Goodbye 2007...

The time has come to bid farewell to 2007. It has been quite an interesting year in my life.

I started the year in Atlanta with 20,000+ college students and young adults at Passion. It was an anointed conference. Francis Chan brought the message of the year talking about the throne of God and the glory of heaven. The David Crowder Band, Charlie Hall, and Chris Tomlin led us to worship our exalted King of Glory. It was also the event that cemented in my wife's heart to go on a mission trip to Russia. January was also Alison's birthday, but I won't tell you how old she is. February brought my son Drew's 6th birthday and the 11th Valentine's Day I would share with my bride. March brought a trip back to Mexico to build houses in Neuevo Progresso and spend time with some great men and some girls from my college group. It also saw the beginning of Nathan and Drew's baseball season with me as the assistant coach of Nathan's team, the Giants.

April brought John David's 3rd birthday, the beginning of the Red Sox season, and saw my wife depart for her trip to Russia. May saw her return home a much different person. It also saw me back to New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina. It's a much different place and certainly will never be the same. June saw an end to the Little League season with our baseball team the Giants finishing second to the Rangers in an epic battle. It also saw
my beloved Mississippi State Diamond Dawgs return to Omaha for the first time since 1998. Unfortunately, they went 2 and out.

July saw my annual family trip to the Beach. We went to Destin for 4 days with the college students from my church and to Panama City Beach for 7 days with my wife's family. July also saw Nathan's first time making All-Stars in baseball. August brought the kids back to school (finally!).

September was perhaps one of the greatest months of the year. First of all, it's my birth month and saw me turning 39. It was the beginning of a crazy college football season and a exciting one for Mississippi State. After experiencing a blowout to LSU the first week, State would go on to win 4 of the next 5 games. But the highlight of the year was my wonderful wife's present to me for my birthday. She gave my son and me a dream trip to Boston for the Red Sox/Yankees game at Fenway. It was an awesome experience despite the fact that we lost and a great weekend. We went to the Friday game where Boston blew a 5-run lead in the eighth with Okijima and Papelbon on the mound. On Saturday, we toured Boston on a trolley and also toured "Old Ironsides", the U.S.S. Constitution.

October saw Nathan's 8th birthday and a trip to the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta. Catalyst was filled with great messages from Andy Stanley, Francis Chan, Craig Groeschel, Rick Warren, and Dave Ramsey. November saw Alison and I celebrate 10 years of marriage. I love her more than ever before and still consider myself a very blessed man. It also saw my Red Sox win the World Series for the 2nd time in 4 years!December brought the holidays and finally today, the end of the year.

Notable news from 2007 - The Peter Pan Peanut Butter recall (glad I choose Jif), the tornado that ripped through the high school in Enterprise, AL, Don Imus opened his mouth one too many times, 32 students were tragically killed by a crazed student at Virginia Tech, 8 people were killed by a gunman in a mall in Omaha, 4 people were killed at a YWAM school in Colorado and at New Life Church in Colorado Springs by the same gunman. Jordan Sparks won American Idol, Paris Hilton went to jail, Brittney Spears shaved her head and went to rehab, Bob Barker retired from "The Price is Right", the Sopranos ended (I never watched it anyway), The IPhone made it's debut, a bridge collapsed in Minneapolis - killing 13, a mine collapsed in Utah killing 6 miners and 3 rescuers, wildfires in Southern California...again, the writers go on strike in Hollywood, probably delaying Season 7 of 24 (that grates me big-time).

Sports - Florida wins the Football National Championship and NCAA Basketball Championship for the second time in a row, Peyton and the Colts won the Super Bowl, the San Antonio Spurs won the NBA Championship...again, and the Red Sox win the World Series! Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron's HR record (*), Michael Vick gets arrested for Dog Fighting, Barry Bonds gets arraigned for lying to a grand jury about using steroids (big surprise), OJ gets arrested again (another surprise), and Sean Taylor gets murdered.

