In Rocky 4, as you may or may not recall, Rocky goes up against his worst nightmare, a freakishly large, steroid infused Russian (cold war days) who was built and trained to be the world heavyweight champion.  At first, the Russian whips up on the smaller and slower Balboa, but in one of the later rounds, Rocky, after taking an incredible beating, gets a huge shot in and the announcer says, “The Russian’s been cut, The Russian’s been cut!”

The huge favorite for the Stanley Cup this year is the Detroit Red Wings.  But last night, the much younger Penguins beat the Red Wings in triple overtime at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.  Now they go back to Pittsburgh for game 6, where the Penguins have only been beaten one time since February.

Will the unthinkable happen?

Last night Al and I drove to Boston to a Boston Baptist College alumni dinner (can you say free barbeque).  I have had a relationship with the school, and I’m a pastor, so I was invited to attend via email from my friend Scotty Anderson.

We twittered about it all night (yet another exciting reason to twitter), but I thought I’d say a few words about it on my blog.  BBC is a college that has its roots in the Baptist Bible Fellowship, and is a network of autonomous (unless you change the name of your church to not have the word “Baptist” anymore) churches for the purpose of things like fellowship and missions.  Typically I enjoy spending time with many of these pastors, and really, this evening was no exception.

Al and I arrived late because of traffic, and almost all the barbeque was gone when we got there.  But we dug up the food we could, which was very amazing.  And we ate.  This was good too.  Among the things on the menu:

Barbeque Beef sandwiches
Bbq baked beans
Corn bread
the most amazing cheesecake bites ever

After we ate, the program began.  There are some things that are done well during bbf meetings like this, but there is hardly anything that is done relevant.  For instance, the music was wonderful, it was just boring, with the exception of one song where this girl stole the show from her parents (who were the main performers) and sang this song with her dad that was absolutely brilliant.  The song was old-fashioned, but how it was done was great.

After the concert, a alumnus from the school came to the stage and offered some thoughts on how it prepared him for his work on the mission field.  Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Perhaps the only redeeming part of the night was the speaker (every BBF meeting has a preacher, not a speaker, amen!) named Paul Trinkle.  I know Paul’s brother, Ed, but had never got a chance to meet him.  His message was encouraging as he focused on the relationship of Moses and Joshua, and encouraged every Moses (old guy) to have a Joshua, and every Joshua (young guy) to become a Moses. (from Exodus 33)

After the meeting, Al and I talked to several people we know, and then we went to Dunkin Donuts with some of my closer friends from the group and talked church for a bit.  Actually, one of our friends, attempted to share with several of us why we should be more a part of the BBF.  I was not convinced.  In fact, one of the lessons I learned from the chat was that the ONLY thing I need from this organization is fellowship.  I don’t need or want their money.  I don’t need to send any of my students to their Bible college.  I only need to be able to chat with a group of guys who are going through many of the same things I am.  Here are 3 of the guys I met with:

Left to right:  Paul Trinkle, Sean Sears, Rob Willis (not pictured:  James Tomassen (sp?), Al Dancy)

We stayed there chatting until about 10:35 pm, at which time the Celtics had already beaten up on the Pistons in game 1.  I had a great time, like I always do even with the music and suits, because of relationships.  This is why I go. 

I did ask myself however if I would have rather have been here.

How about this?  My dad’s favorite teams in basketball and hockey are the Pistons and the Red Wings
My favorite teams are the Celtics and the Penguins. 

I bet there will be some trash talking!

Welcome to MoMo’s! HERE are the guidelines. If this is your first time giving your “amazing story”, PLEASE take time to read them. It will save us both a lot of time.

To join me, write a post today (or a post you’ve written from last Monday to Sunday) sharing something tht has happened to you this last week - anything funny or interesting, crazy, fulfilled, too busy, hilarious, wistful, or any number of out of the ordinary happenings that made you happy or miserable last week.  Put a link in your post to this post permalink (not my general URL) and then put the permalink of your post (not your general URL) here at the end of this post. Thanks.  By the way, I do this because I love stories.  To tell them, to hear them, and to read them.

So tell me your “Inspired by the truth” story every Monday…

Here’s mine.

