the.denver.nuggets

before you leave...this is about basketball, obviously, but there's more.

if you didn't know...i'm a pretty big sports fan.  okay, i'm a huge fan.  and i'm loyal to my hometown teams: rockies, nuggets, broncos (oh and: rapids, mammoth, avalanche, runs).  if you were stalking me last night, you woulda seen me going straight crazy at the nuggets game.  jumping outta my seat, waiving my rally towel, screaming, booing kobe bryant (and secretly admiring his talent), texting trash talk with my boy colby.  i was a mad man.  

but here's the deal.  it reminded me of month two on the world race.  that dude i was talkin trash to, colby, preached a semon in romania based off of the concept/idea of not being conformed to the world.  in that sermon he talked about about his love for the lakers and kobe bryant...and how he was so passionate about them...and how he talked about kobe and the lakers all the time...to anyone who would listen.  

but he wouldn't talk that way about jesus.    

me too.  if i'm honest, i get more passionate, excited, crazy about the nuggets, rockies (it's been a few years ;), and broncos then i do about jesus.  why is that?  

why, when i look around me do i see people passionate about so many things of this world...but not jesus?  for real.  don't discredit this.  john, in 1 john 2:17 says, "the world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of god lives forever."   

i get it.  you see, the nuggets season will end soon (hopefully not too soon), the rockies will probably end under .500 this year, and the broncos picked up some dude who can't look side-to-side.  your car will breakdown.  you'll eventually retire.  your passion will dwindle.  you'll breakup.  you'll start looking old.  you'll graduate.    

but jesus' love for you and me never fails.  it doesn't pass away.  it's never-ending.  

why don't we share this good news with other people with the same burning passion?
  

for real.  i'm not talking about standing out on the corner with the bullhorn...or jesus juking every person you meet.  but i wonder what it would look like if all the worldly things became our secondary passion...in the background...and jesus became our primary passion?

think about it (and go nuggets).

much love. 

character

this week at our new denver men's bible study we talked about character.  what does it mean to be a man of character (or a woman)?  we tossed around some ideas of what we thought it meant to be a man of character.

you know:

• honesty
• courage
• doing what is right when no one's watching
• love
• patience 
• surrounding yourself with other people of high character (though this was debated for awhile)
• keeping your word (let your yes be yes and your no be no)

photo via

we spent some time talking about other men of character.  like, who from the bible had upright character.  interestingly enough, most men we look to, outside of jesus, had some major flaw in their character.  they weren't perfect.  just like you and me.  i'm not sure about you, but that gives me some hope!! 

it's funny though.  it wasn't until the end of our group that we recognized we missed one really big trait of character.  servanthood.  jesus modeled that one pretty well for us, right?  why do we forget that?  is it that it shows weakness to serve others?  is it that we're too me focused?  or is it that it's just too hard?  

who can we choose to serve this week?  because, as humans, often times serving is a choice.  if we stripped away all the niceness of ourselves it goes something like this: "i love the idea of serving...but only if it's super convenient to me.  only if it's easy.  only if it fits into my schedule."  

i'm just gonna throw this out there: working on our character, trying to be more like christ isn't easy, it's not convenient, it's not easy.  apart from a miracle, which is possible, it's a choice. 

take a look around your life.  where can you step in to opportunities to serve?  to model what jesus modeled so well for us...will you consider making the choice to serve?   

much love.  

social media fast

for a little bit now, a few friends and i have been "choosing" to be present when with each other.  in other words, we choose to not text, tweet, update, draw, or whatever else you do on a smart phone when we're in each other's company.  we're trying our best to be present and have real and meaningful conversations/relationships.

sometimes we're good at it.  other times we're not.  but we're good at reminding each other.  haha.

friday night, a bunch of us from new denver church were hanging out after our softball games.  one of our pastors, norton, was hanging with us and the topic of twitter came up.  norton, who has intentionally stayed off of twitter/facebook and rocks a text/call only cellphone, challenged us.  he challenged us to give up social media for a month.  there was a lotta push back.  you know, we jokingly called him an "old crotchety man," "old school," or stuck in the "dinosaur ages."  i jokingly joined in on the push back.

photo credit: gethiredfast.com

to my surprise, norton affirmed that social media is good, that there are benefits from it...to a certain extent.  but he also made the letgimate point that we're not as intentional with our relationships now that we have social media.

like i said, at first i kinda pushed back.  but as he was saying it, i realized i resonated with him.  i realized that it's a lot easier to shoot a text, update, tweet rather then pick up the phone and call someone or to sit down with them over coffee, lunch, whatever.

so, i decided to give it a go.  a month without twitter, facebook, instagram.  i mean it's not a big deal. but it kind of is.

here's what i felt as i decided to give it up:
-relief.  weird, but i felt relieved that i didn't always have to be checking/updating/tweeting/liking, etc.
-worry.  admittedly, i've worried that i'll "miss out" on something or that i won't be "in the know."

i'm 24 hours in to the "fast" so it's too soon to make any solid analysis of it.  that said, i'm kind of embarrassed to admit that i've definitely, out of habit/routine, pulled my phone out to check some piece of social media on several occasions.  and while working on my computer, i've definitely typed "f-a-c-e-b-o-o-k" in my browser bar a few times.  it's habit.  weird.

soooo...now that i'll gain at least an hour a day...who want's to be intentional with me?  ;)

much love.

(and the jury is still out on whether or not blogging is social media.  writing/blogging is an "outlet" for me so i will do it from time to time, just not "obsess" over comments, stats, etc.)

three years sober: back to the roots

the other day, in anticipation of today (my three year sobriety date), i wrote this really cool blog about my story and how i first started going to AA and how i never thought i'd make it a day without drinking and how god truly rescued me out of the mess i was in.  but i think it missed the point.

so, let's throw all the crap out of the window...shall we?

today i'm reminded of two basic things that i learned at AA (that i wish remembered all the time!!):  

radical honesty

i learned to be brutally honest about my flaws and failures.    

radical dependency

i know i cannot make it through another day without the help of my friends and without the help of god.

if we accept both of these foundations, we WILL experience true life change.  by god's grace, i'm a living example of that!  three years ago, i hit rock bottom, thought i'd never be able to quit, thought i'd never be able to change my life.  yet, through these basic (but difficult and profound) steps, my life has radically changed!  

may we all incorporate radical honesty and dependency into all areas of our lives.  and as a mentor reminds me on a frequent basis: "make war with your sin...not peace."

1 timothy 1:15-17

much love.

NIV bible app review

in exchange for this short blog, i received a free copy of the new NIV bible app for my ipad from zondervan.

here's my pro/con list of the app.

pro:

• interactive maps, graphs, videos
• study notes in the side bar (that slide down as you read)
• able to see where other key vocab words are used in other sections of scripture
• able to highlight and take notes (which i don't use)

con:

• expensive
• they tried to cut word counts in the study notes by using abbreviations...they're confusing
• it's kind of hard to navigate/find your way around

conclusion: 

if you're into the electronic version of the bible (i go back and forth), then this is totally worth the 26ish dollars.  it's way cheaper then a print version of the study bible (about $95).  and it's way smaller...no one want's to carry a huge/clunky bible around...unless you intend on beating people over the head with it.  haha.  so, buy it.  

much love.