West Cocoa Chat

I think we all know there are many benefits to starting a program of running in one's life. Of course we know that when you get to "our" or "my" age of 50 plus years, there are some drawbacks. Can you name them?

How about:

1. back pain

2. pulling what ever muscles you have left

3. knee and joint pain

And of course -

4. Wearing something that makes you look hideous to others!

Yesterday I discovered a new reason. I'll give you the setting - It was in the high 60's along the Indian River Lagoon. I was on the return leg of my 5K that I run along the River Road. I was probably within a half mile of our church building so I started my "51-year old kick" so to speak. I was running on the sidewalk passing one of the houses that face the river when: ?????

Feel free to take a guess. Unlike yesterday I'll give you the answer in this post but before you read it below, take a guess. If you want, tell me what you're first guess was in your comment.

O.K., ready? Guess -









































O.K., what did you guess. Yes, if you guessed a bee flew into my mouth and stung the back of my throat before I could (as my kids would say) "hock" him up, you're the winner! BTW - That puts me in the same category with "Bear Grylls" of the Discovery Channel Show, "Man vs. Wild." In all the things he's faced on that show, a bee sting near his eye almost cancelled the "whole series" if you know what I mean.

O.K., back to me. Well I felt it although I was pretty sure that I'm not allergic to bee stings but your throat is your throat. My first dilemma - do I run or walk back to the church building. I know, you guys are going to think, "He's dumber than dirt," when I tell you I chose to "run." Barb was finishing up on the preparations for our church dinner so she was somewhat occupied. She also gave me one of those "you've got to be kidding me - again" looks when I told her what happened and asked her to look at my throat.

It was hard to swallow but I didn't feel like my breathing was restricted. So we called son up to ask him to bring some Benadryl from home. He couldn't find any so I decided I would drive to a local convenience store. In the process I left my cell phone with Barbara. This was a cause of some stress on hers and son's part.

Due to the "convenience" (which wasn't very convenient to me) store not having Benadryl I had to drive to CVS. I'm sure I was gone for 30 minutes and in the mean time Barb and son are on "Red Alert" for Dad because they haven't a clue where I am and they can't get in touch with me.

Long story short:
1. I made it back to the building.
2. I was severely chastised for going off without my cell phone.
3. I was hugged for still being (dumb) alive.
4. I went home.

When Barb came home, I was able to pull the stinger out of the back of my throat with her help. So, as we hurdle into Christmas and the New Year, I'm reminded of Albert Einstein. When asked what was his formula for success he replied:

A = xyz

He defined his variables as:
"x" = the proper amount of work in one's life.
"y" = the proper amount of play in one's life.
"z" = knowing when to keep one's mouth shut!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.

Well, Donna was the closest in guessing "CE's" (this family's version of Cousin Eddy) solution for the unanticipated "upright leg." CE's solution was to break out the family riding lawn mower and mow over the upright leg to "level the playing field" so to speak.

A good friend of mine relayed this story to me as it was told at their recent family get-together for Christmas. In the same light of the movie, "Christmas Vacation," seems that this family was discussing who was their "Cousin Eddy." The following story was presented as "proof."

A horse was on his last (pun intended) legs and was close to death. Two of the brothers wanted to put this horse out of his misery but couldn't bring themselves to kill the horse. They quickly deduced that the brother in question would have no remorse in putting a small cylindrical (bullet) object into the horse's (head) cranium. The Cousin Eddy (CE) brother shows up with a firearm and the horse is positioned next to a recently dug hole for the horse's remains.

CE takes aim and discharges the weapon causing the horse immediate and critical trauma which results in the horse falling over into the pre-dug hole. As the brothers engage in covering up the remains, a problem quickly arises. It seems that the horse has fallen in an unanticipated angle resulting in one of the legs being exposed above the ground. The dilemma, what do we do about the upright leg on the now permanently prone horse?

How would you handle this situation?
How do you think CE handled this situation?
If you'd like, post your answers and I will give you CE's solution in the next post.

A former student came by for a visit yesterday after our students were dismissed. It reminded me of the dichotomy that takes place between teacher and student, pre and post enrollment into one's class. When I had this particular student last year, well, to put it mildly - he was a pain! In these days of high-stakes testing and teachers evaluated almost purely on the basis of "this year's" test scores, I didn't appreciate his frequent need for as we might say, jocularity.

