Of Super Bowl ads, and the masculine assumption.

So, like most of the country, I watched the Super Bowl yesterday with a group of friends. And what a game it was. Absolutely awesome until the Steelers won. Then it was just a good game. Not that I'm a Cardinals fan, I'm a Chargers fan, but since they weren't playing, I went with the next best thing.

But I'm not really wanting to talk about the game. I want to share something that really is on my heart, and was since yesterday.

The commercials.

It used to be that I watched the Super Bowl only for the commercials. And over the years there have been some good ones. My favorite last year was the office workers having a huge battle with the barbarians. That one was great. This year there was one I really enjoyed. The Mean Joe Green redo with Palamalu. That was good. Funny thing was, we were at a party with some young 20-somethings, who had no idea why we were laughing. Man, that made me feel old.

But like in years past, there is of course the objectional commercial or two. And yesterday was no exception. Oh how I wish I had a set of penalty flags, I would have thrown my own yellow flag more than once, and not just during the game.

Go-Daddy. Yes the website domain thing. Go-Daddy. The main sponsor of the Dannica Patrick race car. Yes that Dannica Patrick. The one who at one time said she wanted to be known for her race car driving, and wouldn't use her femininity to get ahead. Well that same Dannica was in a commercial yesterday that should have been on late night TV if anything.

I'm sorry, I'm as male as the next guy, but there is really no reason to put her naked in the shower with another woman. No reason at all. Except to say that every advertiser out there along with the NFL, must think that every man living and breathing, watching the Super Bowl, is going to enjoy that emensely. Unless of course they are gay. I don't know, maybe not every advertiser, maybe that is too broad a statement. But many. How's that?

Look, I'm not gay. I'm not effeminate in any way. I've been married over 13 years to the same wonderful woman. Just to give you insight, in case you don't know me, to my orientation. I am a guy.

Let me say that again. I AM A GUY!

One more time. I AM A GUY!

And I was greatly offended at that Go-Daddy commercial as well as the Courtroom commercial from them. Both commercials did two things very effciently. No make that three things.

First, they objectified women to the point of making them simply about sex, boobs, and other body parts designed only to satisfy men.

Second, the stereotyped men to the point of saying if you are a man, then you must want to see two women naked in the shower, or see another women flash her breasts to another, and if you don't like it, there must be something wrong with you.

Lastly, pissed me off enough to write this blog and send a copy of it to Go-Daddy.

What will it accomplish? I don't know. But it does me precious little good to be angry and show no effort to voice that anger.

Now for those of you who were, shall we say, enticed by either of those commercials, I'm saddened. Saddened, because typically those that read here, are those that Walk with God. And while I'm no expert, I'm pretty sure Jesus didn't want to go online and look for the unrated finish to those commercials.

I don't mean to shame anyone who enjoyed it, but rather to open eyes to the subtlety of the enemy. The Devil is no fool. He knows God designed man to be attracted to woman, and he will use that to his advantage, and your destruction.

Trust me I know.

Father,
I pray right now that you would remove those images, thoughts and rememberances of the above mentioned commercials from my mind. Purify my thoughts and heart. Let me be free from the power of the enemy over my desires. Lord replace those things with pure thoughts. Thoughts of you Lord. Fill my mind with the beauty of your entire creation. Lord and give me a healthy respect for your daughters. Lord cleanse me from every ill thought, every fantasy that may have been sparked by those things. And Father, let me walk as Jesus would walk. Keep my eyes on You Lord.

In Jesus' name
AMEN

If you read that and prayed it as your own, and want to talk about what that means. You can let me know you'd like to and I'll get in touch via email.

Strength and Honor.

Freedom?

I have, for some time now, been walking with God in Freedom.

Freedom from the long arm of the church, so to speak. The self-policed version of sin-management, dictated by the aforementioned church. Not to name any church names, because I'm sure I would miss yours. :)

But at anyrate, I communicate much over the years in an internet forum that promotes greatly, this freedom. And for the most part, the guys there walk in freedom well. For the most part. Often there are times, when a Freedom newbie shows up, still "tainted" by the effects of the church, and is "educated" as to his lack of understanding of Freedom. Well intentioned? I'm sure. Well received? I don't know.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Asking God how to describe this. About a week ago, we were watching the movie Wild Hogs. If you haven't seen it, its a tale about 4 middle aged guys going on a motorcycle road trip cross country. Its a great film. Anyway, in the movie, the antogonist is played by Ray Liotta. His character, Jack, is the leader of a real biker gang, the Del Fuego's. At one point in the film, he's calling out the four heros of the story (played by Tim Allen, John Travolta, William H. Macy and Martin Lawrence) as posers trying to experience the freedom that he and his biker buddies have. He tells them basically, get on your bikes and go home, you can't handle this freedom! And so without spoiling the movie for those who haven't seen it, they leave.