One of my favorite things to do at the end of the year is to look back at all the people who left this world the past year. Notable Deaths in 2007 include: Anna Nicole Smith, Former NBA star Dennis Johnson, legendary football coach Eddie Robinson, former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, Rev. Jerry Falwell, former first lady Lady Bird Johnson, Tammy Faye (Baker) Messner, Liz Claiborne, Merv Griffin, Leona Helmsley, Luciano Pavarotti, Robert Goulet, softball King "Fast" Eddie Feigner, Former MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Bob Evans (the dude the restaurants are named after), Norman Mailer, Evil Kneivel, singers Dan Fogleberg and Ike Turner, wrestler Chris Benoit, Biblical Scholar Bruce Metzger, Actor Tom Poston (from the Newhart show), Dick Wilson (aka, Mr. Whipple), comedian Charles Nelson Reilly, Yankees shortstop "Scooter" Phil Ruzzuto, film critic Joel Siegel, legendary football coach Bill Walsh, the aforementioned Sean Taylor, and former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

All in all, 2007 was quite a year. I hope that 2008 will see me losing about 35 pounds, reading God's Word more, and getting some major work done on my doctoral work. I hope to have a lot more memories with my wife and boys and a lot more fun working with the great cast I get to work with at Westwood.

Here's to you 2007!

Liberty Bowl Champs!

Congratulations to my boys from Starkville on the 4th quarter Liberty Bowl win over UCF. It was a great time for my family and me. Alison, Nathan, Drew, and I went to the game with my brother and his wife. It was an exciting atmosphere and a well-deserved end for a team picked to finish last in the SEC by every national magazine and website. The Liberty Bowl did a great job of hosting.

It started off as a pretty good weather day but by the 4th quarter, the temperature was 38 degrees and was cold. The lack of offense also led to the cold temperature as we spent a lot of time sitting down instead of jumping up and down. 40,000+ state fans, many of them sporting cowbells (I had my 2), brought a very loud and festive atmosphere. I think it was too much for many of the UCF fans.

The defense played an awesome game. They held the nation's leading rusher to his 2nd lowest total of the season and also kept him out of the endzone. The D bent a few times but did not break. Derek Pegues played an incredible game and showed why he was the steal of recruiting when we stole him from Ole Miss out of the South Panola/Oxford pipeline. Attention any South Panola studs - the football in Starkville is pretty exciting these days! Pegues had 2 picks and Keith Fitzhugh had the big one late in the 4th quarter.

The O didn't play to their potential. AD (Anthony Dixon for the rest of you) played a decent game and got over 1,000 yards for the season. He should be pretty special next year. Wesley Carrol kept up his smart play - with the exception of 1 errant pass that was intercepted. An offseason in the weight room and working on technique should make him a much more effective passer next year. With Carrol, AD, a red-shirted Robert Elliott, and many of our receivers coming back, hopes are high in Starkville that next year's squad can actually get out the triple digits in total offense nationwide for the first time in Croom's tenure.

Speaking of the big guy, old Sly has stayed true to his plan of rebuilding and has reaped the reward of hard work, discipline, and building a program by valuing character as much or more than talent. I am proud to say that Sly Croom is the coach of my football team no matter what his career record might be right now. He is the reigning SEC Coach of the year and could have been the National Coach of the Year if not for Ron Zook. I hope that Sly stays at MSU for a while so that maybe one of my boys could play for him one day.

All in all, I am a very proud MSU fan. We had the Co-SEC West Basketball champs, our baseball team made it to Omaha, and the football team won 8 games and the Liberty Bowl. Not bad for a team with one of the smallest athletic budgets in the SEC. Go Dawgs!

Time to go Bowling!

For the first time in seven years, MS State finds itself practicing after Christmas for an extra game to it's season. This week State is preparing to play Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. What a great year it's been for all of us MSU fans. Congrats to Coach Croom and the team for a great season.

Before the season began, a friend of mine in Birmingham asked me how many wins I thought we would have this year. My response was, "I think we should win 5 games and can win 6." Everyone thought I was crazy. I felt like we would win the UAB, Gardner Webb, and Tulane games. I felt good about the Ole Miss Game and thought we would win 2 of the following games - Kentucky, Alabama, and South Carolina. I didn't count on the Auburn win.