This weekend was a blast.  I went to a wedding reheasal on Frday night, then went to Gibbits Grill in Groton.  Amazing food, and the groom for the wedding that I performed is one of the top chefs there.  If you’re looking for a date night restaurant in Massachusetts,GO THERE!

The wedding was held in a different establishment I had never been to, but just as well-known, and I was looking forward to performing the ceremony.  The mother of the bride seemed a bit nervous for me, and asked if this was my first wedding.  I think she was encouraged when I told her it was my 15th.  Here’s the lucky couple.  They were great to work with, and I’m excited about their future together.

Sunday finished off our weekend with a bang.  Both Carie and I were tired from the busy schedule, but we had great services at Fellowship Church and then we went to a 30th birthday party for this guy, where the band “The Black Raspberries” played underneath a tent in the rain (Pictured above).  Good stuff!  If you ever get a chance to see them, check them out.  And I couldn’t find a link to them, so anyone knowing how I can link to them via the web, please comment!

After my venture to the party in Sturbridge, we had dinner with this guys family, while watching the Celtics win the 2nd round of the NBA playoffs  So did the Penguins by the way.  Stanley cup bound!

All in all, it was a great weekend. 

I love it!  Not only did my Celtics go to round 2 today, but my NHL Penguins advanced to round 3 sweeping in the first round, and only losing 1 game in the 2nd.  Today was evidently a great game, and the thing I love about it was that I found out about the victory from a Twitter friend from Canada.  Life is good.  I would love to see my teams win the Stanley Cup and the NBA Championships this year.

Would you love that for me?

As a child of parents who pastored a church, I had some great babysitters.  One of those babysitters had a son who about two years older than me.  That son turned me toward sports in Pittsburgh, specifically the Pittsburgh Steelers.  I love the Steelers.  I always have and I always will.

But I also like all the other Pittsburgh teams:  The Pirates and the Penguins.  The NBA didn’t support a team from the Steel city, so I, like my father before me, was captivated by the great Larry Bird.

Years go by, and the Steelers, under the “Jaw” Coach Bill Cowher, just kept improving, while the Penguins and the Pirates, just kept stinking it up.  I cheered for them anyway, always with some hope for the future.

About 10 years ago I moved to New England.  The first week I was here, I was grocery shopping and found a box of Wheaties with Larry Bird on the front of the box.  I was in my own personal sports heaven.  But I continued to cheer for the other Pittsburgh teams.  Along the way, I found that New England’s enthusiasm for their pro sports teams was infectious.  Imagine 6 states sharing one team per sport.  And they all focused on the pro teams, because by in large, their college teams are really lousy compared to the rest of the country.  Along the way, I have also begun to cheer for and occasionally watch the New England Revolution, who are frequently competitive in the MLS.

Before I go any farther, let me just say that the day will never come when I am no longer a Steelers fan.  I don’t like the Patriots, and they are one of my favorite teams to hate.  I WILL ALWAYS BE A STEELERS FAN, and probably I’ll always be one in New England.  I’ll always be a Penguin fan too, but not for the same reasons.  Basically I don’t care about hockey enough to change my fanship.  Plus four words:  Mario Lemieux Sidney Crosby.

Along the way though, something has taken place that I can no longer ignore.  I no longer care about the Pirates, who constantly lose year after year because their owners seem to care enough to build a new park, but don’t care enough to put a decent team together since 1993 (see Jim Leyland, Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, and Andy Van Slyke).  In that same time, I’ve watched several Red Sox games on TV and at Fenway, and seen miracles of enormous capacity (see 2004 playoff race).

So I’m going to do something that I haven’t done since I was in elementary school in Ohio – I’m going to switch my allegiance in baseball from the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Boston Red Sox.  So Pirate Fans (if there are any left), you can hate me, and Red Sox nation, I hope you will embrace me.

Favorite:
NBA Team:  Celtics
NFL Team:  Steelers
NHL Team:  Penguins
MLB Team:  Red Sox
MLS Team:  Revolution
College Teams:  Universities of Michigan & Pitt

And I can’t wait for the 2008 playoff race!