Now don't get me wrong, I can be as "jocular" (is that a word?) (I guess it is now) as the next guy. But, there are times when we have to buckle down and get down to business in Algebra and this particular kid just didn't seem to have the same level of concern as his teacher. So what else is new, right? Any way, when I saw him yesterday our visit was pleasant and flowed easily. It brought forth an image (among many) I have in my mind.

The day after Steven had played in his last game as a Senior in his final District Tournament, I witnessed something. I was up in the Press Box getting ready to announce that night's game. I happen to look down the left field line where a small set of bleachers sits just to the side of our Home dugout. Sitting on that bleacher were Steven and his Coach. The Coach had his arm around Steven and I could tell they were enjoying a light moment together. It occurred to me then as it did yesterday.

The pressure was off, there wasn't a win or a test score to endeavour to attain. There was just the relationship without the competition, the rules, and the expectations and to borrow a line from Genesis, "It was good." I see that in my walk with the Lord. So often in the past, the "rules," the dogma, and the endless and winless task of not ticking someone (or church or para-church organization) off based on how they think "church" should go kept a lot of joy and ministry out of my life.

Praise be to our Father, our abba who wants to sit in the bleachers next to us, put His arm around us, and just enjoy the game. I love David's words in Psalm 51:12

"Restore to me the joy of your salvation....."

May your day and your life be filled with joy.

I've always wanted to be in the top 5 of something and I think I've accomplished it. After the incident that I'm going to describe to you in a moment occurred, I realized that I am one of the 5 oldest members of our staff! I remember when I was the "young pup" of the staff but alas those days have passed and I digress.

I was walking down the hall earlier with our newest teacher. He is fresh out of college and seems to be doing a great job for a first year teacher. Having been involved in Bible Camps, youth groups, and still having a son in college I feel that in some ways (although they are a fleeting) I can connect with folks who are much younger than yours truly.

So, we're walking down the hall conversing back and forth, I'm feeling good and engaged when this thought dawns on me:

I don't think my words are matching up with my face!!
Or, I don't think my words are matching up with my OLD face!

As my kids would say, do you "feel me?" Where are my vitamin E tablets??

Thank you for the comments on my last post and please accept my apologies for not bringing part 2 sooner than today.

You guys made great points. I think Greg identified the struggle between "focusing on the problem" vs. "focusing on the solution." There's this fear that if I focus more on the solution rather than the problem or in my example's case - giving a pencil to a student without making a big fuss (which BTW is where the coach / disciplinarian in me wants to go) , when or does it ever perhaps become enabling the offender? Is there a charge to "teach this kid a lesson" / "if I give you a bloody nose you'll think twice about doing that again" so to speak?

I think Paul explores that to some degree in Romans 6 when he writes:

1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Paul seems to focus on the "solution" rather than the "problem" which in his case seems to be what some would see as the danger of teaching on grace might cause one to say, "I can just keep on sinning because I will always get grace."

What do we tend to do in churches - focus on the problem or the solution? Now trust me, my default programming is to be a "rules / draw a line in the sand" kind of guy. How ever the more I live the more I am coming to understand the following:

1. I don't understand as much as I thought I did.

2. All of us have problems / baggage.

3. All of us need the ultimate solution - God's grace in the guise of Jesus Christ.

4. We cannot "operate" or "run" our church's in fear of someone abusing grace.

Paul seems to say "trust in yours and others new life in Christ." There is nothing we can do about the past - it is the past. But we can focus on the here and now as well as the future and perhaps lead a fellow human from "the problem" and to the "solution," Jesus!

God bless you guys.

A couple of months ago, I attended an inservice for Mathematics Teachers in our County. I decided to attend one of the one hour sessions with the title, "The Joy of Teaching."

The fellow math teacher was a former Presbyterian minister and I thought he had some good things to say, even to a 29 year veteran teacher. The point he made that made the most impact with me was this:

"What has helped me in the classroom to deal with students, fellow teachers, and parents is this notion - I choose to focus on the solution rather than the problem."

The way he illustrated the idea was to ask our group of teachers, "What do you do when a student comes to your class without a pencil?" Immediately a guy, at least 20 years younger than me, launched into a tirade about students being irresponsible and that his students knew better than to come his class without a pencil for they would face at the very least, a detention after school.

