Story Time Tuesday ~ A Collection of Shorts

Today I thought I would tell some short stories rather than tell one long one. These stories take place throughout different times in my life and some are about family. When you have a family like mine there are plenty of stories to tell. So let's get started with:


Mom's 40th Birthday

My family decided to throw my mom a surprise party for her 40th b-day (hence the title). It was mostly close family and a few friends. My aunt from California couldn't make it out here to the East, but she sent a video. In the video my aunt was acting like she was asleep and having a nightmare. When she woke up she said she had the most horrible dream that she was turning 40. It gave us all a good laugh, but she had some nice things to say as well. But the funniest thing I remember is telling my mom that I was half her age, I was turning 20 that year. My mom looked at me and said "You were always half my age." Hey mom, remember when I started kindergarten when you were in 5th grade? Yea, My mom's math skills aren't the best but I'd rather have a good mom than a mathematician, and she is a great mom. Her birthday is on Groundhog's Day so we always tell her not to look at her shadow on her birthday.


Buzz Off

When I was about four or five years old I was really into He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. It was getting close to Christmas and I asked my dad to write a letter to Santa for me. So I listed a few things and the last thing I asked my dad to put on the list was the He-Man character called Buzz Off. I was afraid that Santa would think that I was telling him to "Buzz Off" so I told my dad to specify that it was the name of a toy and that I was not trying to insult Santa. I did get Buzz Off that year for Christmas, yay!

Buzz Off

Boy Scouts

I was about eight or nine years old when I was in Boy Scouts. My troop went to different locations all over town with cans to collect money for charity one day. We even had the little fake poppy flowers to give away. We were collecting money for disabled veterans. As people walked I was supposed to ask them if they would like to donate money to help disabled veterans. But do you think that's what I said? NOPE! As people were walking by I would ask "Would you like to donate money to help disenabled veterinarians?" I didn't find out I was saying it wrong until my mom picked me up when I was finished. She asked me what we were supposed to say when asking people to donate. So I told her and she just busted out laughing. I felt embarrassed when I found out what I was supposed to be saying. I was young, I never heard the word veteran before so when our scout leader said it I just figured he meant veterinarians. And I don't know why the heck I was saying disenabled, it's not even a word. Why didn't anyone correct me when I was saying it?! Most people probably busted out laughing as soon as they walked in the store I was standing in front of after hearing what I had to say. So embarrassing.


Internet Dating

This one is not as embarrassing as the last story but it's kind of embarrassing talking about it on this blog. I've gone on a few dates through internet dating. It's not something I'm proud of and they were probably some of the worst dates I've been on. I was putting together my profile on one site in particular and I wanted the girls to know that I was a follower of Jesus Christ so in my introduction paragraph so I tried to be clever by saying "I'm looking for a girl who is already in a serious relationship with another man. A man named Jesus." I swear to you, I am not making this next part up. A few days later I checked my profile and I got a message from a girl. I read it and I was horrified to find out that she wanted to cheat on her boyfriend Jesus (pronounced HEY-SOOS) with me. So I think she completely misinterpreted what I was trying to say. It's needless to say that I didn't end up going on a date with her. In fact I think I sent her a message back that said something like "Sorry, wrong Jesus".


Ready for Take Off

Okay, last story, the grand finale. This is one of my family's favorite stories to tell, and we tell it to just about everyone. This story is about my grandmother. I wasn't there when this happened but my aunt told us about this. My aunt and my grandmother were on a plane and I think it was my grandmother's first plane ride. She was looking at the back seat pocket card. It was the card that showed you how to get into the crash position. She must have misunderstood what the card said because as soon as they started out onto the runway, my grandmother bent down and put her head between her knees. My aunt said, "Mom, what are you doing?!" My grandmother replied, "I'm getting in the take off position."






So those were just a few short stories for today, I hope you enjoyed them.

Inspiring Minds Monday ~ charity: water

The "I Hate Mondays!" posts are no more. I decided to change it because I'm not a hateful person and I only have so much to rant and rave about. The things I hate most are ignorance and selfishness and I think I covered that in last Monday's post. That was the pinnacle of the "I Hate Mondays!" posts and it was a good place to retire it. So now, instead of starting the week off talking about such negative things, I will be talking about people and organizations who inspire minds through their thoughts and their actions. The first one we'll start off with is called "charity: water".




