Fantasy Football Update, Week 4

Yeah, I know I said that I should start doing this update on Tuesdays, but this week it doesn't really matter.  All of my players and all of my opponents players have already played this week, and it wasn't pretty.

The good news is that I played all the right people.  The bad news is... so did he.  Well, sorta, the one play he didn't get cost him 14 points, but overall, the final score was 106-85.  I guess that looks a lot better than 120-85, so I'm glad he made one wrong choice.

I'm pretty sure this is the worst start to a season of fantasy football that I've ever had.  To top things off, my baseball team fell apart as well.  I ended up in 9th place.  Embarrassing...

The End Has Come

Well, I received news this morning that the baseball season is officially over.  I knew it was coming, but regardless, it is a sad day.  It makes me wonder where my beloved Redbirds would be without 30 blown saves.  Granted, they did win a handful of those games (about 4, I think), but even if they didn't blow half of those other games, they'd be way ahead in the standings right now.  

For example, let's say they won 4 of those 30 blown saves.  That means that they were 4-26 in those games.  Now, I suppose it might be possible to blow more than one save in a game, but I'm not going to attempt to see how many 2 BS games the Cards had.  Add even just 10 more wins to where they are now, and they are sittin' pretty in the wild card race - a 4 game lead over the current leader, the New York Mets.

Well, hopefully, people will heal this offseason.  This is a pretty formidable lineup and pitching staff if everyone is healthy, which has rarely happened this season.  Six months and counting until spring training...

Fantasy Football Update, Week 3

Not so good this week.  I still have three guys going tonight, but I'm down 105-53.  I'm hoping for a shoot-out tonight with Chambers, Cotchery and Thomas Jones all going.  Why don't I do this update on Tuesdays...

Ephesus

Revelation 2:1-7

The first of the seven letters the apostle John is told to write in his vision goes to the church in Ephesus. It begins with a recognition of their works. They are commended for their toil and patient endurance, and their utter disdain for those who are evil. They are pushing forward, even in the face of adversity. The letter is very complementary to begin with; however, they don't have everything right. There is something against them.

They are accused of abandoning the love they had at first. It's not that they were being disobedient, but they forgot for what purpose they were displaying this obedience. It wasn't out of duty. It wasn't out of obligation. It was out of love. As I reflect on what is written here, I can't help but think about so many people who come to faith and are on fire - I mean, absolutely, head-over-heels, no holds barred, going all the way in spite of what lies ahead, on fire.

It's interesting when you meet people who have recently come to faith after leading a life full of sin; those who have really caught on fire for God. They tend to be very black and white in their thinking. They tend to be extremely fundamental in their theology and outlook. I'm not saying that is bad either. Don't get me wrong here. I would rather take a handful of people who are on fire for the faith and eager to learn from the Word, than a large number who are more "mature" in the faith, but fail to have any excitement about it. You can teach theology, but you can't teach passion.

But, given time, these people who were so emotionally caught up in their conversion experience, eventually, the emotions die. It reminds me of the transfiguration. Talk about a spiritual high! Three of the disciples were on a mountain top and saw the full glory of Jesus Christ, and saw Moses and Elijah - two pillars of their faith at the time. Peter's response is to want to build three tents. He wanted to put something down to commemorate the event. He wanted a sense of permanency.

We all do this. We get a spiritual high, and we end up wanting to stay on top of the mountain. Because we know that eventually, even gradually, we will lose that high. Reality will come clawing its way back into our lives and a part of us will go on living life as it was before, even though we know there is no way that it is business as normal. I think this is why so many people can get caught up in the high emotional experience of some Pentecostal churches. Again, don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying that all Pentecostal churches are bad, but I am saying that there needs to be more to the faith than just an emotional experience. We are called to make disciples, not to create spiritual highs.

On the other hand, we can also go to the opposite extreme, and that is what has happened in the church at Ephesus. They were so busy with the business of the faith, that they forgot why they were doing it in the first place. They lost the fire. They lost the love that they had burning in their hearts. They did what they did because that is what they were supposed to do as Christians. It is a matter of motivation. The spiritual highs, though never permanent, should always be a benchmark of one's spiritual development. I'm not saying that there is a need to continually seek the next spiritual high, as though we are some kind of adrenaline junkie looking for our next fix. But we need to be aware of what the Spirit was doing in those moments. We need to tune our hearts to the Spirit's call in our lives, and most of all, we need to be faithful with what the Spirit is telling us to do.

