Gift Giving

At least in America, it seems like gifts and presents are still as synonymous, if not more, with Christmas, than the birth of Jesus Christ. And despite the best efforts of so many Christians, this still seems to be the case. By the way, how many commas did I just use? Geeeeeeez.

But as I sat in church this evening, a thought popped into my heart. I think, in efforts to move gifts and presents out of the limelight of Christmas, I've at least, in part, denied myself of experiencing the gift of, well, gifts. I've always bought presents for my family because I had to. And I used to buy a gift or two for a certain girl here of there because I liked her and somehow thought that whatever cheesy gift I bought may increase my chances of scoring a date. But now, I buy gifts because I love people and because I like figuring out ways to bring a little bit of joy and happiness to those whom I love. I've put some thought into what I've bought this year, and also have stumbled upon some gifts, and I'm excited to give them. If you don't get something from me this year, please know that I wish I could have.

One of the great revelations of my life that has come with my faith journey was that December 25 is not the actual date of birth of Jesus. The thought that follows that is obviously, why can't everyday be Christmas? And I remember a couple summers ago, hiking through Colorado with some high school kids, celebrating our own "Christmas" out on the trail. We gathered in a circle, broke bread together, and told each other why we appreciated each other and how we saw God move through that mini community in only a few days. It was incredible.

I think that the Kingdom of Heaven is something that we should be experiencing now, not just in Heaven when we leave this world. Once again, why can't Christmas be every day?

Today, tomorrow, the rest of break, and hopefully every day after that, think about the gifts that you have received from God, the tangible ones as well as the unseen. Talents, abilities, qualities...these all count. And think about those around you and the gifts that they have received. Then spend some time having conversations with these people about the gifts you see in them, and then talk about the gift we all have received, which is obviously Jesus. We all need reminders, and we all need to be told about the gifts we have that we have either have forgotten about or simply did not realize we possess.

Happy gift-giving.

Excitement and Drama on a Saturday Night

It just went final. BYU 17 UCLA 16. BYU punted and downed the ball at the 1 with 2:02 left. Then UCLA's freshman quarterback (replacing the injured senior starter) takes them down the field all the way to the BYU 11. All that's left is 3 seconds and a 28 yard chip shot for the red-hot redshirt freshman kicker. Snap is good, hold is good...and it's blocked! Barely tipped actually, and the kick barely falls short. Game over. BYU wins.

So why am I posting about this? Because I picked BYU in my College Bowl Pick'em, and gave them 29 confidence points. I'm back in the hunt!

My guess on the percentage of people that read this that know what I'm talking about and/or actually care about what I'm talking about: 25%

Hustle and Bustle

Today was a good day. I started with a Cassel's trip with Ben, mixed in lots of laughter and funny moments, made a few random people smile and laugh, and cheered on my beloved Spartans to a solid win over Texas. And when the dust settled, all of my Christmas shopping is done! Full day, I'd say.

A few months ago Ben and I decided that it'd be fun if everyday, we could make some random person smile and/or laugh. Not in a creepy way, but mostly just using well placed humor and wit and being polite. You don't even have to be funny. For all the great stories about Jesus documented in the Gospels, I'd love to read some simple stories of when Jesus did or said something to make a random person He didn't know smile. Now, maybe, since He was God, Jesus did in fact know everyone, but that's a different story for another time. But seriously, I think life would be better if we all made this a goal for each day.

I spent some time in Barnes & Noble today, and once again realized that, if left unchecked, I could spend a whole day in there. I even saw Frank Turner there today; he was signing his book that he just wrote and released. For those Metro Detroiters out there, he's the guy from Channel 7 news that retired last year. It sounds like he's had quite a ride of struggle and faith in his life, at least according to the book sleeve. Nice guy.

I managed to take some pictures of Christmas gifts from Barnes & Noble I won't be giving this year. I hope it's not illegal to take pictures of books. I don't know why it would be, but I felt like I needed to be sneaky about it.