Last night I attended Valley Mosaic. We meet weekly and sometimes discuss different issues in the local community and around the world and keep Jesus Christ as our main focus when tackling these issues. We watched a DVD about an organization called charity: water and it was very eye-opening. The DVD showed how so many people in Africa walk for over three hours everyday just to get water that could cause them to become infected with disease and other illnesses. Unfortunately it's the only water available to them.

One in six people on the planet don't have
access to clean, safe drinking water.

Scott Harrison is the founder of charity: water. Scott's story starts like this:

In 2004, I left the streets of New York City for the shores of West Africa. I'd made my living for years in the big Apple promoting top nightclubs and fashion events, for the most part living selfishly and arrogantly. Desperately unhappy, I needed to change. Faced with spiritual bankruptcy, I wanted desperately to revive a lost Christian faith with action and asked the question: What would the opposite of my life look like?

Read the rest of Scott's story here.

On June 27th, Williamsport, PA will host it's annual Music Festival called Absorb in Brandon Park. Learn more about it from my friend Natalie on her blog. Valley Mosaic will have a space set up with information about charity: water. We are going to keep the booth as green as possible. We will be raising money to build a well in Africa by selling reusable water containers. 100% the proceeds will go to charity: water. We aren't sure what kind of containers we will be selling yet. Either stainless steel or aluminum, but one of our Valley Mosaic attendees told us that if we go with aluminum it will have to be coated so it doesn't "smell like a boy scout canteen by the third use" as he put it. So if you live in or near the area come on out and see what we have going on. Heck, even if you live far away, hop on a plane and get your patootie out here!

Freakin' Funny Friday ~ CCE: Jesus Junk

When I was a teenager I went to a youth retreat. We had classes/seminars we had to attend while we were there. I went to one on music. The guy leading the group had brought in a copy of Rolling Stone magazine. It was the one where Janet Jackson appeared on the cover topless but some dude was behind her covering her boobs with his hands. Then he passed the magazine around the room which by the way is a great idea when you've got a room full of teenage boys at a Christian youth retreat. Then he started to tell us about the evils of secular music and that we should only listen to Christian music. It was as if Christian music had God's "Stamp o' Approval" on it or something. I thought the guy was full of it.

Then one day, my mom was listening to a WOW CD, which is like a NOW CD only with Christian artists on it. There was a song on there called "Great Lengths" by a band called PFR. They kind of sounded like the Beatles so it intrigued me. I didn't care for any of the other artists on the WOW album. So I went and picked up the PFR album at the local Christian bookstore. It was then that I noticed "The Christian Music Comparison Chart" they had up on the wall. Basically what the chart does is it lists a bunch of secular artists and compares them to Christian artists based on similar music style. I don't think the intentions of the chart are to get people to stop listening to secular music and just listen to Christian music, but I think a lot of people use it that way. It's how I saw it. So that's how I started learning about some other Christian artists based on some of the other bands that I liked. So I became one of those people that only listened to Christian music, because all other music was bad. It didn't matter what the content was, is was just bad, it didn't have God's "Stamp o' Approval" on it.

I'm so glad I don't think that way anymore. I stopped listening to many of the Christian artists that I was listening too because they just sounded horrible. I still like PFR though, they were unique. I wanted to share with you some of the comparisons on a chart I found. Here's what it says:

If you like Aerosmith, then try Petra.
" " Phil Collins, " " Steven Curtis Chapman or Michael W. Smith
" " Bon Jovi, " " Stryper
" " Eminem, " " KJ-52 or John Reuben
" " Foo Fighters, " " Switchfoot
" " R.E.M., " " Third Day

...and the list goes on and on.

I think this is an insult to these musicians on both sides. For one thing it's like they're saying here's an exact copy of this artist, listen to them instead. Two, this chart is based only on the sound of the music (which by the way is way off) rather than the ideology of these musicians. So they just assume that people are going to like these other artists just because they have a similar sound. Three, it's dumb.

Why do people feel the need to have a Christian alternative to everything? It doesn't just happen with music, it happens with many other things. So I thought I would bring to you my own comparison chart, and yes, all of these things actually exist.

If you like...


...then try...

Wow, how original! This is totally different from High School Musical, they don't resemble each other in any way. Just look, they changed one word in the title, they have a green curtain instead of a red one, and there's five kids on the cover rather than six.

If you like...



...then try...