The church in Ephesus did all the right things. The problem wasn't their actions, or even their thinking. It was their hearts. They needed to get their hearts back in the right place. They needed to remember why they were doing the right actions and adjust their hearts to match their actions.

To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. - Revelation 2:7

Seven Churches

I'm getting ready to do something that I always tried to do on my other blog (which has now been folded into this one), but was never very successful at accomplishing. However, I approached the project a little differently this time, and perhaps I'll actually complete it.

I tried more than once to do a series of blogs on a topic. I tried digging into the importance of theology; I tried working my way through Isaiah 40; and I'm sure there have been a couple of other things that I've tried, but ended up not completing. So, once again, I'm going to try to work on a series of blog posts (which will most likely be interrupted by other things along the way).

For some reason, I want to work through the letters to the seven churches in Revelation. Like most Christians, I don't really read Revelation all that much. There is a youth at my church that really wants to do a Bible study on Revelation, which, perhaps, has sparked a bit of my interest to this point. Whether or not this actually gets done is another story for another time - I think he is fascinated by some of the imagery of the apocalyptic because it captures his imagination, but I digress...

My approach this time is a little different. I'm not writing a commentary. I haven't translated the passages from the Greek (though, even as I write that, a small part of me wants to translate the Greek text...). I'm not trying to do some grand project that will make me feel better about my powers of observation. I'm doing this because I think there is something worth learning here.

These are letters written to churches that are thriving, struggling, being persecuted, remaining faithful, falling away - they're all across the board. In a sense, these churches represent each one of us at some point in our faith. I've read all of the letters and have taken notes on them, written myself a few questions to think about, and have even noted a few of the things that I need to research more in-depth before going into too much detail on the letter.

God has been doing a lot of stuff in my life lately. Things are spinning around at a crazy speed right now, and I've realized that if I don't take the time to listen, I won't hear. And, right now, I need to listen and hear more than anything else.

I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, "Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea." - Revelation 1:9-11

Contrasts

Life is full of contrasts. We often don't think about them, but they're all around us: light and darkness, natural and unnatural, simple and complex, healing and destructive - look around and you'll see it. We aren't just surrounded by contrasts, we are full of them ourselves. Within each one of us is light and darkness, the natural and the unnatural, the simple and complex, the power to heal and the power to destroy.

I recently spent some time reflecting on a picture. At first, I thought the exercise was a little hokey, but I allowed myself to take it seriously. It's amazing what we hear when we simply choose to listen. Unfortunately, my scanner doesn't seem to be working, so I'll have to describe it to you instead of posting the picture.

In the foreground of the picture, on the right hand side, is a stone building. I don't know if it is a castle or a warehouse or what it is really. All you can see is this dark, cold stone with what appears to be a black door on the outside. It's a close up view, so you can't really make out what the building is in the first place. Surrounding the building is dirt. There appears to be a wide area around the building that is nothing but dirt. You know, the kind that you see when they are in the process of building a new subdivision. The land is torn up and there's nothing but dirt and rocks all over the place. It is cloudy. Some of the clouds are kinda dark. They kind of look like rainclouds. In the background of the picture is a massive forest. Trees reaching to the sky, which is clear overhead. Abundant greens fill the horizon, and from the clouds is a rainbow reaching down to touch the forest.

When I look at this picture, I'm struck by the contrasts. In the forefront, the stone building has no windows. The door is dark, foreboding and in the shadows. The ground is desolate - again, nothing but dirt and rocks. Destruction. Cold. Uninviting. If you only look at the front of the picture, that's all you get. But when you look into the horizon, there's a different story.

There's a story of abundant life. There is light and hope, and the promise of something more. There is the reminder that as bad and cold and lonely as things look in front of you. There is more just a little further away. And that's the story of Israel in the Old Testament.

When Jeremiah is called by God, he is told that part of his call is "to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant" (Jer 1:10). At this point, Israel's sin had brought the need for purging. Israel was rotting, and it was time for them to be held accountable, and so, that's what happened. Babylon came and conquered Jerusalem, and over the years, exiled many of its people - at least, the ones that weren't killed or died in the city during the siege. The time to pluck, break down, destroy and overthrow had finally come. Jeremiah spends a good chunk of the first part of his book on this message of destruction, but on the horizon was something better. There was light and hope, and the promise of something more.

