Uncomfortable Honesty

The church is a strange organism.  The church is a strange mix of divergent people who choose to live together.  The scriptures tell us that we are one body with many members.  We are the family of God, and we are brothers and sisters together.  Now, I hear that there are two things that you don’t talk about with your family: religion and politics.  We’re not going to get into politics.  Religion will be enough for us, today. 

The church is too polite for its own good.  Or another way to say the same thing is the church is too coward for its own good.  Now this is probably a tad bit harsh, but this is how the church needs to be: a tad bit harsh.  I actually believe the church should be a place of uncomfortable honesty.

Our New Head Coach: Mike Singletary

I like Mike.  Singletary that is.  I had like all 49ers fans had seen enough of the Mike Nolan era to realize he was not the man to lead us back to the Super Bowl.  I used to be a Nolan apologist, and with some good reason.  He had moved the 49ers back to a professional organization that they had lost during the Erickson or should we say errorful era.  The suit was a symbol of that.  He was a man with a plan, and the 49ers improved under him.  All 49ers fans would agree they overachieved his second year when they had a 4-12 team talent wise, and they went 7-9.  Their talent however got better, but their record did not.  There were two things that ultimately led to his demise.  1. He was a terrible game manager.  Hence, the awful challenges and the strange 4th down calls.  He was not a good spontaneous football coach, unfortuately the NFL is a spontaneous league.  2. He never seemed to match his talent with his system.  The hiring of the free-spirited and free-slinging Mike Martz when the 49ers needed someone who would build an offense around Frank Gore and play-action, instead of 7 step-drops and J.T. O’Sullivan.  So why do I like the new Mike?

Knowing Fully, Loving Anyway

George Strait has a song entitled “You Know Me Better Than That.”  It is a song written to an old girlfriend about his new girlfriend.  This new girlfriend “She thinks I’m perfect, I swear, She likes my body, my class and my charm.  She says I’ve got a confident aire… Oh, she tells her friends I’m perfect, And that I love her cat.”  This troubles our friend George as he shares, “But she’s in love with an image time is bound to see through.”  We’ve been there haven’t we?  We are in a new relationship whether it be with a new girlfriend or even at a new job, and we are wondering will they really love me when they really me know me.  That’s where George’s song to his old girlfriend really sinks in, “But you know me better than that, You know the me that gets lazy and fat.  How moody I can be, all my insecurities.  You’ve seen me lose all my charm, You know I was raised on a farm.”

Why I am an Optimistic and Hopeful Cubs Fan

I’m 24.  I am not a long-suffering Cubs fan.  I am a suffering Cubs fan, however, but one thing we Cubs fan have no matter what is hope.  A good Christian Cubs fan believes and hopes two things: that Jesus will return and the Cubs will win a World Series.  It won’t happen in that order, but we hope that it will happen.  Most of the time though hope is all we have.  If we didn’t have hope we would just be the Rangers.  A team with a pretty ballpark and some pretty bats, but no hope to win the World Series.  We always hope.

Hope has yet to win a championship for the Cubbies.  We’ve come close.  Ask a die-hard Cubs fan and they mention years like 1945, 1984, and 1989.  How they hoped that that would be the year.  I personally remember the Summer of 98.  Kerry Wood’s 20 Ks.  Sammy Sosa 66 HR.  But the Cubs were good and not great and got swept by the Braves, but we were happy to get to the playoffs.  I remember the summer of ’03.  Wood and Prior.  5 outs away.  Alou acting like an 8 year old.  Alex Gonzalez learning that it is hard to turn a double play with two hands around your throat.  That hurt.  We were good, but we have never been this good.

Even last year, we were missing a few things.  We had hope, but not that optimistic.  There is a big difference between the two.