Another Frivolous Friday on Saturday!

??? Um, is it just me and my low level education, or is there something inately wrong with this sign below? I mean, I understand the concept of a drive-thru to be a no-parking, no-waiting service right? I don’t know, maybe McDonalds is just way too far advanced for me, so I think I’ll just stick to eating real food (and parking in parking spots at dine-in restaurants)

Hmmmm! Please understand that it’s nothing personal, and that I’ve thought long and hard about this but, much as I don’t want to insult your judge, ‘cos I’m sure he’s a really nice fellow and all that, I think I’d rather see your village thank you very much! Now if you’d just post the darn speed limit then at least I’d know what speed to go to avoid the judge!!

I guess we’re not in Kansas anymore! Don’t you just love how indigenous these great United States are? There’s no way you’re mistakenly wondering if you’re in Florida, California or Hawaii when you come across this sign. By the way, check out the rack on that moose. Woo hoo!!!

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Random Idleness leads to boredom!

I’m randomly idle right now (that tends to happen when you have a long layover between flights). I’m parked at a superior vantage point in Chicago’s O’Hare airport, waiting for a connecting flight to Sioux Falls, SD (don’t ask!). I strategically selected my spot so that I can ‘oggle’ people and not have anyone call the police on me for suspicion of ‘malicious’ intent through staring. I love watching people and trying to figure out what’s going on in their lives. Sometimes you don’t have to guess, as the little kids yelling and screaming all over the place, tell it all. I’ve already ‘built’ imaginary lives for a number of people around here, and some of them are lives I wouldn’t wish on anyone. This is a serious case of random idleness.

Any way, here’s some other news I’ll share randomly, since I’m already in the flow. This is a big weekend for me as I have so many things going on both at home and on my travels. Next week promises to be an even bigger week. On Tuesday December 2nd, we’ll celebrate my daughter, Bimi’s birthday. On December 3rd, Sola and I will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. Wow! I often find it hard to believe that 20-years have gone by that quickly, until I see my son and get a real reality check. Sola and I are planning a get-away for the weekend following our anniversary (no kids for three whole days), and I can hardly wait to enjoy the downtime. Okay, enough random idleness, I’ll catch up with you later with some real news or valuable info.

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Thankyou!!!

It’s Thanksgiving Day in the USA! Many people are gathering with loved ones today to ‘endure’ turkey and tryptophan, while others are grateful for the day off from work so that they can indulge in a lazy day of vicariously living through professional football players, as they watch the traditional Thanksgiving Day games. Of course, it cannot be forgotten that John Madden and his cohorts will engorge themselves on ‘Turducken” (a turkey, duck and chicken creation of some ‘genius’ who was determined to kill himself with an overdose of ‘bird’ meat). While all this merriment is occurring, some are ‘holed up’ alone at home, miserably wringing their hands and wishing for the day to quickly come to an end. Others defiantly shake their fists in the air at an “invisible” God, blaming Him for whatever ills have befallen them or their loved ones, while others lament His ‘apparent’ abandonment of them.

Some will fight over the turkey being too well done or underdone. Others will argue about the merits of using broth over water to make the stuffing, and the real geniuses will fight over how much honey should be used on the honeyed duck. In the rest of the world though, it will be business as usual. American Soldiers and their UN counterparts will patrol war ravaged areas, trying to give hope and comfort to others while not feeling it themselves. In Mumbai, India, many will be mourning the inevitable change that has come to their lives as a result of the terrorist attacks and the consequent death of hundreds. In Darfur, Rwanda and the Congo, the lucky kids will feed off the ground on whatever they can find while the majority will go hungry.

