Saturday, December 31, 2011

A Minion's New Year's Resolution

Hello everyone.  It's that time of year again.  It's New Year's Eve.  Many of us will spend tonight going to parties or celebrating the passing of the old year and the ringing in of a new one.  I firmly believe that 2012 will be my best year yet.  It won't be the best year that I am ever going to have but it will be the best year yet.  (Thanks Dan Stratton for that saying)  Why do I think this?  Because I have faith that my God is able to do what he said.  It's the great thing about serving a God who is alive.  He can still perform signs and wonders like no other God can.

But that's a post for a different day.  My assignment today is to talk about New Year's resolutions.  Many of us (including me) have made them in the past and with the best intentions we start into January with a changed life.  For many years my New Year's resolution was always to quit eating badly, exercise and lose weight.  I exercise at a gym in Fort Worth that I dearly love.  It's where I lost all my weight and I still enjoy working out there.  I would almost bet you that there will be several new people in the gym the next time I go who will not be there by the middle of February.  I know that I was one of those people for many, many years.  I had the best intentions but no real commitment.  I could only resist giving my body what it wanted in the way of food for so long and then I would give in.  I might lose 10 pounds only to gain it all back plus five more at the end of my "diet."  Let me say this about diets.  If you go on a diet, you will lose weight but when you get off the diet, you will probably go right back to where you were before.  Don't go on a diet.  Change your life.

So am I saying don't bother making a New Year's resolution at all?  Don't attempt to improve your life or change things about yourself that you don't like.  Of course not!  If you have read many of my blogs you know that's not the case.  Well then, you ask, what are you telling me Mr. Minion?  What I'm telling you is that New Year's resolutions shouldn't be taken so lightly.  If you are going to change something about yourself, there is a high probability that it will take a lot of work and perseverance.  The only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary.

Does this mean that I don't think you can do it?  Of course not!  I know you can change anything you want to change.  I did.  I once was extremely overweight and now I am not.  What I want you to do before you make a New Year's resolution is count the cost.  Prepare yourself for the battle.  If you just make a half hearted resolution, you are setting yourself up for failure and that hurts.  I want to see you succeed in anything you set your mind to do (as long as it's a good thing).  When I finally made a change in my eating, it was after several months of preparation to do so.  I took me a long time to finally get honest with myself and admit that I had an eating problem.  After that, I had to go before God and ask his help in getting free from carbohydrate addiction.  There may be another way to do this without God but I don't know what it is.  I tried on my own for many years to lose weight with no success.  After this process, I was able to make a commitment to lose the weight and God gave me the ability to persevere through trials until I lost weight.

Let me summarize by saying this.  Please take your New Year's resolutions seriously.  It's OK to make them.  Just count the cost and be prepared so that you can be successful.  If you are a Christian, take your resolutions before God and ask for his help.  Then know that you will have to stand through some adversity if you are going to see your resolution fulfilled.  Remember this - there is never a testimony without a test.  I know you can do it. 

Wishing you a very Happy New Year - The Minion

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Is It Real?

Today I want to talk about something that is a little strange to me.  The question is - Is it real?  Is what real, you ask?  When someone tells you something nice is it real?  Several months ago, I wrote a blog about the Box.  It was probably the most significant thing I have written thus far because it meant so much to me.  In this blog, I wrote about how we should look at the stuff that is on the inside of people and not the outside.  I think it is important to see the great things God has put in all of us.  Now it may have been the same blog or maybe not but I also wrote a little about how to take a compliment.

Recently, I have been around someone who has taken the time to take the lid off my box and see what's on the inside of me.  This person has been very complimentary of me and to be honest, it is a little unsettling.  I am not really sure how to take it.  She's used words to describe me like nice, sweet, caring, etc.  She even went as far as to say that I was a good man.  I am extremely grateful for the compliments and I believe that they are from the heart and sincere but they made me a little uncomfortable.  That made me consider my own actions a little.

When I am around someone, I try to be very positive.  I have worked hard to be someone who sees the best in others.  While I am not perfect, I feel like I have come a long way.  Like I have said before, I'm not where I want to be but thank God, I'm not where I used to be.  But I got a lesson today in how it feels to have someone do the same thing back to me.  Now it is unsettling but in a good way. 

I recently told someone that I thought they were a very special person and the response I got was not surprising.  That person basically said she struggled to believe what I was saying but she was working on believing it.  I have had this answer before in a different context and I wasn't shocked.  What surprised me a little was that this person didn't believe me.  Now she didn't think I was lying, she just found the nice thing I said difficult to believe.  At the time, I didn't understand why but now I think understand why she felt this way.

Have you ever been around someone who tells you one thing and then does another?  How about someone who tells you that they love you and then they do hateful things to you?  What message does that send?  Actions speak much louder than words so the actions certainly override the words.  Also, for some reason pain has a much more lasting effect on people than love.  At least on the surface this is the case.  So when we feel pain, the thought of it stays longer than love although love will impact you on a much deeper level.  But after someone hurts us, especially if it's for a long period of time, we really have a difficult time believing someone else when they say something nice.

Let me ask you this.  Has something happened in your life that makes it hard for you to believe things when people say nice things about you?  Maybe your self esteem is so low that it makes it hard for you to believe the nice things that people say about you.  The truth about the matter is that everything God ever made is amazing.  He made you and by definition that makes you an amazing person.  God wrote a whole book about you and how amazing you are.  The book says you were made in his image.  If someone tells you any different, ask yourself who's lying?  Is it them or God?  I choose them.  If someone tells you something good about you, it's probably true.  Now I do believe that we need to watch out for people who say nice things to manipulate us.  However, there are many people who just recognize the amazing gifts that God put in our box.  When that happens, let it soak through your skin like rain into the ground and get to your heart where it can grow into something amazing.

Today as we were walking, this person told me that I was pretty special.  I know what she says is sincere and I should have been able to believe her and just say thank you.  However, this is hard for me because it's hard for me to feel worthy of the compliment. There is a fine line between believing that we are worthy and being arrogant.  For years I have tried to hide behind humility to avoid compliments.  Now true humility is good and I try to be a humble person.  But I would avoid compliments or block them out because I didn't feel worthy of the compliment.  Instead of dealing wih not being worthy, I simply chose to believe that accepting a compliment could make me arrogant.

I am learning to accept these things from people and let them cause a harvest of good things to grow from my heart.  In truth, we all need to learn this lesson.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Monday, December 19, 2011

The Love Tank

I am not sure if today's blog will be something truly meaningful to anyone but me.  However, today I want to reflect on something interesting in my life.

For the first time in some time, I am actually content.  Today I sat for a little while and thought about why.  What I came up with actually startled me a little.  There is an author named Gary Chapman who wrote a book called "The Five Love Languages."  It is a very good book and if you haven't read it, you might consider it.  Now in this book, he says that we all have a love tank inside of us and that we all have different things that fill our love tank.  While I'm not sure his list is all inclusive, I can't think of anything that would not fall into one of those five categories.

Also recently, I was talking to a very special person in my life and she made in interesting observation.  She said that her heart was full.  I remember at the time this struck me as something interesting.  She recently told me that she ponders things in her heart and I guess that I have been pondering that statement ever since. 

I think she was saying that her love tank was full and since I had read a copy of Gary's book that was directed at children, this concept really stuck out in my mind.  I don't believe in coincidences and I believe that the Lord was trying to show me something but it took me a little while to understand what.  See, I think for years that I have been running on a love tank that read - empty.  There are a many reasons for this and I certainly won't try to address them in this post but suffice it to say that is the way I have felt. 

Now have you ever heard the saying, what goes around comes around?  Well, I believe that is a true statement.  Some people call it karma but in all reality, it's a principal that comes from the bible.  The bible describes it as sowing and reaping.  In other words, what you sow, you are going to reap.  Most of the time we all think of this as doing something bad.  A while back, I played a little joke on my mom that we both laugh about and recently someone else played the same joke on me and we both laughed about sowing and reaping.  Have you ever hear of something bad happening to a bad person and then heard someone else say that person got what was coming to them?  Well, I think that can be true at times.

But what if the opposite was true?  What if when you do good things for people, that same type of stuff happens to you?  I almost find this hard to believe for many reasons but I know the bible is true and so it must be true that when I sow good stuff, I eventually reap good stuff.  For years I have tried to be someone who sows good stuff into other people's lives and didn't really see the results I thought I would see back.  I remember writing a blog this summer where I talked about breaking the cycle of being hurt and hurting other people.  In that blog, I talked about how Jesus was hurt by John the Baptist's death and how he helped people even though he was hurting.  I hope this doesn't come across as bragging because I am not.  This is just a point that needs to be illustrated.