The Elvis Impersonation Kit
Person Most Likely To Receive Gift: Either Mark Burley, Brian Hamm, Emily Moiseeff, or Tony Pyle. Or all of them.
Reason Why I Almost Bought It: C'mon...who wouldn't want their own kit on how to be like Elvis?
Reason Why I Didn't Buy It: C'mon, who would really want a $20 kit on how to be like Elvis. Besides, I think all of those people are talented / ambitious enough to be like Elvis if they wanted to.

Gray's Anatomy
Person Most Likely To Receive Gift: Katie Sweeney
Reason Why I Almost Bought It: Sween loves Gray's Anatomy...or was it Grey's Anatomy?
Reason Why I Didn't Buy It: Price. It cost $20 on sale, which was about $15 more than I was willing to pay for it. And about $20 more than it'd be worth to Sween after the "ha ha" appeal wears off.

God Wants You to Be Rich
Person Most Likely To Receive Gift: No one.
Reason Why I Almost Bought It: None.
Reason Why I Didn't Buy It: "How and why everyone can enjoy material and spiritual wealth in an abundant world?" Seriously? No wonder it's a national best seller...who wouldn't want to read about how God wants us to be rich and enjoy material wealth? I think I'd rather read Gray's Anatomy.

I also spent some time in Downtown Northville. Everyone should hang out there sometime, it's so great. Full of nice older people, fun stores, great food, and cool spots to hang out. And Christmas lights and wreaths that line each street at Christmas time. Here's a picture of the outside of Stampeddler, a craft/scrapbook store created for Lauren Wojcik and people that make cd covers by hand as part of Christmas presents.

I parked behind Rebecca's, which is one of my favorite restaurants. I saw this sign out back and spent about 7 seconds debating whether or not I wanted to take it. Ultimately...it's still sitting where I took this picture. However, maybe if Woj was with me, I'd have it :)

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you can see, hear, and experience Jesus over the next week.

PS I've decided that I like using pictures in my blog.

Catching Up

"It's been a while since I've last posted, and I know this because I've received several comments about my lack of posts (cough Emily, Sween, and Shan, cough cough) :)

So what better time to post than a quiet Friday night back at home? I've been all over the place lately, which has been a good and bad thing, but mostly good. So here's a short (but most likely long, by the time I'll done) recap of some thoughts that I deem blog-worthy, but just have been too lazy or forgetful to talk about, in no particular order:

1. One of Jesus' promises/qualities is that He is the Bread of life. I realized why He is not the "Chicken Queso Burrito of life" a couple Wednesdays ago because an experience I had at basketball practice. I had one of these little pieces of Heaven for lunch, then a couple hours later found myself participating in a full court drill for about 10 minutes with freshman boys that had much more energy (and probably 1 less chicken queso burrito sitting in their stomach). Let's just say it wasn't a good feeling. But man was it tasty.

2. I went Christmas shopping the other day by myself at the Meridian Mall, and it surprisingly wasn't too bad of an experience. It was actually really funny, on top of being productive. I saw a lot of my friends from Mason HS, including watching two guys walk out of Victoria's Secret. If I had a picture of one of the guys' face (the freshman guy I know, who also happens to be on my basketball team), I'd post it. Probably a face worthy of an American Express "Priceless" ad. But I also took a few minutes to check out the line for seeing Santa, and I was disappointed. I'm sure the little old man posing as Santa couldn't do much more, but he definitely didn't look too much like Santa...at least as I imagine him. Now obviously this is somewhat of a subjective criticism, since Santa's about as real as the Lions' playoff chances, but still, he wasn't quite plump enough, his beard didn't look right, and he was either 10 years too young or 10 years too old (I couldn't decide which was actually true). And he wouldn't even let kids sit on his lap! The poor little kids had to stand awkwardly in front of him, sharing their condensed wish lists. That was another problem with him...I think his lap was too small.