After the opening game against LSU everyone, including many State fans, mailed in much of the season. No one, including this fan, counted on what happened at Auburn. This year's team epitomized much of what Coach Croom has been instilling in this team since his beginning at MSU - hard work, play till the end, have the attitude of a winner. Now it's paid off. Hard working, suffering players like Titus Brown, Gabe O' Neal, Avery Hannibal, Royce Blackledge, and Eric Butler have finally been rewarded. The Maine and UAB loses have now been avenged.

My family and I will be attending the Liberty Bowl with over 30,000 other rabid MSU fans. It's been a good year for me and my boys. Nathan got to go to his first MSU game and went to three in all - UAB, Tennessee, and Ole Miss. Drew got to go to the Ole Miss game. My boys haven't known much of the losing seasons. Now they just know a Ms State team that has won games and swept their home state of Alabama. Thanks Coach Croom and the Bulldog team. Only one more game to win!

Welcome Immanuel

Incarnation. The greatest moment in human history is celebrated today. Immanuel - God with us. No one thought of that on this side of heaven. That thought could only come from God alone. Humans have come up with all manners of thought about salvation. Most of them involve us saving ourselves. Our merit must count for something. However, God said that the only way was to come and take care of the problem himself. So, God did the unthinkable. The Creator becomes human. The glory of God wrapped in a robe of flesh. That is the meaning of Christmas. But is it really?

In this day and age where the meaning of the author has no relevance and the only relevance is what it means to you, how can we really understand or appreciate something as unthinkable as the Incarnation. No wonder we have commercialized Jesus' birth so much. I even heard one local pastor say recently that Christmas is about someone else's birthday and we get the presents. Is this really what God intended? What else should we expect? Humans have always been very good at taking the story of God and making it much about us...Which really makes it not much of an interesting story at the end. I think that most people in the church today, many of them well-meaning but mis-informed, think that Christ came to make us better people. He came to provide a way to bring us to a greater blessing. When you read the story, which way do you read it - GOD with us or God with US? Be honest in how you answer that one.

Jesus. Let me just take a moment to thank you for doing what you had to do to ransom the glory of God away from us. Thank you for agreeing to suffer the humiliation of a stable and a cross. Thank you that while you were the main character of the story, you never seemed to toot your own horn. I think if you actually did decide to come today you probably wouldn't make the Christian best seller list at Lifeway. I have a hard time thinking you would have gotten a $13 million advance on your upcoming book. However, you came anyway. And despite all the ways that I have forgotten today that this day is about you - from the stack of presents I gave my kids that they don't deserve to the hours I spent cooking a meal that wasn't that good. For just a few moments I would like to say, "Happy Birthday."

Here's to my favorite Christmas character next to Jesus

This time of year always reminds me of my favorite Christmas character every Christmas season next to my savior Jesus. Each and every Christmas season when I was a child I would watch all the great Christmas television shows - Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and the obsure Rankin Bass shows with their stop motion animation. Without a doubt my favorite was "The Year Without a Santa Claus" with the Miser brothers - Heat Miser and Snow Miser.

Heat Miser was always my favorite. I don't know why. I think I just liked his fire hair and his over the top attitude. Years later, after I had moved on from Christmas shows, I ran back across the Miser brothers on the ABC Family channel. My kids have inherited my love for Heat Miser. So here's to you Heat Miser!

I could not have created a worse day...

If you had told me yesterday morning that my assignment was to create a bad day scenario, I don't think in my wildest dreams that I would have come up with what actually happened yesterday. Not even tucked away in the remote Calvinistic recesses on my totally depraved, pre-Christ mind could I have imagined yesterday. Here's what was supposed to happen:



Yesterday was the only day that I could travel to meet my family in MS before Christmas to spend the holidays. The kids got out of school Wednesday for the holidays and my wife was working, so it appeared to be the perfect time to take my three wild banshees to see my family and exchange gifts. Quick 2-hour trip over to MS, exchange some presents, see the fam, spend the night, and come home. Easy.



