West Cocoa Chat

As the Florida High School baseball season (yes, I know, we were just camping out in the 30’s) approaches and my son plays his senior season, I grasp and hold on to rituals that I once thought would have no end. One of those rituals is leaving school as quickly as I can to watch my son at practice.

Our field may be one of the best in all of Florida when it comes to high school baseball fields. For baseball aficionados that in of itself might be worth the trip. For me there is a certain rhythm of life that occurs in my visits. As I drive up there’s certain anticipation on my part as I look to see where Steven is. In his freshman and sophomore years my gaze was affixed to the larger Varsity players due to Steven being one of the smaller guys on the field and in the hopes that he would make the Varsity.

In fact one of the dads of a freshman was talking to me yesterday and he spoke about how strong Steven appeared now and how he was hitting “some bombs” (that would be homeruns for any non-baseball jargon types) in practice. He then commented that his son (freshman) needed to grow and get strong like Steven. In a milli-second my mind flashed back (cue the theme from the T.V. show “Kung Fu”) to Steven’s freshman year where I’m sure I made the same comment. Before I could comment another Dad said, “Your son is a freshman and Steven is a senior. Be patient.”

I guess that’s the second dynamic that occurs at our field, the dads. We huddle together and discuss everything from our sons, the game, and even politics. There is a lot of laughter and kidding as well as unannounced hopes, especially in the eyes of the freshman and sophomore dads. I know, I’ve been there.

I wonder if our churches have the same dynamic. Is there “anticipation” on our part as we drive up to the “field” or in our cases, our buildings? When was the last time I drove up into our church parking lot with an anticipation of what God might do in our worship?

I love our church because I’m sure we have the second dynamic – folks gathering together, talking, laughing, and sharing. In fact we were talking about expanding our foyer which is small for a building our size. Then someone noted that what usually takes place in a foyer of a church takes place in our auditorium – fellowship.

Got to go family and remember, let’s all anticipate God moving in our worship this Sunday.

I know, being busy is a poor excuse but it’s the truth. This past weekend we went camping and didn’t come home until Monday. A field trip to Space Camp today not to mention the obligatory trips to the ball field to watch number one son hit a couple out during BP, dinner and a devo tonight at church, and here we are at 10:30pm.

First with the “props” as the kiddos would say.
Greg (http://gregengland.com/) helped me out last week with a “coast to coast” post for his buddy. You know you’re a good friend if you buddy trusts you with his blogger user I.D. and password. I sent both plus my last post to Greg because I knew going camping this past weekend would knock me out of posting. Greg was gracious enough to log on to blogger for me and post the “End of Hell Week” post. Thanks Bro.

Judy (http://meowmix.org/) or as we affectionately know her as, “Meowmix.” Judy sent me an email check on my lack of blogging. Your inquiry Judy meant a lot to me. Thanks again.

How do you know if you have “good” kids? Has anyone ever used paper towels to describe your child, teen, or youth group? This past weekend we went camping at Wekiwa (pronounced “we-ki-va”) (http://www.floridastateparks.org/wekiwasprings/default.cfm) Springs State Park with about 50 folks from our church. Most of the youth group and our youth minister, Chad, went as well.

Our campsite was next to the “Camp Host.” This was a retired couple who in exchange for a free site, kept the restrooms and campsites clean. Ruth approached me Sunday to comment on our kids. She asked, “Do you know how I can tell your church has nice kids?” When I said, “No,” she answered, “Because of the paper towels.”

When I asked her to elaborate she told me she and her husband were not required to put paper towels in the restrooms but they usually did at the start of a weekend. She said if people abused the paper towels by throwing them on the ground, in the sink, or in the toilets, she and her husband would not replace them. She said the sign of a good group would be the continued replacement of paper towels in the restrooms to which I noted we had paper towels throughout the weekend. At Wekiwa Springs State Park, good kids equal paper towels.

Now of the camping pictures:

Let me apologized for starting our weekend with such a heavy subject as “social justice.” “SJ” if you will has at times received a bad rap but I do believe there are times when individual Christians as well as the Church should rise up in righteous indignation. Good Lord man, we might have folks think “clapping “isn’t a sin!