3. Mason Freshman basketball is now 2-3, after a 38 point win over St. John's. Obvious evidence of a great coaching job :) And (read: in reality) our point guards are studs.

4. Played a game of movie charades with Woj, Shan, and the Granger boys. Our movie selections were limited to the movies on their shelf, which the boys have affectionately memorized. Here's a video of my beautiful girlfriend acting her little heart out (I only caught the tail end).



I love this video because of
A. The confidence and passion exuded by Luke Granger
B. Shan's lion impersonation
C. "Can I see that?" This quote ended the video, mostly because Jay grabbed my phone and almost broke it in half

5. I watched "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" again, only because it's one of Shannon's top 5 favorite movies. I guess that's just what happens...either I love her so much or I have lots of time on my hands. Or both.

6. Speaking of Shan, I spent a weekend with her family in Grand Rapids, and had a blast. We saw a movie, went out to eat with her whole family to celebrate her grandparents' anniversary, watched a family slideshow, hung out with her brother and his friends, went shopping, and many other fun things. It was memorable, and hopefully the first of many more memorable moments with Shannon and her family.

7. Finished my 7th semester of college!


I'm forward to tomorrow. I'm planning on finishing my Christmas shopping, cheering on the Spartans to a win against Texas, and maybe watching Charlie Brown Christmas, the G.O.A.T. of Christmas movies. Miss you all.

Bestsellers and Singing

It's been a while since the last name I wrote, which hopefully doesn't become a trend. I'm sitting at Bestsellers right now, a coffee shop / bookstore in Mason. It's one of my favorite places in the quaint little town of Mason. I think I love this place because 1. it's the only coffee place in Mason; 2. I love coffee; and 3. it's full of opposites. It's not that I love opposites or anything, but it's interesting to me. It's full of old people and young people, well lit and dimly lit places, areas of great reception and dead zones. People here are either in a big hurry, or content with taking all the time in the world. It's small and consistent, just like the town it serves. Here's a picture of it (by the way, I took this with my phone, then sent it to my computer via Bluetooth...gotta love technology!)

Our freshman team had a game last night, and we won! It was awesome to share in the joy of victory with those guys. Our JV lost a tough one afterwards, but they absolutely played their hearts out. There's something inspiring and cool about watching people give their best. To try as hard as they can. To leave everything out there. It's always expected, and so rarely accomplished. It leaves us vulnerable, but it's beautiful. I hope those young men can build on that experience.

But anyways, I've been thinking about singing lately. I do a lot of driving, and much of that is driving by myself. It's not as bad as it sounds...it gives me time to think, reflect, pray, and sing as loud as I want to, without inducing cringes and laughter from others. I'm such a poor singer; I have no concept of pitch, tone, or key. I don't even know what those terms mean. But I sound great when I'm singing along with someone. At church, I sound great. When I sing along to PW, I sound great. Now obviously, I'm still the same schmuck who can't sing a lick, but singing along with someone who can makes all the difference.

I'm not good at singing, but I think there are other things that I'm good at that others aren't as good at. I think that God gives us each skill sets and passions that are unique to us. Mine doesn't include singing, but it does include other stuff. But whether it's singing, painting, cooking, or teaching, we're always better off when we do those things with other people. Regardless of whether or not we're any good, it brings out the best in us and it brings out the best in others.

Spend some time thinking about what you're good at and what you're passionate about. Then spend some time thinking about how you can invite others to join you in that. It'll be fun.

Past my prime?

For those of you that don't know, I'm helping out with the freshman basketball team at Mason High School. It's only been a few weeks, and I absolutely love it. The guys on my team are really fun, and being able to teach and encourage these 14 young men has been both challenging and life-giving. We've got our first game tomorrow night...unfortunately I have to miss it, but there'll be plenty more!

