Strike Zone

Last night, my wife and I were flipping back and forth between the Monday Night Football game and the Yankees/Rays baseball playoff game. Now I grew up playing both sports and attended a school where football was king and every kid played baseball since the time they could hit off a tee. My wife on the other hand attended smaller Christian schools where the choice of athletics was limited. She loves basketball and volleyball. But unfortunately one of those sports is in a major labor dispute and the other one is barely on TV. Being the loving wife that she is, she puts up with a lot of football and baseball.  Last Wednesday night, which many consider the best night of regular season baseball ever, she didn't have a clue. And a few days later she asked me, "Did something happen the other night with some baseball games?"

Yes babe, something did happen.

All of this leading up to last night. My wife has a hard time understanding some essential parts of both baseball and football.

In football, she cannot seem to grasp the concept of the downs. You have 4 downs to get a 1st down unless you get 10 yards on any given down which then makes it 1st down again. But on 4th down you can punt because you may not get a 1st down. It's quite hilarious listening to myself trying to explain something to her that I have understood since I could hold a football.

But last night the discussion was on baseball. What is a ball and what is a strike? Essentially the conversation boiled down to the strike zone. What it is and who decides it. We were watching and she was guessing what the pitch was. The handy, dandy strike zone tracker on TBS certainly helps! But sometimes the the ump would call a strike when the pitch seemed to be on the edge. Her mind couldn't handle the discrepancy and the subjective opinion of the ump. I then tried to teach her about setting up a batter and a infield shift, along with a sacrifice squeeze.

These things from baseball and football are second nature to me and most guys (and girls if they're from Iowa). I've grown up around sports and the lingo. But the discussions with my wife brought another thought to my head. What about the Gospel?

How do we explain the Gospel? What do we say to a person who has not been exposed to the church and the "lingo" all their life? We need to keep things simple and realize the message of God's love through Jesus Christ must be kept simple to those who have never heard it before. On Wednesday nights, I've been teaching through an outreach curriculum that uses a technique which condenses the Gospel down to 10 words: Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead. Now, is that everything there is to know about the Gospel? No. But we must be patient and understand that many people don't have the background to be jumping into talking about the hypostatic union and the 4 creatures found in the book of Daniel. Sometimes we need to start at the basics of who God is and what he has done for us.


Remember, not everyone knows what the strike zone is and how to get a first down, so start simple and see what they learn!

The Love of Mowing

I love to mow. 

I love to mow alot. Just ask my wife! When we moved to Mason City we considered several different things and consulted several different people but one thing that I liked was the opportunity to volunteer out at camp. Now I am not handy like my dad, I can't cook, and you don't want me in the office...so what can I do? I mow. And it's awesome! My favorite days during the summer are my Mondays because they are my day off and I get to mow. That's the thing about grass, it usually keeps growing! 

My affection with mowing started when I was young. I would follow my dad around with my toy mower while he would be mowing the yard. Soon after that I would be the one mowing. Then I got a job with the J&S Turf Team in town and that's where my addiction finally paid off...literally! I learned how to stripe the grass and how to mow around trees properly. How to mow a lawn and not blow any grass on the driveways and sidewalks! Plus, the mowers we used were a lot bigger than the Lawn Boy mower at home!

It's amazing how God works things together. I still get to mow. I turn on the mower, I turn on my iPod, I put on my sunscreen ;-) and I tune out the world! It always feels when you finish mowing some grass. You really accomplished something until you need to do it again and I love it!

Spiritual Leadership

Welp...it's been a while since my last post! About 3 months to be precise. Now I know all of you have thrown your hands up in protest but I am sorry. I've been a bit busy, part lazy and a lot forgetful. So here we go...hopefully I'll be a bit more consistent in the near future!

We've started up our weekly bible study for our Senior Highers this past week. The girl are going through a book entitled "A Young Woman Who Reflects the Heart of Jesus". The guys will be starting this week, we're reading "Spiritual Leadership" by J. Oswald Sanders.