So, does this game work on the X-box 360, the Wii, or PS3? Or do we have to go out and buy a Praystation?

If you like...


...then try...

Yea, all those other mints have a sinful aftertaste.

If you like...



...then try...

With all that caffeine you'll be able to walk on water too!

If you like...


...then try...

When do the guillotine, noose, and electric chair versions come out?

If you like...


...then try...

If you can't read it, it says "with poseable arms & gliding action!" Because you know, Jesus glided everywhere he went.

If you like...

...then try...

Or would it be stinking sand in this case?

If you like...

...then try...

We'll just take the Direct TV logo and turn it at a different angle, no one will notice.

If you like...


...then try...

He's just like Batman, except he leaves a Bible tract in the villain's pocket after he ties him up.

If you like...


...then try...

Whoa, didn't see that one coming did ya? Neither did I and that's strange since I'm the one who posted it.

Here are a few products I found while browsing that I hope are not real.

They forgot to list TBN studios.



My breath is so fresh, there must be a God!

And here is a book I really hope exists because I want to read it.

Considering this book is written by a guy named Denny O. Theeves I'm going to assume this book isn't real, but it would definitely be a good read.

I hope you enjoyed today's post and got a good laugh out of it. But I just wanted to say that a lot of people, including myself, call a lot of these products "Jesus Junk". It seems harmless enough but I think all of this stuff can be dangerous. I think too many times people get wrapped up in the Christian culture and miss out on Jesus completely. If people were truly wrapped up in Christ then they would see how ridiculous many of these products are. I'll admit that I sometimes waste my money by eating out too much or buying some product that occupies my time for a few minutes before I get bored with it. But some people must think that buying a useless piece of plastic is okay if it's got the name and/or image of Jesus slapped on it as if they're doing something to further God's kingdom. I look at some of these products and I think to myself, If Jesus was in a grave he'd be rolling in it.

Deep Thought Thursday ~ Mind Boggling

Yipee! Someone is following this blog! Thank you Ty Why for becoming the first follower of this blog. So why, Ty, what was it that lured you here? I wish I had a gift or something to give you. Here's a fist bump ==@@==. Sorry, that's the best I could do. I know that my girlfriend and some of my close friends read this blog, but they don't "follow" it (hint, hint).

Okay, time to get into the nitty-gritty. Last week I tackled the question "Why does God let bad things happen to good people?" (Jon Acuff over at "Stuff Christians Like" has an interesting post dealing with the same question. Click here to see it.) I explained how God doesn't smother us like overprotective parents. He allows us to figure things out on our own. So maybe we should ask the question "Why do people do bad things to other people?" Decisions. We all make them, some good, some bad. It's our decisions that effect the world around us. Sometimes we make decisions that hurt others whether it be accidentally or purposely. Now I need to ask you to make a decision:

(Cue Matrix movie reference)

You take the blue pill, the blog ends and you believe whatever you want to believe. You'll wake up in bed, you won't remember any of this, you'll probably have some drool on your pillow. Seriously, that's gross, clean it up! Or you take the red pill and experience how deep the blog goes.













So, you have chosen the red pill. Good. Now you will see where we are going with this. Plus you just got your daily dose of Vitamin A, B, C, D, E, Iron, Zinc, and Riboflavin. Oh, the blue pill? It was just Nyquil. Anyway, we were talking about decisions. We make them everyday, multiple times a day. Some are big or small, some we make unconsciously while others require much thought. It's all a part of our God-given free will. But if God knows the future and how everything is going to turn out and he knows all the decisions we are going to make, wouldn't that be fate? That's what I want to do today. I want to take last week's conversation and steer towards the idea of free will vs. fate. Like I said before, I don't have the answers, just some thoughts.

I've mentioned Rob Bell a few times on this blog. He has a video out called "Everything is Spiritual" I highly recommend it. Part of this video has Rob talking about a marker. He holds up a whiteboard marker lengthwise to the audience and asks what shape the marker appears to be when held that way. It appears to be in the shape of a rectangle. Then he turns the marker so all you can see is one end of it. It appears to be in the shape of a circle. Then Rob asks if the marker is a rectangle or a circle. His answer to that question is, "Yes". Then he asks if there is free will or fate. Again his answer is "Yes".

Now we all know that a marker is more of a sphere shape because it is a three dimensional object. He was just trying to make an interesting point. So, can free will and fate co-exist? Can shadows be cast without light? How would you know what good is without experiencing the bad? I believe free will and fate can both exist at the same time. We have the free will to make decisions and each of those decisions will eventually lead us to an outcome, or fate.