Our instructor responded by saying, "I choose to focus on the solution rather than the problem. The solution is the kid needs a pencil. I don't waste energy or class time engaging in the same kind of lecture you (the young teacher) just gave us. I give the kid a pencil and we move on to the important things."

What do you think?
If anyone answers, I'll give you my read (without slamming yours) and also tell you how I'm trying to apply that to shepherding our church.
God bless.

Minus one word, this is the famous line from the 1976 movie, "Network." Our "Final Jeopardy" category is, "The Word in this Quote that was replaced." You have thirty seconds.

51 year old eyes update. We had to go to the "Replay Booth" for a ruling on the third picture. The "caption" under the third picture has been overturned because it's actually Gamecock quarterback, Jeff Garcia being sacked by the Gator Defense.

In keeping with my current theme of "backwards blogging," here are some pictures I took at the Fl. Gators vs. the South Carolina Gamecocks game.

0-11, 1-10 and 3-8; do those numbers mean anything to you? Those were the records of FSU's Football team the 3 previous years before Bobby Bowden arrived in Tallahassee in 1976. "Pathetic" would be an understatement (or would that be an "under-word?") and the "improvement" to a 3-8 season was accompanied by an infamous incident known as the "Chicken Wire Scandal." Seems the previous coach had a "cage" built out of chicken wire to "toughen" up his linemen and to teach them "proper" technique. Hey, I wonder if that would work for church members? :)

BTW - the programs at Florida and (The U) Miami were just as bad in those days.


It is well documented that Bobby Bowden was a gentleman before he arrive at FSU courtesy of the movie, "We Are Marshall." If you remember the movie, Marshall's Football Team had been decimated after the Team Jet crashed following a game with East Carolina. A new Coach is hired who must build the program literally from the ground up.

Much to the surprise of his Assistant Coach, he decides to pay Bobby Bowden, the then Coach of West Virginia, a visit to ask him if he would teach them or tell them about his "new" Veer Offense. His Assistant is even more surprised when Coach Bowden gives them complete access to his playbook and game films.

Bowden's record at FSU is almost without match:

28 straight Bowl appearances.
2 National Championships.
14 Straight seasons with at least 10 wins.
14 straight seasons of finishing in the Top 5.
12 ACC Championships in 14 years.
15 Consecutive New Year's Day Bowl Games
11 Consecutive Bowl Game wins (14 if you don't count the 1984 tie with (17 - 17) Georgia)

It is the end of an era and I wonder if there are any coaches out there that will stay at their universities as long as Bowden has with FSU.

Bobby's record has it's blemishes and hick-ups. I don't think one can be at an institution for that length of time and not have chinks in the armor show up whether real or imagined, unintentional or intentional. I know you'll find this hard to believe (not that I'm comparing myself with Bowden) but there are some folks out there who think I'm incompetent or even evil.

Any way as I digress, my hat is off to Coach Bowden. As a long time Floridian I can say this with a very clear memory:

I remember what it was like back in the 70's, we were pathetic until you arrived and turned FSU around. Is there another Coach Bowden out there? I hope its Jimbo Fisher.

My fellow ( I haven't used this word in a while so if Randy is still reading, forgive the use of the "e-word" :) ) elders and I have been meeting once a week at 6a.m. to devote time to prayer. Our meeting place has been down by the Indian River near the historic downtown area.

A little caveat here, I don't publicize this to say, "Hey, look at us religious elders." Rather, like many of you I'm sure, we realized our prayers lives are at times, shallow at best. So we've started a journey with each other and God to attempt to be more consistent and deeper in our prayer lives and hence, the subject of my post today.

As I drove up to the downtown park on the Indian River, a news van from our local "Central Florida News Channel" was parked and had set an "on the scene" broadcast area on the riverfront. Now you know me, I couldn't resist having some fun with theirs and our presence.

But what ever I said did not top what my good friend Javier came up with. He pointed at the news van and said, "Hey everyone, news flash - elders are actually praying and we have evidence of it."

It was funny but at the same time sad but true. I do not mean this as an indictment on any one but I do wonder how many ministers and church leaders neglect the all important Christian discipline of prayer. I know I did. We're trying to be better and if you find time to pray yourself, feel free to mention a group of ragtag guys who are trying to lead their church in prayer.