So this evening Roni and I were in Winnsboro for a birthday dinner of a friend of ours from church. We were eating at the Italian place called Cibo Vino. For a small town, this is a terrific place, and has a much bigger atmosphere than what you would think. That however is beside the point really. The point is that we were supposed to get there between 6:00 and 6:30 and we were early. So, since Roni had not been to Winnsboro before and I had been there only twice, and we were early, we decided to take a walk around the downtown area and see what was there.
As we were walking, a man was heading back to his car and our paths happened to intersect. This man's name was Patrick Curry(?). We had never before seen this man in our lives, and he us. But as our paths intersected, he informed us that he'd had to show off his guitar to some guys who were setting up for a concert that was going on (it seems that Winnsboro has regular live music). He was showing them because it was a 1946 Gibson accoustic/electric made of mahogany. He then opened up the case and showed it to us. It was a nice guitar, but it did need some work. He was telling us about it's value and such, and then we started talking about where we were from.
As it turns out, he grew up in Big Spring and spent 26 years in Midland as well. He has a son who is 26, a son who is 19 and plays 1st base for UT, and a daughter who is 18 and will be playing basketball at South Plains in Levelland. Patrick himself played 2nd base at UT. His dad played high school football against Don Meredith in this area. He also spent one summer as the the youth director at Greenwood Baptist Church. Patrick was just a very friendly guy.
I will be honest, I wish I was able to do that and be that friendly with complete strangers. Who knows why it was that he talked to us like that. Maybe he thought we were someone that he knew or maybe he just usually talks to people at random, I have no idea. Regardless of the reason I came away thinking that it was a nice experience to have. Peace and Love y'all.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
The Top...
So today is the day that I give you a "Top 10" list. So without further delay, here you go.
The Top 10: Action Figure Toys from the 80's
10) Thunder Cats- They were huge and had battery operated rings that you pressed into their backs and their eyes lit up.
9) Star Wars- All the characters from the movies. And I do mean ALL the characters. In fact if you were in the movie even as the camera panned the landscape you got an action figure. On top of that, they had about the coolest vehicles ever created.
8) Marvel's Secret Wars- All the classic characters- Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Dr. Doom, Iron Man- plus a pretty sweet base you could get.
7) The Lone Ranger- You had the masked man in all his cowboy glory. The six-shooters fit in the holsters on his hips, plus he had his trusty mount Silver. Tonto was sold separately Kim-mo-sabee.
6) The Karate Kid- Daniel and The Kobra-Khas. All had that great 80's karate chop/kick action and something to use it on.
5) WWF Wrestlers- These were at the height of the WWF's popularity (at least in the 80's) and were cooler than they should have been by far. They had no moving parts and were basically nothing more a rubber mold of popular wrestlers in the WWF...but for some reason they were pretty cool. Maybe it's because of the fact that you could make them do flips by dropping them on their toes...
4)M.A.S.K.- Some of the sweetest toys of the decade I thought. Cool cars that transformed into things like jets and boats and helicopters. Plus all the drivers had some sort of super powerful helmet/mask that shot stuff from the visor (at least on the cartoon)
3) He-Man and the Masters of the Universe- Bulging muscles, big weapons and a green and orange tiger in battle gear. And they were spring loaded at the waist so they twisted and sprung back for some kind of action.
2) Transformers- These were so very cool, they were almost the number one toy. Sweet cars and planes, boom boxes and tape recorders. It didn't matter what kind of object it was, it was cool to figure out how to transform it into its robot form.
1) G.I. Joe- The absolute coolest action figures EVER. Seriously, they had everything you could want in an action figure. They had multiple points of articulation, awesome guns and cool vehicles. Plus they were soldiers who had "file cards" on the back of every package so you knew who was who and what their story was. These are by far the best in my book.
There it is. The first Top 10 list. If you have any thoughts let me know. Also (shameless plug here) if you like what you've read so far, please sign-up to follow this blog as we see where it goes from here. Peace and Love y'all.
The Top 10: Action Figure Toys from the 80's
10) Thunder Cats- They were huge and had battery operated rings that you pressed into their backs and their eyes lit up.
