My mug is really Yellow

Isn’t it funny how we can make something look like it’s something else by the way we present it? I took this picture today at my desk of my yellow Livestrong mug. I found out that by messing with my phones picture settings (I was in the phone vortex ... aka on hold) I could make the mug look blue.

This, as most things do, struck me as an allegory to something else…. I think we often try to present ourselves as blue mugs when in reality we are another color altogether.

There are times when I try to position myself in such away that I am presenting someone who is really something/ someone else. I’m not saying this is an over arching character flaw and I almost always (and as far as I intently know always) come clean admitting my true color but sometimes it is tempting to hide.

This can flesh itself out in several ways

• It’s saying I’m committed to something but I don’t make sacrifices in order to really support it. (This mostly shows up in time spent)
• It happens when I prop myself up to look cool and in turn actually put someone else down
• When I’m at work and I don’t maximize the time I’m in the phone vortex … when I can

I think Jesus is calling me to be a more consistent person and that includes seeking out times I present myself as a blue mug but I’m really a different color. I also need more relationships where people know that I’m really a yellow mug… and won’t let me present myself as a blue mug. My wife is great for me in this area but I know its an area that needs more people… namely some guys.

Stress, Worry, & Doubt

While I do think it's important to always seek God, I think it's especially important to seek God in times of stress, worry, and doubt however I think these are times that we often forget to.

These are just two verses that have been glaring out at me lately that I wanted to share and I feel like now is the perfect time to share them. :)

Matthew 11:28-30

²⁸"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Matthew 6:25-.....

²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

²⁸"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

...Late edition....

Read the book of James

Blackhawks WIN

THE BULIN WALL STANDING TALL IN CHICAGO... CLOSES OUT THE SERIES WITH A 43 SAVE PERFORMANCE 

The Trapper

Back in the day when the Long Beach Ice Dogs were still around we became friends with a bunch of the guys on the team. We love goalies and Mike became friends with them right away. One in particular was Jaroslav Halak. The Long Beach ECHL team folded and Jaro eventually got called up to the Montreal Canadians in the NHL.

Through the recent years Mike and Jaro have keep in touch through emails back and forth. In one of those emails back around September or October, Jaro told Mike that he would send him his trapper (one of the goalie gloves) at the end of the season. Unfortunately the end of the season came too soon but Jaro remembered his email to Mike months ago. On Friday Mike got a package in the mail and there was his trapper just like Jaro said.

What a nice guy to remember the little people back in Long Beach. He totally made Mike’s day!

Defining moments…

As my wife has amazingly pointed out about a billion times... I had the opportunity today to look back at some of the most painful experiences I have ever had and it was GOOD. Not just the looking back but the things I have always thought awful were indeed good.  I found that the most difficult and painful things to go through proved to be the best opportunity to grow. I would not be who I am today if I didn’t have the opportunity to seek Jesus in the face of awful realities. My wounds, scars, screw ups, and the things that have just run me over are grace to me. These experiences have shaped me and how I view others… they keep me looking for the bigger picture and they keep me from loving too little to fight for life.

Much of my journey has been moving me away from “Gospels of Sin Management” and toward the “Gospel of life”. I learned very clearly from my family that there are some sin’s that can’t be managed through desire to not do them and the rest are not best subverted with that tactic. “The Gospel of life” as I would define it says the wages of sin is death and Jesus wants us to live.  Sin isn’t dealt with by a fight to not sin; it’s dealt with by fighting to live fully. (I believe Jesus defines what that is, not me) This doesn’t mean I put myself in stupid situations where sin is ignored and I am free to be evil . . .  It means that I am seeking the best kind of life… For example the sin of adultery isn’t best subverted efforts to not have an affair… It is best subverted and the most good comes when I pour my energies into my marriage . . . seeking life. It means I am fiercely aware that everything around me wants to kill that life and I need to take steps to protect it. In the art of war Sun Tzu basically says if you are trying to hold a city (you stop attacking) that is when you can be overtaken. An attacking army is aware of the danger and protects its flanks but it’s also aware of the goal.  Jesus is the source of life… I am simply fighting to stay in line with who I was created to be.   

So why would I go this direction with a post about how good the terrible things were… I’m not sure…

Question

What ways am I trying to be a good person where I should really be asking about a bigger picture?

-these verses popped into my mind as I was I thinking this through…

Romans 6:22-23 & Mathew 10:37-39

I don’t have space to do a full kingdom theology break down and I don’t really want to not what this blog is for.

** Heather and I are doing great, the above was for illustration purposes. 

I disagree with...

I have heard way too many Christians start talking about particular ministries or churches lately using the phrase “I disagree with this . . . because . . .” The phrase itself seems to represent a sort of strange spirit of arrogance particularly when it is over something trivial like music, a personality, the type of people who show up, how they do their hair, dedications, etc. 

The  spirit of “I disagree with…” as I have been hearing it discounts our role to play. When people are living in this Spirit they seem to be focused more on what other Christians are doing wrong rather than what their responsibility is. I have yet to hear someone speaking in this spirit looking to step up and serve. More often than not it seems a tactic that comes up as a way to distract from what they are not doing. 

 Constructive criticism is ok, in fact it’s good if it is productive.  It isn’t helpful to tear down another ministry or church that is theologically sound and destroy what “they” do so that we can look cool.   This spirit as I have encountered it makes following Jesus more about being in the cool group than encountering the creator of the universe. . 

Questions to consider: when disagreeing with… since we all do it...

    Am I doing this for the benefit of my own ego?

    Am I doing this as an attempt tot hide?

    Am I willing to give the benefit of the doubt and hold my tongue?

Last point when we live out of the " I disagree with. . ." spirit we are maximizing problems and minimizing what God is doing. 

Disclaimer ***I want to make it clear that I am not talking about instances where major important THEOLOGY is wrong, that maybe necessary to speak against. Music, dedications, , hair style, and particular personalities definately does not fall into that category.

--Mike Handy

The reason it's called "Not the Long Beach Handy Man"

Err... At our old apartment complex in Long Beach we had a mail lady. She wasn't so good at her job. She often didn't put the correct mail in the correct slots. We often got other people's mail and they often got ours.

One day we got a bill from a well known paper in Long Beach. We put it back in the box since it had a different address on it. Later on we another letter from them again to the Long Beach Handy Man but at our apartment address. We wrote on it, "not at this address, cease and assist" and put it back for our mail lady. We got another one. We wrote on it again and put it back for our mail lady. Apparently she thought we were the Long Beach Handy Man since our last name is Handy.

We moved from that apartment back in September 2008. The mail from well known paper in Long Beach followed us! This was getting ridiculous. I opened it to find that it was a bill to the Long Beach Handy Man for posting an ad in the paper. Mike called the number on the bill and left a message for them explaining it was not us and that it had followed us by error. No return call.

We got another one. I called and spoke with the account Rep. Nice lady, felt bad that the confusion had happened and said she would take care of it.

We got another one a month later. I called and left Linda a message. Not return call.

We got another one and one more. 

Today the Long Beach Handy Man got a collections letter at our address! Err....he doesn't live here! I called the collections agency and explained how this mail started stalking us and how we thought it was taken care of a couple months ago and that our phone messages stopped getting returned. The lady was nice, said she would remove us from the list and advised I call the well known paper in Long Beach again but this time she gave me the extension for the supervisor that had turned it over to the collection agency. 

I called her and of course, she was away from her desk. I left her a nice long message. I really hope she returns my call. :)