Faith of a child/Play like a child

So this man is in my mind a lot these days...c'mon, he's playing phenomenal football. What strikes me about his though is his child like attitude. He just knows how to have fun and play the game. He just knows how to smile and jump around. He's 37 and he's picking up second year players and carrying them around like he's playing backyard ball. So that's the image/analogy.

What if we were to have a faith like that? What if we were able to pursue Christ with that brand of fervor? Just get out there and try to win, have fun doing it, and be a kid..



Other thought: perfect sports weekend: the Cubs clinch, the Illini (4-1) win, and the Packers (4-0) win. Pretty different sports climate than last year this time for me.

Illini win 27-20

Say this aloud and listen how much they sound like eachother. They were meant to go together.

Rashard, rush yards

Illini running back, and what he does

On another note

On ESPN right now, there is an episode of the NFL's Greatest Games. The game they have right now is the Packers vs. the Lions in 1993. Wow, it's nuts who is in this game. There are some serious player names: Barry Sanders, Eric Kramer, Reggie White, Leroy Butler, Sterling Sharpe, Robert Porcher, Herman Moore and more. Specifically, Brett Favre is a flippin' young guy in this game, before his glory days. Coaching wise, specifically on the Packers, you've got Mike Holmgren coaching with Andy Ried, Jon Gruden, Steve Mariucci, and other future NFL coaches to move up the ranks. It's fun to look back.

A message to you

To whom may read this, and to all, for it concerns all...

You are deeply loved by the creator. He delights in you and takes pleasure in you. He loves you regardless of race, nationality, field of study or work, intelligence, purity, sexual orientation, anger issues, car, financial class, physical ability, sports fanship, political allegiance, or any other thing that differentiates people.

The creator of the Universe delights in you!

Remedy

Ok, so I haven't even listened to the whole thing yet, but I can already tell that Remedy by David Crowder*Band, which was released today, is gonna be a good one. If there's any indication, it could definitely be the single that was released before the album. I didn't really listen to it before the release of the album, but I did this morning, like 5 times. It is fantastic. I already have so many images floating through my head. It's called "Everything Glorious" and it is fantastic

You make everything glorious
And I am yours
What does that make me?

Killer simple, killer thoughtful, and with good instrument playing in the background, it really comes alive. I imagine animals, trees, molecules, mountains, and so much more. The things he has made glorious. And his people...

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Fall Retreat

Illini Life had our Fall Retreat this weekend. It was held at Camp Manitoumi. This camp is a fantastic facility just outside of Peoria, Illinois. It was a good weekend getting to know new people with Illini Life and I truly enjoyed it. As for me specifically, I got to run a carpetball tournament and for the third retreat in a row, The Game. Ty Grigg gave a fantastic perspective on the Prodigal Son. It was so awesome. Truly impressed me.

The Everglow

Can I just say how much I love this cd. The Everglow by Mae is probably my favorite cd ever. I love how it flows, I love the story it tells, and I love the awesomeness of the lyrics.

One that really struck me today was from the song Anything.

Every now and again sometimes I get lost in the wings of a dream.
The air gets clear and the seas get wide and I can do anything.
The pain it won't even cross my mind there is wonder in everything.
The rope gets loose and the chains unbind and I can do anything.

This lyrics really strike me. Especially the part that says "every now and again sometimes." It strikes me because we don't always believe the Gospel and it just so happens that every now and again we get it. I wish that I could really believe every second that I am no longer chained down.

I love the ridiculousness of this

Click on the image to ensue the hilarity. This comic strip (Perry Bible Fellowship) has nothing to do with the Bible, but it does have to do with tricky, dark, comedy. This is the newest one.

Incredible way to convey killing in battle

He dealt a neck blow that freed the man's spirit from his body's weight.

-From Shahname (in my Lit. class)

Thoughts from the Nasty Nati

I'm in Cincinnati for a family reunion/awesome 50th wedding anniversary. My aunt and uncle have been married for over twice as long as I've been alive! That's just incredible. It's really a sobering thought to see how much devotion they have to each other. It's also fun to see family together for even a short time.

