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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanksgiving

For most of this month leading up to Thanksgiving, I will try to write something that relates to me giving thanks.

I think this subject is very often overlooked and even though I have written on it before, let's take a look at thanksgiving from a little different angle.

Today I am thankful for - Resistance.

OK, you say, this topic already makes no sense.  Hold on, I will try to explain.  When I was in high school, I liked to lift weights.  In fact, I still work out quite a bit today but I am not near as strong as I was back then. 

Let's look a little closer at weight lifting for a minute.  One of the most important exercises for us in high school athletics was the bench press.  I had a pretty good bench press but was by no means the best.

For those of you who don't know the bench press works like this.  You lay flat on your back on a narrow bench (hence the bench press).  There are stands on either side of that bench that hold up a metal bar.  The ends of the bar were slightly larger than the middle it that's where you put the additional weight.  So while laying on your back, you extend your arms until both are gripping the bar and you move the weight off the stands.  Now the bar is above you.  You lower the bar until it touches your chest and then you push the bar until your arms are straight.  Back then I could max at about 300 pounds.  But as you can imagine, if I had dropped that weight on my chest it would have done substantial damage. 

Also, every time I did a repetition, it would break down my muscles slightly.  This doesn't make much sense right?  Well, you have to throw in one more element to see the benefit - time.  It would take some time but my muscles would heal and when they did, I would be stronger than before.  The total amount I could lift would actually increase.

Most of you can probably see where I am headed right.  Many times in life there are things we come up against that don't want to move or worse yet we come up against things that would do us substantial damage like the bench press bar would have done to me.  However, don't get so upset with the setbacks in life because many times they will help you grow stronger.  I am not saying that any of them are fun but sometimes we have to be torn down a little to grow beyond our current limitations.

Now I want you to notice one more thing and it is one of the hardest things for me to deal with.  After my muscles were torn down, what did it take for them to grow stronger?  Time.  Don't be upset if your growth or what you need to overcome a situation doesn't happen over night.  Just know that you will grow stronger.

And that's another Opinion of the Minion