Later on in the film the four "posers" stand up to the 50 hard core bikers. When all hope looks lost, in walks Damian Blade, played by none other than Peter Fonda. He's the founder of the Del Fuego's. Jack says hello, and proceeds to tell him these four "posers" burnt their bar down. Damian looks at him in all his coolness and says, four guys stand off against 50 bikers....and THEY'RE the posers?

I love that! The group that thought that they had all the answers. All the Freedom. Thought they had everything all figured out, basically called out as posers. Wow.

So that made me wonder which one am I????

Which one are you????

I just want to be real. I want to walk in all the freedom God has given me.

Galatians 5:1

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Have a great day!

Does what we do, make us who we are?

I have this good buddy named Dave, who recently send me a notice to the effect of, "Hey bud, you need to update your blog. We need some of your wisdom." Or something like that.

And well, yeah, I agree, the world needs more of my wisdom. I have no idea how I typed that out, but I did.

Anyway, here is a thought that has been rolling around in this here brain of mine.

Does what we do make us who we are?

I've had that thought bouncing around in my head for a while now. Maybe a better way to put it is, 'Do my actions, skills, gifts, abilities, habits, or sins define me?'

Yes, I think I like that question a little better.

I'll start with a story. For several years, I worked witha guy who was very involved in a church that was a mile wide and an inch deep. he would always steer lunch table conversations to a "churchy" slant. Always. He would find ways to interject a few points. And it was always the same three points.

1. I don't smoke, that's one of the things that makes me a Christian.
2. I don't drink, that's one of the things that makes me a Christian.
3. I don't cuss, that's one of the things that makes me a Christian.

Then he would put those thoughts on new, young Christian brothers and sisters at work, and that would leave them so confused.

Then there is the other end of the spectrum that would take way too many liberties with the "Do all you do to the glory of God" thought line. And take that to mean, it's ok to smoke weed, shoot heroin, cheat on their spouse, or have premarital sex with multiple partners. Or any combination of a zillion other way out things.

So I bring us back to the question:

Do my actions, skills, gifts, abilities, habits or sins define me?

Well, do they? Does riding a motorcycle make you a biker? Does writing this blog make me a writer? Does getting fired from a job make you a loser? Does going to church make you a son or daughter of God?

What does God say?

Ephesians 1:7 (New International Version)

7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.

In Him. I like that. In HIM. Not in ME. Positive or negative. Not in ME!

It's really a question of Identity. Who am I really? It takes saying to yourself, 'I'm tired of what people tell me I am' and then replacing it with, 'what does God say about me?'

That will give you the answer of what defines you.

Hey Batter, Batter! Swing Batter!

Ok. So it's been a while since I've been here. I could show you my calendar, you would see I've been and am going to be busy. Why? It's Winter baseball season here in Ramona.

My youngest son, Garret, has never done a team sport before. He's been in Tang Soo Do for a year and a half, but no team sports. He wanted to play baseball. Winter season is a little shorter and a little more laid back than the regular season, so we figured, 'Go for it.' My older son, Ethan, wanted to play too. So we signed them both up. More on Ethan in a minute.

Right now, it's about G. His first game was this past Sunday. Garret is a lefty, so when he was up to bat we got a couple of great pictures of him. Very cool. He went 1 for 3 with a 2 RBI double. His team won 7-0. Not a bad first game. He got to play Right Field, Left Field, and a little 3rd Base. He thinks he wants to try catcher. Whatever position he ends up at, I'm so proud of him.

Take a look at his pictures.

Now on to Ethan. Ethan has played baseball before, sort of. He played about 3 years ago on a not so well coached team. T-ball with a coach that wanted to coach kids that already knew how to play. Not so much with Ethan. But he got to play some. Well its been a few years and he was ready to play again. So we signed up the boys.

For his age group, the league didn't have enough boys sign up to make up a good division. So they held another sign up day. The results. Too many kids now and not enough coaches. So I was asked to Manage Ethans team. I said yes. When I told him, you should have seen his eyes light up.

I told him like this. 'Ethan I've got good news and bad news about baseball. The bad news. The league called and they've got too many kids and not enough coaches. So your team didn't have a coach. The good news. It does now!(as I pointed at myself with both thumbs)' Oh man, you would have thought the kid won the lottery or something. He gave me the biggest hug. I was 10 feet tall!

So we had a "bye" game for the first week, and our first game will be next Sunday. I'll take some pictures, and keep you posted.

"Play Ball!"