Here's what happened: I woke up yesterday to the 3 Stooges running around my living room fighting about any and everything possible. Why do they give kids a Christmas break? Isn't it enough just to give them Christmas day off and then send them back. I don't think Christmas break is about the kids, I think it's about giving the teachers a much deserved vacation. After all, I am a hard working taxpayer like everyone else. Why should I have to wake up on my day off to this kind of torture. But, I digress...



Anyway, the 3 Stooges were running around and fighting. Then, I tried to do some cleaning so my wife would not come home to a filthy house, but if you have Stooges like mine, you know the challenge to cleaning while they are in the house. It's like watching that fool standing out while the hurricane is coming in and giving you reports about how everyone else has evacuated. You only watch because you secretly hope that a 150 mile gust of wind blows and he actually flies up in the air. That's the only reason you watch. That's what cleaning the house is like with my kids in there. Total chaos.



I reported to the Stooges that they needed to pick out their clothes for the trip. I went to the dresser to get the baby's clothes and one of the knobs on the dresser drawer was missing. This is the same dresser drawer that I changed the knobs last Saturday because one was missing. The dang knobs were $5 a pop! On top of that, they don't fit right and I have to do some creative crafting to get them on. Now, one of them is missing. So I announce to the Stooges to come into the room and ask if anyone knows where the knob is. I even prefeaced it by saying, "I don't care who did it. I'm not going to whip anyone. I just want to open to the drawer. Where is the knob?" Very non-life-threatening. Now understand that my children's favorite phrases to me are "I don't know" and "Not me." One day, I am going to charge my children $1 for each time I hear those phrases. That's my college savings plan for them. I believe I can have all four year's tuition for all three by the end of the week. My question was answered by the usual phrase. All 3 Stooges said, "Not me." It's like that Family Circus cartoon by Bill Watterson where the little ghost named "Not Me" runs around the house tearing everything up.

After a little Sherlock Holmes detective work, I found out that the baby had taken the knob off, but all of a sudden he had developed amnesia and could not remember where he had put it. So I had to do some creative leverage to get the drawer open to get his clothes. Finally, all the clothes were packed and the house was about 10% clean and I was about 45 minutes late leaving so we got in the car. The drive from my my house to my mom's is about a 2 hour drive. It rained for 1 hour and 45 minutes of that drive! Not just a little rain, a hard rain. One of those "I can't believe I am actually trying to drive in this" kind of rain. Finally the rain broke about 1 mile from the MS state line.

We arrived at my mom's and greeted her and my stepfather. We were sitting around discussing when to open presents and teasing the Stooges that it would be a long time. My mom, oldest son, and I went into the kitchen for a snack and were followed by the baby, John David (or Pete as we call him.) Pete was walking by my mom's dog CJ, when the dog felt cornered and snapped at Pete. Not too viscious. Just a little snap, but right at Pete's face! He caught Pete just under the eye, opening about a 1/2 inch cut on his cheek that bled like a Mt. St. Helen's eruption. We got the bleeding to stop and tried to do some doctor work on our own, but the cut was too wide. So off to the doctor's office we go! 20 minutes after arriving at my mom's, we were on our way to the doctor to repair my son's face!

We arrived at the doctor and felt like we had a good chance of getting in quickly. Only about 8-10 patients in the doctor's office. An hour and 40 minutes later, they finally called us to a room. I told my mom that I was going to ask the doctor to give me an enema while we were in there because they were already screwing me over by making me wait almost 2 hours for a bandage and charging me $100 for it. Might as well make it worth the money. The doctor was a nice lady who looked at the cut and didn't feel like we needed stiches. They cleaned it and applied a nice steri-strip to pull the cut together. Pete was a trooper and didn't cry a bit. Tough little kid.

