Time Out on Jimmy Johns

I wont give my opinion, yet, but please read this article and let me know what you think.  I will be updating soon with my thoughts, but please leave a comment I would really like to get a conversation going. Peace I’m out, like Kanye West’s sanity.

click here for article

Philosophy I Learned at Jimmy Johns pt.1

So I realize I am terrible at letting you know what is going on in my life, I guess that means I am to busy for you.  Or it just means I am to busy to sit down for 30 minutes and blog about what is going on in life.  Either way I am sorry, I wish I could say it will get better but let’s be honest  in the last three posts I have apologized for not blogging as much. 

So I was sitting at Jimmy Johns (the greatest sandwich place I can think of) and as I was digging into the gigantic pickle (yes i eat the pickle first) I saw a sign that read “16 Things It Took Me 50 Years to Learn” you may know the sign that I am talking about; well I have read this one many times before but it never really registered in my head to make it apply to my life.  I am, or at least will be, a preacher/communicator/teacher so application is a key word in my vocab. (as the kids would say)  Before you go on read the what the sign said (for all you old, but very wise, people just click on the title of the sign and a screen will pop up)

To relieve your senses I will not break down all 16 points, just a few that I find very important in not just my life but in all of our lives.  I should point out the number 1 is very important, I thought about trying it just to see what happens, but I don’t want to be “that guy.”  I am all about bringing people to Christ.  I mean that is what I want to do, and have been called to do, but for myself I make it a key point to build a relationship with a person first.  This may require me to forget about my agenda for a bit and ask them about their life and as the sign says, maybe ask about their religion.  Martin Luther King Jr. says “”How can you be worried about changing the sole when you don’t care about the body that holds the soul?”  When we build a relationship first with someone, rather than pulling our bullhorn out and screaming and forcing our “religion” at them then the likelihood of them listening is much greater. 

I can’t dance, but you better believe that doesn’t stop me from dancing.  Ask any of my friends, I can two step like a champ.  The Stanky Leg?  I got that on lock!!! 

The last three in my mind stood out to me the most.  #14, I have friends that I could never see myself leaving, emotionally that is.  The reason I stayed in Indianapolis to finish school rather than go back to Tennessee (which I love) is because of friends.  The reason I make time at least once a summer to go on a fishing trip isn’t because the fishing is great (even though it most certainly is) it’s because of friends.   When I go and plant a church I don’t plan on doing it on my own, I hope and pray God will allow my friends to come with me.   No matter my screw ups (and there are MANY) my friends have always been there.  #14 While I agree with Mr. Barry that we shouldn’t be afraid to try something new, the thing that stood out to me most here was God placed a calling on Noah to build the Arc to change the course of the world.  If you have been feeling a calling to try something new for the sake of the Kingdom, DO IT!!! Prayer should be your very first thing you do, ask God to show you the way, ask Him to be clear with what He wants done; If it is for the Kingdom you must expect that Satan will not like it!! (haha and this is an understatement.)  Satan will do everything to make you not do it, he will give you excuses, fears, insecurities, other options, terrible advice, and a lot of discouragement.  But if it is for the Kingdom and if it will, by grace, save men-women- and children from a miserable death filled life in Hell, how can you not try it?!!?   George Muller was a man who had the idea of taking in the orphans in Bristol in Great Britain in the 1800’s.  He saw a need and knew that if God wanted it done then God would take care of their needs; at one particular occasion George and his wife realized that they had no food to feed the kids for the next morning.  The next day a baker came to the house and said he couldn’t sleep the night before thinking that the kids may be in need of food and so he dropped off freshly baked bread.  If it is a God ordained calling have faith that He will provide for your every need, don’t let Satan get in the way of a calling from God #16 His point is probably true, but again grace is the first thing that came my mind.  We are all fallen sinners in desperate need of help, luckily Jesus Christ came into this world and saved us from the death we all deserve for the sins we all commit.  Just like the woman stomps the crap out of a man to make him acceptable, we are made acceptable to approach the throne of Christ through the his sacrifice.  Instead of us getting the crap stomped out of us so we could be made somewhat good, Jesus (a perfect sinless man) came to this earth and got the crap beat out of him, blood spilling from his body- all so we could be made clean.  It doesn’t seem right does it?  This is the love of Yahweh, the love that I don’t deserve but that is given to me anyway.  Without grace I am just a terrible tasting grape, but because of it I am a sweet taste.

