The Tour was filled with some spectacular stages that left you on the edge of your seat the whole time and cheering in the end. There was also some spectacular crashes that unfortunately claimed a few riders, but some dusted themselves off and got back in the saddle.
There was some people who tried to disgrace the beautiful sport of cycling by taking drugs to enhance their performance, but my hat goes off to the officials of le Tour and to the French authorities for not tolerating it. Everyone who tested positive was immediately thrown out of the race and arrested. Cycling is showing sport how you should handle people who try to disgrace their respective sport by taking drugs. In my opinion, people who are saying this is tearing down the sport of cycling are dead wrong, because the cycling officials are dealing with it swiftly and harshly. So I say thank you for saving this beautiful sport.
I must say that having Versus and a DVR is such a wonderful thing, because I was able to catch all the stages. So thank you U-verse for delivering such a beautiful digital signal to my house for me to enjoy le Tour. Now if only we can get Versus to do next year’s race in HD. Then I know that Andy and I will be very happy campers.
Mike Yaconelli was the founder and owner of Youth Specialties as well as the pastor of what he dubbed “the slowest growing church in America”. I never really knew much about the man until after he passed away in 2003. About a year ago I bought and read his book Messy Spirituality, which I coffee shop talking with you. There is no doubt that Mike not only loves Jesus with his whole being, but that he also loves God’s people as well. That is really the heart of what Mike is saying in this book.
Mike encourages you to jump first and fear later. He also doesn’t want people to forget that Jesus tells us to become like a child and Mike explores that idea in this book. I found myself at times getting into some very mischievous moods, because he would talk about playing and having fun like children do and then being reminded of the importance of fearing God. There is such a healthy balance of that that needs to be maintained. It reminds me of what Rick Warren likes to say about not taking ourselves serious, but taking God serious.
Mike does another great job of writing and I would encourage you to pick up this book and give it a read. You won’t regret it and you might just find yourself indulging in a little irresponsible passion. I posted a YouTube video below that is a tribute to Mike Yaconelli that will give you a little bit of an idea of his message to youth workers.
You are probably wondering why I choose such an odd title for this post, but there is a method to my madness and it comes from the Bible. Proverbs 12:18 (TNIV)….
The words of the reckless pierce like swords,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Too often times we really don’t think about what we are saying before we say them and I know I am just as guilty as the next guy. And, unfortunately, in our world of technology where just about everything is written out it has seemed to have gotten even worse, because now all we have are our words. We can no longer see people’s body language or hear the tone in their voice. All we have is the text on our computer screens or on our phones.
I am someone who loves the technology we have and love how it has connected people together in such a cool way. I have found old (not that any of us are old) high school and college friends, and think it is so great that sites like Facebook and MySpace have helped that to happen. I have even been able to connect with other youth pastor’s from literally around the world because of Youth Ministry Exchange (YMX). But the side effect of most of those relationships that I have found again or formed anew is that it is most of it is all through the written word, so many things can be left up to interpretation when things are said. You can use emoticons, but even then it can still be misinterpreted.
I have even lost friends for some of these very reasons and had some horrible things said to me, because people can hide behind their computer screens or phones and say stuff. It is really sad but like I said it is one of the things that has come with technology. I try the best that I can to really think through what I say before I type it out and hit send. There have been a couple of times when I didn’t do that and it has really blown up in my face, so now I will often take a long time before I respond to people for that very reason. And I see it all the time on YMX, especially with the political season being upon us.
Then recently I read a story about a guy who lives in Texas that posted a story on the internet that he made to look like it had come from The Oklahoman website. This guy took the web templates header and made up a story about two quarterbacks from the University of Oklahoma that had been arrested on cocaine distribution charges. But, like I said, the story was false. This guy is claiming that he did it all as a practical joke and you can read that here. However, the problem is that it wasn’t a really funny joke because you are messing with people’s reputations and lives. In fact, one of the fathers of these quarterbacks is planning legal action against this guy and I think rightly so. You can read more about it here.
This is another part of the problem. Not only do we think we can hide behind our computer screens and do this, but we have no problems saying stupid stuff because we are “unkown”. Sadly, that is not really the case, but people find hidden courage in what they see as anonymity online.
Another case in point are email forwards. People will get a email from a friend and just believe it outright without even taking the time to check it out. Instead they will just forward it on and believe it. The funny thing is that with the internet we have the ability to easily search these things out and find out if they are true or not.
So not only do we need to put down our swords, but sometimes we need to put down our keyboards and take a deep breath before we respond or forward something on. Technology makes things faster and so we need to do our best to slow things down.
Back in March I bought a pair of Asics Gel-Kanbarra 2 to use at the gym and for when I would run in my first 5K. I waited to do a review on them until I had a chance to use them for a while and to run in the 5K.
I had chosen the Firecraker 5K in Manistee, MI for my first 5K and I hadn’t known at the time that the 5K was going to be sponsored by Asics, so this review is not influenced by that. But I am sure they made the race in such a way that people who had Asics on would have the best experience. LOL
Anyway, for someone is not an expert runner since I have only recently taken up running I must say that these Asics shoes are really comfortable. I am someone that loves walking around barefoot and these shoes hardly feel like they are on, because they are so light. They also make it feel like you are running on soft ground, because they cushion your feet very well. All in all I really love my Asics shoes and will probably only purchase them for running. I highly recommend Asics shoes and I know several other people that have said that the really like them as well, both runners and non-runners. Below is a picture of me from the Firecracker 5K running in my Asics shoes.
And here is another one after the race with my cousin, Kelly, and her husband, Robb, who both ran the 5K with me. In case you are wondering I ran the 5K in 25 minutes, which I am told is a good time, and I finished in 8th place for my age category.
Have you ever wondered how it is that you can form a worship team for your student ministry? The people at Simply Youth Ministry have created a resource to help you out with that, it is called
Worship Band from Start to Finish.
The resource has an explanation of each facet for building a healthy worship band, along with dozens of handouts, training sheets, letters, and more. All of this comes on a CD-ROM for you to print hand outs to the people you have selected for this important task in your ministry.
Once again Simply Youth Ministry is doing what they can to make things easier for youth pastors. Below is a video interview with Jason Carson, who is the author.
Today we took the family to Michigan’s Adventure, which is Michigan’s only amusement park and it is owned by Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH. We had such a great time! It was fun hanging out with my wife and kids, as well as some of my extended family.
We went on all of the big roller coasters and my kids even went on some. Hannah went on Thunderhawk and Caleb went on Shivering Timbers, the Wolverine Wildcat and Thunderhawk. Both of them had to be bought to ride them, but the loved it! Hannah would have gone on more, but the sun kind of got to her.
We spent the whole afternoon at the waterpark, which was a lot of fun. The park has some great slides and killer wave pools. We had a blast there and the fact that it is included in the price of admission makes this park a great family park.
It was a fun day as you can see from the picture I had fun on the Flying Trapeze. It was also cool to see Brian Edwards & his family there.
This year’s le Tour de France was one of the best ones that I can remember. Team CSC Saxo Bank and Carlos Sastre stole the show and won it all, both the individual maillot jaune but also the team won the overall team time.
It was also cool to see 