My Farm

I won't get into my Farmville activities just yet but I wanted to share this so others could use it to get some ideas of how they could make their own farm if they had the time and inclination to do so. I understand that the illusion of it being "in the air" is lost on some people due in part to the two pictures and on a small scale, narrow-mindedness. :-) Just kidding! Haha!

Never be the one to follow a legend.

Care to be the coach who had to follow Vince Lombardi? Or Bear Bryant? Or Brett Favre? Dan Marino? Paul McCartney?

Of course, the title says follow a "legend" though the person I am referring to isn't a "legend" because of his greatness. Quite the opposite actually. His name is Judas. Or Judas Iscariot to be exact. The betrayer of Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Yea, that guy.

I don't actually want to focus of Judas but more the guy picked to replace him among the 12 Apostles.

In Acts 1:21-26, it describes how he was replaced following his death (he killed himself because of guilt for giving up Jesus to the Romans.) I was amazed when I read the story of how he was replaced and by whom.

First, they reference the book of Psalms that tells them that he (Judas) needs to be replaced and they do so from the group of men who followed Jesus the whole time. They narrow it down to two (Joseph/Justus/Barsabbas and Matthias). Then they prayed. Then they cast lots, which means they put both names on two stones, placed them in a container and the person whose name came out first was selected. Kind of like spiritual Yahtzee. The bible is filled with references of casting lots. The majority of those verses (70) are in the Old Testament with only a handful (7) in the New Testament.

DETOUR ALERT: Some of you may be asking why it was OK to use
that method of decision-making back then but not now in our day and age...Well,
now that believers have the Holy Spirit inside, relying on a decision from a
stone or die would amount to turning your back on God.

Now, back to the original point I was trying to make. After the bible references Matthias being "added among the 11," he is never mentioned again in the scriptures. Maybe, it's just me, but I find that odd.

Can you imagine the enormity of his selection at the time? Put yourself in Mattias' shoes. To put that in perspective in the secular world, that would be like being chosen to replace the Beatle's John Lennon when he was killed in 1980. Except with this new Apostle, we have no recollection of his work from that point on.

Of course there is no true answer to what it all means or what we can learn from it but here are some possibilities:

1. Be humble: Just when you think you've "made it" or "arrived" there is no way of knowing what tomorrow may bring.

2. Be "Use able": His lack of being notated could simply be that his work from that point on was not as "noteworthy". Sometimes the biggest impact is made by those who work behind the scenes and receive little, if any, notoriety.

3. Location. location, location...AND be careful what you wish for: As they began to build the church, several of the apostles had more notable positions or jobs. For example Peter was the apostle to the Jews while Paul was apostle to the gentiles. While records aren't completely clear, it is believed he wasn't sent to the glitz and glamor of someplace like Rome or Athens. On the contrary, accounts do have him preaching to the barbarians in the interior of Ethiopia.

4. X-Factor: Maybe we aren't supposed to know until we meet him...

"Significant day in my life"...installment # 2 (of many....)

As I outlines in my last blog a few days ago, this is one of those dates that has significant meaning to me and along with the other days I will point out, has shaped me (in some degree) into the person I am today.



November 11, 2000.

At this point in my life, I had been married to Kellea for a little less than one year and we had our little girl Kylee who was about 4 months old. I had been a Christian for all of 6 days and was coaching my third basketball game since that incredible day.



I had taken my new position at the YMCA but continued to coach the boy's middle school team at Sacred Heart Catholic School. I had coached this set of young men since most were in the 3rd and 4th grade and loved them like no team I had ever coached. They were a great team. They knew how to play and they worked hard.

I put them through hell and regrettably most of it was not even remotely necessary. Call it misguided or self-indulgent or just plain stupid and all would probably fit just fine.



We made it to the Finals of the pre-season Tourney where we lost to San Jose Catholic.

We finished second in the regular season with only two losses...both to San Jose Catholic.

We made it to the Championship game where on this date (11/11/00), we lost to San Jose Catholic.



For lack of a better term, I was going to "retire" at the conclusion of the last game. I could no longer ask the YMCA if I could leave early every day for practice and with a growing family, my time was no longer mine to do with as I wished.

That was 9 years ago. Since then, I have skirted every chance to coach teams, including unfortunately those of my own children. I did dabble as an assistant for MCS a few years ago with my brother-in-law Bill who was coaching the girl's middle school team. And about 2 months ago, I was roped into being an assistant for my son's t-ball team. But never a head coach.

Some of you close to me, may wonder why I left out the details of my last game since there were plenty to share. I guess my answer is: I don't know. Maybe because I have blocked so many of the memories out of my mind or I've moved past it now. I can't recall what the score was or even how much we lost by. I vaguely remember the award ceremony. I can't even recall what color our uniforms were or what we called our offensive or defensive play sets.

Nevertheless, it's a day that will stick with me forever...or at least I think it will. :-)

"Significant day in my life"...installment # 1 (of many....)

This is the first of several days I plan to blog about because I find them of significant interest because....well, they are significant.(duhhh..) And while it would be easy to point out singular days with singular special occurrences, some of the ones I will point out go beyond the "ordinary" dates that one might expect like a wedding day, etc.

For example, this one today (11/5/09) stands out in my life for two reasons.
First, it would have been my father's 72nd birthday. He was born this day in 1937 but passed away in July of '03 from Alzheimer's.

Secondly, I gave my life to Christ on this same day in 2000 at the Billy Graham Crusade here in Jacksonville. It goes without saying that this is the single-most influential day in my life and I am so thankful that the Lord kept me around long enough to see that day.