"No fate but what we make" is what I remember Sarah Connor saying in Terminator 2. (Wow, a Matrix and Terminator reference in the same post, rock on!) It boggles my mind the more I think about it. Does anyone remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books? I used to love those. If you come to a bad ending you could always go back and make a different decision.

"You see an abominable snowman approching."

If you want to run away from the creature, turn to page 82.
If you want to introduce yourself to the creature and shake its hand, turn to page 112.

PAGE 112

"As you approach the abominable snowman you extend your hand to him. It extends its hand to you as well. After a brief handshake the abominable snowman proceeds to tear you limb from limb. The End."

With that, you can go back and try page 82. You can decide your own fate in those books by making different decisions. But of course that's not how real life works. We can't go back, we can't rewind. It sounds silly but just before something tragic happens in a movie I've already seen, I think to myself "Maybe they'll make the right decision this time". I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who does this. No matter how many times you watch the movie, the same thing is always going to happen. I think this is how God views our lives, like a movie he's already seen.

What I mean by that is God is not constrained by time. Just as he is with us when we are infants, at the same time he is with us as elderly individuals. He can see the entire timeline of our lives all at once, even the events we have not yet experienced. He can go on ahead of us, he knows what's going to happen. And as much as he probably wants to say "Maybe they'll make the right decision this time" when he's watching the movie of our lives, the same thing is always going to happen. I think God also allows things to happen so that it doesn't take away the freedom he has given us to choose what we do with our lives.

I know it sounds like I'm talking as if God is far away, just watching us live out our lives, but he is very close. I think it's ridiculous when people say things like, "We were at our Bible study and things were getting pretty intense and then God showed up." Really, God showed up did he? Sooooo...he wasn't there before? God never "shows up". He's always there. Even though he let's us live our lives and make our own decisions, he's always speaking to us and guiding us. If you knew someone who knew what the future holds, wouldn't you want to put your trust in them...hmmmm?

That's about all I have to say on the subject for now. What I had to say today either sounded really deep and intellectual, or I sounded like a complete moron. I'll let you decide.

If what I said sounded deep and intellectual, turn to page 61.
If I sounded like a complete moron, turn to page 134.

Artsy Fartsy Wednesday ~ Mufreesboro

In the summer of 2007 I went to a music and arts festival called Purple Door in Lewisberry, PA which is just outside the state capital of Harrisburg. Some of my favorite bands were there such as mewithoutYou, Anberlin, and Spoken. I also discovered a few artists that I now enjoy listening to now like The Chariot, Derek Webb, and Cool Hand Luke. Today I would like to talk about Cool Hand Luke, the band, not the movie.

I had heard of Cool Hand Luke before but never really heard their music. I was browsing the merch section of the festival with my friend Jesse when he told me Cool Hand Luke was going to be playing soon. Before we left the merch section I picked up a Cool Hand Luke CD on a whim that I would like it. Plus it came with a free t-shirt. Anyway we went to see them play and they were awesome. I like most genres of music but I try to find ones that are unique to the genre they are in and Cool Hand Luke definitely fit this description. Plus they didn't just come, play a show, and then leave. They stuck around all weekend and hung out with the fans. The next day I saw the bass player playing hacky-sack with a bunch of kids. Later I walked by the bass player and he pointed at me and smiled probably because I was wearing the Cool Hand Luke shirt I had bought the day before. By the way, you never wear the shirt of a band that is playing that day, it's improper band shirt etiquette. That's why I wore it the day after they played. The bass player also came out on stage during the mewithoutYou set and belted out some of the Arabic lyrics from the song "The Dryness and the Rain" with Aaron Weiss. Below are a few photos I took at Purple Door '07 of the band.





