last day of 2005.

yes i’m getting in shape next year. yes i want to be a better person next year.

no, i’m not making any resolutions.

tonight, it’s lots of food and drink at matt and kendra’s house. should be a good time hanging out.

and by the way, Coldplay is blowing me away lately. X&Y has been on nonstop since i bought it on tuesday.

see you next year, eh?

johnny damon, go play for the yankees. and when you come back to fenway, the only way you’re not going to hear the boos is if you shove some of the Hundreds in your ears. I applauded your efforts in bringing us a championship in 2004, and i will always appreciate it. But when you show up in Boston in those pinstripes (although NY’s road unis are solid gray…trivial detail), i will be among the many showering you with boos. And don’t worry, I’m not too naive to think that my jeers will somehow ruin the 52 million dollars, the incredible exposure of playing in NYC, the fact that you’ll have to cut your hair and shave your beard (which will bring more exposure), and all that. I imagine you won’t even care. And maybe that’s why this was the best thing after all. If you are the type of guy who would go play for the yankees, then i don’t want you on my team. Paging Jeremi Reed and Coco Crisp…

while i’m on a roll, i’d much rather just get this all ‘on paper’ now. you don’t have to read if you are sick of this discussion…

it’s a belief that i’ve held to for a while…namely, that because there is an overabundance of ‘explicitly christian’ music, we have decided that anything that is not, is bad.

or seen another way, because there are no huge christian movie production companies, no huge christian TV networks, no huge christian sports leagues, etc, we have no problem indulging in some of the movies, tv shows, and sports programming that is offered to us. because that is all that we have to choose from.

“well”, you might say, “that is true. i do watch some of the TV, movies, and sports offered to me. but i dont just watch ANY tv show or go see ANY movie, i use discretion and the standards that i have developed.” BINGO!!! Is the light bulb going on yet? You have no problem with CSI, Napoleon Dynamite, Trading Spaces, Regis and Kelly, Batman Begins, or Jeopardy. Great. Why can’t it be like that for music?

one other note on the double standard between music and everything else: Someone drops an ‘F’ bomb in a movie and we walk out saying, “it was pretty clean. just one swear.” someone drops an ‘F’ bomb in a song, and you’d think you were falling away from the faith for owning the CD. I don’t know…I’m just saying…

and again, i am not trying to give people ammo for doing things they feel are wrong. i just want us to think about why we do what we do. i don’t want us to become like the pharisees, who set up their own culture where the letter of the law became more important than love. They completely missed the point, and Jesus saved his harshest words for them.

Let’s try to value the things that Jesus valued: loving God and loving those around us. Maybe if we weren’t so wrapped up in this bubble that we try to create where we’re eating christian mints and wearing the right wristbands, we’d be able to love the people around us better who so desperately want to be loved. i mean, we all want to be loved, right? i know i do. and yet i have such a hard time loving others.

I mean, even this discussion is coming dangerously close to being an exercise for me to try and sound smart. And i hate that about myself, that almost everything i do comes back around to being about me. I will try to get better at that. I know we’ve talked about that at our D-Group before, and it’s something we all want to get better at. Let’s start this weekend by trying to love those around us unselfishly. (just remember, you can’t do it on your own.)

well, i am headed home, and i wont be back at work until monday. and that’s a good thing. as B-Watts says “I’ll see ya when i look atcha”

b

i want to make another post without referencing the ongoing discussion about music…but i just can’t. so here’s a question…just a little one to jog the brain:

What if there was a CPFL, the Christian Professional Football league? What if all the players who played in it professed to be christians? What if they didn’t have scantily clad cheerleaders? What if they had team prayers before and after games? What if the teams had names like “Columbus Crusaders”, “Albany Ambassadors”, and the “Boston Believers”? What if if each guy’s bio listed his height, weight, and favorite bible verse? What if they only played ‘christian’ music over the loudspeakers at games? What if guys never cussed, fought, or trash-talked on the field? What if they gave church groups large discounts to come? What if they handed out promotions like an Apostle Paul bobblehead doll? What if each televised game had a 10-minute devotional message delivered at halftime by a well-respected christian author or preacher?

What would you think about that? Might be cool. Maybe not. Cheesy? Innovative? Safe? Dumb? Exciting? Interesting?

Here’s the question: Would the existence of the CPFL make the NFL the “secular football league”? And would that make it wrong to watch it?

in other news…

i love a 30-day month because you get to move the little calendar on your watch from ‘31′ to ‘1′ on a day like today. (and yes, March 1st should be a national holiday for this reason alone)…LOST was pretty incredible last night. yikes. i was on edge the whole episode. no show continually delivers at such a high standard. 24 comes close, but not close enough…my work schedule is about to get really busy again until the end of january. i’m ao excited i will now drink antifreeze…Pittsburgh/Cincinnati is the game of the week this week. I don’t know Nate, i think the Bengals are going to be really up for this one. The Steelers are (-3.5) for those of you casting lots…

i’m out like Gino in the “let’s see who can be the quietest” game…

b