We especially need to rise up when it comes to those who can’t defend themselves. Yes family, I’m talking about the abuse of chickens! That was one of the lead stories this morning from one of our local news stations. It seems P.E.T.A sent someone undercover (feathers, wings, white meat) to investigate allegations of a local meat packing company abusing chickens. Seems some of the chickens were (as the news report put it) “shackled near the employee restrooms.” I’m sure all of you will agree that allowing companies to shackle chickens near employee restrooms will lead to such grievous sins as (in my best Bill Murray voice from the movie Ghostbusters”) “dogs and cats living together in sin!” I don’t know about you but I appreciate our local News Stations not being (he’s going to say it) chicken about reporting hard hitting poultry, I mean stories like the aforementioned.

On the home front, Steven survived his last day of “Hell Week.” In fact it was a serendipitous occasion. At 5:45am sharp, the Head Coach told the boys to stretch for what he had forecasted as the toughest day of Hell Week. The he told them to get in “their lines” to start their first drill. He paused for a moment and then asked, “Anybody up for breakfast at Kay’s BBQ?” Steven told me he nearly cried. Yes, the coaching staff took the boys (30 of them) out for breakfast. A class act if you asked me.

One last report from Hell Week. I was talking with our Athletic Director who is also one of the Assistant Coaches yesterday. He told me that Coach Arnold’s “Hell Week” was one of the best team building events he had ever seen. He cited one example in which one of the “teams” did not finish a drill in the prescribed minimum time to which the penalty was extra laps at the end. All other teams had finished under the prescribed time and was now sitting in the bleachers enjoying a well deserved rest. As the “slow” team positioned themselves to run out their penalty laps, every boy on the team came out of the bleachers and told the team they would not run those laps alone! Powerful lessons that can last a lifetime and I know my son we’ll never forget “Hell Week.”

Have a great weekend family.

Program Note: The part of this latest post will be played by the blogger of the previous post. Yes, I managed to post 2 identical posts in a row. I feel like Yogi Berra when he said it was like having "dejavous all over again." Actually, I was able to log on to blogger from school yesterday so I assumed I was dealing with a kinder / gentler version of our District filter. When I went to post "Hell Week" it appeared the District filter kicked back in and denied me permission. Foolish me for assuming. So I came home and posted from my home computer only to discover that I had been successful. So, I guess in some ways I'm having a blog version of "Hell Week."

First, let me say that I’m O.K. The title of today’s post is not indicative of the week I’ve had, so far. The past few days have been a series of “firsts” and “lasts” for my son as he enters his senior year of High School Baseball. His “last” tryouts were held this past Saturday. For the first and last time he hit one out being the only kid on a windy day to take one yard during tryouts.

Yesterday was his last “first day of practice.” I can still remember driving up to our ball field for the very first time and observing how small Steven looked compared to some of the seniors on the team. That “look” has gone away and as one of the dads observed, your son is “buffed out.” I would like to say he gets his physique from me but I know this crowd wouldn’t let me get away with such an exaggeration.

This morning at 5a.m., yes, 5a.m., I woke him up for his first and last “first day of Hell week.” Seems our new coach has an interesting tradition of putting the new team through it’s paces physically which he fondly refers to as “Hell Week.” It was interesting to hear at yesterday’s practice how some of the dads of freshman were having their boys spend the night together in one place and sleep in their workout clothes so the carpool driver could get the boys to the gym on time at 6am.

Steven called me on the way back from Hell Week this morning to report that he had “made it” through the first day. His victorious words were something to the effect of, “Dad, I didn’t puke and my team won the relay at the end!”

Now, you need to understand the “regurgitation statement.” Yesterday at practice, the coach in referencing the activities of Hell Week stated, “I know some of you boys don’t eat breakfast. It would be better if you ate something such as a banana so that when you do puke (emphasis mine) you’ll have something to show for it.” Don’t you just love coaches and their compassion?

I believe the end result of our Coach’s Hell Week is that the boys will bond together as they strive to survive it. I just hope that I can survive it as I have to get up at 5am to wake Steven up.

Until then, sweet dreams.

First, let me say that I’m O.K. The title of today’s post is not indicative of the week I’ve had, so far. The past few days have been a series of “firsts” and “lasts” for my son as he enters his senior year of High School Baseball. His “last” tryouts were held this past Saturday. For the first and last time he hit one out being the only kid on a windy day to take one yard during tryouts.

