This is so not the point of this post, but it about sums it up.

Crossing lines and building bridges seems to be what Jesus was all about:  Samaritans and Jews, friends and enemies, first place and last place, none of that mattered to Him, as long as they were being pointed to His Father.  As for me, sometimes I just want to do my own thing.

A bit over a year ago, I traveled with my friend Steve to Gillette Stadium to see the Patriots play the Steelers.  Being a Steelers fan has its benefits, one of them is having the coolest, manliest colors in the NFL, so I wore my number 7 jersey proudly, along with a turtleneck, a Steelers coat, a Steelers hat, Orange long johns (nobody was going to see them anyway),blue jeans,  my terrible towel, and a pair of work boots.  Loving the Pats like he does, Steve opted for the red, white, and blue of Patriot nation, and the battle was on.

The weather cooled off that weekend just in time for the game, as what had been 60 degree weather turned into rain and 38 degrees on just over a few days.  Our apparel was warm, and our ambition and competitive spirit was high.  Arriving at the stadium early allowed us to find a decent parking spot to pay $40 to park, and this was a good price.  If you’ve ever been to Foxboro, you understand that it isn’t like Boston. There’s plenty of room there, so the owners charge so much for no reason other than their own greed.  This makes me happy I’m a sports fan.  Let’s all cheer for teaching morals and values through sports!

As we walked the half mile or so to the stadium (I suppose a parking a quarter mile away was $60), the drizzle came down like a fine mist, and the conversation with Steve flowed about the game and the big players and our excitement for the evening.  I also asked him in a most humble and wussy way, “Um, Steve, if someone tries to beat me up today because I’m wearing Steelers gear, you got my back, right?”  Steve assured me he would be there.  This made me much happier than the $40 payout I had just given to Bob Kraft and the gang.  When we arrived in our seats, I noticed an unhealthy environment issue around me – When we walked to the stadium, I saw plenty of Steelers fans with their towels and heavy black and yellow clothing and beer in hand, ready for a great game, but when I sat down, my section enjoyed almost all Pats fans.  It was after all, in New England.

I purposed in my heart that I would not overtly be a butt head or an over zealous ‘away team’ fan, so as the game started, when the Steelers had something good happen, I cheered, but did not stand or scream, or even wave the “terrible towel”.  Of course, early on, very little happened to make me cheer, so this wasn’t difficult.   Eventually two opposing things happened to make my night as confusing as a young teenager who just wants to be friends but can’t live without that person (please see your teenage friends facebook status for details):  First, it started raining.  The entire game it rained and rained, until everyone, myself included, felt miserable.  Overpriced hot chocolate from McDonalds didn’t help.  A hot dog, that based on what I paid for it could have fed a small orphanage in Peru, didn’t help.  The rain came down cold and wet and nasty, and eventually pressed through my clothing into my skin like tiny tacks that the devil might sit on, ouch!

Secondly, by the time the game ended, even I, who cheered heartily for the victory the future super bowl champion Steelers pulled out that night (33-10, in case you wondered, though that was so not the point of this post) was happy to be walking back to my car.  The entire crowd moved slowly and almost everyone looked down at the ground, not only because of the loss, but also because of the intensity of the rain at the cold at this point in the evening.  As we walked towards the exit, I felt something happen to me – I no longer had my terrible towel in my hand.  Very slowly I turned around a full 360 degrees and saw nothing. And then, deciding to take an additional 90 degrees for fun, I saw these three guys laughing at me and looking back about 15 feet behind me.  I looked at the ground in that particular direction and saw my towel – cold, wet, and clumped on the ground being walked on by other passerbyers.

Glancing toward the direction of Steve, I noticed he had continued walking and with his hood on, he wasn’t able to see the stressful situation his friend had found himself.  So I looked back at the 3 guys and said to the one that appeared to be the culprit, “What are you doing?”  He was short and probably drunk and kind of reminded me of Johnny Lawrence, the anti-Ralph Macchio from the movie “The Karate Kid.” His response was typical of someone who was angry at the loss of his sports team and had numbers to back him up:  “Whatever I want to do, what are you going to do about it?”

