Football Done Wrong

I have noticed for years now that I am far less productive in the fall semester than the spring semester. The reason is simple Saturdays, it begins with a great game of ultimate and when I get home the opportunity for schoolwork is squandered by hours of college football action. It doesn't even have to be a favorite team only an interesting game. Although I will not miss my Volunteers, except this season because I miss Tennessee football done right.

The reason Tennessee football is great is tradition from Rocky Top to the Vol Walk, the pride and loyalty of fans is broadcasted loud and clear. Football time in Tennessee is a microcosm of the way football is done in the SEC, with tailgating, a sold-out stadium, and hours of standing and screaming during the game. That is the football I know, or at least knew until this past Saturday.

After arriving a night in Phoenix Friday, my Father and I drove a couple hours to Tucson the next afternoon to go to the Arizona-Oregon State football game. What followed was not college football but some sadly sedated imitation of the glory of the fall. Tailgating was tame, with more discussion of business than football, the baby gift was an entertaining "Daddy's Little Wingman," but that is not what you give during football season, you give a baby jersey or their first (insert favorite college) hat. The food was good, however I can get good off a grill in my backyard, so I cannot consider it a positive part of a football experience only a part of the perphery. We walked into the stadium and it was pedestrian, there was hardly any character, the 60,000 seats were three-quarters full. The team ran out to fireworks, not through the opening of the band, and to top it off the flags which spell the team name, anounced the University of Arizona "Wilctas." This sort of flashy mediocrity is fine for a church in Dallas (is that too harsh?) but it is not the way of college football.

The game kicked off with most people standing, and a scattered few shaking their keys, one guy had to be a dungeon keeper or possibly a key collecter, with his giant key ring and scores of keys. The point is everyone should be standing and yelling, and that was hardly the case. From this point on I sat somewhat comfortably, except for the occasional third and long. When we stood and clapped as if the quarterback made a par putt. It was all together average and the fans were lukewarm at best. It was a far departure from four hours of standing and yelling, that I grew accustom to in the SEC.

The truth is quite clear, the SEC knows how football done and the Pac-10 can only claim a junior varsity venture that fell short of compelling. Only creating a desire in me to once again be a part of a true college football atmosphere.

Questions

Laying in bed, tired as can be, my mind would not shut down. I blame the Mountain Dew I drank to stay awake for my Hebrew exegetical. The racing thoughts turned only into questions. What am I doing? What do I want to be doing? What do I want to want? On my best days what do I want my desire to be? The questions were penetrating my heart, and for a moment I saw what I want to want, Christ. On my best of days I don't know if I can say that I desire him above everything else, but in the moment when I am at my my best I can say that I want to want Christ. Last night was one of those moments when everything was stripped away (thanks to the beating from my exegetical) and I could see myself and say I want to desire God and his glory and his kingdom above all else.

How?

Be Aggressive, B-E- Aggressive

Today I once again ran into passive-aggressive behavior. I have a friend in my new building who I had discussed sharing internet with. The problem was that too many people were on his network and slowing down the wireless connection. Instead of coming to me and saying sharing the internet will slow it down too much and it is not worth your money. He simply blocked all computers that are not in his apartment.

Why are we so afraid of being up front with people that we prefer to talk behind their backs and screw them without so much as the respect to talk to their face. Perhaps we prefer to be able to save face by pretending that we were unintentional with our attitude or actions towards them. I find that in the end we are simply afraid of confrontation or offending someone.

The problem with not being passive aggressive is the opposite is being verbally aggressive, which sounds much worse. It conjures images of verbal and emotional abuse, but that is not what it is. All it takes is being up-front and honest with a respectful tone, as opposed to stupid games behind people's backs and facebook groups. So as the cheerleaders at my high school said...Be Aggressive B--E-- Agressive.

Do we actually care about what the Bible says?

It has been a while since I have posted anything, I have been debating whether or not I truly want to blog or just let the blog serve to update on Israel travels. I have decided as long as I am writing things, I might as well make them available to people who are interested in what I have to say (which I imagine is very few), and to those who randomly stumble onto my blog.

I have been volunteering in the Children's ministry at church for a few months now, and this past weekend found myself offended by the use of Scripture. On a quick side note I find most teaching to children in churches lacks any thoughtful preparation of Scripture for them. However the church I attend make a big deal about teaching Biblical truths about God to kids no matter there age. The topic for the morning was marriage, one of the passages that we used to instruct the kids was Ephesians 5. The part that the study guide used was only that husbands are to love wives as Christ loved the church. This is very true, however if we are going to use a passage of Scripture to teach on a topic, I find that we need to use the Scripture in its context, in order to accurately reflect what the text says.

