes about the impact they have had on the lives of others but the notes themselves show how deeply this family went with so many. When I think about the loss of their son, I cannot comprehend what feelings they might have but I think I can comprehend what their son experienced, the environment he was raised in and the faith I am confident he had in his Father. In my idea of Heaven, I think the young boy is sitting with God today telling Him about the wonderful parents he had on earth.

I hurt for the Browns and hope they will come through this as best they can. I feel certain that their faith and hold onto God will do that. I can only imagine the pain of their loss will never go away but they will also see the other side of the tragedy, that their son is now with God.

Most of us know Ms. Sheehan because of her anti-war protests outside of President Bush’s Crawford home. She has been on TV, pictured with Hugo Chavez, praised and villified. I am one who has thought of her in a negative light but her letter/blog that she was giving up the anti-war movement made her sound human and made me pause to think.

I cannot say anything against her bitterness over her son’s death. I cannot pretend to know the horror I would feel if it were one of my children. While her crusade led her down some paths that seemed bizarre at times, I want to believe the motivation for it was due to the loss she suffered. Yet, as her “fame” rose, her personal relationships seemed to fall apart. Her husband divorced her and it seems she has other children that were left behind in the wake of her effort.
Now, she seems a sad and broken woman. One of her comments, that the American people are more concerned with the next American Idol than the loss of life in a war, doesn’t sound to off-base at times. Her realization that she has failed important relationships in her life isn’t too unlike many people we come in contact with every day.

I am here to say that I am not so unlike Ms. Sheehan. I often see what needs to be more important in other’s lives while falling short of doing what is best in mine. My hope for her is that she can go and repair some of her broken relationships (which is why she said she is giving up the protest), that the damage left behind her can be fixed all the while hoping that as a country, we will all be more focused on what is truly important. I know that is what I want to do.