So now I have an ethical decision to make in the midst of all this chaos.  Thousand of people walking all around me, most of which think I’m stupid for wearing the colors I’m wearing, and I’m processing,  Do I say something sarcastic and inspire their ire, or do I stand back and not give in to what they clearly want me to do?  Extra, extra, read all about it, local pastor arrested for inciting an argument after last nights game.  He clearly was at fault because of his clothing choice. After some careful thought in 3 or so seconds I was able to think, I looked straight at them, and said:

“Well, I’m going to walk back there, pick up my towel, and celebrate MY team’s victory.  Have an amazing night guys!”

Someday I will be more like Jesus and use that opportunity, not to have an ounce of sarcasm in my voice, but to point people to the Father.  Unfortunately though, it didn’t happen that day…

and it probably won’t happen in that sport.

In the last weeks, two people (and in one case, husband and wife) have taken a risk and started a real conversation with me.  In both scenarios we were eating and chit chatting about life, sports, kids, and job stuff, when out of the blue, they both burst out with something that had clearly been on their minds and hearts.  What was inside of them was so important that they broke the old adage about the faux pas of conversation (never talk about politics or religion, and for what can be inferred, anything personal and real about your life) and brought it out to me.  The result was two conversations that I’ll never forget and will for a while at least, stamp what they’re going through on my mind so I can pray and continue the dialogue.

They could have kept it light.  They could have continued on how the Pats are playing or the weather or how the church is doing, but I think they took a risk, and shared with me something real going on in their lives.  I hope to learn a lesson from them.

But I still hate talking politics.

Hola!  I hope you’re having an amazing Columbus Day.  You can read why we celebrate this explorer/adventurer here.

I have recently returned from the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta and here was my schedule for the weekend:

Friday, 5:30 pm – Catalyst Conference ends.  Begin drive home of 1100 miles.
Saturday, 12:00 pm – Arrive home from long drive with Steve, Al, Billy, and Steve Bramlett.
Saturday, 1:00 pm – After unpacking and chatting with Carie for a bit, I began preparing for a 6:00 pm wedding I was officiating.
Saturday, 2:00 pm – Began searching for my message for Sunday morning @ Fellowship.  It was nowhere to be found on my computer.  So I wrote down a few thoughts I had and prayed a lot.
Saturday, 4:00 pm – began to prepare for the wedding (ironing clothes, polishing shoes, etc…)
Saturday, 4:30 pm – Nap time.
Saturday, 5:15 pm – wake up and finish dressing.
Saturday, 5:20 pm – drive to the wedding.
Saturday, 6:00 pm – Wedding time!
Saturday, 10:00 pm – Leaving the wedding reception.
Saturday, 10:30 pm – Sweet sleep.  I was about to drop.
Sunday, 4:14 am – Wakie, wakie, eggs and bacie!  And immediately begin preparing for Sunday morning @ Fellowship.
Sunday, 10:30 am – Sunday Morning @ Fellowship!
Sunday, 1:30 pm – Drive to Malta, NY to celebrate Tina’s Birthday
Sunday, 4:30 pm – Party with Carie, Jessica, Tom, Tina, Ray, Joanna, Steve, Amy, and several others.
Sunday, 8:00 pm – Watched The Patriots get their world rocked.
Sunday, 12:00 am – Finally get to go to bed!

It’s been such a crazy last several days.  I love it!  And today is relax day, enjoying my wife and a few friends in New York!  Tomorrow I have a great idea I’ll be blogging about. At least to me it’s a great idea.  You can judge for yourself.

What are you doing to celebrate Christipher?