So today I wanted to say: I’m thankful to live in America. I’m thankful for a nation that gives me the opportunity to be free, and to succeed. I’m thankful that I can write a blog and have you read it. I’m thankful that I can watch football, eat turkey and stuffing (I hate the stuff!), and hang out with my friends and family. I’m thankful for young men and women on the frontlines in Iraq and Afghanistan, fighting for my freedom at the expense of theirs. I’m thankful that the people dearest to me are near me today, and those who aren’t, are only a phone call away. So today I say a prayer for all those who have forgotten the many reasons they have to be thankful, and I pray that they are reminded of what a great country they live in so they can at least give thanks for that. I’m confident that many in Darfur, Rwanda and Mumbai would gladly change places with them today… and be truly thankful for it! Have a blessed Thanksgiving.

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A moment in time, or is it eternity?

War can be a really funny thing! One of the irony’s of war is that we fight and kill so that we can live peaceful lives. Our world is so different from the one I was born into less than 50 years ago, and at any point in time on our planet, there are over 30 wars being waged. Yet in the midst of this wanton destruction, life goes on. This is Thanksgiving week in the USA. It ’s a time when we celebrate the fact that we are thankful that we live in such a great nation. Truly though, we’ve lost sight of whom we should be thankful to. Ultimately, every nation, tribe, and people owes its well being to the Sovereign Creator. Many nations have fallen into anarchy, genocide and complete extinction because they became ‘masters’ of their own destiny.

This week we must remind ourselves that it is the grace of a loving God that sustains our nation even when our future hangs in balance. Our destiny does not lie in the hands of Wall Street, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Hollywood or any other zip code of repute. It lies squarely in the hands of a just and loving God. Our thanks must be first to Him. And while we’re at it, we must remember the ones who actively lay their lives on the line daily to ensure that we have the freedom to return thanks to a loving God in whatever way we choose to. Today I’m further reminded of the irony of war. These photos depict the softness of innocence in the midst of the harsh realities of a debilitating war to protect what we believe is the most equitable way of life for humanity. If you were captioning these photos, what would your captions read?

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Frivolous Friday! (on Saturday)

Yeah, so I know I missed Frivolous Friday, but, like last week, I had something infinitely ‘heavier’ on my heart that I just had to post. But who says Frivolous Friday can’t happen on Saturday? So here are a few interesting things I found last week. You know how, as you approach the stateline when traveling along major interstate highways, all the states have taglines on their welcome signs that highlight the most interesting feature of the state? Well someone suggested that if states were being completely honest they would read more like the signs below. I don’t know if it’s true, but I sure got a laugh out of these ones. Have a positively lovely weekend.

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An open letter to Mr. ‘Christian’

So, Mr. ‘Christian’ did you have breakfast yet? How did you sleep last night? I imagine it was a fairly comfortable night, what with your nice fluffy pillow and 400 count egyptian cotton sheets. Heading off to work this morning? Are you catching the metro; braving the traffic so you can park in one of those $10.00 a day parking lots; or simply car-pooling? Talking about breakfast, isn’t it tough how they make us have to go through so many choices? Bread: white, wheat, sourdough or rye? Meat: Do you want canadian bacon, turkey bacon, sausage patties or sausage links? While we’re at it, how would you like your eggs? Over easy, medium, scrambled or how about a choice of six different omelets that we offer? Juice: you pick your ‘poison’!

And still we complain and murmur about how difficult our lives are in light of the current recession!!! We fight over who we want as president. We are divided over who is God’s choice to lead us through the next four years, yet we all ‘prophesy’ that our candidate is God’s choice, and for good measure we remind you that if you don’t vote for him, God’s gonna getcha! We can’t even agree on whether the economy, abortion, or the war in Iraq is forefront on God’s mind, though we all ‘prophesy’ that whichever one is dearest to our hearts is dearest to God’s. Funny though, that we only seem to have these disagreements every four years. Funnier still is that they seem to coincide with Presidential election years. While we rant and rave, and wield our big ‘Christian stick’ pointing out how everyone who doesn’t believe like us is the ‘enemy’ , true Christianity is living in the places where the ’stench’ of pain and poverty is at its greatest (James 2: 14-26).