I've read this book several times and highlighted many of the pages but it's been refreshing to read it again now that I am in a position of leadership. Not only as a youth pastor but as a husband. God's command to husbands to love and direct and lead their wives is apparent in scripture. It is something that I think is lacking in today's churches. It's interesting to look at the strong women in the church but where are the men? I am not saying there are no men who are spiritual leaders anywhere but there should be more! We need to man up and take our God given responsibility to lead our families and churches in a Godly, selfless way. It's amazing to see how God works when we work how He wants us to!

Mmmm....Lobster!

Ok...it's been over a month and I haven't posted. I've been busy with graduations, mission trip preparation, VBS preparation and all kinds of other things, but mainly I've been too lazy to post! Obviously I can't keep up with my own challenge! But I hopefully will do better here in the coming months to stay up to date with things going on in my life!

This past Monday I went out to IRBC (that's Iowa Regular Baptist Camp aka the coolest camp in the world for those of you who don't live in Iowa) and volunteered. My plan is to volunteer on my days off over the summer because I love camp and I like being outside in the summer! But this is what also brings me to my topic today...Sunburn.

Pastor Dave knows I like to mow, I like to mow a lot! So when given the opportunity to mow the Old Golf Course at camp I jumped at it! I had my iPod ready, with my 32 oz Dr. Pepper from Kum & Go (they have cheap fountain drinks during the summer, check it out!) and the ExMark riding lawn mower. Knowing that my wife would be upset with me if I didn't put sunscreen on I found some SPF 30 from one of the special camp counselors. I lathered up and headed out!

4 hours had passed from when I started and it was lunch time. Of course we had Camp Mac & Cheese, a favorite of the head cook's husband so of course she will always serve it! I sat at the table and realized my arms were a bit red. Now understand, I am a connoisseur of sunburn. Ever since I got my first blisters on my shoulders when I was young it seems I can classify the severity and time of the burn. This sunburn was a mild burn, one from a day spent out side at the pool or a ball game. The thing is I had only been outside for 4 hours. I believe my skin is an overachiever and can get burned a full days burn in only 4 hours. Needless to say I headed for the office looking for more sunscreen.

Julie Nicholls, the camp secretary, bless her heart went and found some sunscreen for me. She found SPF 8. Putting SPF 8 on me is like building a toothpick dam along the Mississippi River, it's just not gonna do the trick. But without any more potent substitute I applied a layer. Not only to my arms but also my knees. My knees don't see a lot of sun now that I wear pants and sit in an office. My white knees and the sun are not best friends.

By the time supper rolled around I was wearing a long sleeve shirt with the collar popped and my shorts were almost off my behind because I kept pulling them down to cover my knees. I looked like a boiled lobster and felt about as good as one too I reckon.

I made my way home and showed my wife. All she could do was laugh and say you will never learn. And the sad thing is, I probably won't. I still imagine myself with a glowing bronze tan (no thanks to my best friend Ryan Sauser who can tan in the middle of the night!) mowing across an open field. But now I am stuck with red knees and an addiction to aloe vera. Oh well that's life and the thing is guess what I'm doing next Monday?! I'll be out at camp again because grass doesn't stop growing and I'm pretty sure I won't stop burning!

Try and keep up!

Shhh!!!! It's A Suprise!

My birthday is in two days. I'm going to be the ripe old age of 23. I know I should probably start looking for retirement homes! Anyways...my family was never big on birthdays, we still got presents and my parents told me happy birthday and my grandma would make me my favorite meal (you'll get bonus points if you comment and tell me what it is!). But all in all, it was another normal day.

I am still not big on birthdays. You're another day older, so what, want a cookie? Why are you any more special than anyone else, we all have to be born on some day, right?

Well, Keri is on the other side of the argument. She loves her birthday. She's not one of those crazy, psycho, I'm going to cry if I don't get my way birthday people...but close ;-) And another thing about Keri, she can't keep a secret. I'm sure if you ask her to keep a deep, personal secret, I think she could but other than that, not really! I have an example!

The other day she came home from work and after pouring her traditional after work bowl of cereal she sat down and stared at me. Not like a normal look but one that said I did something for you that you don't know about.

I simply said, "What."

She himmed and hawwed and went back and forth telling me to guess and than not guess and asking me if I wanted to know something. I told her if she wanted to tell me something she was more than welcome to! Then she let one thing slip..."it's about your birthday".