Pt. 2 to come soon, I can’t guarantee it will be tomorrow, but soon.  Right now the Cowboys are getting ready lose, I mean play, the Giants and I want to watch it all!

MEXXICOOOO!!!

Hey world I am so sorry I haven’t posted anything in a while. I started school, a new version of my job, and in the process of finding another one, all this while desperately trying to find time to spend with Jen (who really is more fun than any of the other ones)…”it’s tough in the streets son”….anyway this is a short one, I told you I would bring you more info. on the trip to Tijuana, Mexico annnd here it is.  One of the students made this video, Mike McMillan, he’s is absolutely amazing with a camera.

My Top 5 Favorite Movies

I know many of you are wanting to know how the Mexico trip went and I plan on giving a full post dedicated to talking about it but for now, in brief: God is amazing. Tijuana is safer than it has been in the last few years. The water is still dirty. God used a group of 60 to build 3 homes and finish another(here is my group). God is good. I met some incredible friends. annnd I bought a luchidor mask.  More to come on all of this.

 Now I know this is a very bold statement and I also know many of you may not like me after this. That is a risk I am willing to take.  So here it is my top five favorite movies: (in order-a very rough order)

1.) Shawshank Redemption.  The ultimate friendship movie! Never before have I been inspired to get locked up and make friends. I got choked up when Brooks hung himself (sorry if you haven’t seen it!)

2.) Fight Club.  I mean I am a dude so this movie is on the top of most guys lists. For crying out loud it is about fighting, it is weird though that he is fighting himself…but that doesn’t matter (again sorry if you haven’t seen it)

3.) American Gangster. This is one where you may question my ability to make good decisions.  But seriously this movie made me want to put a suit on and become a notorious drug lord…minus the whole selling drugs and killing people. So basically I wanted to dress up and look important. Either way this movie was GREAT

4.) Dumb and Dumber. CLASSIC. enough said.

5.) Stranger Than Fiction. Besides “Anchorman” this is Will Ferrell’s best performance. (oh and besides his SNL auditions)

Honorable Mentions: The Assassination of Jesse James, Tommy Boy, Black Sheep, The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire, Babel, Bad Boys 2, Braveheart, 300 and of course Grizzley Man.

Now you can judge me however you want but there is my list.  What do you all think? What are your Favs?

What a pitch

Tell me this isn’t the greatest pitch ever!  It reminds me of a pitch called the rattler thrown by only one man and his name is Tanner.  Like myself Tanner rarely saw the field but when he did he had a pitch that would buckle the batter.  Basically you hold the ball like a Two-Seem Fastball, as you bring the ball around you are going to flip your hand over (making the ball facing up and your hand underneath) and as you release the ball you scream “the rattlaaa” (pronounced rat-luh but you want to exaggerate the “uh” part).  That is how you throw it, I have seen this pitch thrown a total of 10 times in my life and 7 of them were not strikes, but those 3 really were crazy.  This video is not the Ratlaaaa but I still find it amazing.

Who is Christ?

There is no better depiction of Jesus Christ than this football team in Texas.  It reminds me of an amazing baseball team I was able to be apart of. Eric through you God was working and teaching!

Save the Music

Before I introduce you, or remind you, of an incredible group of kids I need to give credit where it is due. First these kids are amazing, after watching the videos I was speechless. And second thanks toBrian Wurzell for posting these videos and introducing them to me. Now If you haven’t heard of the PS22 chorus get ready to be blown away. I am an advocate of music and art programs in school, even though I have very little talent in both areas, as a guy who claims sports as a passion I also believe there are more ways to express yourself and these areas are needed otherwise many kids will be left thinking they have nothing to offer the world.   Art and music are essential, when times get rough, like they are now, people turn to music and art to cheer them up. I mean what is more fun than sitting down listening to some good music and drawing/painting/sculpting?  It’s even more fun when your creations look terrible, like mine, and yet people still compliment you on them. (Only in art can you completely screw something up and someone out there will think it looks great! Hooray for modern art!)  So check the PS22 Chorus out and let me know what you think.