As I sat here today, I realized that I truly was at peace.  I'm not restless, not in a hurry, not trying to figure out what to do tomorrow.  I'm just content.  Why am I content?  Because that love tank or my heart, however you want to classify it, is full.  Now I have always tried to be a giver but I can tell you that when your heart/tank is full it is much easier to give than when it's on empty and you are doing it out of obligation.  There is someone who will read this and know that they are one of biggest reasons my tank is full.  To that person, let me say thank you from the bottom of my heart.  That wasn't the only source that filled my love tank but it was the biggest.

So what can we learn from this?  Well there are a few things that I can think of.  First of all, keep doing good things for people.  If you do that, sooner or later things will start coming your way.  They used to sing a song in church and one of the lines was, "You've gotta keep on casting your bread upon the water.  Soon it's gonna come back home on every wave."  This is true in life.  Second, don't quit.  My mom sent me a link to a blog by Pastor Bob Nichols and the first line said, "Don't quit on your first day and don't quit on your worst day."  I like that a lot.  Sometimes, you will wonder what's taking so long for the good things to start happening in your life but don't quit.  They will come if you keep at it.  Lastly, for now, it's OK to be happy.  This content feeling bothered me because I was so used to not feeling it, it took a couple of days to get used being content and understanding that it was OK to feel this way.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Doors

Today I want to take a stab at a funny topic - Doors.  Let's start with wooden doors and then we will move onto metal doors and glass doors, etc.  OK, for those of you who have read a few of these, you know that I won't talk about actual doors but I do want to talk about doors in our lives.

Just like I joked about there being different types of actual doors, there are different types of doors in our lives as well.  Sometimes a door represents an opportunity.  Maybe it represents a new job or a new position at your current job.  I could also represent the opportunity to do something new at school.  But doors can also represent a new friend, a new girlfriend or boyfriend, etc.  We can be talking about one of my favorite subjects - people.  This is were I want to focus for the next few paragraphs and then we will see where things go from there.

Have you ever had a relationship end?  Maybe they end badly and sometimes they just end.  As many of you know, I am 40 years old which means I have been out of high school for a long time.  Now I still keep in touch with some of my friends from high school and there are many who I don't see at all anymore.  I can't think of any of those people that I had some type of problem with.  We just drifted apart over time.  We all went to different schools, started working at different jobs and many of us started our own families.  That all happened over time and many of those "doors" closed in my life.

But there is another side to this.  Most of my very closest friends I didn't know while I was in high school.  We met somewhere along the path of life after and I am certainly glad we did.  All of those people represented doors in my life.  I had to be open to meeting them or I would not be friends with them today.  So let me pause here and ask you this.  Is your heart open to meeting new people?  For some it may be closed because of what happened with other relationships in your life.  I will try to address that in just a minute but let me say, your heart has to be open to new people or you will miss out on some truly remarkable ones.  I recently met a person in the strangest way and I am truly a blessed person because of it.  Which brings me to another point.  God has a million ways to put people in your path that he wants to be part of your life.  Don't let your thinking get so boxed in that you miss the opportunities he puts in your life.

Now let's talk a minute about what would cause someone to close all the doors to new friendship.  Most of the time this happens because someone in our lives has hurt us.  Somewhere along the path of life, a door closed but it didn't just close, it slammed on our finger and it hurt.  When that happens what do we do?

First of all, let it hurt.  Chances are if you are a girl, you are very in touch with your emotions.  You know how to cry and how to feel things on a much deeper level than if you are a guy.  Now us boys, on the other hand, don't do emotions like girls do.  So boys, you are going to have to let things hurt some if you are going to get true healing.  But once it hurts for a while, the healing process will take over and things will get better.  Have you ever cut your finger?  When you do it hurts.  That's your body's way of saying you need to put a band aid on your finger to stop the bleeding and start the healing.  But have you ever noticed that even before it is completely healed, the cut stops hurting?  It can be the same way with our friends.

So how do we start the healing process if we lose a close friend?  There are probably many things to do but I can think of a few that are pretty important.  First of all, admit to your part of whatever went wrong with the friendship.  If you did something wrong, you have to own your part.  Don't make excuses for why you did something, just admit that you did it, ask for forgiveness from God (who will give it to you instantly) and if it's appropriate, ask the other person(s) involved for forgiveness. 

Second, you have to forgive the other person.  This is pretty critical in starting the healing process.  When we hold onto those hurtful feelings and keep that unforgiveness all to ourselves, it can actually feel good.  Using anger at someone to overcome the hurt feelings we have is a pretty normal thing to do.  At first, it works great but just like a cut that gets infected, in the long run it can do us a tremendous amount of damage.  Have you ever seen what happens with a cut that gets infected?  If you let it go long enough, the infection will grow to the point that it can cause the loss of limb or loss of life.  This is the same thing that happens when we choose not to forgive someone.  Notice that the infection gets in us and hurts us, it doesn't hurt anyone else.  It's not contagious and we can't pass it to someone.  It's the same way with unforgiveness.  It only hurts us.  I know this isn't an easy thing to do sometimes because of the bad things people do to us but it has to be done.

Third, while we are on the subject of forgiveness, you have to forgive yourself.  Just like I talked about in the last paragraph, unforgiveness is a killer.  It spreads more quickly and does more damage when we don't forgive ourselves.  Why this is, I am not sure but I have noticed that when I am really getting down on myself it does more damage.  It's almost like opening another cut and letting it get infected.  It hurts about as bad.

Fourth, and this may or not be important, if you are in a hurtful relationship, you may have to leave it.  I will leave that for you do decide.

If you do these things, you are closing a door but you are doing it the right way.  After that door closes, you will find that another one opens.  Regardless of your age, if something like this happens in your life and the person that is leaving is a boyfriend or a girlfriend, this can be extremely painful.  You can have emotional attachments that are strong and they make you want to hang on to the relationship.  That's normal and that feeling is what caused you to become boyfriend/girlfriend with them in the first place.  But what if when that door closed in your life, a better one opened?  That is a difficult thing to see happening for most of us yet it happens all the time.  So, let me encourage you by saying this - If a door closes in your life, you have to process the door and bring "closure" to the situation.  Once you have done that, take a look around.  There may be a much better door right in front of you that you never saw before.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Monday, December 12, 2011

My Faith Story

Hello everyone.  As most of you who read this blog know, I am a Christian.  An amazing person asked me to share my testimony with her and because if what she said to me after I told her, I thought I would share my personal testimony with you.  After you read this, I would very much love to hear yours.  Please, please, please right back and tell me your testimony.  They are such a blessing.

I have edited it a little but this is what I told her:

I think I was saved when I was four or five. The reason I say this is I have always thought that Jesus was my Lord as long as I could remember. Living like he was Lord was a different thing growing up. We went to a non-denominiational church that believed in the baptism of the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in other tongues. The problem with the penticostal denomination is there are some very wierd people doing extremely strange things that make everyone else look strange. I attend Eagle Mountain Church now and it is a non-denominational church. 
Anyway, let me go back in time. Growing up I had a drug problem. My mom drug me to church every Sunday and I hated it. It interfered with watching the Cowboy games and even when they weren't playing I liked to watch wrestling on Saturday night which put me up late.  Hey, I was just a kid.  I didn't know it was fake back then.  I watched local wrestling and really go into it.  Anyway, after I got out of children's church, my brother and I sat at the back of the church in a strategic spot that would allow me to put my bible under my right arm and keep my head straight up and down while I slept. The only way you would know I was sleeping was if you were sitting in front of me and turned around or if I snored.  No one ever woke me up so I guess I didn't snore too loud.  We were also far enough away from the pulpit that the pastor or preacher couldn't see us either.
Back then we went to Calvary Cathedral which is a non-denominational church near downtown. So I slept every Sunday and Pastor Bob Nichols would always end his service by saying, "Father, we have heard the word of God today...." I always felt bad because I hadn't heard it. I slept through the service and I didn't want to lie to God so I wouldn't say that part. Then I finally started staying awake and listening to the word.
That's about when I started TCU. At TCU I was in ROTC and was pretty excited about doing a "varsity sport" called Ranger Challenge. I was in the hunt to make the team when I had an accident at church softball practice that caused me to miss making the team (it was just a bruised thigh but by the time I could run again, I had missed it). That sent me into somewhat of a depressed state. To cut the story a little short, I ended up getting "kicked out" of ROTC because I couldn't hold my weight down and ended up moving in with a girl. This is probably the lowest point in my life and what happened next was truly terrible.  I got her pregnant and she had an abortion.  At this point, I was as far away from God as I ever remember being.  But here's something amazing.  I was far from him but he was never far from me.  The bible says he will never leave me nor forsake me.
While I was going through this period of my life, I obviously quit going to church. I thought up all kinds of nasty things to say about the people who went there. I said they were hypocrites, unfriendly, not real, etc. Word of what I was saying got back to the church I am sure but I never heard anything ugly in response. So, I was living in a one bedroom apartment with this girl and her parents came down and broke us up.  I met her parents before the pregnancy and I remember going for a walk with her dad.  Since we were in college, dating was serious and he wanted to know what my intentions were with his daughter.  I told her dad I wanted to marry her.  It's a wonder he didn't shoot me right there!  I was a complete disaster.  I had been kicked out of ROTC, I was barely able to stay in school, my grades were terrible and I lost my job because I was too lazy to go to work.  If my daughter brought me from back then home, I would have been horrified. After they broke us up, I ultimately got evicted from my apartment because I was too lazy to work and moved back in with my mom and dad. I was either 21 or 22 at the time. At this point, I knew something was desperately wrong. I could not figure out what to do so I would go sit in the bathtub with my bible knowing something wasn't right but not knowing what to do.
Finally, I decided I needed to get right with God (Maybe I got saved for the first time at this point. Honestly, I am not sure). So I decided to go to church with my brother who still attended our church in the youth service. I was prepared to be shunned and rejected and I deserved it but I needed to get right with God and I knew he would be there whether or not the people received me or not. The youth pastor's name was Mark Carillo and I know he preached a sermon but to this day, I have no idea what he preached. As I sit writing this, I am listening to a song called, "The Lighthouse." It couldn't be more appropriate. So Pastor Mark was preaching and it was all I could do not to yell at him to shut up and open the alter. I needed to get right with God and I wanted it done right then. The thought of just going to God on my own was something I could not quite understand yet. Anyway, as soon as he opened the alter, I was the first one down. Then something truly amazing happened. Those people who I had bad mouthed just gathered around me and loved me. They hugged me and prayed with me. It was living mercy that still brings tears to my eyes.
When I stood up, I knew I was right with God and it was a great feeling.

That's the testimony of the Minion 

Friday, December 9, 2011

My Friend Stays at the Mailbox

Today I want to talk to you about something that was a bit of a revelation to me.  I have to give credit for this analogy to my cousin AB.  Cuz, I know you told me where you got this but I forgot.  But I want to talk to you today about friendships.

Now you may find this hard to believe because I have no problem writing about myself good, bad or indifferent on this blog but I am a shy person.  I'm not super shy to the point where I won't talk to you but I will probably not just walk up to someone out of the clear blue and introduce myself or talk to them unless there is a specific reason to do so.  If introductions are made, I will probably talk to you about you and I really don't like to talk about myself.  When I started writing this blog, someone came up to me who knows me pretty well and asked where all this stuff comes from that I write.  The answer was it comes from inside my box.  I spent years closing the lid on my box and not sharing what was inside it because I didn't value it enough to celebrate it myself.  However, I do not share my inner most thoughts and feelings with everyone especially if I don't think they will appreciate it.  Guess what, I realized that's a normal thing.

I have met people who are on both ends of the spectrum when it comes to there inner most self and neither of them are healthy.  If you will not tell anyone anything about you ever, you are destined for a lonely and unfulfilled life.  I know that some people would say that they like being an introvert and that their life is just fine.  I seriously doubt that because of how we were created.  On the other hand if you are the person who tells everything to everyone, you are destined to get hurt more than you should because some people will not value what's down deep in your Box.  It's unfortunate but true.

I think too often we let our friends and relationships happen by default and never take the time to evaluate them.  That is a bad place to be.  Think about it for a minute.  You can spend hours deciding on what college to go to or what house/car to buy.  These things are important but a house is just a building that you live in.  It's not a home without relationships.  A car is just a way to get from point A to B.  Don't get me wrong, I drive a very nice car and I like it.  It is comfortable, etc. but understand this.  If I drive a real nice car and the guy driving beside me drives a beat up piece of junk and we both drive for one hour at exactly 60 miles an hour, will I go farther than him?  Nope, we will travel the exact same distance.

Now if we spend that much time deciding on things that are important but not of supreme importance, why don't we spend any time evaluating our friendships?  For me, part of the answer was I didn't like being alone.  It hurt and I hated it.  Now I haven't really evaluated my friendships lately so if I haven't talked to you and you are a personal friend of mine, don't take this to mean that I there is something wrong with our relationship because that's not true.  I am really thinking about this more as I move forward.  When I meet someone where do they belong in my life?

See there are some people who I meet that really should stay out at my mailbox.  So when I go out in my front yard to get the mail I can talk to them.  Please don't take this to literally.  When I say out by my mailbox, I mean that I will not let them get too close to me personally.  I will talk to them about life in general and I will listen to them but they are not meant to be closer.  Also, just because they aren't meant to get closer to me doesn't mean that they shouldn't be very close to someone else.  They should be at the core of some one's friendship circle, just not mine.  I am not saying that their is anything wrong with them, just that they are not supposed to be super close to me.

Then there are some people who I would let up on my front porch.  We might sit in the swing or in a chair with a cup of tea or coke and talk.  I might let them know that I write a blog.  I might tell them that I am writing a book but it would be talk about things that are pretty common knowledge in my life.  But it wouldn't be the super deep things in my life.  It wouldn't be the most important things to me.  Also think of this as a funnel.  There may be many people who are mailbox friends and their would be fewer people that are front porch friends.

Then there are living room friends.  These are people who I invite into the living room.  We eat dinner together and we hang out.  We watch TV and our kids play with each other.  There will probably be very few living room friends.  I only have a few.  You can probably count them on two hands.  They are people who I trust and who I would talk to about almost anything.  I might tell them if I was struggling with something or if I was trying to make a major decision, I might want to talk to them.  They are close friends.  These people you must choose carefully.  They don't represent a building or car, you are in trusting them with a special part of you.  You must make sure that you can trust them with that part of you.  Don't let just anyone into the living room.  That is a hard thing to do.  If you cannot trust them then don't let them past the front porch. 

Lastly their are bedroom relationships.  Now before some of you go where I think you will go with that, it has nothing to do with sex.  The bedroom is where you lay down at night and sleep.  It is the place that you feel safe enough to become completely defenseless while you sleep.  You turn off everything that would be a defense.  You stop actively listening, you close your eyes so you cannot see danger coming.  You lose consciousness and it would be extremely easy for someone to hurt you without you being able to stop them.  This place is a place where you only let a couple of people.  If you are married, your spouse should be one of them.  Ask yourself if he or she really is.  If not, why?  I recently had dinner with a friend and she was telling me that her perfect mate would be another friend of hers who is a girl.  Again, pump the hormone brakes.  She isn't gay, she's just saying that this person accepts her completely and that she can be totally defenseless with her friend.  Many of you have a best friend like that and it's important to have someone like that.  I don't really have anyone in my life that I am completely comfortable with becoming totally defenseless with yet.  I have people that I know love and support me but I don't have a bedroom friend right now.  That's OK too because that part of me that I let be so helpless and exposed is worth protecting.

Let me ask you, do you have friends in the bedroom who should not be there?  If so, you are destined to endure pain.  Do you have any friends who can get past the front porch?  If not, you are destined to be lonely.  You have to find the right balance and work from there.  Also, let me tell you this.  You will have friends that move from time to time and that's OK.  If someone hurts you deeply, they might get locked out of the bedroom or even out of the house for a while.  That can be a good thing.  I recently was involved in a situation where someone in my life had to go out to the mailbox.  I don't hold that against that person and I don't think that person holds it against me.  It was just what needed to happen.  Those things are OK.  People will move around and it's OK.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Ask the Minion

Hello Everyone,

I decided to do another round of ask the Minion because I have had fun with the first couple so here goes.  Before I start, I think most of you know this but I want to be clear on one thing.  I am in no way associated with the movie Despicable Me.  I just liked the character so I put it on my page.

BA - Why do I call my blog the Opinion of the Minion - Originally, I was really just joking about writing a blog with some of the guys in the office.  While on a trip to Houston in February, a friend of mine asked me where two people were who should have been with us working.  He asked me where the minions were.  I thought it was funny at the time.  When I decided to start writing my own blog, I knew it was basically going to be my opinion and minion just rhymed so the name stuck.  What I didn't see happening was the number of people who would actually read what I write.  It is still very difficult for me to wrap my mind around all the people who are fans of this blog.  Thank you all.