Yesterday was his last “first day of practice.” I can still remember driving up to our ball field for the very first time and observing how small Steven looked compared to some of the seniors on the team. That “look” has gone away and as one of the dads observed, your son is “buffed out.” I would like to say he gets his physique from me but I know this crowd wouldn’t let me get away with such an exaggeration.

This morning at 5a.m., yes, 5a.m., I woke him up for his first and last “first day of Hell week.” Seems our new coach has an interesting tradition of putting the new team through it’s paces physically which he fondly refers to as “Hell Week.” It was interesting to hear at yesterday’s practice how some of the dads of freshman were having their boys spend the night together in one place and sleep in their workout clothes so the carpool driver could get the boys to the gym on time at 6am.

Steven called me on the way back from Hell Week this morning to report that he had “made it” through the first day. His victorious words were something to the effect of, “Dad, I didn’t puke and my team won the relay at the end!”

Now, you need to understand the “regurgitation statement.” Yesterday at practice, the coach in referencing the activities of Hell Week stated, “I know some of you boys don’t eat breakfast. It would be better if you ate something such as a banana so that when you do puke (emphasis mine) you’ll have something to show for it.” Don’t you just love coaches and their compassion?
I believe the end result of our Coach’s Hell Week is that the boys will bond together as they strive to survive it. I just hope that I can survive it as I have to get up at 5am to wake Steven up.

Until then, sweet dreams.

Yes family, my “blog freedom” was short lived. Just as Steve (http://intentionalwalk.blogspot.com/) was blogging about “Demons” one of whom was his new District Filter which prevents him from reading some and commenting on any blogs that use blogger, I was enjoying our new District Filter which was once again allowing me total blog freedom. Can I get a rousing “Power to the bloggers” chant going? How about we throw in a blog wave? We’ll start with the West Coast. O.K., Greg (http://gregengland.com/) hit it but make sure you don’t have any clients (live ones that is) in the Funeral Home when you start this.

Any way, the filter police caught up with me and yesterday I learned that I’m back to reading some, commenting on some, and being block from blogger while at work. What is this world coming to?

I’ll relay a story of compassion in this blog compassion-less world. You might have heard about the 100 car pile up in I-4 here in Florida over by Plant City and Lakeland. A “controlled burn” (would that qualify as an oxymoron?) mixed with heavy fog to cause visibility to go down to zero. In fact, some of the EMS folks that showed up on the scene said they could not see the shoes due to the heavy fog and smoke.

A Polk County Deputy Sheriff was in the front of the 100 car pile up. He was able to pull his car off the road and go to a vehicle in front of him that was crushed and starting to burn. He discovered that the driver was pinned by the wreckage as the pile up continued behind them. Try as he could he couldn’t free the man who was starting to go into shock. The Deputy took his cell phone and allowed the man to call his wife which ended up being the last time this husband and wife spoke to each other on this side of eternity. The man died shortly after EMS personnel show up on the scene.

News of the deputy’s heroics and compassion in the middle of the 100 car pile up made its way to the news media who then questioned the Polk County Sheriff about the deputy in a news conference. The Sheriff’s eyes welled up with tears as he described the compassion of the deputy and then said, “Deputy (can’t remember his name) so-and-so is quite upset at the incident. He is use to being able to save lives but this was a situation was out of his control.”

I don’t know how this strikes you but I had two thoughts:
1. Our EMS folks are vastly underpaid for the job that they do. May God bless them and let’s all pray for them.
2. I wonder if I have the same kind of compassion and frustration for those that are lost around me.

Thoughts for the weekend family. God bless.

Has there ever been a time when you (should we let Randy out of this conversation?) didn’t know what you were talking about? Come on now, have you ever been convinced about an issue, articulated your position, examined your thought processes, and knew you were right only to be proven that you were dead wrong?

BTW, is it worse to be wrong or dead wrong as opposed to say “living wrong?” I could be wrong, I’m sorry, got carried away for a moment.

I wonder if there was a Junior Officer who was convinced and then convinced General Custer that they could take the Indians at the Little Big Horn. Do you think there were any Ohio State fans who were convinced they were going to finally win a NCAA Championship (apologies to USC and Georgia) Game?