The album I picked up is called "The Balancing Act". The cover art is found at the beginning of this post. It's a compilation of songs from previous albums and maybe a few new ones. This is the only album of theirs I own, but I plan on getting the other ones. A booklet came with "The Balancing Act" which give a history of the band. I'm going to share a few sections of that. Mark Nicks wrote:

"I met Brandon and Jason in 1998 at a Ruby Tuesday in Mufreesboro, TN the night before the last exam of my freshman year at Middle Tennessee State University. The first thing they said to me was, "Do you play drums?" I did. They asked me if I wanted to play in a Christian punk band. I didn't. I was losing interest in punk music and I didn't know much about Christian music except that I usually didn't think it was very good. For some reason, though, I called Brandon the next week. His number was scribbled on the back of a picture of Gwynneth Paltrow that one of their friends had in his wallet. A few days later I met up with Brandon and Jason, and we walked around 2nd Ave. in Nashville. They informed me that the band already had a name - Cool Hand Luke. They had never seen the movie. In fact, they didn't know it was a movie before I told them. They had heard someone say it and thought it sounded like a good name."

"I was very impressed that Brandon suggested we pray before we started playing. I wasn't accustomed to praying about something like playing music, but I thought it was a great idea. It immediately showed me that Brandon and Jason were real about their faith and they really wanted it to be a part of the music they played. It became an important part of Cool Hand Luke."

"It didn't take long for us to realize that our vision for what we wanted this band to be had very little to do with entertaining people or playing music that made our audiences mosh. We started to take our faith more seriously and how we could get that across musically and lyrically without it seeming trite or cliché."

"We could all write pages and pages of funny, ridiculous, moving stories from those days. Stories about our 25-year old van with linoleum floors and more cabinets than seats that got so hot that we had to drive with the side door open, stories about that van breaking down just about anywhere in America and praying that it would start again, stories about dumb shows in which the number of bands playing was greater than the number of people in attendance, stories about staying in a house that was so gross we drove through a tornado just to leave it, stories about Joe Creep (the band's manager) putting the WRONG water bottle on stage so that I took a big gulp of my urine after our first song, and lots of other stories"

Those are just a few blurbs from the booklet. Say Mufreesboro, it's fun to say. I especially like how he said they wanted to share their faith through their music without it sounding trite or cliché. I think that is a huge problem in the Christian music industry. There are too many artists out there who have written piss poor music and then say that it was inspired by God. I think that is so wrong. What if God doesn't want to be associated with that song because it doesn't represent what he is truly about? I think we should use our God-given talents to just create art and music and allow God to flow out of it rather than try to cram him into it.

Well, I've rambled on long enough, time to bring this one to a close. I'll leave you with a video and the lyrics to a Cool Hand Luke song called "Wonder Tour". This song helped me during a rough time in my life. I had just graduated from college and I hadn't found a job in my field yet. This song really spoke to me, I hope it speaks to you. God bless.



You've already made to many mistakes
To ever amount to anything great
You're not allowed to dream out loud
You're far too young to even count
And much too poor without any doubt
And you haven't done nearly enough
To deserve any grace or anyone's love

God speak truth
To the lies that we've believed instead of you

You're in the wrong city for that line of work
And you'll never make it unless you're a jerk
Live for yourself and store up more wealth
We've traded in dreams and youthful ideals
For less noble things of paying the bills
And trying our best to look like the rest
While hiding our fears by the way we all dress

God speak truth
To the paychecks we have trusted instead of you

Visit the official Cool Hand Luke site here.

Story Time Tuesday ~ The Break Down

This story takes place about six years ago. I was on my way home one night from seeing a friend who lived more than an hour away from me. I was still a good half-hour from home when my car started making noise. I pulled off at the next exit, parked under the overpass and my car died. Did I mention I was on I-80 in Northeastern, PA? There was nothing off this exit, no gas stations, restaurants, or hotels. If anything, there were probably some hunting cabins nearby. Oh yea, and no cell reception. I tried starting the car a few times...nothing. My 94 Chevy Cavalier was dead.

I grabbed my backpack because I didn't know if I was going to get back to my car before I went back to class on Monday or not and I started walking. I knew there was a rest stop up ahead, I just couldn't remember how far ahead. It was about 9:30pm in November when I started walking and it was 35ºF, which isn't too bad for walking, it's still a few degrees above freezing. Traffic was pretty heavy along the interstate that night which created a breeze which made it feel much colder than 35ºF.

I have to be completely honest though and say that I was angry. I was angry at myself, I was angry at God for letting this happen. I spent a lot of time cursing and yelling at God as I was walking along the side of the road. So I just kept on walking having my own little pity party for myself.