9) Star Wars- All the characters from the movies. And I do mean ALL the characters. In fact if you were in the movie even as the camera panned the landscape you got an action figure. On top of that, they had about the coolest vehicles ever created.
8) Marvel's Secret Wars- All the classic characters- Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Dr. Doom, Iron Man- plus a pretty sweet base you could get.
7) The Lone Ranger- You had the masked man in all his cowboy glory. The six-shooters fit in the holsters on his hips, plus he had his trusty mount Silver. Tonto was sold separately Kim-mo-sabee.
6) The Karate Kid- Daniel and The Kobra-Khas. All had that great 80's karate chop/kick action and something to use it on.
5) WWF Wrestlers- These were at the height of the WWF's popularity (at least in the 80's) and were cooler than they should have been by far. They had no moving parts and were basically nothing more a rubber mold of popular wrestlers in the WWF...but for some reason they were pretty cool. Maybe it's because of the fact that you could make them do flips by dropping them on their toes...
4)M.A.S.K.- Some of the sweetest toys of the decade I thought. Cool cars that transformed into things like jets and boats and helicopters. Plus all the drivers had some sort of super powerful helmet/mask that shot stuff from the visor (at least on the cartoon)
3) He-Man and the Masters of the Universe- Bulging muscles, big weapons and a green and orange tiger in battle gear. And they were spring loaded at the waist so they twisted and sprung back for some kind of action.
2) Transformers- These were so very cool, they were almost the number one toy. Sweet cars and planes, boom boxes and tape recorders. It didn't matter what kind of object it was, it was cool to figure out how to transform it into its robot form.
1) G.I. Joe- The absolute coolest action figures EVER. Seriously, they had everything you could want in an action figure. They had multiple points of articulation, awesome guns and cool vehicles. Plus they were soldiers who had "file cards" on the back of every package so you knew who was who and what their story was. These are by far the best in my book.
There it is. The first Top 10 list. If you have any thoughts let me know. Also (shameless plug here) if you like what you've read so far, please sign-up to follow this blog as we see where it goes from here. Peace and Love y'all.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
It's a Mario Kind of Life
So what if life did have video game sound effects? Would it change the way that we did stuff on a regular basis? Could we choose our own sound effects, or they be pre-recorded? Would we even hear them at all? The world may never know...
Peace and Love y'all.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Here..we...go
So this is my first post on this particular site. I plan to maintain this one on a very regular basis, so we'll see what happens with that. I want to go ahead and tell you that the plan I have is this: I am going to totally steal an idea from a friend of mine and do daily topics. We'll see how this goes.
The topics that I have settled on for right now are as follows:
Monday- Sports
Tuesday- Pop Culture (How movies, TV shows, music, etc. speak to me)
Wednesday- Faith
Thursday- Random Goodness
Friday- Top 10(ish)
There is also a chance that I will post stuff on weekends, but that will be much less topical I'm sure. Anyway, with all of that in mind we will get started.
Stir Things Up
So tonight at 2Forty2 (that's our Wednesday night youth time) we were talking about being an example of Christ. It's a series over 1 Timothy 4:12 where Paul writes to Timothy and gives him 5 areas of his life where he should live as an example to others. The areas are speech, conduct, love, faith and purity. So tonight was night three of the series and we talked about the love aspect of being an example. Really, this is the area that is the most important for us. Without love, all the rest of it is pointless really.
So tonight as we were talking, I read a story to the group that I had read earlier that day while getting everything ready for this evening. The story was a letter that Dan Taylor wrote to his youngest son Matthew. In the letter he talked about being the 6th grade. In this grade they started learning to dance...square dance. Anyway, there was one girl in the class, Mary, who was not what you would call cool, or popular, or anything like that. She wasn't the smartest, coolest, prettiest, wittiest or most athletic. She had had polio when she was younger and that had left its mark on her. On top of all that, Mary was overweight.
One day the teachers assistant talked to Dan. She told him that the next time they did their square dancing, she wanted him to pick Mary as his partner. This was of course a great dilemma for Dan, who was a 6th grade stud. The teacher pointed out to him that this was the very kind of thing that Jesus would have done. He would have picked the ones that no one else wanted to pick. Dan was stuck. He know that the teacher was right, but he was afraid of what it could cost him. His only hope to be able to do the thing he knew he should was to be the last one in line, that way choosing Mary wouldn't cause a stir with the other 6th graders. I mean if he was the last to pick, what other choice would he have other than to pick Mary?