A few months ago, I was convinced that discontinuing our Wednesday night classes for kids as well as going to a “Dinner and a Devo.” format was not good for our church. I was convinced that I was right and I knew what I was talking about and my fellow elders although wise and somewhat as good looking as I am, were wrong. Guess what?

You guess it, I was wrong and I didn’t know what I was talking about. Our church loves our “Dinner and a Devo” format. Barb cooks a meal at 6pm and then we have a devotional at 6:45 with the promise of trying to get our young church out of the building by 7:15. They love it and our attendance on Wednesday nights is increasing.

I’m not like the “Phonz” on the T.V. show “Happy Days.” I can say the word, “wrong.” I’m more like the father on the movie “Dirty Dancing” when he discovers that “Johnny” (Patrick Swayze) isn’t the father of an aborted baby of one of the dancers. He walks up to Johnny and says, “When I’m wrong I say it.”

Well family, I was wron8@$%&!!!, just kidding, I can say it. I was wrong. Sometimes it’s good to be wrong.

How about a little “rock-n-roll trivia?” Which “kid” on the album is Mick Jagger?

Mick Jagger and The Stones sang this title song about their struggle / search to get “some satisfaction.” Perhaps the “kiss of death” for a church or individual Christian is just the opposite; to be satisfied with where they are at spiritually. I think this problem can manifest itself in different forms.

I was once (you’re probably thinking, “Just once?”) rebuked at a previous church I attended for suggesting that the individual Christian and a church should always be on the move, challenging itself, revisiting Scripture and views on Scripture, or to borrow some language from Rubel Shelly and Randy Harris, to be a “Pilgrim” or “Pilgrim Church.” My rebuke took the form of Jude 1:3 –

^“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once (emphasis mine) for all entrusted to the saints.”

In other words as it was explained to me, there is nothing new to learn from Scripture since:

1. Scripture is a finite source.

2. We in the Church of Christ (that would be mainstream/non-one cuppers, non-cooperation, non-non Sunday School, non-non located preacher, non-clapping, non-praise teams, non – you get the idea) are the only body of people that understand this “faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.”

Does it scare you that there are churches and individuals that hold to numbers one and two? They do exist or at least they do for the time being.

Then there’s the form of the “satisfaction problem” that myself and my church must deal with. 2007 was an amazing year for me and our church. I won’t bore you with the details. Nevertheless there is a tendency to thank God for all that He has done for us in the past year as well as give ourselves a pat on the back for at times, stepping out on faith. Do you see where the focus is? It’s looking back and it’s on me / us instead of looking forward and putting my focus on God.

It’s like being in the tribes that didn’t (Gad, Ruben, Manasseh) cross the Jordan. They were happy with their freedom from Egypt and hanging out on the “Westside.” I’m going to go “anti-Mick” and state that I don’t want “satisfaction.” “Satisfaction” with my Christian walk can lead an individual to “lukewarmness” while leading a church into disobedience or the brink of being a cult.

I would have never have prayed for some of the events of 2007 but then I was a “Westside boy.” I want to have that “strong and courageous” faith that God tells Joshua they need to have to “hang out on the Eastside with God.

Have a good day family.

The only movie we were able to see during the Holiday Season was “The Great Debaters” with Denzel Washington. I highly recommend it. In the course of watching the movie the notion of the power of words occurred to me. To someone like those involved in Debates, words seem to be a powerful tool and even at times, a weapon. Yet words, my words, your words, or anyone’s words are weak and meaningless without action.

I suppose and please correct me if I’m wrong, I suppose a preacher’s biggest frustration is when his words however carefully crafted, coupled with the greatest words of all time, Scripture, fail to motivate or prod one’s listeners to action or even apparent signs of life.

The text of Don’s message today was Joshua 1:1 – 9.
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: 2 "Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them (emphasis mine)—to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea [a] on the west. 5 No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
6 "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

God’s Words are powerful and full of promise. He made the same promise to the previous generation of Israel but they had refused to cross The Jordan into the Promised Land. Perhaps that’s the reason God uses the admonition to Israel to be “strong and courageous.” Don pointed out that God wants to bless us but we must have courageous faith and in essence, that courageous faith must evidence itself with action.

May this be a year family in which all of us move even closer to what God wants us to be by taking action.
Some of you might say that my finally writing a post is a good first step. Sorry for the absence. God bless.