ANH - Have you ever resolved the problem with the anti-gravity serum? - I'm not associated with the movie.

EW - What's my Opinion on gay people - Wow.  This is a loaded question.  First of all, I love people period.  Gay, straight, black, white, green, purple, or orange.  I know some people who are gay and they are really nice people.  However, I think what you are asking me is do I think being gay is right?  The answer is - What I think isn't important.  What the bible says is.  If I look in the bible, it says that same sex relationships like that are wrong.  Please don't send me any hate letters.  I didn't write the book.  I'm just telling you what it says.  Now before you gay bashers start chiming in on how wrong you think homosexuality is, let me tell you something else.  Jesus told people to work on themselves before they got into other people's business.  He said that people are walking around making a big deal out of someone elses' sin that is little while they have massive sin in their lives.  What does that mean, mind your own business.  It's not my place to judge a gay person.  It's not my place to judge anyone.  When they get to heaven, they can take it up with God.  It won't matter to me at that point because I will have plenty of areas where I am wrong to discuss with God.  He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.

RS - Why can't you give me $10? - RS, many people in my life have asked me for money.  You are the first one to do it on the Minion and that's funny.

MMDM - Do you think aliens are real?  If so, why? - I think there is life that is not on earth.  After all, God is a real person and he is in Heaven.  We know that Heaven isn't on earth.  It is a real place and it is somewhere so there must be life outside earth.  I don't know if God put other life forms on other planets though.

SB - Why did you pick that as your profile picture? - When I was setting up my FB page, I needed something to go up as a profile picture and I wanted a picture of a minion because of the name.  I really didn't know what to expect but I knew I didn't want anything that looked scary or bad.  When I googled pictures of a minion, the one I used came up and I liked it.

ZKR - What language do you speak? - I don't know much about the movie characters but I speak English.  I can speak very very little German and even less French.

TM - If you choked a minion for an experiment, what color would it turn? - That's cute.  No clue.

JC Part 1 - Explain to me what the real definition of success is in today's society? - JC is a good personal friend of mine so let me start by asking JC something.  Would you consider me a success?  Why?  The definition of success in society is how much wealth you have and what you have been able to achieve like college degrees, etc.  Unfortunately, that measuring system has nothing to do with success.  Success in life is really measured by the number of lives you touch and how you touch them.  Are you a good dad, friend, husband, wife, mom, etc.?  Do you help people when they are in need if you can?  Do you have good relationships?  Are you trying to make a positive difference in the people's lives around you?  If so, then I would call you a success.  Success is measured in the quality of your relationships not the value of your bank account.

JC Part 2 - What will break the cast system we currently need to overcome today for everyone to be able to thrive and prosper together peacefully? - OK you will definitely not like my answer on this one.  The answer is the second coming of Christ.  The bible says that in this life you will have trouble and that there will be wars and rumors of wars.  So the live together peacefully part won't happen until then.  As far as breaking the caste system, I think people have to wake up and want out of it.  If you look at many people today, you will see apathy.  They simply don't care about what is going on around them enough to make any kind of change.  Let's take politics for example.  If enough people don't like someone, they can get together and have him or her voted out of office.  Does that happen normally?  No because it takes a lot of a four letter word - work.  When I was at my heaviest, I was always telling your brother that I was going to lose weight.  Finally one day he told me that I was a liar.  He said that when I got tired of being fat, I wouldn't be fat anymore.  I think it applies to breaking out of the caste system as well.  People have to get tired of it but most don't.  They are more interested in watching TV than changing things.

IR - What's a question?  -That's funny.

IR - What would you do in case of a Zombie Apocalypse? - No clue. Again, that's funny.

WH - How can you recover from a broken friendship? - This is probably a good question for a completely separate blog.  In short, it takes time to heal from a broken friendship.  They are the hardest because typically it's someone you trust.  To start with, find someplace safe.  Because you are a guy, I will give you a piece of advice that applies to everyone but we guys don't do this much.  Let it hurt.  It's going to and when you feel pain, it's your body and spirit telling you something is wrong.  I tried to shut all painful emotions out of my life for a long time and it made me very callous which is a bad place to be.  Next, own up to anything you did in that relationship that was wrong.  Here's another thing I see a lot today, people are afraid to be wrong.  It's OK to be wrong.  Guess what, there was only one man ever to walk this planet who never made a mistake.  You and I are going to make them.  After that, ask God to forgive you of anything you have done wrong.  These next two can be hard.  First - forgive the other person.  You shouldn't be around them if they are going to continue to hurt you but forgiving them will help you heal.  Second - forgive yourself.  After that, it takes time.

JC - lotto numbers - If I knew, I would have already bought my own ticket.  :-)

SS - What is the name of the minion in your picture? - I don't know.

TK - Do you like pie? - Yup.  My favorite is my grandmother's homemade pecan pie fresh out of the oven with a scoop of ice cream on top.

MS - Why can't minions talk? - I don't know.

BP - Why are they yellow and not, like, purple? - Again I don't know.

EM - Do you think the world will end in 2012? - Probably not but I don't know.  Here's why I say that.  The world will radically change when Jesus comes back the second time but from what I have read in the bible, I will be around for a few years after that.  The bible also says we don't know the day or the hour when Jesus will return.  So if everyone says 2012 then I doubt it will be then.

MS - How can the force of gravity come together from mostly the sun and make the world end in 2012? - No idea.

BA - When are you going to answer all these questions? - Today.  Sorry it took so long.

BM - What's a minion bible story? - It's a story from the bible that I try to tell in my own words.  Several weeks ago a couple of people asked me if I would write them so I thought I would give them a try.

SS - Can you rap anything? - Nope

DP - Are you a glow stick? - Nope

JB - What's your girlfriend's name? - I don't have one yet.

JB - Have you cheated on her and what's your dad's name and your momma's name? - I don't have one and so I can't cheat on her but I wouldn't anyway.  If she isn't the girl that I can't stand to be without then I won't stay with her anyway.  I want the girl that looks fine dressed up but is more beautiful to me in blue jeans and a tee shirt with her hair in a pony tail.  I want the girl that I cannot stand to leave.  Someone that I just need five more minutes looking at her and talking to her.  I want her to be physically attractive certainly but that's not enough.  She has to be attractive as a whole person.  If I find that, there will never be any need to cheat on her.  My parents names are John and Donna.

GD - Republican or Democrat? - Hard to say.  Neither party has a clue about fiscal responsibility, neither party seems really accountable to the American public and I am not convinced that either of them has the best interest of the country at heart.  That said, from what I know in extremely broad terms, the Democratic party tends to want bigger government and that is just a mistake so I typically vote Republican.

JWG - How is cooler:  Pon or Zi? - I don't know.

SDJ - Why are minions yellow? - I don't know.

AR - Why can the minions only say ehhh and ahhhh? - I don't know.

SG - Does this page have a contest? - Sort of.  I like to give out "The Box" awards.  What are they?  I will try to write a post but I like to give out an award to someone who does things for others.  If you know of someone, let me know and we can talk about getting them an award.

AA - How small are the minions in inches? - I don't know.

JH - Who does the voices of the minions in the movie Despicable Me and why do they talk in an alien sort of language? - I don't know

And those are answers from The Minion

Monday, December 5, 2011

Christmas Blues

Today I want to try to address what I like to call the Christmas blues.  Do you ever find yourself getting down at Christmas time?  If you are a child, it might not be as big a problem as if you are an adult but I even heard my friend KS say something about it in her blog.

For the last couple of days this has been my struggle.  I know the holiday season is here and I really look forward to Christmas until it gets here.  Does that makes sense.  In some ways it doesn't to me.

See right now I should be happy.  I have direction in all the major areas of my life, work is going fine, I feel like I am growing as a father and as a friend.  I have opportunities every day to help other people and I am entering the holiday season but I find myself more and more these last few days struggling to really get excited about Christmas.  Now I want to continue to help people, I want to be around people, and I look forward to giving them gifts.  I recently discovered that I am really a people person. But I find myself looking forward to January 2nd more than almost any other day of the year.  Why?  Because the holidays will be over.  Don't get me wrong, I don't get ba humbug but I just don't get as excited about the rest for some reason.