I told her that if she wanted to keep her surprise she should walk out of the room before she let any more go...but she couldn't handle the suspense of me not knowing! "I got you a cake" she announces immediately followed by "arghh...I can not keep secrets, why do I always do this! Act like you're surprised on Saturday ok? Ok."

30 minutes later she is still reminiscing over the fact that she can't keep a secret! It's hilarious, I've never seen someone so torn over the fact that they told another person they were getting them a cake! Even yesterday, which means it's been almost 3 days since she let it slip she is still wishing she didn't tell. But she couldn't hold it in!

I told her she was lucky that I proposed to her because no way was she going to be able to keep that a secret! So...the cat is out of the bag. My wife got me a cake for my birthday and I am supposed to act surprised when I get it! I can do that! Because like Jim Gaffigan says, everything is OK when cake is involved!

Try and keep up!

The Race Against Time!

It's been a while since I have posted and I apologize to all of my readers...basically just my mom then! Haha! It has been a crazy couple of weeks. I've had Counselor Training at IRBC, Easter services and a whirlwind trip to Michigan.

Keri's grandfather passed away about 2 weeks ago. He was a believer and a wonderful man of God. It is a tough time nonetheless when someone you love passes away. Of course we were not going to miss the funeral so we loaded up our car and took a road trip to Michigan. Although it was for a funeral, it was great spending time with Keri's sister and brother-in-law and their two boys, Jack and Silas. It was a blast, it was also good seeing several relatives who I met at our wedding and haven't seen since and meet some other relatives for the first time.

It was a great but fast trip. We left Tuesday evening and were back by Thursday evening. One aspect of Keri that I appreciate is that our travel philosophy is the same. Only stop when you need gas or someone is going to get sick. When I am on the road and heading somewhere, I am on a mission! That's how we traveled when I was a kid and am glad that Keri feels the same way.

I grew up reading an atlas, my mother taught me and that is what she always used to direct our vacation and were rarely if ever got lost. But now there are things called GPS. I like GPS as well as an atlas. But there is something about a GPS that helps Keri and I pass the time. It's called the "Estimated Time of Arrival".

It has become a game to us. We plug in our route and see when the GPS thinks we will arrive at our finish line. And then we try to beat it! Of course the easy way is to speed a little, and I'm not going to say I don't but I do go with the flow of traffic. This estimated time of arrival has turned our gas stops into pit stops, where we run in and out of the gas station, going to the bathroom as fast as we can just so we don't lose time! Of course you always lose a little, and I know that my wife and I are not the only people who try and beat the GPS. Am I right or am I right?!?!?

So next time you plug in your GPS you better get in the passing lane or draft behind some one or don't drink any liquids ;-) because it's a race against the clock!

Try and keep up!

The Smartest Man Alive!

Most people in the world will probably say that Albert Einstein was one of the smartest, if not, the smartest men in the world. Sure, I can understand that with all the talk about relativity and quantum physics and that math junk. He wrote books and theories and papers and hypotheses and dissertations and all that intellectual stuff. I'll give him that but I think I may have found a man that has given him a run for his money....my dad.

I told you all that my parents visited Keri and I about a week and a half ago. While they were here my dad helped me with several jobs around the house that I didn't know how to fix or didn't want to screw up! Out of the day they were there, the time I enjoyed the most was talking to my dad while we did little projects. We fixed (and when I say we I mean my dad) a ceiling fan, put in new outdoor lights and several other little things. I realized or rather keep realizing something about my dad. He's a genuis, sure maybe not mathematical or scientific, but he knows stuff that I wish I knew. About cars, about electrical wiring, about money, about computers (I'm catching up to him in that!), but most importantly about life. I just enjoy listening to him talk about life. Little things he picked up here or there. What Dave Ramsey is saying about this. Or why an anhydrous tank is parked in a certain direction in a field. Just random cool stuff that blows my mind. He has common sense that isn't too common any more and he loves his family.

If I knew half the stuff my dad did I would be a better man and a very smarter one too! I appreciate him and what he has done for his family. And for all the stuff he taught my sister and I when we didn't want to hear it.

So eat your heart out Albert Einstein because in my book the smartest man alive is my dad.

Try and keep up!