The whole time I was walking no one pulled over to give me a ride. Although I did come across cars that were pulled over on three separate occasions that night. The first car I came across was full of people. They opened the window a crack so I could talk to them. They told me they were waiting for a tow truck. I almost asked them if I could ride in the tow truck with them to the rest stop but there probably wouldn't have been enough room to ride along, plus I could tell they were pretty freaked out since I had come out of nowhere in the middle of nowhere. When I noticed their discomfort I told them that I would keep on walking, there was a rest stop up ahead.

The next car I came to had one person in it. I tapped on the window to get his attention. He didn't even acknowledge me. He must have thought I was some crazy serial killer too. Maybe it was the fact that I was carrying a backpack. For all they knew I may have had someone's severed head in there. But it was just art and design books for school. I kept on walking.

A little further down the road there were two cars parked along the highway. Two guys were looking under the hood of the one car, checking the fluids. I struck up a conversation with one of them. They told me they were Penn State students. I thought to myself, "This is it! I go to Penn College which is owned by Penn State, which isn't exactly a sister college to Penn State, it's more like a third cousin." So I told him I was a Penn College student and asked him for a ride, I mean, we're practically brothers, right? Wrong! He said he would have given me a ride but his girlfriend was pretty freaked out by me. I looked in the car and his girlfriend was busy chatting and laughing with her friend in the backseat. She probably didn't even know I was there. I looked at him and thought "Are you sure you're not the one that's scared?" So as he was getting in his car he said "The rest stop is only 15 seconds down the road" and they drove off. There were no good Samaritans on the road that night.

So I started walking again. After a few minutes I came across a sign that read "Rest Stop 1 Mile" At least I knew how much further I had to walk. Then I thought about what that dork from Penn State said "The rest stop is only 15 seconds down the road". Even if I was driving I would have had to go 240 m.p.h. to make it in 15 seconds. I did the math in my head, I had enough time while I was walking.

I finally arrived at the rest stop. There was a pay phone, remember pay phones? I'm sure that when I have children they will one day learn about them in their history books. I didn't have any change so I had to buy a bag of chips from the vending machine to get change. I wasn't sure what time it was, but I'm sure it was close to 11pm so I called my grandmother. Everyone else I knew was probably in bed, but my grandmother usually stays up until 11 or 12. She doesn't go to bed at 7:30pm like most retirees. So she came and picked me up.

The next day my mom drove me out to my car. We had AAA meet us out there. We were following the tow truck back home and I counted how many miles it was between where I broke down and where the rest stop was. It was only five miles. It seemed like a whole lot more than five miles though. Probably not because of the cold, the dark, or the fact I couldn't get a ride, but it was because of my crappy attitude. Like I said earlier, I had spent a lot of my time walking along the road moaning and complaining about my situation and being angry at God for letting my car break down. My car wasn't the only thing that broke down that night.

What I was lacking that night was joy. You might ask yourself "Why would you be joyful during a situation like that?" I think too many times people confuse joy with happiness. They are two different things. We can be joyful even when we aren't happy. I guess being joyful is another way of saying "Look on the bright side" That's what I should have been doing. I should have been joyful that I was getting some good exercise and that when I arrived at the rest stop I was able to get a ride because I have a family that cares about me and I serve a God that looks out for me and will always love me even if I get angry with him.

We put too much faith in our "things". We expect our cars to take us where we want to go. Sometimes cars go bad, but God is always good.

I Hate Mondays! ~ Honk for Peace!

Before I get started I just wanted to say that "hate" is a strong word. I do not claim to hate anyone or any group of people. Although I do hate some of the stupid things people do. Just wanted to throw that out there.

How would anyone know what you stand for if all you do is take a stand for what you are against? Protesting has never made any sense to me at all. Dictionary.com simply defines the word protest as an expression or declaration of objection, disapproval, or dissent. Dan's definition of a protest goes a little something like this: A group of people who are too lazy to actually go out and make something happen so they resort to holding signs with words and/or images on them and believe it's going to change things.

I think it's the equivalent of holding up a banner with the name of your favorite football team at a football game and expecting it to help your favorite team score a touchdown or a field goal. It's the activists who get the work done by going out and doing what they believe in, not the protesters who think they are accomplishing something by basically doing nothing. How many times have you seen a protester holding a sign and you think to yourself "Wow, words on a sign! Some of them are misspelled and the letter spacing is awkward, but this sign has changed my life. Thank you for holding that sign, Mr. sign holder guy!" Yea, me neither.

