Everything bagel

Leadership requires initiative, and that is my weak spot.

Holy week begins tomorrow. Next Sunday out church is having a sunrise service. I'm very excited.

Some people have a problem with Easter and how the church may have included some unholy things in celebrating resurrection.  All I want in my celebration of the resurrection is 1) Sunrise service. 2) "Up From The Grave He Arose!!" 3) Biscuits and gravy. 4) A deep appreciation of our blessed hope of resurrection and all that that means.

A year ago, our family moved into our current residence in north-central Leavenworth. The house is one of the many blessings I am aware of, and a reminder that Good loves me. I also mark it as the end of my personal "Great Tribulation"

Looks like I'm probably starting my new job week after next. Not sure about dress code except there's an orange apron involved.

Manipulation

"Well, I...I want to believe.  But..."
"But you don't wanna be bamboozled.  You don't wanna be led down the primrose path.  You don't wanna be coonned or duped, have the wool pulled over your eyes.  Hoodwinked.  You don't wanna be taken for a ride, railroaded."

There are some commercials that I can't stand.  Pretty much any car insurance commercial.  "Switch to us, because people who switched saved $$."  Yeah, but that doesn't tell me whether you offer insurance on me, 35yo Male, with XXX car and XXX recent driving record more cheaply than my current provider, XXX.  Or the ones that talk about accident forgiveness...so, does someone with a perfect driving record want to be treated the same as someone with a single accident, or not?  It's a hedge on the bet that car insurance is...

Or...the exercise machine that offers 5x calorie burn.  5x of what?  Well, it has a downhill walking slope option, which burns a few calories.  And it's got a extremely high walking slope, which burns 5x as many calories.  But that commercial drives me crazy.

And...do you need a lawyer for (bad drug / bad medical implant / car wreck / etc.)  ...

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Then there's the clickbait.  You won't believe what this person did?  Twenty ways to do that (#5 is awesome!)  This is the latest sign of the end times!

Tell me, or don't.  I'm one of the people who gets more tired of click-bait crap than others.  And, if you're sharing something on facebook from (any of a hundred websites), I'm not seeing it, because that site is already too political-sexy-stupid-clickbaity for it to clutter my newsfeed.  Which of course leaves me with a very slow-moving newsfeed with < 150 friends, but better that than me putting my fist through my phone.

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And another thing.  Powerball.  The most egregious case of a tax on the mathematically challenged.  About every ten years or so, you mess with the number of balls to make the jackpot more rare, making it higher and higher, until earlier this year, the jackpot (sum of payments over 29 years IF you're the only winner) crossed the billion-dollar mark.  Before tax.  I expect that I'll be writing my state rep & senator the next time they have to vote on renewing the lottery and tell them not to.  And I don't expect them to listen because the state has become hooked on another revenue stream.  The odds are terrible, and it's inappropriate for a state to be fleecing its citizens like that.

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But...what leg do I have to stand on?  My social media is a highlight reel as well.  I don't talk about certain dark parts of my life, except in a vague "that was then this is now" phrase that implies that I know better now.  God I hope so.

quid est veritas - What is truth?

Maranatha and a question

Perhaps most of my posts tagged "truth" should've been renamed Marantha.  (EDIT:  Actually, not that many.  I've already added that category.)
  Maranatha - come quickly.  Most often used in reference to the Second Coming of Christ.
  Although I doubt the modern prophets and their interpretations of current events...I find great hope in our blessed hope.  The hope of the resurrection of the dead.  The hope of the return of Christ.  The hope of the Creator restoring all things.  The hope God has given to us about a future with Him.
  As I read my Bible, my blessed hope isn't exactly "go to heaven when we die."  It's better.

  How do you reconcile 2 Peter 3:10  Revelation 21 with the parable of the vineyard?  And is the moaning creation of Romans 8 - is it a wounded creature waiting for a merciful killshot, or waiting for God's hand to restore, to hear God say "it is good"?


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Monday Melody

Kristian Stanfill
Even So Come

All of creation
All of the earth
Make straight a highway
A path for the Lord
Jesus is coming soon

Call back the sinner
Wake up the saint
Let every nation shout of your fame
Jesus is coming soon

Chorus: Like a bride waiting for her groom
We'll be a Church ready for you
Every heart longing for our King
We sing

Even so come
Lord Jesus, come

Even so come
Lord Jesus, come

There will be justice
All will be new
Your name forever
Faithful and true
Jesus is coming soon

Repeat Chorus

So we wait
We wait for You
God we wait
You're coming soon

So we wait
We wait for You
God we wait
You're coming soon

Repeat Chorus 2x

Even so come
Lord Jesus, come

(Repeat 4x)

Best. Sports. Year. Ever?

So...was 2015 the best year for Kansas City sports ever?