Break #2 in the series

Chuck posted this video and I had to copy the link and share with anyone who hasn’t seen it.  Being a fisherman I have more respect for this guy than I do for George Perry (the current record holder for a Large-mouth Bass). But beyond fishing I admire this man for his courage.  Be inspired.

Re-Post (break in the series)

Ok so I was at the Ragamuffin Soul blog and I found an absolute gem. Coming from the Sasquatch Music Festival this year an amazingly teachable moment, watch this video and then I will share my thoughts and you can make your own.

I couldn’t agree more with Los on his blogthat this dancing guy started a movement and I love the 7 points he offers about starting a movement.  We are in a series here at Traders called Smelly People and this video would fit perfectly with our theme, we are unfortunately not talking about having major dance parties because that would be incredible.  But instead we are talking about being the fragrance of Christ, which is by far better/more important than a dance party… maybe we can do both! Although many traditional church folk would NOT be ok with dancing, for what it’s worth I think it’s ok. I couldn’t help think about all the coorelations of this video to the concept of being the aroma of Christ. 

Tell me what you think when you watch the video.

Or just play the video again and dance along with the guy. I will be playing this over at 11 a.m. and you better believe I will be dancing along!

The Good Days (pt.1)

Apparently the cool way to blog these days are in parts, such as a 3 part series. My brother has vowed that when a movie is made into a trilogy or has a sequel he will only see one of the movies, it’s true I have even tried tricking him into watching a sequel and when he finds out what is going on he loses it. He only saw one of the Lord of the Rings, one of the Indiana Jones, one of the Star Wars I know it’s sad he is missing out.  We’ll see how many of these he reads.

Anyway I have wanted to jump on the bandwagon and write a multiple part blog series but have failed to think of anything worthy of more than one part, so I decided to steal the exact idea the Chuck has done, only I will title it something different. (It’s not stealing it’s streamlining) 

We will start with the young days, when I was in high school the Jackass stuff was real popular and I craved attention so of course I went out and bought a camera and from that point on my friends and I began our stunt/idiotic actions. (I have to name names) Kyle, Jordan,  Sean, Jacob Blair, Mike McCollum and myself were the main crew we would occasionallyhave guest appearances from many different people but it was mainly us.  If you can’t tell I’m kind of a big guy and for some reason I tried to skateboard, like ollie-kickflip skateboarding, and to be honest my body doesn’t do those things.  I mean you saw what happened to Big Black when he dropped in on the vert, that was me.  I never should have gotten on a skateboard, when I fall I fall hard.  Anyway two of the most memorable things recorded was 1.) we were at a park and we thought it would look cool if we took a skateboard to the top of slides and rode them down, these weren’t like toddler slides I’m talking the slides that many little kids wont dare go down without their fathers going with them.  Jordan goes first, only he goes down the slide that twists, however he forgets that he won’t physically be able to go all the way down the slide standing up, so on his way down he smacks his head and falls back.  My turn comes so of course I go to the highest slide on the playground, remember that I fall hard, I get to the top and drop in.  Very similar to Big Black I start out good and then as the slide flattens out I lean to far back and like an Olympic gymnist I bend backwards as I smack the slide, all the weight is on my tailbone and I make a sound that I would guess a Rhino would make if it were constipated.  It hurt.

The other most memorable video we shot you can actually watch.  It’s a blend of Calvin Klein commercials and Victoria Secret commercials, with our own twist.  I must admit in the video I weighed almost 300 pounds and I can’t guarantee you wont be disgusted, no nudity though! Just sexiness.  Remember that this was sophomore year in high school. I’m an adult now I only do these commercials for money!  Enjoy it. Part two coming soon!