Set Free

Ok. This is short but it has a point. Last Friday our band did the worship service for Set Free Escondido. The band has been doing it for a while with just Franny and Christy in an acoustic set. This was the first time I joined them. And I was so moved by one part of the service. After worship they took a few minutes to honor those that had been clean for certain time frames. Thirty days, six months, one year, and 17 years. They gave them a little plastic token that said 30 days or whatever. And the look of accomplishment as they were honored, not so much for what they did but what God did in them. Wow. It was amazing. I was moved almost to tears. It was cool. Really cool.

Glamdring

It's been 5 months since the most awesome birthday of mine on record. This birthday was significant for me because it was the first time I was able to celebrate with joy in my heart. Birthday's for me, usually involve a certain amount of pain. Not the pain associated with getting older, but the pain associated with my existence. But this year it was different. My life has taken a turn for the better this year. God is amazing. The things He has done in my life in the past 10 or 11 months still just blow me away. A good friend gave me a copy of some "I am" statements from the Bible. (If you want them, let me know. It's good stuff) And after reading them and asking God to show me that they were true about me, my whole outlook on things changed.

Now, flash forward (or backward, depending on how you look at things) to January of 2007. I had the occasion to spend Jan 2nd all alone with my God in the mountains. Just me and my Father. And I went there that day with one purpose really. To get answers to two questions.

1. Do I have what it takes?
2. What do you think of me God?

Before I tell you where those two questions went, let me say, that if you have never had a chance to do this, MAKE IT HAPPEN. You will not regret it. I would spend a day like this again in a heart beat.

Ok. So in answer to my first question, God most definitely told me that I do have what it takes. I have what it takes to be the man that He's called me to be, the husband I'm supposed to be, the father I'm supposed to be, the Warrior I'm supposed to be. Little did I know at the time, but I would be tested greatly in some of those areas in the days and months to come. But it helped knowing that I had what it takes to make it.

Now for the second question. What do you think of me God? Most of the answers to that question are extremely private between me and my Father. But what I can share is this. God said that He loves me. And that He was proud of me. And he called me by my new name. He called me Gandalf. (Those not familiar with that name, it is the name of one of the characters in the Lord of the Rings books.) I laughed at first when He said that to me. I was like, 'Yeah right. More like Pippen or Merry. Anything but Gandalf.' You see Gandalf is a wizard who leads the Fellowship of the Ring on their quest. He seems to have all the answers, he knows everything. He gains everyones trust. He is loved by everyone who knows him. He bravely leads the Fellowship into battle. And then there's me. Sure, I would like to have all those things said about me. But I didn't want to think that that was me. I mean Gandalf was wise and all, but he had a staff not a sword. At least the Hobbits had little bitty swords. And then there was Aragorn. Now he had a sword. Yes God, maybe you meant Aragorn. Thats it. Yes Aragorn, you must have been confused on your characters Lord.

Now I don't want to assume that anyone else in the world has ever questioned God, so I will now fill you in on how it went from there. Father was like, 'Oh yes. Of course. Me who knows everything was mis-taken. So sorry GANDALF. Yes Gandalf is my name for you. You will see in time. Trust me.' Have you ever been in that place where the God of the universe asks you to trust Him? Well what are you going to do? Hint: TRUST HIM.

Ok. So I leave from my time in the mountains happy, and confused at the same time. I was almost embarassed to share my new name with my wife, because I halfway expected this roaring laughter followed by, 'Yeah right! Gandalf's horse maybe. Hahahaha.' Or something like that. But when I shared with her, the words from her were like honey. 'Oh yeah. I can totally see that. You are so much like him.'

Now I'm just wierded out. My wife and God conspiring together! But I said ok God. I'm trusting you. So I go to work the next day and do a little search online for all things Lord of the Rings. And would you believe, Gandalf had a sword! It's name was Glamdring. It was an Elvin sword, with history. I couldn't believe it. I sent a copy of the web page to my wife saying 'Look! Gandalf has a sword!' And that was pretty much it.

Jump to my birthday. My wife Franny, our friend Christy, and our boys had a little party for me complete with a viewing of The Return of the King, and cake and all that jazz. There were decorations and stuff and a happy birthday banner with two pictures of Gandalf. My wife and Christy were sad though, because the gift that they bought me didn't get delivered on time. I told them it was no big deal.

Well the next day they came home from work with my present. It was a box about four feet long, a foot across and about 4 inches thick. Inside that box was Glamdring. It was mine. Given to me by those who love me. I've never been more speachless in my life.

It hangs on the wall beside my bed. It is mine. I am Gandalf. God said so.

Since that time, many things have happened that have confirmed that God was right with my name. (duh) God knew what I was made of, and that I had what it would take for each one of those situations.

But for now..........

"Fly Shadowfax, show us the meaning of haste!"