While Jeremiah is often referred to as the "Prophet of Doom," he also gives one of the most hope-filled promises of the Old Testament. Jeremiah 29 talks about God's plans for a future and a hope. God will be found if only the people will seek Him with their whole heart. There is promise of restoration, of hope on the horizon. That's what I see when I look at this picture. Hope. Sure, the coldness is right in front, but you have to be able to look past it. Look towards the promise of abundant life that lies ahead. This cold, dark present is not the reality. There is hope that awaits us.

I've Opened the Box... Pandora's Box...

I stumbled upon something recently. It's something that I'm pretty sure other people have mentioned to me before, but I never thought too much about it until the end of last week. It's called Pandora Radio, and it's found at http://www.pandora.com/. I know, I know, original web address.

This is quite possibly the coolest thing I've ever seen, well, other than this amazing baby preacher:


Makes me wonder what type of church this kid goes to! But back to the point at hand. You simply type in an artist that you like, and it will search for artists with similar musical... whatevers... sound, style, etc. Right now, I have 5 radio stations: 12 Stones, Chris Rice, Modest Mussorgsky, Gregorian Chant and Alison Krauss.

To quote a friend of mine, "If you look at my iPod, you'd guess that I was either an old lady or an angry teenager." Well, I guess I can say something similar; except, I don't have an iPod; I have Pandora. The box is open...

Bad Decisions...

On Monday morning, when I get up and look at how my fantasy football team fared the day before, there's always a lot of second-guessing going on.  "Oh, if I had played, X instead of Z, then I'd be up by 34 points going into the Monday Night Game."  That's about what I'm saying this morning, but before I get into my fantasy recap for the weekend (oh yeah, I won 76-74 last week..), I'd like to talk about another bad decision, this one made my Major League Baseball.

As many know, Ike played quite a bit of havoc in the great state of Texas at the tail end of last week.  One of the more inconsequential things that happened, was that the Cubs-Astros series scheduled for Houston was postponed.  MLB decided to play the series at a "neutral" site in which Houston would be the "home" team.  The problem is, the "neutral" site was located in a city that is nearly 1100 miles closer for the "away" team than the "home" team.  That's right, the Cubs-Astros series is being played in apparently MLB's favorite "home away from home" Miller Park.  (If you'll remember, the Indians and Mariners started their 2007 season at Miller Park when it snowed in Cleveland.)

Here's where the "neutral" site theory breaks down.  

1) Houston, as said before, is nearly 1100 miles further away from Milwaukee than Chicago.  If the Cardinals had to play a make-up game in Louisville, you can bet that I would make as much of an effort as possible to drive those 90+ miles to see them play, but if they were playing in Denver, there is no way that I'd go.  (Denver to Indy is about the same distance as Houston to Milwaukee.)

2) Houston is trying to catch Milwaukee in the Wild Card standings.  Milwaukee, at 7.5 games back, pretty much has no chance of catching Chicago in the standings, but are still fighting for the Wild Card, with Philly tied right now, and Houston only 2 games back (additionally, the Cardinals are 4.5 back, but fading fast).  In other words, Milwaukee fans would much rather see Chicago win than Houston.

Houston is at a distinct disadvantage in playing these three "home" games at Miller Park.  Perhaps what compounds the stupidity of playing there in the first place is that the Rangers were out of town this weekend, and they could have easily played in Arlington (where they only got .5 an inch of rain) instead of Milwaukee.  Now Zambrano is a pretty good pitcher, but are you going to seriously tell me that he throws a no-no if they are playing in front of a Houston-friendly crowd?  Doubtful, highly doubtful.  Okay, back to my original reason for posting: fantasy football.

It's always fun watching some of the games on Sunday and thinking about who is sitting on my bench.  And by fun, I mean "gut-wrenching."  For example, I have Peyton Manning as my QB.  For Manning, I have instituted the "Albert Pujols" rule - he is always first on my draft board, regardless of what the experts say (you know, those same experts that said Larry Johnson was a can't miss first overall pick last season).  Last time the Colts played the NFC North teams, Manning torched them.  I mean seriously torched them.  Throwing for at least 4 TD's in each game if I remember correctly.  That was the season that he threw 49 TD passes, and I think nearly half of those were against the NFC North (okay, that may be exaggerating a little, but not a whole lot).