As we were in the doctor's office, my step-father called to tell my mom that someone had broken into my dad's house while he and my step-mother were gone. About the time that we were sitting in the doctor's office dreaming about the enema, someone threw a brick through my dad's bedroom window and climbed in. Evidenly, when my step-mom came home, she scared them away, but not before they stole her jewelry and my dad's shotgun. I hate thieves! I wish that God would enact a law of nature that anytime someone stole something from someone else that important body appendenges would suddenly fall off them. That would solve the problem pretty easy. Take the jewelry, but you'll be walking around without a nose for a while. Want to grab that telelvision? Go ahead, but you won't be needing that Viagra anymore. Just a thought God.

So after supper, I went over to my dad's house to check on him and Sophia, my step-mother. They were both upset, which I could understand. It felt kinda like they got the enema that I was expecting from my doctor's visit. I left their house and went back to open presents with my mom, about 7 hours later than when we started. After opening our presents and trying to get everything working, I heard my three-year old Pete say, "Daddy, it hurts." I looked over and he had pulled the steri-strip off his face! It was resting on his sweatpants and his cut was opened again. A 2 hour doctor's visit and $100 wasted! So at 8:30 last night, I am driving across town to 2 pharmacies looking for steri-stips to try and put his face back together. They don't sell that stuff at the Walgreen's. I found something similar and got home to find Pete asleep on the couch. I gently tried to put his face back together with this new-fangled bandage and put him to bed. However, when he got up this morning, the bandage was off his face and stuck to the pillow. Good grief!

Anyway, that was most of my day yesterday. I wouldn't have made that up for anything. It could be worse though. Pete's cut could have been his eye and much more serious. As I went through Gordo, I saw a Chevy truck upside down on the side of the road that had just wrecked. It didn't look too promising. The robbers could have stolen much more stuff or worse, could have done something to my step-mom when she came home. All in all, things could have been much worse. Even on the bad days, God's grace is sufficient.

So today is a new day. Who knows what will happen. God is soverign and I am not. Now, I got to go. I think Moe just hit Curley on the head with a baseball bat...

Top Ten Christmas Movies or Shows of All Time

Since it's the most wonderful time of the year, here is my take on the Top Ten Christmas movies for this festive time of the year.

10. White Christmas - Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye - This is one of my mother's favorite movies. I remember every year as a kid that my mom would watch this movie and it would irritate me to death. However, as I get older, I find the songs are a little catchier and the story is pretty good. However, this is a once every 5 years movie for me. I still think it's a good holiday movie.

9. Home Alone - Yes, even thought Macaulay Culkin is absolutely irritating and this movie was way too much overplayed when it first came out, it's still a pretty cool movie. The traps setup for Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern still make me laugh. Now my kids like to watch this movie which means it's being recycled around our house.

8. How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Both the original cartoon and the new version with Jim Carrey. I used to love the cartoon version of this every year as a kid! I always loved Boris Karloff singing "You're a mean one, Mister Grinch." Classic stuff. The Jim Carrey version takes a much different slant. I am normally not a huge fan of Carrey, but this is one of the few I like. It's my wife's favorite Christmas movie. It's recorded on my dvr and we watch it a couple of times every year.

7. Santa Clause 1,2,3 - Another of my family's favorites. We just watched number 3 last night as a family. The story line was not quite as good as the first two, but it was still pretty funny. Good idea of what the North Pole is like. Also, neat that the Santa changes to different guys over the years. Tim Allen makes a pretty rosy Santa.

6. A Christmas Carol (1951) - The classic black and white version of Charles Dickens' classic. Usually comes on late at night or on the obscure channels on Christmas eve or Christmas day. The Christmas ghosts are pretty scary and the old man that does Scrooge is downright perfect. By far the best version of this remade and remade tale.

5. A Charlie Brown Christmas - The first animated Peanuts strip made for television. Who can ever forget that puny little tree that Charlie Brown tries to decorate. A classic that we watch every year. Even with all the high tech cartoons and shows, this one still keeps my kids attention.

4. A Christmas Story - Little Ralphie and the Red Rider BB Gun. You'll shoot your eye out. Fudge. The leg lamp. All these things and more make this a classic that never gets old. It will come on at least 10 times on Christmas day and you know that at least once you will find yourself stopping to watch it.