So if you did have breakfast this morning (or even if you skipped it by choice), let this picture of a Congolese refugee child, a victim of tribal insurgence, remind you of what Jesus really died for. This child is eating his meal (who knows when and where the next one will come from) mixed with sand from the dirt trampled by a thousand people just trying to survive for one more day. You can interpret this post any way you want. You and I can pontificate and justify our often extravagant and ungrateful lifestyles, or we can fall on our knees in prayer, give generously to help someone live, or go and serve people who are less fortunate than us. Whatever you choose to do will reveal your own heart. Judging from true Biblical prophecy and the prevalent global trends though, we won’t always be the most prosperous or for that matter, the most powerful nation on earth.

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Photo or Photoshop?

I found this photo on line. It’s taken from the September 2005 issue of Africa Geographic. I originally came across it on someone’s facebook photos, and in the comments someone suggested that it was a great photoshop job of airbrushing. Someone else posted a link to the page stating that it was a legitimate photograph. Either way it’s a great shot, but I am fascinated as to whether or not it’s actually a real photo. You see, if it is, I can only wonder if the guy in the kayak has an extra change of underwear as he watches this mammoth creature approach his ‘vinyl-thin’ kayak which offers about as much protection as a paper house in a hurricane. Here’s the link so that you can examine it even closer yourself (It’s time for all you forensic ‘experts’ to let your skills show). http://www.whitesharktrust.org/pages/mediaarticle/media25.html

My personal take: Judging from the line that splits the photo right down the middle, and the differences in the shades of the sky on either half (which might indicate photos taken at two different times of day), as well as the fact that the ripples on both halves don’t exactly line up, I’m inclined to think it’s a fake. What do you think?

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Nostalgia!!!

I’m a little nostalgic today! My ‘boy’ is growing up and slowly becoming a man (well maybe not so slowly any more) and I just realized, during a conversation last night, that he will be going away to college in July next year. If all goes according to plan, he should spend four years in college and hopefully be drafted into the NFL. This means that when he leaves our home in July next year, he essentially will be leaving our home for good (obviously he’ll be back for vacations and stuff while he’s a college student), and begin to make his own way in life. Sola and I have invested 18 years of our lives into building his (where did the time go), and I sort of wonder how we’ll handle reading all the press about him (especially the negative) knowing that this is our ‘baby’ who is being written about in such uncomplimentary terms.

If the truth be told though, we must learn to adapt, as it comes with the territory. Trust me, I know! As I’ve stated quite a few times lately, “fish bowls don’t have blinds” so if you live in the public eye, you must be prepared to trip and stumble in front of people, yet get up, dust yourself off, and get right back to what you were doing. There will always be dissenters to your cause. Some more vocal than others, but their singular purpose in life is to ensure that they bring you down so as to make themselves look good. These are some of the lessons I’m learning along the way, and I take occassion of my own ’stumbles’ to teach my son the most valuable lesson of falling: the need to get right back up again! Sola and I are immensely proud of Demi and his accomplishments, as indeed we are of all our kids, and so I just wanted to give a ’shout out’ to my son today to let him know I’m thinking of and praying for him.

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Caged Christianity

A while back I posted a blog explaining how I was in a season of “Holy discontent” and was so dissatisfied with where I was in my Christian experience. I’d love to tell you that I’ve moved on from that but it just wouldn’t be true. I’m more discontented than ever! You see, lately I’ve been asking myself some tough questions as I look in the ‘mirror’ of God’s word. It sort of feels like looking in an actual mirror after I’ve slacked off working out for a few weeks because of a hectic schedule but I haven’t slacked off ’stuffing my face’ with my favorite chocolates and pastries. I absolutely despise the reflection that looks back at me from the mirror, and it motivates me to do something drastic. Those are the times in which I’m more motivated than ever to get back on my bike, get back in the gym, and do whatever else it takes to ensure that the line of sight down to my feet is not obstructed by a ‘hanging’ gut.