I am convinced that if somone is going to teach on marraige out of Ephesians 5, he or she should mention the command given to wives in the passage, and spend some time looking at what the passage is saying it meant when Christ gave himself up for the church.

One of my favorite websites is WebMD, I can now diagnose and treat myself without going to a physician. All I do is look up whatever ails me, such as a back sprain, and figure out what I need to do to remedy my situation. I find this is how we use the Bible now. We pickout a topic that we do not understand and look at what the Bible has to say about it. (More than likely, in the same manner as WebMD, we use an internet Bible search too) The Bible was not written as a medical guide where a person can find a solution to a particular issue. It is written at a specific occasion to a particular audience, to serve a certain purpose. Which means that if we choose to find what it means or is speaking about we must not consider a sentence out of context without consideration of the intent of the author. We must search deeply into the context of the book and the Bible as a whole to understand what God is revealing to us in Scripture.

This is not just something that should be done when teaching children, this process needs to be evident in pulpits, homes, and lives of believers.

Almost Done

I will be in Israel for only about 7 more hours. It has been a whirlwind trip with a lot of long days, tough hikes, and information. I was able to pull off an A in the course which is pleasing and reduces the stress level, at least until I get to airport security. Did I say that we are leaving the hotel at 1:30 am for the airport. I am all packed up and under the weight restrictions even with souvenirs which is an answer to prayer. We had a clsing group time and some people were emotional, others were more contemplative, it was interesting.
I think there are two things that have been impressed on me while I have been in Israel. The first is the geography and how the stories of the Bible begin to make more sense when you see the places that it happened. I have seen pictures that are used to explain the text but it is different in person seeing the place and reading the story. I recommend that any believer come and experience the land.
The second thing that I leave here with is a greater disdain for idolatry. So many of the "Christian Holy sites" have been turned into shrines and places where pilgrimages are made. I find the idea of a place being holy contradictory to the Gospel. As a body of believers we have been made holy through the blood of Christ. No place whether it is the place of the Crucifixion, Resurrection, Last Supper, place where Peter denied Christ, where Mary was told she would bear God, the location of the Sermon on the Mount, the shore where Jesus told Peter to tend his sheep, Peter's house in Capernaum, Mount of transfiguration, plain where the feeding of the five thousand was, and the place of Jesus' birth. Those are all I can think of but there are probably more, not to mention several of these places are complete speculation and likely did not have the even occur there. I get sick to my stomach when I see how these places are worshiped instead of Christ himself. There is no reason that Peter's house in Capernaum should be turned into a church where pilgrimages that churches happen. That is clearly not what God is about.
Well that is all from Israel. I look forward to seeing people in America and maybe a baseball game, too.

Now In Jordan, for one more day

So internet has been hard to come by and if I had it Blogspot didn't want to work. Here are a few photos from recent days.
The Dead Sea was awesome, I don't remember the last time I floated on water. I also hiked up Masada, a Herodian fortress atop a hill overlooking the Dead Sea which was intense. On the same day we saw the spring at Engev, and Qumran, the city where the Dead Sea Scrolls were written. One privelage we had is our leader knows the location of the cave where the scrolls were found, he took most of us to the first cave and those who were able and felt like running behind him got to see Cave 2, there are 11 caves in all where scrolls were found. I followed him to cave 2 and according to him only about 100 people have ever been two Caves 1 and 2.

The trip to Galilee was really neat being able to swim in the evening and actually going to places where we know Jesus was. One of the coolest places was the Cove of the Sower. It is a cove on the Sea of Galilee with a sharp incline forming somewhat of an amphitheater from the top of the hill you could here the person reading Scripture on the shore probably about 150 yards away without him yelling. It is evident that Jeses would have used this cove which could hold close to 10,000 people.

Jordan has been fun, but not as interesting Biblically. Geresa was neat because Jordan has done a good job reconstructing and preserving the ruins of the Greco-Roman city. Petra was impressive although once again not Biblical. Although seeing the place where Indiana Jones found the Holy Grail was neat. I also went up to another impressive tomb that was an optional hike that was really neat, called The Monastery because Byzantine monks took it over and made it into a monastery. Another short optional hike took me to a viewpoint at a cliff where I was able because of rare clear conditions to see Israel. Finally today in Jordan we went up to Mt. Nebo where Moses watched the Israelites enter the Promised Land, but today was not clear.

Sunrise at Masada, Dead Sea below.

Arbel Cliffs at the Sea of Galilee, we hiked down.

Tunnel at Geresa, Jordan looking from the Theater to the Temple of Zeus.

Indiana Jones, now me. Really it is the Treasury at Petra, Jordan

Crazy TImes

I haven't been able to get on in days. Today is on a time crunch hopefully tomorrow I will be able to give a full review of the last few days.