A couple years ago I went to Scranton, PA with a friend of mine to see a photography exhibit (no, we did not take a tour of the Dunder Mifflin paper company). Afterwards we decided to walk around Scranton and take some of our own pictures. We came across a group of people who were standing on a street corner holding signs and protesting everything from gas prices to the war in Iraq. It was a bunch of kids and one older guy who put the whole thing together. He was wearing a shirt that said "I'm running from my president." We talked with the gentleman for a few minutes. He seemed like a nice guy and the reason why he was doing this was to keep the kids out of trouble, which seemed like a pretty noble thing to do. It's too bad he didn't have them doing something more productive. One kid was holding a sign that said "Honk for peace" so every few moments someone would honk their horn. Everyone in the world could honk their horn, it's not going to create peace.

There is one group out there that I find very disturbing. I won't give out the name of the organization because this post is not about pointing fingers at people. This group I'm referring to is an extremist group which is mostly known for their protests against homosexuality as well as protests against funerals for troops who have been killed in Iraq. They claim to do these things in the name of Jesus Christ, yet they do nothing at all that represents what Christ is about. Could you imagine attending the funeral of a loved one who was killed in the war and a group of people come along with protest signs and they start yelling things like "He deserved to die". It's horrible, I can't imagine what has gotten inside their heads and brainwashed them to make them behave in this way. They claim that they do this out of love. Where exactly is the love? Their idea of love looks a lot like hate to me.

This is how love is defined in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7,"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." Let's compare the Bible's definition of love with the actions of this group.

Love is patient: If the members of this group were patient, they would take to time to talk with others rather than shove their beliefs down peoples' throats.

Love is kind: Telling everyone that God hates them is not kind at all, plus it's a big fat lie.

Love does not envy: They don't really seem to envy since they believe they have it all figured out and they think they're right. However it's possible that they may be angry because there are some things they want but cannot have because of their beliefs.

Love is not boastful or proud: I've heard a few interviews with a certain member of this group on the xxxchurch podcast and the Nick & Josh podcast. She sounded very boastful and proud of the groups actions.

Love is not rude: Interrupting a military funeral = rude. Need I say more?

Love is not self-seeking: This group is convinced that they are the only ones in the world that are not going to hell. All 90 of them. Sounds like a pretty self-righteous attitude to me.

Love is not easily angered: I had mentioned before that I've heard interviews with one of the groups members. They entire time she was yelling and cussing at the people interviewing her.

Love keeps no record of wrongs: This group is constantly listing off the things they believe everyone else is doing wrong.

Love does not delight in evil: This group delights in the lies and the hate they spread. Those things are evil and they are going to have to answer for all of it someday.

I wasn't planning on spending this much time talking about this group but it just kind of turned out that way. I am very disturbed by their actions. But if I'm going to quote the meaning of love from the Bible then I must remember that I need to love everyone, including the members of this group and pray that they may someday see that what they are doing is wrong.

I had a funny idea recently. What if we could assemble a group a people to go around and protest protesters. We could carry signs like the one I designed above and ones that say "Protesting solves nothing!" of course the signs would have to be handmade along with poor spelling, poor grammar, and awkward letter spacing. I think it would be a fun social experiment.

I'm going to bring this one to a close but I just wanted to say that I believe there are some things worth taking a stand for, but it's going to take much more than a stick and some posterboard.

June Introduction

It's the first of June. Time for a whole new month of hating things, telling stories, appreciating art, thinking deeply, and laughing hysterically. Or perhaps one of the themes will be voted off this month. Oooohhh, which one is it gonna be? We'll just have to wait and see because I don't even know yet. I hope you all liked my May 2009 wrap-up calendar. Click on it and feel free to print it out. Although you won't really be able to use it until 2015 which is the next time that May will start on a Friday. So when 2015 rolls around just white out the 2009 and write 2015. Ah, yes, 2015, the year when we'll be driving flying cars, riding hoverboards, and wearing self-drying clothes, two neckties, and shoes that lace themselves. We'll be able to stop in at the Cafe 80's, order a Pepsi from Ronald Reagan, and play some Wild Gunman. Seriously though, if 2015 isn't exactly like it was in Back to the Future II, I'm going to be extremely disappointed! Oh yea, Speilberg better get working on Jaws 5 through 18 if Jaws 19 is gonna come out by 2015. Get working Steven! I wanna see that holographic great white shark! But let's forget about the future for now, it's time to go back to Blogity-blah-blah-blog!