Part of the reason I think the holiday season can be difficult is because of what seems to be important these days.  Everything seems to be about the commercial aspects of the season.  At Thanksgiving it was a big meal.  Now we turn to Christmas and it's all about getting and giving gifts.  The whole thing has gotten a little twisted.  Giving of gifts was the first thing that happened on the first Christmas.  God gave Jesus, his son, to the world so that the world could be eventually be brought back in to right relationship with him.  We all know that Jesus eventually gave himself for our sins on the cross but did you know that on the first Christmas he gave up being in Heaven where everything is perfect.  We know he gave it up for us but he gave it up for someone else.  He gave a Christmas gift of his life to his Father so that He could have right relationship with His creation.  I bet you never looked at it that way right.

So what's the common thread in the giving?  Neither God nor Jesus gave a financial gift to the world, the both gave something infinitely more special.  They gave Jesus to the world.  With God is was always about relationships.  That was what was on his mind the first Christmas.

Now don't misunderstand me, I think giving gifts is a very good thing to do but I think there is much more to the season than just stuff.  If you don't get what you want, it's OK because if you got anything, you should be thankful that someone was there to give it to you.  Again, it's about relationships.  If you are a parent that doesn't have enough money to give your child everything you want to, don't worry about it.  There is someone in your life for you to give to and that's really important.  If you don't have enough money to give everything you would like to people, remember this - even though you don't have a lot of money, you do have something to give.  Let me tell you about a few very special gifts that I know of.

A few years ago, a friend of mine told me about getting things for her family at Christmas.  She is a really nice lady but was working a job that didn't pay very much money so she didn't have a lot to spend.  I think she gave her parents a framed picture of her but she made some part of it.  I guarantee that her parents will cherish that gift so much more than a new car.  See, she put herself into the gift.  She gave part of something special.  She gave her a small part of her life to her parents.  If you are the person who I am talking about and you are reading this, I bet you never thought of it that way.  :-)

Another person I know gave her daughter a gift for her birthday.  She was the first person to receive the Box award.  Here is what the person who received the gift had to say:

     “My mother cant afford a lot and I don't ask anything of her. This year for my birthday I said no presents.. just let me cook you dinner. Mom surprised me with the newspaper clippings and cards that came from my actual birthday. This was the most rewarding birthday gift ever. It made me feel like she was truly proud of me. “

I will tell you of another gift that shocked me.  I few months ago, I wrote an Opinion of the Minion about my grandfather.  Now I didn't really think this was one of my best blogs but I put it out there to pay honor to TS Rawle.  What shocked me was the response I got.  I wrote that particular blog because it was what I felt.  Comments on Facebook and e-mails came in from all over the family and everyone was touched.  I couldn't physically give them all a hug but I was able to give them something.

Do you ever find yourself coming down with the Christmas blues?  Well you are not alone, most people have to battle it at some point in their lives.  But know this, as you focus on the true meaning of Christmas and what the real gifts are supposed to be, you will see things differently.  You definitely have something to give and people will really appreciate a gift that comes from the heart much more than one from the wallet.
Well, I have done it again.  I have blogged myself happy.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Believe in Yourself

Today I want to encourage you to give yourself a tremendous gift this Christmas season.  Believe in yourself.  That may seem pretty hard to do.  I know it is for me sometimes.  Now when it comes to what other people think, I guess I look pretty "successful" but there are times when I have trouble believing in myself.

There are going to be times in your life when this is a very difficult thing to do.  Especially during the holiday season, it can be easy to get depressed and down if you let yourself.  My friend, Kari already posted something in her blog about this and I will try to deal with it later myself.

The reality is that you have to believe in yourself if you want to be truly successful and happy in life.  It is very easy for me to believe in other people and their abilities.  Do you think you can write a book?  I believe you can.  Do you think you can go to school and get a degree?  I believe you can.  Do you think you can overcome being overweight or some other addiction?  I believe you can.  Do I believe I can do any of those things?  Yes on the last two and I am working on the first one.  Now especially when it comes to writing, I didn't really believe that I was a writer until recently.  I must say I enjoy the experience.

Did you know that you can have self confidence in one area and lack it in another?  I know I do.  My daughter gave me a great glimpse this weekend of what self confidence looks like.  We were sitting at breakfast eating donuts when a mom walked through the door carrying a baby.  Many times when we see a little child, I tell the kids that they were once that small and we all laugh.  The mother had her back to us and the baby was big enough that he was holding his head up and it was above mom's shoulder.  Before I could say anything to my daughter, she said, "I was that big once."  She beat me to the punch and I smiled.  Then she leaned over to me and whispered in my ear, "But I was cuter."  She obviously has no problem believing that she is a cute kid.  She certainly gets plenty of confirmation from everyone about this fact and that's good.

For me, I used to be fat but now I am not.  I must admit that I struggle in this area a little.  I don't have a bad self image but if a woman shows interest in me (for all my friends, yes it does happen occasionally), I have a hard time believing it.  That's not to say that it is an every day occurrence by any stretch of the imagination but it's nice when it happens.

I struggle to understand why it is so easy for me to have confidence in some areas and lack confidence in others.  I think it's because I am human (as much as I hate to admit it sometimes).  However, you have to believe in you before anyone else will.  Before anyone ever told me they appreciated the Minion, thought, I had to believe that I could write and do it.  Before anyone told me that I could lose weight, I had to believe that I could and change my lifestyle.  Before anyone ever believed I could go through law school, I had to prove to myself that I could.  Do you see the common thread?  Also consider this, if I had never took action on my belief, I would never have gotten anywhere in any of these areas.

See, faith in yourself or in God without works is dead faith.  You cannot truly believe in yourself without taking action in a specific area.  If I really do think I am a good guy, I should ask a girl out.  If I don't believe in myself enough to ask, how can I expect her to say she will?  And if I never ask, we know for certain that she never will.  Also, let me leave you with one more thought on the subject.  Let's take dating because the illustration seems clear to me right now.  If you want to go out with a girl and you never ask her out, you will never go out with her.  However if you ask her, she might turn you down but she might actually go.  Don't be afraid to fail forward.

So what am I trying to tell you?  You must believe in yourself and you must do so before anyone else will.  We will truly know if you believe in yourself by your actions.  Until your believe motivates you to act, it isn't really faith, it's still just hope.  So what are your dreams today?  Believe in yourself and give yourself a chance for success by taking a chance.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Friday, November 25, 2011

Christmas Part 1

OK.  We are now officially in my favorite time of the year in Texas.  It's Christmas time.  It's not X-Mas, etc.  It's Christmas.  What do I like so much about Christmas?  Is it the tree, the lights, all the parties and food?  Is it Santa Claus or decorating the house?  Nope.  My favorite part of this year is carrying on the first Christmas tradition.

See, because God loved the world so much, he sent his son, Jesus to earth so we could reconnect with him.  Jesus came because he wanted to give this gift to God, his Father.  What's the common thread?  God gave Jesus so that the world would be blessed.  Jesus gave himself so that God would be blessed.  That's what this season is all about.  It's about giving, not getting.  I am not sure where but I heard somewhere that it is more blessed to give than receive.  At least in my life, that's really true.

Now we have a lot of traditions and I am thankful for them.  I used to enjoy decorating the Christmas tree.  That stopped when I was a young child though.  Apparently we were making a popcorn string to go around the Christmas tree when some part of the light fixture fell from the ceiling and hit me in the head.  Now my parents were renting that place and I don't know if we had to pay for the fixture after it broke from hitting my hard head or not.  OK - I still enjoy decorating the tree and the story above is true or so my parents tell me.

I love to go looking at the Christmas lights.  One of my favorite memories was going with my cousins in the back of my Uncle's suburban when we were kids.  We went to a place called Interlocken (sp?) in Arlington.  What fun we had that trip.  I can also remember the parties and the family fun.  My Aunt Pat used to have a platter that was shaped like a Christmas tree.  She would fill it with this fancy candy and I loved to get into that platter.  That was something I looked forward to every year.  But the older I get, the more I focus on the only real tradition that matters - giving.

As a matter of fact, I like to think about who I can bless and how.  There have been many times when I did something nice for someone and I could hear God inside me (my Dad) saying how proud he was of me.  Now don't get me wrong, I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting stuff and getting stuff for Christmas.  After all, someone will get blessed by what we do and it's OK to let someone bless you - even though I get really uncomfortable when people bless me.  I must admit, I would really prefer to be the blessor than the blessee.  For me, I am much more concerned with whether people will like what I got them than if I will like what they got me.

So I want to encourage you as you go through this season.  It's good to make your Christmas list and while you look for things for parents, family, friends and that special someone, look around for someone outside your ordinary box to bless. Remember that's the first true tradition of Christmas.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

My Dad

Today I am thankful for my dad.  There is certainly the obvious reason that I without him I would not exist.  So I am thankful for that but I am also very thankful for the job he did raising me.  Now my dad wasn't perfect and I am sure if you asked him, he would tell you that there are things he wishes he would have done differently.  Guess what, we are all like that.