Other thought

• There was a Mass for the wedding anniversary. It was a traditional Catholic Mass, and there was a huge emphasis on Mary. It was interesting, but I wasn't a huge fan.
• However, the idea of piety within their church is really impressive. They have a reverence for God.
  
• Illinois won today. I didn't get to see it, but it was convincing. 41-20 over Syracuse.
  
• Notre Dame lost today...good riddance to The Man.
• I just watched Alabama tug a victory away from Arkansas. That's classic college football. Sooooo good.
• Tomorrow the Packers play the Giants. The Giants are without their starting quarterback, and instead have Jared Lorenzen. He's a big dude, but I'm excited to see us play him tough.
• USC might have established themselves as number one. They are whopping up on Nebraska. LSU and USC are gonna be interesting to follow.
  
• On Friday, I had a FANTASTIC day. Spending time with the Lord just putting posters on campus at the U of I. It was a very fulfilling experience.
• Saw an iPod Nano 3G at the Apple Store in Champaign too. It was really neat. SOOOO tiny, and the screen is really big for such a tiny MP3 player. The downfall...the clickwheel is straight TINY!
• I still wanna see an iPod Touch. It's currently the coolest gadget in my eyesight.

End Stream of Consciousness

I stumbled upon this bad boy

An encouraging word to me

It might not mean too much to you, but it means the world to me to hear this encouragement. A person from my small group said, and I paraphrase,

It's really fun to be excited to go to Bible Study again.

Book Excerpt

From Overcoming the Darkside of Leadership chapter 15

"On arriving in Scotland, the American minister and two of his church's board members were anxious to meet their counterparts at a mission work they had been commissioned to visit. Coming as they were from a strong evangelical church in the States with a rich heritage in missions, the men were anxious to see what exciting things were being accomplished through the ministry of this church they were supporting. As they left their airport shuttle at the curb, they climbed the centuries-old stone stairs that led to the rectory. Before they could knock to announce their presence, the resident pastor flung open the door with his arms fully extended in a grand gesture befitting a eucharistic blessing, he enveloped the visitors in a warm embrace. Ahhh, the warmth of Christian felowship extends even across the Atlantic, thought the Yanks.

After appropriate hugs and greetings the Scottish pastor ushered his guests into the wood-paneled comfort of the study and directed them toward ancient leather wingback chairs. It was an exciting occasion, one that called for a proper inauguration. The host reached for a richly grained wooden box that smelled of cedar. When he opened it, his guests saw a treasured store of choice cigars. With obvious pride he offered each guest a cigar. The two laymen nervously looked at one another, then gazed toward their own pastor, not quite sure of the proper protocol at such an awkward ceremony. With sullen faces belying more than a little disapproval, both laymen refused the offer. Their pastor, however, eagerly snared a cigar from the humidor and lit it up, appreciatively admiring the curl of thick smoke that rose to the beamed ceiling. The Scottish rector smiled with satisfaction.

NExt the Scot went to his credenza and collected from it four small glasses and an etched glass decanter containing a caramel-brown liquid. The laymen looked mauseous. Surely this was the reason that Christianity had died in the British empire! When they returned home, they would see to it that the church reconsidered its financial support for such a carnal operation. They refused the brandy with even less decorum than they had rejected the cigars. Their host was by now looking worried, wondering if he had somehow done something wrong. The American pastor, to the chagrin of his traveling companions, once again accepted the offering and took a satisfying sip. After an hour of visiting, confirmation of the coming itinerary, and a departing benediction, the American left. Once in their cab the laymen wasted no time before launching into an interrogation of their pastor. "Pastor, how could you!" exclaimed one of the board members. "I can't believe you did that!" vented the other. "I thought we were here to support their ministry and encourage them in their evangelistic efforts-it's no wonder the church is dead over here!" After a moment of silence the pastor replied with more than a hint of disgust, "One of us had to act like a Christian."

The ground pulls at my feet

Football thoughts

Yes, third post of the day...