Anyways, I decided to condition with them tonight. I've been thinking of doing this for a while now, but tonight was the first time I did everything conditioning-wise that they did. I'm hoping that joining them will inspire them to work harder and take on my attitude as well, which is (hopefully) one that works hard and encourages others.

Obviously, part of having said attitude is being in shape, of which I am dreadfully not in. We only did about 7 down and backs plus a man-maker (perhaps a more PC term for a suicide), but I was huffing and puffing by the end of it all. I'm not sure if I would have been able to finish another set of those. Sad, but true. I just can't run and jump and move like I used to. I'm not strong anymore either. Now, I'm sure not many share the same desire to possess these qualities as I do, but they're important to me for better or worse. At least kind of important.

As I took off my shoes and got ready to depart after practice with the rest of the team, I was joking around with a couple of them. As I joked with them to not let the "old guy" beat them in sprints (I know I'm not really old, but I feel old for 21 going on 22), one guy responded "but you should be in your prime!"

He said it in such a way that he was certain that, at this stage of life I'm in, I should in fact be in my "prime." I calmly and confidently responded that my prime was ages 17 and 18, and it's been downhill since. As we laughed our way out of the gym, I couldn't help but think: I'm just scratching the 20s and I'm already over the hill, athletically speaking. That sucks.

Am I really past my prime, athletically speaking? Maybe if I put in the time and energy, I can get back to the level of fitness and athleticism I enjoyed in high school. But I don't see that happening anytime soon, for a lot of reasons. Many of these probably aren't good reasons, but still.

I'll probably have much more to say about this basketball coaching experience. It's really quite cool.

Beginnings

I told Shan that I decided to start a blog tonight and she said "I'm surprised it took you so long." I used to think that blogs were kind of ridiculous, but for some reason this afternoon I decided that I wanted to have one. For some reason, I felt this need to have an outlet to capture my thoughts. And that maybe, people would find it worth reading. And now that my MacBook is half-way to being a golden calf, I'll hopefully be able to post frequently.

I spent a while thinking about what my blog would be titled. I actually spent much longer than I'd like to admit to. I thought about using a phrase from one of my favorite songs, "From the Inside Out," but each of my favorite lines on it's own sounded weird. "My soul cries out" and "The cry of my heart" sounded emo-ish. And that's not what I'm going for. So I ended up with "toe the line," which is the title of a song by Stephen Speaks. Here are the lyrics:

"Toe the line again to see how far
I can run and still see where You are
Feel I've run this race a thousand years still I fall
These dirty feet calloused with the tread
And my eyes the eyes of dead men
Running far enough from my salvation
But only far enough to dip my feet

CHORUS: I am not pretending anymore
I am not at home
I am knocking at Your door
I am not at home, I am not at home, I am coming home

Toe the line again to see how far
I can run and still see where You are
Knowing full well what this grace has cost...
Seems this safety net's not made of lace
But the flowing river of Your grace
And who am I some selfish kid
To abuse this perfect love You give."

"Toe the line again and see how far, I can run and still see where you are." So much of the last 5 years of my life can be characterized by that line. I'm almost done with my 7th semester of college, and soon enough I'll have a job. A real job. I'm in the midst of my fourth year as a Young Life leader at Mason High School, and I have a lot of great relationships there...so much of my heart is invested there, and soon enough, I'll be moving on. But as some wise person noted, the end of each chapter in our lives means the beginning of a new one. As I sit here now, I've got opportunities (at least, the opportunity at opportunities) for a job, meaningful relationships that will last well past college, and specifically, one with a girl that I care about more than myself.

As many of you know, I'm 'that guy' that often needs to be retaught a lesson before it sticks, if it ever does, but here's hoping that as I toe this new line, I'll have my head up and focused on what's important. And I'm not talking about my blog :)

Thanks for reading. If you continue to tune in, I hope you find this humorous and insightful. Go to the well on the comments...I'd love to hear from you all.