I am in love...

I went to the Carrie Underwood concert tonight. The emotions that are welling inside of me are hard to explain.

During All American Girl, she brought a little girl on stage and had her sing the last chorus with her. It was a cute picture. I love it when she is compassionate and reaching out to people...that is my favorite quality about her. She is so tender and loving...and I love that about her. Not to mention it was a really cute picture...I didn't get a good look at the little girl, but Carrie was very cute.

Fast forward in the show about 20 minutes when my leg started buzzing. It was Tyler Ward (good kid). He sent me a text message:

"Hey broseph. You still our youth pastor or you run off with Carrie and get married."

At that moment...she came out in a beautiful blue dress. Before All American Girl, she asked the audience if there were any "all American girl's" there tonight. Before the next song, she asked if there was any Prince Charming's in the crowd. I could feel the connection we had at that very moment. She then lamented that she was still looking, but at the age of 25 she was still single. Coincidentally this is my age. At that very moment, I felt like the very Prince Charming she was talking about. According to the song, she is finding her companionship from a puppy that travels around with her. "The more boys I meet the more I love my dog." Apparently, she has been hurt in the past by guys. Carrie, those guys were idiots.

I felt bad for her, mostly because here she was bearing her soul, and me, the very guy who could comfort and assuage her was setting a mere 29 rows from her. Someday, perhaps by happenstance, we shall meet face to face. I am holding on to the fact that in that moment, I will be overcome with my prince-charmingness and my tender heart will show through. And we will think back to this night and reminisce about the time we were so close emotionally yet so far away physically. I will be there to comfort her and we will ride off into the sunset like her song "Ever After" talks about.

Not to take anything away from this youth group, but rest assured Tyler, had I proposed and she said yes, I would guarantee that you would never see me again.

I'm just kidding. Judging by our careers, mine seems to be going places faster than hers, so she could settle down, while I support our kids and her dog (jk).

I also caught some confetti tonight that now graces my desk here at work.

See You At The Pole

This Wednesday night, 20 of our kids went to Topeka Bible Church for the city-wide SEE YOU AT THE POLE RALLY.

Many of them met with their schools that morning before school.
Jardine
Seaman Middle School
Shawnee Heights Middle School
Heritage Christian School
Robinson
Washburn Rural Middle School
These are just the middle schools that Central Park has kids at. We had a pretty good turnout there at TBC. Hannah Johnson was interviewed by the Capitol Journal, so that was pretty cool.

Fantasy Sports at the High School level...

I coach soccer. It is something I love to do...and honestly I think I do a decent job of it.

I am also a youth pastor. I love doing this as well...I might not be real good at it, but I like it.

My dilemma lies in the understanding of how Christianity fits into the sports world.

I had a youth pastor growing up, who did not like the sport of hockey due to its retaliatory nature. I had acquaintances in college who were adamantly pacifistic, but were some of the most aggressive and physically dominating players (of which they were unable to see their own hypocrisy).

The other day during soccer practice, I taught our kids to body up and play aggressive. I showed them how a short tug on a jersey can give you an advantage and how putting your shoulder into a offender can bump him off the ball. Parents have called or emailed me concerning these teachings; upset with my desire for their kids to play aggressively.

Granted there is a major difference between playing aggresively and playing dirty. Swiping the knees, elbows to the head, and chopping ankles is not something I condone; however, aggresively is the only way to play the game.

We play high school soccer (we don't have enough high schoolers to play so we move some Jr. Highers up)! I treat them like high schoolers for this very reason: we play high school teams; at team will not ask you for your birth certificate prior to game and then decide to play easy on you.

Here in lies the fantasy aspect. In a perfect world everyone would get to play equal amounts; everyone would not have to work very hard; and everyone would have a good time. These are called rec leagues. This is high school soccer. The fantasy is over! Kids get run over in games. If you don't believe there is contact in soccer, why put shin guards on.

Society's mantra is this: "Comfort is our aim." Comfortable is believing that soccer is a non contact sport. Comfortable is telling your child that if he gets tired to set out. Comfortable is begging for playing time, when you aren't showing up to practice. Comfortable is telling yourself that you have no chance of winning just because you have Jr. Highers on the team. Comfortable is talking about how we at least did our best, when we weren't even close to trying our hardest.

Comfortable is an excuse to remain the same.

Christianity has missed the boat in the past concerning athletics. Phrases like "turn the other cheek" have become fodder for being a throw rug for opponents. I had a coach in college who wanted us to consider every opponent better than ourselves (even though the only one in our conference better than us was Manhattan) in lieu of Philippians.

It was obvious that Paul did not condemn sports...instead he used them as an example of work ethic and perseverance; aggressiveness and team work. You strive to take the uncomfortable out of sports and you cut the legs off of the very thing Paul was trying to say.