**Each playoff year restarts March 1, so NFL and NBA season counts for the year that most of the regular season was played in.

Years that every pro Kansas City team either had a winning record or made the playoffs: 1971, 1973, 1981, 1989, 1991, 1993, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2015

Years that a Kansas City team won the title 1969, 1985, 2000, 2013, 2015

Years that a Kansas City team at least won the pennant, made the MLS title match, or won a US Open Cup
1969, 1980, 1985, 2000, 2004, 2012, 2014, 2015

The five best years for KC pro sports since founding of Royals in 1969.

#5: 2003. Royals have a winning season, but miss playoffs. KC Wizards make playoffs, lose conference finals. Chiefs make playoffs, but lose at home to Indianapolis.

#4: 1980. Royals win pennant, lose WS to Philadelphia in 6. Chiefs finish with a .500 record, miss playoffs. Kings have a 40-42 season, make playoffs, reach conference finals before losing to Houston in 5 games.

#3. 2014. Royals win pennant, lose WS to San Francisco in 7. Chiefs have winning season, miss playoffs. Sporting KC makes playoffs, loses to Red Bull New York.

#2. 2013. Royals have a winning season, but miss playoffs. Sporting KC has a winning season and wins MLS Cup. Chiefs make playoffs, lose on road to Indianapolis.

#1. 2015. Royals win World Series. Sporting KC has a winning season, but loses in playoffs. Sporting KC wins US Open Cup (minor trophy) Chiefs make playoffs, win first playoff game in 22 years, lose on road to New England.

The other good years for KC titles (1969, Super Bowl IV; 1985, World Series; 2000, MLS Cup; 2004, MLS Cup runner-up & US Open Cup win) were years in which the team that got the trophy was the only winning team that Kansas City would see that year, making those years not make the cut for best ever.

Kansas City has had a great run recently...pretty cool, actually.

Repent!

As Christians around the world celebrate Lent, the season before Easter, in which we remember the sufferings of Christ...I feel it appropriate to bring up a pertinent topic.

 Repentance.

Real pentinence; sorrow or deep contrition for sin, as an offense and dishonor to God, a violation of His holy law, and the basest ingratitude towards a Being of infinite benevolence. ..and is accompanied by amendment of life. Repentance is a change of mind, or a conversion from sin to God... [NW 1828]

It means changing our ways.
It means humility in knowing that the ways of God are above our ways, and that He is wiser than us.
It means seeking God to know His ways and to know what we need to change (with His help, and by His grace.)

So much of the Christian life can be defined by different interlocking principles found in the Word of God. Repentance requires humility and obedience. Repentance is lived out by Romans 12:1-3, surrendering our bodies as a living sacrifice, being transformed by the renewing of our minds, and by not thinking too highly of ourselves.

And, as we enter this Lenten season, when some of our Christian family re-enter the traditions of fasting, prayer, rediscovering the sorrows of Christ... I keep getting brought back to this. To repentance.

Irrational exuberance

This year our church is talking about Joy. And our Church needs Joy, like the body of Christ. But sometimes I wonder if we overemphasize joy and happiness. For example, I felt the ending to "Inside Out" was reasonable, emphasizing a place for each of the emotions. But sometimes I feel that we are pushed to mask our sadness and just slap on that stupid smiley face.

Mourn with those who mourn, rejoice with those who rejoice. There are some people who lean towards instructing the ones who survived them to "throw a party, because I won't be there", emphasizing that, in Christ, we have the blessed hope of resurrection. But the other side, realizing or believing that grief is a experience to be lived through, and a sorrow shared is a sorrow divided... That makes more sense to me.

I absolutely concede, however that I have very little experience in dealing with grief, and the experience I have from my losses, the closest one being my father 2 years ago, left me realizing that I am no expert in grief and sorrow.

After the hurricane

DISCLAIMER:  I'm not a psychiatrist.  I'm not a mental health expert.  I'm just one blogger with experiences and opinions.  YMMV.  And honestly, this is just a ramble.

How do you tell the difference between clinically depressed and just stressed to one's breaking point?

I don't know.

I think that a lot of what I thought was my depression could more accurately be called poor handling of very stressful situations.

I don't handle failure well.  And a lot of the problems of my personal "great tribulation" were self-inflicted.  A wiser man would've avoided them.

Not only have I made it through hell (or the closest I've ever been to it), but the hell in my mind has decreased to a mostly-manageable regret and self-loathing about the poor choices made in my 20s.  I finally have hope about the future (a combination of trust in a good God who has been there for me, and a reasonable measurement of where I am right now)

So although I've peeked into the abyss...there are people with a different set of problems, whether chemical, biological, financial, relational...God only knows.

I thought that things couldn't get better, only worse.  And from my worst moment...things did get worse before they got better.

But they did get better.