Sad

So sad right now. I leave for Romania tomorrow morning for 12 days. 12 days without seeing my wife, my son, and my daughters. Hopefully the trip will go by quickly. Pray for my wife as she'll have all 3 kids all by herself for 12 days. Pray for our team's safety and effectiveness. I'm tired now, but still have a lot of stuff to do tonight. JM

Home Run Derby

I watched a re-air of the first round of the home run derby today just so I could see Josh Hamilton. It was incredible. Such an amazing story of how far he's come in such a short time. It was cool to see just how excited he was to be there and how much he was in genuine disbelief that God had blessed him that much. It was also amazing to watch the fans rally behind him and start chanting "Hamilton" as they watched him smash home runs into the night sky. Here's a video I found from the bleachers in the stadium. Amazing to watch it fly so far. JM

Suffering

So two days ago I'm driving to work with my windows down. There's this wasp that decides to fly into my car while I'm sitting at a stoplight. I shoo it out and it lands on my left side mirror. I'm about to flick it off and hopefully kill it when the light turns green. I start to go and figure the guy will just fly off, but he holds on tight. Like really tight. I'm doing 60 down the highway and the dude is still holding on.
The weird thing is when I saw him trying to hang on, I started feeling sorry for him. I was rooting for him to be okay. I wanted him to make it. To succeed. To live.
30 seconds earlier I was going to kill this wasp, and now I wanted him to move into my house.
Suffering can change your attitude about people. It's tough to watch people suffer. The thing is, EVERYBODY IS SUFFERING. Everyone. They are experiencing pain. They are lonely, or hurt, or sad, or disappointed, or struggling. Whatever it is, they are experiencing some level of suffering.
I think if I saw people like that, then I might really be able to love. To sacrifice my wants for the benefit of others.
Maybe not for you, but I think it might work for me. JM

Big Picture

This site is so cool. They show amazing photos from a different subject with each post. Here's a couple of photos recently on the subject of the California wildfires. JM

Sensitivity

It's amazing to me how quickly we can become desensitized to something. The most abhorrent things can become acceptable when the frequency is increased. I've been kind of following the Drug Cartel War in Juarez, Mexico. So far this year they have had over 580 homicides. Then today I saw this article about how people are going to visit the sites of these homicides. Here's a couple of lines:

The Juárez police department is asking residents to stop taking children to view the murder scenes that have become a daily occurrence in the troubled city.
Parents, babies, children and even the family dog are regular visitors to crime scenes on Juárez streets. Children have even been spotted recording scenes with video cameras or taking photographs with cell phones

.
You get exposed to something enough, and it won't bother you anymore. The shocking becomes just part of life. JM

Rock And Roll

So the guy that normally leads worship for my middle school time on sunday morning is gone for the next two weeks. That means that I get to do it, which I love doing. The problem is picking out a few songs that will be good for me to do. If I could sing a little bit higher, I'd do this one. (Sorry, it won't let me embed it) JM

Kindness

One of the things that surprises me about God is that he's so kind. He doesn't have to be. He could be mean and still be just and fair and all that. But he's kind.
Many words could describe me, but kind is not one of them. Like I'm not super mean or anything, but I don't like to take time with people and really hear them and be with them. It seems like a waste of time (see, I'm a jerk). But I think kindness is taking the time and enjoying experiences with people. I'm just really bad at it.
I'm going to work on that kind of kindness. Not the whole fake, not funny, I'm holding the door for you and saying bless you kind. That's lame. JM

glory

If you didn't get any credit for what you do, would you still do it? No praise. No affirmation. A lot of times I wonder if I'm serving god or just serving so that people will say nice things about me. I hope I always serve god so that he will call me faithful and tell me he's proud of me.

Youtube

I love finding stuff that I remember on youtube.  This was awesome.  Too bad it's not the whole scene.  JM

Inspiration

I think you can learn something from every experience you have. Or, better said, I think you SHOULD learn something from every experience you have. A lot of times I'll show up for something and think I know exactly how things are going to go. I prejudge the experience based on what has happened before. Whether it be talking to a certain kind of person, going to an event, speaking for a certain kind of program, I have certain expectations.
Those expectations can rob me of education, though if I don't always look to learn from every experience.
One time I was watching stupid dating show on MTV where a girl goes in and chooses a date based on only seeing 3 prospective daters rooms. The show is nearly the stupidest thing I've ever seen on TV (I saw an episode of that My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad show once, which was way worse). So this girl is in this dude's house and she sees a picture of a hand drawn-ghost with an M on it. The guys are watching her go through the rooms and he explains to the other guys that it's the ghost of mediocrity and how they try to make sure that they always live life to the full instead of settling for mediocrity.
I loved it. Not the show, but that 8 second clip. Hence, the genesis of this blog's name.
Always be looking to learn from every experience you have.

Pride

Pride will make you do stupid things. I was listening to NPR on the way home tonight and they were talking about Zimbabwean president Mugabe who was recently re-elected to his position amidst credible allegations that the election was rigged.
They played a quote of him from a meeting of African leaders and he said something to the effect that "we will work with the other party to bring about what is best for our country. UNLESS we are told to do it by outsiders."
They're willing to resolve their differences, unless they're told to do it. We're all like that though. We're willing to do a lot of things, so long as we're in control. We don't like to be told what to do, even when it's in our best interest.
If we did, then following God would be easy. We'd just do what he said. Love how he loved. Live how he lived. We're too proud. JM

New Dance

I need to learn how to do this.  Hopefully I can recruit my wife and we can be a mad duo.