But dad did teach me some things that are really important.  They are things that helped me develop my character.

First of all, don't lie.  I don't remember getting very many spankings from him but if you lied, that was a good way to get one.  I got one for a lie/stealing combo sin once.  That wasn't a fun one.  I had been stealing money out of his wallet and out of mom's purse to go down to the police station and buy candy.  I don't remember why I actually confessed.  I think dad caught me and after I lied for a while, I finally came clean.  I definitely was put on the straight and narrow for that incident.

Second, don't steal.  See paragraph above.

Third, and very important, laugh often.  My dad is a comedian.  When he was in the Navy, he even got paid to do some comedy shows.  This is evident in the way he does things even to this day.  My dad can tell a story that will have everyone around him in stitches laughing.  Now sometimes his stories aren't entirely true.  He was an ambulance driver when I was a very young boy and he still loves to tell the stories from his time driving.  Now all of these stories are definitely rooted in fact but there are normally minor embellishments around the fringe to make them even funnier.  But the bible says, A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.  When someone is in the hospital, he is the guy you want there with them because he is so good at cheering people up.  Now this may seem minor to you but it has always been big to me because I don't think I am near as good at it as him.

Dad is definitely the guy you want around in a crisis situation.  As I mentioned above, he is great at making people laugh and feel better about themselves.  But I will also tell you that he was great at handling other types of crisis.  God forbid you messed with one of Big John's family or friends in his younger days.  That would be the start of a very bad day for you.  I saw this side of him once when a neighbor tried to run me off the road.  That guy has no idea how lucky he is to still be walking this earth today.

My dad also taught me about work ethic.  I saw him work crazy amounts of hours when we were growing up.  My dad taught me that you should always work hard and try your best.  He was a security guard most of my life but he didn't act like most of the security personnel I had ever met.  He acted like a professional.  He did his job to the best of his ability.  He went to work rain, sleet, snow or hail and whether he was sick or not.  It didn't matter, he went and he always did a good job.  He did this right up until the time he retired.  I try to follow his example to this day.

Dad, at our cousin's funeral, I spoke and apparently said some pretty nice things.  After that, I think you were joking but you asked me to speak at your funeral when the time came because you wanted me to say nice things about you too.  Well, I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you them while you were still alive.

There are other things I could mention but I want to leave you with one final thing my dad has taught me.  You are never too old to change.  See, my mom took us to church all our lives.  I don't remember going with my dad more than a handful of times ever.  My mom and I have always been fairly faithful church going people.

It has only been in the last several years that dad started going to church.  Because he started when he did, he showed me that you are never too late to change.  Now a lot of people know me at my church for various reasons but my dad has turned out to be the most faithful church attender of our entire family.

Dad, thanks for all the life lessons: for chevrolets and fords, for eating mashed potatoes with your hands, for the wizard, for MASH and spaghetti, for going bowling with dip in your pocket, for playing spades with us growing up, for showing me how to cheer people up when they are in a tough place, for teaching me to do the right thing and for all the other things.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Letter to Matthew

This is the last in the letter series to my children and this one goes out to Matthew.

Dear Matt,

You are the most amazing young boy.  There are things that are different about you from a lot of boys.  One thing I notice is that you hate to play games that match one person against another.  This is something that I certainly understand.  When I was growing up, I never liked to play a video game where it was me against another person.  Do you know why?  Because that meant there had to be a winner and a loser and I hated the idea.  I would much rather play a game that would put me on a team and our team would play against the computer.  Why is that?  Because I wanted everyone to win and I was always searching for a way to make that happen.  In life, I still do that to this day.  Do you know why we do that?  Because we are made like our Dad in Heaven.  The only person he intends to lose is the devil.  He created a system that allows everyone to be happy and have the things they need and want in life.

So don't be frustrated by this son.  The reason you are like that is because God made you that way.  Matthew, God has a purpose for your life and I think it is much like the purpose he has for mine.  There is a special anointing from God on your life.  Now I know at age 7, you probably don't understand much of this but I want you to remember this because there will come a time in life when it will be very important to you.  See Matthew, you are a person who likes to build relationships and not tear them down.  You operate in that area just like God does.  Pretty cool huh.

I also notice what a big heart you have.  You don't like to see people hurting.  This is another characteristic of the calling that the Lord has on your life.  Did you know when you were little that I used to play a game with you.  You would do something funny and I would pretend that it hurt my feelings.  I wasn't upset; I was happy but I would pretend to cry by covering up my eyes with my hands and making crying noises.  As soon as that happened, no matter how mad you were, you would come over and put your arms around me and hug me.  You didn't like to see people hurting.  Matthew this characteristic of you is something that is embedded deep within you and it will play a part in what the Lord has for you later.

There is another thing that I consider special about you.  You are one of the best story tellers that I know.  I am constantly amazed at your ability to retain a story after only hearing it once or twice.  After that, you can tell me the whole story, word for word.  It's pretty amazing.  There are times when I get tired of hearing about Thomas the Tank Engine, Jakers, Kipper and Spongebob but know this that your storytelling ability will be another big part of you when you grow up.  Some people might get tired of hearing it (like Katherine and David) but one day, they will be really impressed with it.

Also, you have the most beautiful voice for a kid your age.  I really love to hear you sing.  As a matter of fact, I want you to sing more.  Son, don't be embarrassed by this.  You and I are a lot alike in that we don't want to draw attention to ourselves and that is a good thing.  But you have a gift.  That gift was put inside you by God to bless you, Him and others.  Please understand that when I ask you to sing it is because your voice is so good, it blesses everyone who listens.  I want you to continue to develop this very special gift.

Lastly Matthew, I want you to know how much I love you.  Son, you are that kid that everyone likes and it's easy to see why.  You are caring, you do your work when asked, you very rarely get into trouble, and you always have a smile on your face.  But I don't love you for any of those reasons.  I love you simply because you are who you are.  You are my son.

Love,

Dad

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Somebody Like Me

This morning I am sitting listening to a song called, "Somebody Like Me" by Jason Crabb.  This song is about a homeless man that walks into a church and no one sits next to him, no one ministers to him and when he leaves no one goes after him.  Yesterday a friend of mine and I were listening to this song as we drove to lunch.  He said something that was true but it didn't sit right with me regardless.  He said that he had never seen this happen at his church and that people would have reached out to this guy if they were at his church.  I agree and that would probably happen at my church as well.  The problem is we get all emotional at church and then what happens when we walk out the door?  If we are Christians, what does Christ look like to the rest of the world?  Will Christ stop to help someone?  Will Christ give to someone in need or will Christ make some excuse about why he can't help.  Understand this - The only Christ that some people will ever see is you and me.

Let me tell you about a couple of places where I faced this situation.  One was in the church lobby a few weeks ago.  There is a lady at my church who I have sort of known all my life.  I have been to basically three churches in my life and her family has been at the same three.  The funny thing is we don't know them all that well.  This particular lady has such a sweet spirit.  She loves God and you can just tell.  On this particular morning, she was a Christian and I wasn't.  The interesting thing is that this particular lady has some type of mental disability and while older than me, she acts much younger.

As she walked toward me that Sunday, I didn't want to talk to her.  I buried my head in my phone pretending to be doing something but really I was just hoping that she would pass me by so I wouldn't have to talk to her.  All she wanted was to talk to someone and have them talk back to her with some amount of interest in what she was saying.  I however was too caught up in myself to be Christ.  As someone walked up and diverted her attention, I quickly got up and walked off.  Oh how easy it is to write this blog and have people from all over the world read it but when it came to actually being a member of the body of Christ I failed that morning.  When the reality of that set in, I was ashamed of myself because I know I am better than that.  Have you ever experienced a situation like that?  If so, you know how it feels to have an opportunity to do something for someone else and miss it.  My Father still loves me but He certainly couldn't have been happy with me that morning.  I know I wasn't.

But the Lord had a special way of telling me and showing me how much He loves me.  I don't speak with this person very often but the next morning as I was rounding the corner, here she came again.  This time was different.  I was excited.  I got an opportunity to talk to her and really more let her talk to me and I took it with gusto.  It didn't last very long but I know she enjoyed talking to me and I really enjoyed talking to her.  This particular Sunday, that somebody was me.  It felt great.