3. The Year Without A Santa Claus - Without a doubt, one of my all-time favorites. This animated classic by Rankin Bass is usually only seen on ABC Family nowadays, but this is a must see for two reasons - The Miser Brothers! These two sons of Mother Nature steal the show! It took me several years to find this show after my childhood. I always have felt like Heat Miser bore a strange resemblance to current president of Southwestern Seminary Paige Patterson.

2. It's a Wonderful Life - Another of my Mom's favorites. I know that a year has never gone by that I have not seen part of this movie. You, like I, can quote multiple lines from this movie. It's full of classics. "Merry Christmas you old building and loan!", "Everytime a bell rings, an angel gets its wings.", "I'm an angel, second class.". Jimmy Stewart created one of the greatest characters in all of Hollywood history in George Bailey. You've seen this movie a hundred times and you still find yourself moved at the end each and every time.

1. Christmas Vacation - 'Nuff said. Clark Griswold and his family embark on a holiday season of disasters and mayhem. Cousin Eddie and his dog Snot. The house lit up with thousands of lights. The pledge of allegiance for grace. The squirrel that jumps out of the tree. Thousands of laughs. This is my dad's all-time favorite Christmas movie and probably mine too. Stupid humor never gets old or goes out of style. You need to rent this one for sure!

Now I know that there are many more great shows that could make this list. you may agree with some and disagree with many, but these are my viewing choices. I know that most of these movies have absolutely nothing to do with the incarnation and the real reason for Christmas. It's just entertainment. However, if you want to have a few laughs and see some great shows this Christmas, try these on for size.

Show The Love!

Why Senior Adult Ministry Is Just Student Ministry on Metamucial

Yesterday I had the opportunity to lead our Forerunners group at Westwood on a trip to see the Christmas lights at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, GA. Forerunners is a ministry for groups age 55+, what most people call senior adults.

Let me make it clear that I love senior adults. One of the lessons I learned quickly in church work was to make friends with senior adults. They can be a your best friends or your worst nightmare. I have found out that if the senior adults are your friends, you will never be hungry. Grandmas always know how to cook stuff a whole lot better than anyone else. It's probably all the butter they use in everything. They also expect that every young minister at their church is not getting enough to eat, so they always tell you to get more. In fact they get mad if you don't.

My first foray into the world of senior adults was at my first church in Krotz Springs, LA. It was there I had the privlege to come across "the quilting ladies". These ladies got together every Monday to sew together some of the most awesome quilts. They also had a great lunch and wanted to make sure a poor, single seminary student didn't starve on their watch. There was always crawfish etouffee, chicken spaghetti, and crawfish fettuccine. Not only did the quilting ladies do their part to expand my waistline, but I also go to meet Granny and Papa Muse. Every Sunday I had a plate of homemade chicken n' dumplings waiting with my name on it.

My life in Greenwood, MS was personally blessed by my acquaintance with a crotchity old man named Waters Hicks. Mr. Hicks was already well into his 80's by the time I met him. He had suffered from polio most of his life and had to use crutches to get around. However, even in his 80's he still moved himself on those crutches and drove his car all around town. Most every week my office phone would ring and Mr. Hicks would say, "Hey boy! I'm coming to get you for lunch. Be there in 10 minutes." Mr. Hicks would pull up to the back of the church and honk his horn to announce his arrival. He would then inform me of where we were going for lunch - not ask me - inform me. We would go to KFC and he would give me a $10 bill and say "Get 2 pot pies, a coke, and whatever you want to drink." Didn't matter if I wanted a 3 piece dinner, I got a pot pie. However, every lunch was filled with joy and laughter. Mr. Hicks loved his church, his bride of 50+ years, and the Atlanta Braves. I still remember the Sunday I got the call he died and how it was one of the few times I remember crying in recent years.