With all of these questions circulating around my cerebral cortex, I’m distilling the vital from the irrelevant and identifying the questions that need to be answered the most, such as:

• What would it look like if we stopped “doing” church and “become” the church?
• Is it possible that, as pastors we are so busy pastoring churches we’ve forgotten to pastor the people?
• Who determined the blue print for what church should look like on a Sunday, and does that work for me and my community?
• What would it look like if we actually took Jesus at His word, and radically loved and served people regardless of their beliefs?
• Could I potentially miss a divine opportunity to walk intimately with Jesus, having ‘kept’ all the ‘rules’ of ‘good’ Christianity just like the Rich young ruler did?

I guess I really want to see Jesus glorified in me and through me, and I can’t help feeling that there’s something missing. I wonder if I’m living in a cage when I should actually be living in the ‘wild’ adventure of pursuing God with everything I have no matter what that looks like. I certainly empathize with a 400 pound gorilla trapped in a cage in the zoo. You see, he can never live the life he was created to live, trapped behind bars 24/7. In order for a gorilla to “be all that he was meant to be” he must live in the wild and explore every instinct and tendency he was born with. It’s no different for the christian. We can choose to live staid, caged lives, or we can throw ourselves in with reckless abandon against all reasoning. If Peter hadn’t done that, he would never have walked on water (even though as a fisherman, he knew men didn’t walk on water). If Andrew hadn’t done that he would never have witnessed the miracle of feeding 5000 men with five loaves of bread and two fish. Just think what the rich young ruler missed out on. Jesus actually gave him the opportunity to become one of his disciples(Mark 10: 17-22), and he turned it down for the safety of the cage of ‘financial security.’ What’s my cage? well… while I’m figuring that out, you might want to find out what’s yours!

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"One of them is a warrior…"

Wow! I bet you guys must think I’m schizophrenic, the way I constantly change things around, here. One week I’m posting on Saturday (which I almost never do), another week I miss out on posting for a day or two, then Friday rolls around and I don’t post the ’sacred’ and highly anticipated Frivolous Friday posts… “What the heck is wrong with you?” you’re probably asking. Well, don’t forget my blog is called Seasons of Change! Seriously though, I’m posting today because I have something incredibly amazing to share.

Yesterday I flew in from Washington DC in the afternoon, after spending the night there, having previously been in Alabama for two nights. The main reason I flew back yesterday instead of today was to be able to attend Senior Night at my son’s high school, as well as watch him play in his final high school football game. It’s been a season of adversity for him and he’s weathered the storm beautifully, though not without some “lessons along the way.” He literally played the entire season with a cast on his left hand (this is not a good thing for a defensive end who needs his hands to make tackles), because he’d torn the tendon and ligaments on his pinkie just before the season began. Then he broke the same finger in the first game of the season. He had to undergo two different surgeries and in the process ended up missing five of his twelve-game season. Immediately after the surgery (when he first had the ‘ginormous’ cast put on) he didn’t want to go to a USF game for fear that the coaches would see him injured and revoke his scholarship offer (I don’t know how he figured that), but I persuaded him otherwise, explaining that it was better that they saw and heard from him regarding the injury rather than read about it on rivals.com.

He’s constantly felt as if he let down his team because he had to play hurt all season, and nothing I said seemed to persuade him differently. I tried explaining that his team and coaches really valued his valiant efforts and that he still had the most sacks on the team, which was amazing considering he’d played in far fewer games. I tried to make him see that that was certainly a commendable performance even though it may not have met the goals he set. Adversity in and of itself may not be great to experience, but the lessons learned through navigating it are invaluable and stay with you for life. Yesterday, towards the end of the game a gentleman introduced himself to me and informed me that Demi had been selected to play in the All-Star game for Central Florida (covering an eight-county area). Evidently more than just his team mates and coaches recognized his efforts and contributions to his team even in a losing season (they ended up 4 – 6). What a wonderful ‘feather in his hat’ to conclude his high school football career. So I guess yesterday wasn’t his final high school football game after all! This photo was taken after the game yesterday. I like it because with me being in the foreground, the perspective gives the impression that I’m bigger than Demi.

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