Now let's get outside the church walls.  What does Christ look like at Starbucks on Wednesday morning?  Please do not take the rest of this story as bragging because it isn't.  I constantly deal with the feeling that I don't do enough for other people.  It seems like no matter how many people I help, I never feel like I do much and certainly not enough.  Anyway, as I was sitting in Starbucks working this morning, and a man walked up to me who looked dirty.  He handed me a laminated piece of paper that said he was mute and looking for money for food for his family.  He showed me tatoos on his arms with the names of his parents and the dates of their deaths.  I really didn't want to deal with him because I was enjoying what I was doing.  Before he got to me, he stopped at another table to ask for help and they turned him down.  But here's the difference.  This time I purposed in my heart to be someone God could use.  I decided that God could count on me to show this man Christ.  I wasn't going to be relegated to the side lines this time.  I was going to get in the game.  He was going to see Christ give.  I am thankful that Christ gave me the ability to bless him.

Please don't take this wrong.  I, above all people, know that I'm nothing special.  But I do know that I serve One who is beyond special.  As we get closer to Thanksgiving, I want to challenge you to look around you.  If you are a Christian, what does Christ look like to the people who are around you?  Are you helping?  When was the last time you helped someone who could do nothing for you in return?  When was the last time someone saw Christ in you?  In my own life, people don't see Christ enough.

That's the Opinion of the Minion

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

My Mom vs. Goliath

Today I want to tell you how thankful I am for the drug problem I had as a child.  No, it wasn't the kind of drugs you are thinking about.  My mom drug me to church every week.

The church building isn't there anymore.  It was knocked down by a tornado that hit downtown Fort Worth several years ago and I really miss that church building.  Now don't get me wrong, Jesus isn't in a building and the church is so much more that a building.  The church is the people who go to and from the building every week.  See when people see us they should see Christ in us not in a building.  But that building was a very special one to me.

I have said this publicly but I will say it again, Thank you mom for dragging me kicking, screaming and sometimes cussing to church with you every week.  If it wasn't for that, I would hate to think about where I would be today.

So let me tell you a little more about this drug problem.  When I was around 5 years old, we started attending Calvary Cathedral in downtown Fort Worth.  The church started out as a Baptist church that Pastor Bob Nichols bought.  At the age of 5, church was fine but as I got a little older it really cramped my style.  Because of where we lived and just our normal schedule, I did not make many friends at the church when I was young.  (I think I would have made several good friends if I was more friendly myself but that's beside the point.)

The other problem was something I considered much more critical.  Now you have to understand that this was before the days of VCRs and DVRs so I couldn't record anything from TV.  Why is this important you ask?  Because the Dallas Cowboys played at noon and I was a big fan back then.  I hated that I had to go to church and miss part of the game.  By the time we got out of church, the 1st Quarter was always over and I didn't like that.  As I got to high school, I would stay out late and be tired and thus again I didn't want to go to church.  I cussed my mother out more than once (No, not to her face.  I wasn't that stupid) for dragging me to that church.  I even decided that I wouldn't stay in the services while I was there.  Now the church building was pretty big and it had two stories so I decided to hide in the rooms upstairs until the service was over.  This worked out pretty well for several months until the mom of one of my few friends followed me up to my "secret" room.

Needless to say, my mom found out and I got drug out of the room and back down to the service.  I can tell you she was a very unhappy camper when she found us that day.  Now my mom is a little lady but she sure looked like a giant that day.  If David had seen her instead of Goliath he might have reconsidered.  If Goliath had seen her he would have ran instead of running his mouth.  So back down to the service we went.  After a certain amount of time, I finally decided I would outsmart her again.  I didn't want to be there and while she could drag me there as long as I lived under her roof, she couldn't make me listen to a word Pastor Bob was saying.  If anyone from Calvary reads this, let me say how thankful I am for a true man of God like Bob Nichols.  I have nothing but the highest respect and admiration for him. 

So if you were looking out from the pulpit, I was sitting in the very back row on the far right hand side of the sanctuary.  Now our sanctuary was round so the isle we sat on had only three seats.  If you took one of them you did so at your own peril because my brother and I owned them.  There was a strategic reason that I picked these seats.  You could not see my facial expression from the pulpit, there was no one directly behind me, you would have to turn around to look at me if you were in front of me and lastly, if I put my bible on the arm rest of the chair, put my elbow on the bible, and leaned my face on my hand, my head would stay upright and you couldn't see my eyes if you sat to my right.

Why was this important?  Because it allowed me to sleep through every service without getting caught.  Or at least no one woke me up if they knew I was asleep (I am sure that people knew because I snored like a chain saw at a logger's championship).  So I slept back there and my mom kept dragging us to church.  But there was something that really bothered me.  At the end of every service, Pastor Bob would start his closing prayer by saying, "Father, we've heard the word of God today...."  Only I hadn't heard the word so I wouldn't pray that part of the prayer because it would be a lie.  So one day, I decided to stay awake and listen to what he said.  This went on for several more years and Pastor Bob taught me a lot.  Thanks to a mother who wouldn't stop bringing her son to church.

But here's the interesting part.  There were many things that I wanted to do with my time back then.  Church wasn't in the top 100.  I wanted to play outside, hang out with my friends, watch football, etc.  But when the major crises came in my life, when I needed help with my weight, when I was going through my divorce, at every point where I struggled, I never once cried out to the Dallas Cowboys, to my friends or to any other thing that would have taken my time.  I cried out to the One that I learned about all those times mother drug me to church.  I cried out to God.  Never once quoted a Cowboy rushing stat when I needed financial help.  I qouted the word of God and God saw me through my difficulty.  I never once found comfort in any church substitute.  I found comfort by going back to the place where my mother drug me week in and week out all those years.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Friday, November 11, 2011

Happy Veteran's Day

I have been waiting for the opportunity to write on this topic and I can't think of a better place than today.  Today I am thankful for all the men and women who have served and are serving this country in our armed forces.  Today is Veteran's Day and I want to say thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Let me say thank you to several people I know personally for their service:

John Oswald, United States Navy
Mike Henderson, United States Air Force
Arthur "Billy" Henderson, United States Navy
Billy Lankford, United States Army
Glen Stetler, United States Marine Corps
Joe Clubb, United States Marine Corps
Ernie Gaudette, United States Army
Jason Compton, United States Marine Corps
"Buddy" Gilmore, United States Marine Corps

And to those who still serve this country like

Joseph Campbell, United States Army
Shay Stetler, United States Marine Corps
Laura Bozeman, United States Army

Lastly while it isn't Memorial Day, I cannot help but think of Veterans who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country.  As I sit here drinking my Earl Grey tea at Starbucks and writing the Opinion of the Minion, I know this would not be possible without the sacrifices of people like:

Blake Russell, United States Army
Tristan Aiken, United States Army

I apologize to all the men and women I know who I did not specifically mention in this post.  I hope you all know that I have the utmost respect for you and want to say thank you all for your service.

As I sit reflecting on our Veterans, I think of the conflicts that have come during my lifetime.  There was Vietnam, Iraq, Iraq, and Afghanistan plus several others.  As I think about the men and women who went and continue to go to these places thousands of miles away from their families, I can't help but wonder why they did it and do it.  Is it for money?  Heavens no.  Many of them cannot pay their bills.  Is it for glory?  I don't think so because there is nothing glorious about watching your buddy being hurt.  Is it because we will pay for them to go to college after their service?  The vast majority of our fighting men and women never go to college afterwards.  So why is it?

I think most of the time its because they have an overriding sense of patriotism.  These men and women still believe that this country is the greatest country on earth.  They still believe that this is "One Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."  Is this country flawed?  Yes.  But these men and women still believe in the fabric of America.  They still want to make sure their husbands, wives, sons and daughters have a place to grow where the flag still stands for freedom.  So instead of going to law school and med school or going to Wall Street to make their millions, they take an oath to defend this country against all enemies foreign and domestic.

Instead of a suit or medical scrubs, they put on their Battle Dress Uniforms and go to work every day.  As they stand watch for us there is no holiday.  Instead of taking their families to the movies, they leave their families behind and go to protect our way of life.  I cannot think of words that would adequately say thank you for your service.  Freedom is never free.  Jesus paid for our freedom from sin with the blood from his veins.  When I think about the freedom I have to write these opinions and live my life, I know that my freedom didn't come free.  It wasn't even cheap, it was extremely expensive and I greatly value it.  There have been millions over the years who have paid for it and there many men and women who stand ready right now to protect my ability to write this.

Whether or not you agree with any of the wars that we have been in recently, know this.  A politician thousands of miles from a battlefield ordered these men and women into combat.  If you don't agree with the decision of those politicians, feel free to protest.  Know this - there are men and women today who are standing guard to make sure you have that ability.  If you see one of them, please take the time to say thank you.