The Illini are now 1-1. They beat (lacklusterly) Western Illinois 21-0. It was the first shutout for the Illini D since 2000. Pretty incredible in that respect. However, the Illini O can't play like that and continue to win.

NFL week 1 has started. The season is off to an interesting start. The Super Bowl champs won big. The NFC champs lose their first game. The Packers win! Wow, the Packers win. We finally exorcised our demon of Donovan McNabb. I wasn't able to watch the Packers game, as the Rams were the priority game, but as I checked out the gamecast online, I was getting more and more excited. The Vikings won, and the Lions are well on their way to victory as well. This puts the Bears in last place. I'm on the top of the world in NFL optimism, but I don't see this trend continuing. The NFC North might be tighter than we thought?

Lyrics I'm Lovin'

My Favorite Highway - "You're Making It Come Alive"

I've finally come to realize that we are all the same
If there's nothing left to lose then there's every to gain
All the paragraphs and pages you could write could not contain
It is curious and careless and it's flowing through my veins

The fear of growing old, and doing what you're told

You can't disguise a heart while it's breaking
You hide behind the smile you're faking
It's all about the the chance you're taking
Oh, and you know that you're making it all come alive

If your life is so damn comfortable then why do you complain?
A reflection in the alcohol you're pouring down the drain
Just because you paint a picture doesn't mean it fits the frame
This is my West Coast intervention and I'm getting on that plane

When all of your mistakes are keeping you awake

The sun is setting and it's ending 'cause you're letting it go
Forgetting everything you already know
And it all goes to show that you're moving to slow
It will end up changing you, it will end up changing you

Life flies by so you have to embrace it
Forget the past 'cause you cannot erase it
So live the dream, and learn to chase it
And when you can almost taste it
It's all come alive

I definitely want to come alive. That seems to be a theme for me. I also want to be a revolutionary. I want to change the world through my coming alive. I know that I am alive in Christ, so I have been actualized, but not by me. In the same way, my faith is not for my actualization, but for the actualization of others through Christ. I find that to be so important. As I read God's word more and more, I see us studying it a lot. Not doing it. What about the orphans and the widows? What about the rich? What about your neighbor? What about your classmate? They all have needs. To love is to meet those needs.

James 2:2 - Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Might as well blog about it

You ever have those times you don't save something because you have a temporary lapse of importance, or even worse, you don't even remember deleting it? Well, that just happened to me. My first lab report of the year is going swimmingly, as I was about halfway done and it got deleted. That qualifies as about the most frustrating thing on this side of sin. It feels like I totally wasted my evening that I could've been hanging with friends during to instead do a lab report that isn't even there anymore. Sweet...

Visionary

This is a post in stream of consciousness. It'll be interesting to see what is written.

My first thought is that the Illini played well today. Not fantastic, but well enough for me to think we could win the next 3 games.

Second thought. Ty Grigg talked tonight at SNG about the walls that we put up between ourselves and God. He used the analogy of the Berlin wall. Some people were ok with the wall and some saw the injustice of it and got out. There was a woman that escaped from East Berlin to the west and when she got out from under the fence, she found out that she had nothing but her clothes on her back. She left everything behind for freedom.

Finally

The meat of the post. I have been thinking a lot recently. Not that I don't think other times, it's just that recently has struck me. The church in the hope for the world. Jesus called it to help the poor, orphaned, and widowed. We even talk about it a lot. But the thing I see us doing is being fantastic visionaries. "What if we instituted this program? What if we got involved with this organization?" And yet we seem to be more concerned with straight cold evangelism when I believe that the Gospel, when lived out, is enough to transform people (this isn't to say we shouldn't evangelize). Too many times we are the people inside the Berlin wall saying that it was bound to happen. Perhaps we should see the injustices and fight them with all our strength. Let's take the vision of the church and put it into action. I love the idea, and it's really a driving force for me right now. How can I help the poor? Living simpler. SO that means examining what I have and seeing what I need to get rid of what I don't need so the money can go to the poor. Let's see how this goes. Implementing the ideas and making them action. Vision can change the world...we must make sure it does so.