How often is it that we have this same kind of attitude about loving those around us, especially those that are "different" than us? I know that for myself there is that thought that if I can love them, but not have anyone really notice then I can do the right thing, but it won't really cost me anything in the process.
What stood out to me today and I was retyping the story to be easier to use, the line stood out about not wanting to cause a stir by choosing Mary. It dawned on me that this is the opposite really of what loving like Jesus should be like. If we are attempting to love as Jesus loves (this should be what we are striving for by the way), then this should be something that causes a stir. Since when should it be nice and safe and cost nothing for us to try to be like Jesus? This wasn't a new thought for me, but it was the first time that I had noticed that in the story.
In Luke 19, Jesus causes a rather large stir in Jericho as he is passing through. It is here that Jesus encounters Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector of the region. Now if you didn't know this already, tax collectors were not the favorite people of the time. They were Jews who had seemingly turned their backs on their fellow Jews. They had gone to work for the Roman government and in the process became rich by being crooked at the expense of their own people. Zacchaeus was one of these guys. He was not seen as someone that deserved to be paid attention to, much less shown love. He had robbed and cheated his fellow Jews for no reason other than to get rich. Then word comes that Jesus is coming to town.
Zacchaeus of course hears this and along with most other people is very interested in seeing this new rabbi that he has undoubtedly heard a great deal about. So he heads to the route that he knows Jesus is taking, but he can't see him from street level as he is a rather short man. Now knowing how the people there felt about him, I'm sure that no one is just tripping over themselves to get out of the way and let him through so he can get a better view of things. I would imagine that this would be the time when there are a few elbows being thrown "accidentilly" Zacchaeus' face. So Zaccheaus does what he can to change that and climbs a tree in order to be able to see.
As Jesus is passing, he looks up into the tree and sees Zaccheaus up there. Being the man that he is, he has a pretty good grasp on the situation I would think. He knows what is going on. At this point he does what no one else would have thought to do. He stops, looks up into the tree and speaks to Zaccheaus by name. He calls him down and tells him that he needs to stay at his house that night. This was a custom in those times to host travelers in your home, even at a moments notice. Zaccheaus, I'm sure, had not had this chance often. So he jumps at the chance to do this. He knows who Jesus is, has heard the stories about him. This of course would be a radical concept to those in the crowd. This was an unlovable person, and this great rabbi who taught with the authority of God himself was calling on his hospitality. Talk about causing a stir.
So Jesus goes and eats and stays with Zaccheaus. And Zaccheaus is changed by this encounter. He vows to give back what he has cheated people out of plus some. But what was it that changed him? I'm sure that Jesus spent some time talking to him that night, but Zaccheaus probably knew the basic teachings since Jesus was at the height of his popularity. So that probably isn't what it was that changed Zaccheaus. No, I believe that it was the fact that Jesus showed him this radical love. Jesus in front of the crowds called Zaccheaus down and requested HIS house. This is something that Zaccheaus has not experienced before I'm sure.
It is this kind of lve that changes lives. This is the kind of example of love that we are called to be. When we claim the faith that follows Jesus, this is the kind of love we are striving to have. It is this kind of love that changes the world and stirs things up.
Peace and Love y'all.
The topics that I have settled on for right now are as follows:
Monday- Sports
Tuesday- Pop Culture (How movies, TV shows, music, etc. speak to me)
Wednesday- Faith
Thursday- Random Goodness
Friday- Top 10(ish)
There is also a chance that I will post stuff on weekends, but that will be much less topical I'm sure. Anyway, with all of that in mind we will get started.
Stir Things Up
So tonight at 2Forty2 (that's our Wednesday night youth time) we were talking about being an example of Christ. It's a series over 1 Timothy 4:12 where Paul writes to Timothy and gives him 5 areas of his life where he should live as an example to others. The areas are speech, conduct, love, faith and purity. So tonight was night three of the series and we talked about the love aspect of being an example. Really, this is the area that is the most important for us. Without love, all the rest of it is pointless really.