I’ve found a few interesting posts in the last hour that you should read if you get a chance.
First of all, this post with a big picture online that says “Sorry Pats”.
It’s by the Boston Herald, apologizing for the false walkthrough report.  Another words, Mat Walsh, the guy who all Pats fans everywhere victimized for being an idiot liar, never said that he filmed a super bowl walkthrough.
But in the end, let’s be serious here, they don’t need to be apologizing to the Patriots, the Pats need to be thanking them.  Why?  You might ask.  Well, as this guy says here, it’s a matter of perspective.  Because of this story, nobody actually cares about the physical evidence that they actually have, they only care about this supposed super bowl walk through, so when there is no “super bowl” tapes, this mess can all go away.  It’s a bit like telling the parents that you wrecked their car, and then saying, “Just kidding, I just drove it after you told me not to.”  It’s still wrong, but now they look at it from a different perspective.

Also, this blog, and the latest post associated with it, is the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. 

This blog is an unofficial poll about what kind of worship music churches are using.  He has a lot of good things to say, and here’s a good place to start.  Plus, he’s met Andy Stanley, and that makes him an indirect hero in my book.

Lastly, it’s Wednesday, so join Randy Elrod and me around the Watercooler today for all things culture related.  You’ll be glad you did.

Please let me know about a blog you enjoy reading.

I’m amazed at how sometimes when life seems crazy and things are moving 100 mph in 1,000 different directions how all of a sudden, certain themes can rise through the chaos and into your head, united and ready to move you to a new place in your life.

Like the time when all seemed lost in the football world and the evil empire of the dark lord Bill Bellicheck and his jedi apprentice Tom Brady were amassing several super bowls in a row, and out of that chaos came a young football QB named Ben and an old bus who was ready to return home.  All seemed lost, yet light came from all of that darkness.

This month seemed a bit like that to me when I was moving very fast in a lot of different directions and was having trouble focusing,and then this week happened.  To put it bluntly, I was looking for God to do something, to move in a way, and to take me to “the next level.”  I know, I know, it all seems so abstract, and it was.  That was the problem.

Then the last two weeks happened.  On Sunday Morning @ Fellowship, I’m going through a series called,”Live Different“, where I’m focusing on ways that we as the body of Christ, individually and corporately, can make a difference by living differently.  On Easter, we started it off by discussing “Living passionately”and then we’ve dealt with “Living generously”and “Living Truthfully.”

I suppose last week when I was studying truth is when it all started.  I just really had a feeling, like I have had for a while, that sometimes Christians hijack the word truth to their own end, and go who knows where with it.  This week’s topic really hit me – “Living Free”.

And all of a sudden, I believe I was being hit over the head with this topic in every area of my life, and continue to be.  People were coming to me talking about their situations in this area.  I was having conversations with friends about this and trying to figure out why we constantly enslave ourselves as humans to every fleeting fad and event.  Carie and I had begun to discucc this topic regularly in our conversations.  And then my life group went there because we’ve been reading the book, “I became a Christian and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.” 

The chapter we read was 6, entitled “Hungry”.  In it, the author Vince Antonucci, pastor of Forefront Church in Virginia gives this amazing illustration of being hungry for Christ, and how we, as followers of Him, so many times try to feed our hunger by things and material possessions and relationships and Atari game systems (not sure what he was thinking).

He goes more into detail about how our relationship with Jesus is good, and it certainly is better than a religion, but it is not as good as abiding in Christ, which is where Christ says we should be heading.  You see, relationship is good, but abiding, or being in Him, and allowing Him to be in you, is better.

Then Vince shares this illustration of a baby inside of a mother’s womb, who is abiding inside his or her mother.  If you were to ask the baby how his relationship is with his mother, the baby (if it could plainly communicate the way we communicate) would probably say that he has a relationship with his mother, but actually, he could not live without his mother. He is connected to his mother. He remains inside his mother.

I have a great relationship with Jesus.  I hang out with Him. I talk to Him.  I even think He likes me.  But I don’t want the kind of relationship with Him that I have with pretty much every other friend I have – that is, the kind that if they or I were away or moved away that I could live without them.  I want to be in so tight with Him and His Father that I can’t live without Him.

I think that’s where true freedom lies.