To all of you who have served or serve today in the Armed Forces of the United States of America, please accept a very humble thank you from one grateful citizen.  These words are not nearly enough to express my gratitude.

This is the Opinion of the Minion

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

My Oldest Son

In keeping with my theme for this month, I want to send another letter.  This one is to my oldest son.  I am so thankful for him.

Dear David,

As I write this, you are going through a hard transition in life.  Some of this is just part of life and some of it is because of your mom and I.  You are adjusting to 6th grade, changes in your attitude toward girls and unfortunately mom and I's divorce.  It is a lot for one kid to handle and I think you are doing such a good job.

As I look back on my how I have done as your father so far, I am a little sad because I know that I could have done much better.  I was just recently that I realized how little I knew about being a Godly father.  It is my whole heart's desire to teach you to be one in the few years we have left before you step out on your own.  I want to prepare you to be a Godly man.  If I can do that, I have succeeded beyond my wildest imagination for you.  The strange thing is I think in spite of all we have done, you are already becoming a very Godly young man.

I am so very proud of you.  Whether you know it or not, you started school when you were three years old because you had speech issues.  This was due to a hearing problem you had as a little tyke.  Now when I was in school kids in those classes were sort of looked down at and made fun of.  When I was in school, those kids barely made it through.  But not you.  You went from needing help with speech to all honors classes.  You are a really brilliant young man.  I also see things in you that I never could be at your age.  I look at you and see courage.

How?  Well, it took courage to ask that girl to the homecoming dance.  I would never, ever have done it because I would have been too afraid.  When we talked afterwards, you told me that your heart was pounding in your chest pretty hard and that even though when you asked her the dance had already passed, she was nice to you with her reply.  Son, I want you to remember that feeling and what you did.  There will be many more opportunities in life for you to feel that way and make a decision.  You are going to be in places where you risk rejection in your life.  It just happens.  But you possess that special quality called courage.  Don't ever change that.  Take risks because if you don't, you won't have rewards.  I know you didn't see it that way then but that's what you did and I am extremely proud of you.

Son, you are growing up so fast and it seems like it will only accelerate from here.  As you get older, I want you to understand something.  I heard a story about the head of the Salvation Army.  You know those guys who stand ringing the bell at Christmas time asking for donations.  Well they take those and use them to help people who need it.  One year, the head of the Salvation Army was going to send a telegram to all his offices around the world.  He wrote it out and then went to send it.  When he got to the telegraph office, he realized that it was too long and he had to cut it down.  So he trimmed it down to one sentence. Again, it was too expensive to send.  He finally trimmed it down to a single word - others.  Son, that's what our life is all about.  We are to help others.  You have to let the Lord show you who and how but always remember that's what life is about.  As you get older, you will see people who define success by how much education and money you have.  I thought the same way for a long time.  Don't get me wrong, money and education are important but not as important as people.  Think of others and ask the Lord to show you who you can help today.

Lastly, I want to talk to you about what you are going through in school today.  I know some of the kids make fun of you.  That really hurts your feelings and quite frankly, it just plain sucks.  When I was in school, kids did the same thing to me.  Grandma and Grandpa did they very best they could but I didn't wear brand name clothes like the rest of the kids and some people made fun of me a lot.  I also got made fun of because I had big ears and I had a lot of pimples.  It really hurt my feelings.  Son, as you go through these times, know that you were not alone.  Guess who else was made fun of and people talked bad about? - Jesus.  I guess that puts us in pretty good company huh.  You may not see it now but this will pass.  Just keep doing the right thing because it's the right thing.

I cannot begin to express how impressed I am with you.  You are smart, handsome, loyal, you love God, you aren't afraid to share your faith, you know how to build stuff, you always try to help your brother and sister, and you are a really respectful young man.  No matter what you do, know that I will always love you.

Love,

Dad

That's another letter from the Minion

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Running

Today I want to talk to you about something I hated, then wished for, taken for granted and then became thankful for - running.

I can already hear many of the people who read this blog saying something along the lines of, "I could never be thankful for running.  I hate that stuff and having to run is a curse."  I can certainly understand how you feel.  While I have mentioned this in earlier blogs, I think, it's worth repeating.

When I was in high school, I was on the football team and I "played" offensive lineman.  For those of you who don't know, that means we didn't run very far.  We only ran 10 or 15 yards at most normally.  Even during practice, we didn't have to run very far.  We did have to run sprints after practice and I hated them with a passion.  They were supposed to be the conditioning part of our workout and I can tell you I was in no condition to do them.  We only had to run across the field for each sprint and I hated it.  I was in the slowest group and I came in dead last in that group.  Running was definitely not something to be thankful for.  Then I went to TCU and my hate for running continued.  We had to run longer and I still hated it.

Then the day came when I was 350 pounds.  Now at this point, I couldn't run 50 yards if I had to.  I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without being out of breath at the top much less run.  Now back then, I was my own worst enemy.  I went on many diets without any success.  My favorite was the seefood diet.  I was quite successful on it.  It was pretty simple.  I see food.  I eat it.  A lot of it.  I managed to stay on this diet until I got so big that when I stepped on a weight scale instead of a number it read, "To be continued...."  At that time I would go into Starbucks and order a Carmel Frappucino to drink in the morning.  For those of you who don't know, it's a fancy word for milk shake.  I would go into Starbucks and see people I despised.  You know the type.  They were fit and they stood there ordered all those coffee drinks.  What made it worse was they wore workout clothes.  They had on running shorts, running shirts, and during the winter even running tights.  Many times they were laughing and talking among themselves about running and how this part was hard or that part was easy.  I really hated it.  In reality, I was just extremely jealous.  I was in shape if you consider round a shape.  Literally, I was 67 inches tall and 58 inches around.  I knew I would never be able to do that and it hurt because it reminded me of just how far out of shape I have become.  At this pace, I was killing myself one pepperoni pizza at a time.

Let me stop right here for a minute and tell you a bible story.  See one time Jesus was walking through a city.  As he was going through the city, he came upon a funeral procession.  I don't know much about the Jewish culture but apparently they carry the body on their shoulders from point A to point B and this is what he saw.  This was a young man they were carrying and he was certainly too young to have died.  His mother was walking with the procession full of grief.  Jesus saw this and told the procession to stop.  That must have taken guts and I bet many of the people were furious because he was being very insensitive, or so they thought.

Think for a minute about some of the crazy things that have went on in this country.  There is that nut job church that goes around protesting funerals of our dead heroes who gave this country the ultimate sacrifice - their lives.  I certainly think you have a right to protest anything you want and the worst part about this type of protest is that the man or woman in that coffin took an oath to defend this country against all enemies foreign and domestic.  They were like so many others who died to protect those people's right to protest.  I can feel my blood starting to boil and maybe I will save this for another post but remember this.

So now we have this preacher stopping a funeral procession to do what?  Well much to the surprise of everyone, he raised that young man from the dead.  All of the sudden, these people got a brother, a son, and a friend back.  Mom went from grief to joy and the funeral went from death to a party.  When Jesus touches your coffin, your life and those around you is changed forever.  That's exactly what happened to me.  Jesus touched my life and I went from 350 pounds to 190.  I went from a life headed for an early grave to a celebration.

Part of this change involved running.  I became and still am a runner.  It started during my weight loss period.  At the end of the weight loss period, I ran my first marathon.  It is a moment I will never forget.  Jesus had literally turned my life right side up.  The marathon was in Fort Worth, Texas.  I was under trained for my first one and it was a cool, overcast, drizzly day in February.  The race started and ended in downtown Fort Worth.  As I turned to corner and started the last quarter mile, it was one of the most difficult and easy of my life.  The run wasn't hard but I was overcome with emotion.  I had tears in my eyes as I crossed the finish line because I knew how far I had come because of what God did in my life.  Thank you Lord, I will never forget.

After that running became pretty routine and I got pretty good at it.  I ran one more marathon and have done a bunch of 5Ks and 10Ks.  I have even managed to win my age group a few times.

Then one day, I was going into Starbucks again for tea.  This time was different from the time above because I was one of those people who was in shape.  I had lost a lot of weight and generally felt great.  This particular morning, I was frustrated about my run.  I think I ran slower that I would like or something and I was complaining on the inside about it.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man sitting in a wheel chair and part of his legs were missing.  I didn't think much of it at first but then the Lord arrested me.  He said to me, "Do you see that man?  He would almost kill someone to be able to do what you are complaining about doing."  That humbled me.  It made me really appreciate my legs and being able to walk/run.

That's another Opinion of the Minion