Fast forward to modern-day. Now I am in charge of ministering to the senior adults at Westwood. I get the joy and privilege to work alongside of these dear saints who have loved God for so many years. After working with students for 15 years I have found out that senior adult ministry and youth ministry are very similar. Senior adult ministry is basically youth ministry

Students have to take Ritalin on the trip, Seniors have to take Lipitor
Student Ministry is pizza and tacos, Seniors is Ryan's and catfish
Students are spending their parents money, Seniors are spending their children's inheritence
If you tell students you are leaving at 11:00, 90% of them will show up at 11:00 and you will leave at 11:30.
If you tell seniors you are leaving at 11:00, 90% of them will show up at 10:30 and expect you to leave by 10:55.
No matter what the age, bathroom stops will take at least a half hour.
No matter what the age, you will have to track down someone who wanted to go back and buy something when it's time to load up the bus.
Students like to listen to The Black Eyed Peas, Seniors like to listen to the Gaithers, I don't like listening to either.
Finally, no matter which group you are hanging out with they will make you feel young.

11:30 at night and I got to get up in 5 hours

too tired to put anything of worth down tonight. I will tell you tomorrow all about my trip today with the fam and 30 senior adults to Callaway Gardens. Fun overload!

Welcome to the Blogging Universe...about 18 months too late

Well. It's official. I have finally set up a blog. I am not sure why. I think it's because everyone else I know of out there has a blog to display to the whole world the depth of their misguided passions or the complete and total ignorance about anything and everything. Blogs are funny. I can't convince you that I am right in person or at least you will agree with me for a while and then once you leave I have no reason to believe that you won't walk out saying to yourself, "What an idiot!" However, with a blog, I can put my random thoughts online and then like-minded idiots from around the world can read my thoughts. The ones who disagree either say, "What an idiot!" and click another bookmark. The ones who agree can post their comments to the post as a sign of unity. It's a win-win!

I hesitated to get a blog for a long time because I didn't think I had anything worthwhile to say. Then I thought, "That's never stopped me before." So here I go.

Welcome to my blog. I hope to post here regularly. It's grates my skin to go to a blog that the owner doesn't post to about once every three weeks. Just further proof that most people don't have anything worthwhile to say. Sometimes we'll talk theology and try to hammer out things that people much smarter than us have talked about and debated for centuries and couldn't agree. However, they didn't have the internet and Tim Challies or Tom Ascol. Everyone knows that if it's on the internet it must be true.

Sometimes we'll talk sports and why the Red Sox rule. We'll talk about the fact that if they trade Jacoby Ellsbury for Johan Santana that most Red Sox fans will begin to have images of 1918 again. We'll also talk about the long-suffering obsession I have had with Mississippi State for all of my life. How I saw Will Clark hit a ball as far as I have ever seen. How I left the 1990 State/FSU game 1 inning before Burke Masters hit the grand slam. How I almost left the Egg Bowl this year right before Derek Pegues stomped on the neck of the Rebels. How most MSU fans actually hate the Crimson Tide worse that the Rebels. Stuff like this and even more.

I'll also talk a lot about my wife and kids. I am an overly blessed man. My three boys are boys and so I yell a lot more than I want to. Also, our house continually looks like the aftermath of the Kappa Alpha house on the Egg Bowl weekend. My boys know more about Star Wars than I do (which really ticks me off), and for the first time I realized that they are better at Star Wars Battlefront than I am. My wife is the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on. She also leaves me wondering a lot why she keeps me around. I think it's so she can go to bed earlier and I will put the kids to bed.

So, here is my blog. Hope you enjoy reading it when you stop by. I hope some of the things I communicate may resonate with you. I know some of it will not. I promise not to be intentionally belligerent or argumentative. But at the same time, opinions are opinions. Also, truth is truth. We cannot believe that all truth claims are equally valid. To believe so sounds like a very nice place to live, it just doesn't provide the right answers and leaves us most of the time searching for the "wizard" only to find out he's a fraud as well. Truth can also be divisive. In those cases, understand my intention is not to divide, but to be truthful and if it divides then hopefully it's the truth that divides and not me. If truth divides, that cut will heal much quicker than if it's the person who does.

So for now, here's my life. Now I have to get off this thin and get back to cleaning off my desk. Now where was that receipt?