On the DL

I’ve been on the blogging ‘disabled list’ for the past couple of days for two reasons.

First, our internet has been down since early Wednesday morning. Second, I aggravated an old wrist injury making typing painful. (I must confess that I did this playing too much Zuma - a fun, and highly addictive, game I recently downloaded for my iPod. Follow the link at your own risk!)

Anyways, due to the injury, I’ve been unable to finish typing out a village story I’ve been wanting to share with you for some time now. Thankfully, the internet and my wrist are on the mend.

Obviously, I’m back on the ‘active roster’ (consider this a rehab start) so, hopefully I’ll have that story ready to post soon.

Golf is NOT Boring

Just about every casual sports fan knows that yesterday, Tiger Woods won the 13th major of his career at the PGA Championship. (Nice call Ben!) Unlike most sports fans (well, at least those in the US), I had follow Tiger’s march to victory by continually clicking the ‘refresh’ button on the leaderboard and live blog pages of the ESPN.com golf page. Not very visually stimulating, I know, but it did provide a good amount of suspense. (Especially since the pages usually took a minute or two to reload.)

As I was thinking about how I ‘watched’ the PGA Championship yesterday it struck me that, at one time, I would have considered my actions to be a total bore. I mean, I remember thinking the only good thing about watching golf was that the slow pace and the hushed tones of the commentators helped you get that afternoon nap you really needed.

Now I’m riveted by how the little numbers on the online leaderboard might or might not change, for crying out loud!

It’s a sad state to be in, I know. But here’s hoping the internet connections will still be good when the time for the Ryder Cup rolls around.

2 cent Bonds

Barry Bonds broke the “most hallowed individual record in sports” last night, hitting his 756th career home run.

For what it is worth (probably less than one thread of one stitch of that ball Bonds crushed for no. 756), here’s my two cents on the whole matter.

While Bonds has not been proven guilty of taking steriods, I’m with the vast majority of fans who believe he knowingly took performance enhancing drugs. For me the proof is in his unnatural physical growth at a time way past puberty or even a “late growth spurt”. Most (if not all) of his perceivable physical changes - especially his ballooning head size - are tell-tale signs of steroid use.

Still, in my book, Bonds won’t be guilty until proven so.  But, in the same right, he’ll always be suspect until definitively proven otherwise. (His case could be compared with that neighborhood dog you saw chewing on a discarded T-bone -last night’s dinner- right after you spent 30 minutes picking up your trash after a mysterious garbage spill. You are sure the dog did it, but you can’t really complain to the dog’s owner because you didn’t actually see the dog get into your garbage and it is possible - although only very very slightly so - that he was munching on someone else’s T-bone leftovers. The evidence is all there, except the smoking gun.)

That having been said, history has been made and that should be celebrated. I don’t really care for Bonds, but I got goosebumps watching that home run and I probably will when I see it again. (Just like I get goosebumps whenever I see Laettner’s last-second shot to beat Kentucky in the Elite Eight.  To put it lightly, I don’t care for Duke nor Laettner, but I do love sports history and drama.)

I’m just hoping I get the chance to have those goosebumps trumped by another career homerun record breaking blast in my lifetime.

A-Rod hitting it in a Cubs uniform would be extra sweet.

A Reminder on Worship

For about a year now, I’ve been reading through Dallas Willard’s book The Divine Conspiracy. It usually doesn’t take me that long to get through a book, but this isn’t the kind of book you can read in bed or while sitting on the toilet (the two places where I get the bulk of my reading done nowadays).

The Divine Conspiracy is a rich, challenging, spiritually deep volume, full of truths which have made me think long and hard about how I view the Kingdom of God. Willard uses Matthew 5-7, “The Sermon on the Mount”, as the scriptural foundation for the book and he does an outstanding job walking the reader through Jesus’ gospel of the Kingdom. Since I’ve started reading this book - and teaching Matt. 5-7 out in the villages - much of Willard’s arguments, explanations and points have found their way into my spiritual consciousness (as well as those lessons).

Suffice it to say, I highly recommend this book.

So what does this have to do with worship? Well, I’m finally into the last couple of chapters of the book which try to give readers a framework for actually living their lives within the Kingdom and what Willard says about worship really struck me. Here it is (emphases are mine):

To handle the things of God without worship is always to falsify them.

In worship we are ascribing greatness, goodness, and glory to God. It is typical of worship that we put every possible aspect of our being into it, all of our sensuous, conceptual, active, and creative capacities.

…In worship we strive for adequate expression of God’s greatness. But only for a moment, if ever do, do we achieve what seems like adequacy. We cannot do justice to God or his Son or his kingdom or his goodness to us.

Worship nevertheless imprints on our whole being the reality that we study. The effect is a radical disruption of the powers of evil in us and around us. Often an enduring and substantial change is brought about. And the renewal of worship keeps the glow and power of our true homeland an active agent in all parts of our being. To “hear and do” in the atmosphere of worship is the clearest, most obvious and natural thing imaginable. (Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p. 363)

Wow. Did I ever need to hear that!

For a good while now, worship has been routine, rote and even stale to me. How did this come to be? Maybe, somewhere along the line, the feeling of inadequacy caused me to give up the pursuit of expressing God’s greatness in worship. Maybe I’ve allowed my focus to wander from seeking His face. Or maybe I’ve just grown lazy and complacent. Whatever the true reason is, it is probably a combination of “all-the-above” and then some.

How I need to allow a “renewal of worship” in my life! How I need to the “glow and power of the Homeland” as “an active agent” in my life! May God grant me the grace and humility to be brought back to that place. The place where I worship Him with every aspect of my being, seeking to tell Him in any and every way possible how great He really is.

With this little reminder, at least He’s got me looking in the right direction.

Close Encounter

So what if Tracey has already posted this picture on her blog. There is NO way I could pass on posting a picture of me this close to a lion on my own “Into the Wild” blog!

Before you start retroactively fearing for my life, know that this lion was extremely lethargic and had approached our van seeking shade - not lunch. When we came across her on the road, it was high noon, the heat was pretty stifling, and there weren’t any trees nearby.

Anyways, our trip to Masai Mara in Kenya was absolutely amazing. I hope to post more pictures from the safari just as soon as my film gets developed. Maybe by the end of the month…