Manning had a decent game yesterday.  Threw for 311 yards and 1 TD.  Of course, he also threw 2 picks, but overall, a 14 point performance.  Not bad, until I look at my bench.  Do you know who my backup is?  Aaron Rogers, who threw for 328, 3 TD's and even ran for 25 yards.  Throw in a lost fumble, and Rogers comes out with 25 points yesterday.  DANG IT!!  

Now, I won't say I was intently watching it, but as I was doing some work on the couch yesterday afternoon, the Vikings-Colts game was on the TV, a game featuring both of my kickers, and which one did I have starting?  Vinatieri, who had 5 points - 1 PAT and 1 FG.  Longwell, who was sitting on the bench, kicks 5 field goals (2 for 40+ yards, and another for 50+ yards) and racks up 19 points.

Add those in, and there an extra 25 points that could be padding my lead this morning.  I'm up by 18 points, which sounds like a lot, but the guy I'm up against has T.O., Witten and Akers going tonight (not to mention McGahee's game was postponed, and will probably come back to bite me in November when it is made up).  I'm not as comfortable with an 18 point lead as I would be with a 43 point lead.  I just might lose on tonight's game.

All that being said, I did make one good decision: Tennessee DEF, 17 points; San Diego DEF, -1 point.  How's that for a silver lining?

Discipline and Love

A few weeks back, I was at a baseball game with my wife and some of her co-workers.  For some reason, the conversation turned to the book of Joshua for a few minutes; more specifically, Joshua 10 where the sun stands still.  One of her co-workers, we'll call him "Nedwardo," said something along the lines of, "That's not my God.  My God wouldn't stop the sun so that more people would get slaughtered."

Now, a baseball game is not exactly the right time to get into a theological debate on idolatry and God's righteousness (especially not with somebody that has some control over where your next appointment will be, but that's another story), but I wanted to tell him that he should probably re-examine his "god" in light of the biblical text and look at how Yahweh has revealed himself to the people of Israel.  I wanted to tell him that he wasn't making a nicer version of God in discounting that which was revealed in Scripture, just an idol.  I wanted to ask him how he felt justified in placing judgement on the creator of the universe.  But I didn't.  I kept watching the game (a thrilling 1-0 win for the home team), and reflected some more on what he had to say.

Not long ago, Katie and I had a discussion stemming from his comment and a discussion that she had with her small group about the image of God in the Old Testament (OT) versus the image in the New Testament (NT).  It's the old "God of love vs. God of wrath" debate.  The more I think about it, the more I come to understand the depth of God's love.  It's not like God didn't show love and compassion in the OT, and it's not like Jesus doesn't show wrath in the NT.  What we see consistently is a balance between love and, not so much wrath but, righteous judgement.

It's not like God is angry all the time in the OT, but God does bring righteous judgement on those who fail to live a life that is pleasing and honoring to God.  We don't see a similar self-righteous indignation from people such as Nedwardo when it comes to the seige and exile of Israel and Judah.  And why is that?  We know the whole story.  We know that God was patient with Israel and Judah.  Seriously.  It was centuries of turning away from God before they were exiled.  But, there's this sense of self-righteousness when it comes to the Israelites conquering the Promised Land.  This false sense that the God of the OT is in some way vengeful and heartless.  Yet, we miss the fact that these very people are being judged by God.  The just punishment for turning to false idols, for placing their trust in something other than the one true Creator, and for placing themselves above the most Holy God (Afterall, isn't that what idolatry is in the first place?  Placing ourselves above God?).  It wasn't shocking or deplorable when it was happening to Israel, why would it be so when it happened to the Canaanites?

We aren't getting a picture of a different, hot-headed Yahweh in the OT that just needed some time to chill out before the NT rolled around.  We're getting a glimpse of the seriousness of sin.  We're getting a glimpse of a Father disciplining His children.  We're getting a glimpse of true holiness - that which cannot tolerate sin.  When you walk through a grocery store and see someone disciplining his/her child, you don't assume that they're terrible parents.  You don't see the love and compassion that comes out when they are at home playing in the backyard, and everything is going as it should.  When you use your selective seeing, then, yes, God does seem to be harsh and vengeful in the OT, but you're not looking at the whole picture.

Sometimes there needs to be discipline because there is love.  Parents who don't discipline their children aren't doing them any favors.  They aren't showing their love for the child by not discipling them.  They are showing a complete lack of concern for what their children do.  Love and discipline are not mutually exclusive.  It is when they are balanced that true love shines through.