Look! A No-Look!

I have been looking for this photo for about 2 years and I finally found it! It is a picture of my son Grayson executing his first "no-look" pass. :-) He is about 18 months old here in the photo. He didn't get this skill from his daddy because I never liked to pass the ball. As the saying goes, "you could fake a pass to me and I'd shoot it."

My two little cheerleaders!

Here are my two daughters Kylee and Cami cheering for their school. They are on the Impact cheer squad at MCS and despite their looks on their faces, they are having a great time this season! Go Eagles!

Grayson's 1st hit on thrown pitch

Tonight, Grayson got his 1st hit off of a thrown pitch. He was the last batter of the game so he was allowed to just keep on running but that is not on this clip since it took him about 25 seconds.

High School Football team that doesn't punt or kick field goals.

I can remember the video the coach references when he talks about the stategy of never punting. His ratinonal makes a bunch of sense. I have seen several local (Jacksonville) high school teams that do the on-side kick every time as well. You can't argue with the success of the coach being interviewed. I'd love it if my kid played for a coach who doesn't always do things just because that's what everyone else does. Bravo.

Discovered for whom?

When my brother Vance passed away in April, me and my two other brothers went over to his house to gather his personal items that were still remaining. Picture albums, newspaper articles, trophies, high school letterman's jacket...all items I remembered him having that would be lasting tokens of his time here. One item I didn't think much about when I picked it up was his home stereo. It was one of those small, compact ones that holds 5 CD's. I think they call them bookshelf stereos. For the past five months it had been sitting on a shelf in my garage.


Until last night.


As I cleaned it off, I happen to hit the button to eject all the CD's still in the stereo.

Out came three from the Beatles:

1. Magical Mystery Tour

2. Abbey Road

3. 1

And The Best of Three Dog Night.

Why am I writing about this?
Let me back up one small step to explain. When my dad passed away in 2003, he'd been suffering for several years from Alzheimer's and lived 1,100 miles away in MA. I know that in his condition, he basically sat mindlessly in front of the TV all day when he wasn't with his wife Annie. So when he passed away there were no points of nostalgia like a novel he was reading or a vegetable he was growing in a garden. Just TV, his cigarettes and his dog Duke.

So last night, I was saddened to think that Vance had no wife or kids who would take this "discovery" and have it stick as a memory of what their loved one liked to listened to at the end of his life.

It seemed like if I took those CD's and just put them with the others, I would be erasing a piece of his story that no one other than me would ever be able to tell or reminisce about.

In retrospect, I guess that Eric, Mark, my still grieving mom and I are the ones this slice of memory will be for.

A part of me just wishes there was a wife or children in which I could share my find. Why do you suppose that is?

Work update...

Today was my boss' last day at work. I hated to see her leave as she has been such huge help in my transition to this position. She was an awesome supervisor and taught me a tremendous amount in 5 short months. I pray she lands on her feet in a new company and that maybe one day our paths will cross again in the business world.

This corporate world stuff has been a real eye-opener. It's a lot like I expected but you can never really prepare yourself until your there. Kind of like having kids or being married...

As a side note, I have a new supervisor now and one that I have worked well with over my time here so far. I am excited to see where this all goes.

New direction in my life...

For those of you who haven't heard or maybe those who actually want to know more about why I left my job at Christ's Church, I will give a little rundown. That sentence actually sounds kind of weird that anyone would even use this kind of forum to share this or that I actually think someone would care to know.

I left the job I have long thought of as my dream job on April 7th, '09.
This whole idea transpired over about a 3 day span and I can't actually say what exactly push me past the point of even giving the idea any real thought.

In part, I can think of 3 things that have really weighed on me recently. One is my friend Eric who had his dad (also a very good friend of mine) diagnosed with cancer and go from "fine" to near death in a matter of days. I struggled between wanting to go hang out with them but I also didn't want to interfere in what could be their last days together. Sadly enough, I also had struggles with having other responsibilities (work...) that I allowed to get in the way of where my real ministry should have been taking place. Not the jobs fault, but my own for allowing it to get to that point. I am thrilled to say that Eric and his dad Mike have had more days together than they ever thought while Mike was laying in that hospital bed. I shed tears after I hugged Mike when I saw him at our Easter services just a few days ago.

Secondly, would be a relative of mine who has fallen into some trouble. I know that I had years to step up and talk to him about the path he was on and I was too busy. Too wrapped up in myself. My own little all-important world. I owe him a serious apology regardless if even one word would have made the slightest difference.

Third was my home life. I have been such a pathetic example of a husband and a father. I have carried guilt around for the last few years over how poorly I did my real job; the one away from the office.
I have long had the Holy Spirit pointing to a verse that I continually dodged. The verse talks about those who are leaders/workers/preachers, etc. in the church. It says in 1 Tim. 3;4-5 He must manage his own family well, having children who respect and obey him. For if a man cannot manage his own household, how can he take care of God’s church? I don't belong working in God's house right now and I know that I might never reach that point. Before I think selfishly about my own personal wants, I can honestly say for the 1st time in recent memory, I can't because of what those wants have taken from my family in the past.

I have a wife who has taken leftovers for the duration of our marriage. The YMCA, UNF and ministry may have look like the culprits from the outside but that couldn't be further from the truth. It was me. It was 10 years ago just as it was 3 weeks ago.

This has nothing to do with the church. This isn't a church change. It's a job change. A life change.

I hope my wife and family are ready for this. :-)