My fantasy football off-season has officially ended. Today begins a six-month venture into the pro football realm (essentially my hobby for the fall months). This is my third year playing, which, for a football player, is his breakout year, so I'm anticipating a crazy seventeen weeks this fall.

I spent the entire day today preparing myself for the coming season--reading up on NFL player and team news, checking fantasy stats from last year and projections for this year, and getting ready for the draft(s) that will be happening within the next month. My brain feels somewhat swollen from the crazy amounts of info I've put in it just today.

So...anyone interested in playing? I'm hoping to join or even start a league here in Iowa.

I had to take this test...especially after an espresso the other day cured a fierce headache. The remedy convinced me I had resurrected my coffee addiction from college. So here's the figure...

I am 71% Addicted to Coffee

Every now and again, I get hooked on one specific song.

This time my ears are featuring the sounds of Mac Powell and Fernando Ortega in Our Great God. I'm a total sucker for 6/8 time signatures, and this dandy is a SLOW 6/8. I also melt at the sound of borrowed minor IV chords...geez what a gorgeous sound from the tonic. If I could boast any more about this song, let me not fail to mention the lyrics...more than fitting for Divine veneration...

I had a creative surge today, so......here's a design idea for the Ecclesiastes series comin' up...

(Obviously) ripped off from photo #1 on which John had I us vote...

We're about to enter a teaching series on Ecclesiastes, which is very much a grumble on the meaninglessness of and the desire for a significant life (sounds like the pouty-faced, self-help part of the Bible). And I can't help but wonder how we get ourselves into such a state wherein we relinquish our joys in reserve for our less-than-hunky-dory human lifestyles.

I'm reading Dan Kimball's The Emergent Church, and he makes a striking appeal in contrasting the gospel messages of the modern and emergent church movements...

Of course, the thought of the gracious free gift of being with God in person in heaven is more thrilling than we possibly can imagine. But it seems that the modern church has focused only on the problem of fixing sin (which absolutely needs fixing) through the death and resurrection of Christ. Yet heaven is not necessarily the goal post-seekers are thinking of, and their idea of sin is not the same as we would think of it. Instead, emerging generations are connecting the idea of living in tune with Jesus, placing yourself under God's reign and being a participant in the kingdom now. . .

I wonder if the way the modern church has presented the gospel by focusing on life after death has subtly helped produce a consumer mindset. Dallas Willard suggests we have basically taught in the modern church that people get a bar code, like on a supermarket product, which guarantees our salvation. With that mindset, Willard explains, "the payoff having faith and being 'scanned' comes at death and after. Life now being lived has no necessary connection with being a Christian as long as the bar code does its job."

Willard suggests that our preaching and teaching simply become focused on "sin-management" rather than on kingdom living and becoming a disciple of Jesus now, learning to live as he lived. We thus fall into a cycle of producing consumer Christians who wait to go to heaven and in the meantime turn to God simply to learn how to manage sin in this life.

The "teacher" (believed to be King Solomon) in Ecclesiastes had everything--EVERYTHING. Wealth, fame, riches, land, women, royalty...you name it, this guy had it...except one thing: personal significance. We, in America, have everything (well...just about)--we are the richest country in the world...we have food in our fridges, air conditioning inside the comfort of our mansion-competitive homes, flashy cars that work...but many of us lack personal significance.

We've become so complacent with our bar codes that we work and we play until the day we die. We "go to church" and consume its services instead of taking part in its corporate production, expecting so much yet contributing so little (and I'm NOT just talking about finances). If Christians have been saved by Christ, then we have attained the JOY of Christ...joy that should be contagious fuel for pursuing lives and lifestyles that matter and have significance...even if we work humdrum jobs, if we don't get eight hours of sleep per night, if we get sick (and tired) of the same ole routine day in and day out. We have a joy that is uncircumstantial and unconditional.

Holly and I have reached our TWO-MONTH wedding anniversary! Yay! We celebrated our one-month anny by going to Chicago to attend a conference and see the broadway musical Wicked (okay, so the musical was Holly’s birthday present…either way….

For our two-month anny TODAY, we…uh…we bought a new car…an ’07 Pontiac Vibe!





We traded in the Scion (which I’ll get to later), so we could both have a vehicle to drive (Holly despised the Scion—it had a manual tranny and is a “sports” car—it’s technically a "sports compact car" ). The Vibe has an auto tranny, four doors, a cargo rack, hatchback, better gas mileage, better warranties, and lower insurance costs. We were in a toss-up between the Vibe and the Toyota Matrix, so we left our decision up to the local dealers and how well they would take care of us. And the GM dealers ended up taking better care of us…they were very sincere in saying “[we] didn’t just buy a vehicle; [we] bought a dealership.” They pursued us and hooked us up with some great offers (the GM “liquidators” were on-site to help rid them of the remaining ’07 stock), and Holly’s grandfather is a former GM employee, so we got that discount too (thanks Grandpa!).

Turns out we’re benefiting across the board because the Vibe is “a corporate twin of the Toyota Matrix…built at the NUMMI plant, a joint GM-Toyota facility in Fremont, California, [which] means . . . the Vibe has reliable Toyota genes and will likely provide years of dependable service.” After owning the Scion and getting a first-hand understanding of the reliability of a Toyota vehicle, I was, for a time, poised into getting another Toyota and putting the Vibe in a distant second place. But we ended up with the Vibe, and we hope GOD has blessed that decision.

Now…about trading in the Scion…there is an undeniable bond between man and vehicle that had to be severed today…her name was Jannie [JAY-nee]--(all my cars had names that end with “ie”). It was an inevitable sacrifice for my family…one of many that, I’m sure, will soon follow this one. Just so y'all know...I may be entering a state mourning…Holly is considering the purchase of sackcloth and ashes, and I may be shaving my head…okay, just kidding. But really…