So tonight as we were talking, I read a story to the group that I had read earlier that day while getting everything ready for this evening. The story was a letter that Dan Taylor wrote to his youngest son Matthew. In the letter he talked about being the 6th grade. In this grade they started learning to dance...square dance. Anyway, there was one girl in the class, Mary, who was not what you would call cool, or popular, or anything like that. She wasn't the smartest, coolest, prettiest, wittiest or most athletic. She had had polio when she was younger and that had left its mark on her. On top of all that, Mary was overweight.
One day the teachers assistant talked to Dan. She told him that the next time they did their square dancing, she wanted him to pick Mary as his partner. This was of course a great dilemma for Dan, who was a 6th grade stud. The teacher pointed out to him that this was the very kind of thing that Jesus would have done. He would have picked the ones that no one else wanted to pick. Dan was stuck. He know that the teacher was right, but he was afraid of what it could cost him. His only hope to be able to do the thing he knew he should was to be the last one in line, that way choosing Mary wouldn't cause a stir with the other 6th graders. I mean if he was the last to pick, what other choice would he have other than to pick Mary?
How often is it that we have this same kind of attitude about loving those around us, especially those that are "different" than us? I know that for myself there is that thought that if I can love them, but not have anyone really notice then I can do the right thing, but it won't really cost me anything in the process.
What stood out to me today and I was retyping the story to be easier to use, the line stood out about not wanting to cause a stir by choosing Mary. It dawned on me that this is the opposite really of what loving like Jesus should be like. If we are attempting to love as Jesus loves (this should be what we are striving for by the way), then this should be something that causes a stir. Since when should it be nice and safe and cost nothing for us to try to be like Jesus? This wasn't a new thought for me, but it was the first time that I had noticed that in the story.
In Luke 19, Jesus causes a rather large stir in Jericho as he is passing through. It is here that Jesus encounters Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector of the region. Now if you didn't know this already, tax collectors were not the favorite people of the time. They were Jews who had seemingly turned their backs on their fellow Jews. They had gone to work for the Roman government and in the process became rich by being crooked at the expense of their own people. Zacchaeus was one of these guys. He was not seen as someone that deserved to be paid attention to, much less shown love. He had robbed and cheated his fellow Jews for no reason other than to get rich. Then word comes that Jesus is coming to town.
Zacchaeus of course hears this and along with most other people is very interested in seeing this new rabbi that he has undoubtedly heard a great deal about. So he heads to the route that he knows Jesus is taking, but he can't see him from street level as he is a rather short man. Now knowing how the people there felt about him, I'm sure that no one is just tripping over themselves to get out of the way and let him through so he can get a better view of things. I would imagine that this would be the time when there are a few elbows being thrown "accidentilly" Zacchaeus' face. So Zaccheaus does what he can to change that and climbs a tree in order to be able to see.
As Jesus is passing, he looks up into the tree and sees Zaccheaus up there. Being the man that he is, he has a pretty good grasp on the situation I would think. He knows what is going on. At this point he does what no one else would have thought to do. He stops, looks up into the tree and speaks to Zaccheaus by name. He calls him down and tells him that he needs to stay at his house that night. This was a custom in those times to host travelers in your home, even at a moments notice. Zaccheaus, I'm sure, had not had this chance often. So he jumps at the chance to do this. He knows who Jesus is, has heard the stories about him. This of course would be a radical concept to those in the crowd. This was an unlovable person, and this great rabbi who taught with the authority of God himself was calling on his hospitality. Talk about causing a stir.
So Jesus goes and eats and stays with Zaccheaus. And Zaccheaus is changed by this encounter. He vows to give back what he has cheated people out of plus some. But what was it that changed him? I'm sure that Jesus spent some time talking to him that night, but Zaccheaus probably knew the basic teachings since Jesus was at the height of his popularity. So that probably isn't what it was that changed Zaccheaus. No, I believe that it was the fact that Jesus showed him this radical love. Jesus in front of the crowds called Zaccheaus down and requested HIS house. This is something that Zaccheaus has not experienced before I'm sure.
It is this kind of lve that changes lives. This is the kind of example of love that we are called to be. When we claim the faith that follows Jesus, this is the kind of love we are striving to have. It is this kind of love that changes the world and stirs things up.
Peace and Love y'all.
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