First Thoughts

I downloaded Google's new web browser today.  It's pretty neat.  I certainly has been running a lot faster than Internet Explorer has to this point.  When you open up a new tab, it has a preview of your most commonly accessed websites, which is pretty cool.  There's about six of them on there.  I gotta say, I'm not much of a tech guy, but I like it so far!

Fantasy Football

I'm kinda in between meetings right now in my busy day, so I thought I'd take just a couple of minutes to throw out a little info on the ol' blog (I say "ol' " as if I've actually been using this particular blog for a long time...).

Here's my starting lineup for my fantasy football team this week:

QB: Peyton Manning

RB: Darren McFadden

RB: Jamal Lewis

WR: Jerricho Cotchery

WR: Chris Chambers

WR: Marvin Harrison

TE: Kellen Winslow

K: Adam Vinatieri

DEF: San Diego

And my picks:

Giants, Bengals, Jaguars, Jets, Patriots, Saints, Eagles, Steelers, Lions, Seahawks, Chargers, Cardinals, Cowboys, Colts, Vikings and Broncos.

For my survival football (pick one team, if they lose, you're done):

Eagles over Rams

And finally, for my salary cap football:

QB: D. Brees

RB: J. Lewis

RB: D. McFadden

WR: A. Battle

WR: R. Wayne

WR: Ca. Johnson

TE: J. Witten

K: R. Bironas

DEF: Indianapolis

Come Monday/Tuesday morning, I'll either look like a genius or an idiot.

The Irony of Fantasy Baseball

I've been participating in Yahoo! Fantasy leagues for quite some time now. I have primarily played in the football leagues, because they are shorter and easier to keep up with than the baseball leagues, but recently, I have found the joy in the head-to-head style of fantasy baseball. When it comes to compiling the stats, I tend to get disinterested rather quickly; however, when it is a head-to-head, my guys vs. your guys for a week at a time, I can pay attention to that.

My team didn't finish very strong this year in the regular season play. I thought I had a great team going into the season. I had no less than 5 pitchers who were either the #1 or #2 guy in their rotation (Johan Santana, Jake Peavy, Dan Haren, Josh Beckett and Chris Young - I later dropped Young when he was smashed in the face with a Pujols line drive, and replaced him with Pedro Martinez, I also picked up Kyle Lohse along the way). I traded Josh Beckett for Albert Pujols (my #1 fantasy baseball rule - get Albert Pujols first, regardless of where the pre-season "experts" put him). And for some time this season I was in first place.

However, a bad last few weeks sunk me to 7th place as we entered the playoffs. I ended up in the consolation bracket for a shot at hanging on to the honor of 7th place. As a consequence, I ended up with a bye week this week. And what happens on the first day of this bye week?

C - Jason Varitek; 1 run, 1 RBI, 1 HR
1B - Albert Pujols; 1 run, 2 RBI, 1 HR
2B - Jeff Kent goes on the DL (okay, so not everybody had an awesome day...)
SS - Stephen Drew; goes 5-5, hits for the cycle; 3 runs, 1 RBI, 1 HR
3B - Casey Blake; 2 runs, 1 RBI, 1 HR, 1 SB
OF's - Ankiel and Griffey both ride the pine for the day and Willingham goes 0-2; while Sheffield, who is sitting on my bench, hits a solo HR

Let's also not forget my pitchers:
Santana - 6IP, 10K's, 3.00 ERA and 1.33 WHIP
Cordero - .2IP, 1 save, 0.00 ERA and WHIP

Ah, the joys of baseball...

Learning on the Run

I've been in my current position as associate pastor for just over a year now. It's been a wild ride so far. There is so much to ministry that you don't learn about, even from great seminary. I'm theologically and biblically on solid ground, but practically, I have a long ways to go. I've grown a lot in the past year, but sometimes, I still feel like I'm running in circles. The past few weeks have afforded me a couple of opportunities to deal with difficult issues in ministry that I will probably face again.

There have been two issues that have been pretty major that I've had to deal with, and while neither of these situations have been particularly pleasant, they have taught me a lot, just in the past month, about some of the things that I never would have learned in seminary. Hopefully these issues are resolved at this point, but the joy of ministry is that you've never seen everything. Something new will come up in the near future, and I'll probably be putting up another post about exciting challenges. The good news is that I'm not alone. Everyone in ministry faces some sort of new challenge on a monthly, or even weekly, basis. The key is knowing that there are other founts of wisdom from which to draw, and that God is always there, just waiting for us to seek Him in the situation.