What Little I Know

 

What Little I Know

A little knowledge is sometimes worse than none as this entry from June 13, 2018 shows!
I mentioned last week in one of these entries that this is the twentieth year I've coached at WCS basketball camps and I may pass one hundred total sessions in the next two weeks. Over all, I would guess I'm close to a one hundred fifty sessions of camp if you count the other camps I've worked and the eleven camps I put on by myself with the help of my high school squads. One thing that's new this year is our holding camp on our West Campus which is the former Westland YMCA we purchased a number of years ago. The logistics of having camp at a new location creates challenges but we're navigating them smoothly. The thing about kids camps is that you never know what to expect.

We're blessed with a really good bunch of campers this week; hard working, respectful, relatively focused which isn't easy in the lower and middle school grades! One thing that's never changed in my decades of coaching is you meet delightful youngsters that you wish would attend your school- sometimes, that ends up happening!  One young lady on the afternoon team I'm working with, the Thunder, falls into that category. Our varsity girls' coach, Augusta Guthrie, knows her from coaching her older sister in AAU. The siblings are both on the Thunder despite a three year age difference. Augusta told me today that the younger sister goes to a Mandarin immersion school where they spend half the day learning in English and half in Chinese. During a break, I asked the young lady about her education and she repeated what Augusta had said. I told her I've spent two summers in China. She may have asked or I may have told her I know a little Chinese. I used the term yidianr which is Mandarin for a little. As soon as it left my mouth, she started speaking to me a mile a minute in Chinese! I laughed and said, "No! Not that much!" I should have explained my Chinese vocabulary is about a sum total of five words. We laughed and moved on to the next basketball drill but in that interchange, I learned a valuable lesson.

Sometimes, we try to impress other people with how much we know about something when in reality, we know very little. Sometimes, when I meet Chinese people who are visiting our school, I will tell them I spent a month in Hunan Province but I couldn't eat the food because it was too spicy. They laugh because every one in China seems to believe the spiciest food anywhere in their country is in fact in Hunan Province. I guess I think it gives me street cred in Asia because I know some culinary bit of data. In total, I've spent seven weeks or so in China but perhaps like to pass myself off as some kind of expert. It's usually better to keep what we know in certain areas to ourselves because there is a good chance our limitations will be exposed, like my camper inadvertently did. There are many Biblical warnings that we should be extremely careful in the way we speak and to let our words be few. In a nutshell, it's the repeated admonition from the Lord for His children to always be humble. I wonder what the word for that is in Mandarin? I need to expand my Chinese vocabulary by at least one word! I'm sure it would save me any further embarrassing conversations with campers.

Applicable quote of the day:
“If I’m selling to you, I speak your language. If I’m buying, dann müssen Sie Deutsch sprechen.”
 Willy Brandt

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Grave Concerns

 

Grave Concerns

Pictured above are my cousins Emma and Walker and me during our 2015 family reunion in the cemetery mentioned below.

This may be a surprise to some of you but I am a property owner of some note. Read the following from April 11, 2009 for a bit more clarity!

Last week, I became a new man of sorts. As of Saturday, April 4, I am a land owner. It's not much in terms of square footage but it's now part of my portfolio. On Saturday, I obtained a burial plot from my Uncle Bill. It's not just any land. It's in the New Corinth Cemetery, on a hillside several miles down the road from Nashville, Arkansas. My folks are buried there; so are my Chesshir grandparents. In fact, many of my relatives are buried on that hilltop graveyard. If there is hallowed ground on my Mom's side of the family, it's this tract of land. My ancestors worshipped in the church building which once sat there, the same small sanctuary where my parents repeated their vows of marriage. I looked it up on Google Earth and you can get a great view from the satellite image. Intellectually, I know that the souls and spirits of my relatives are not there but there is still comfort in common ground for our family. It was important to the Jewish patriarchs. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, and Leah were all buried in the same place, the Cave at Machpelah in Hebron. Originally, I had planned to be buried behind the baseball field at Georgia Christian School. (If curious, go to August 30, 2008 in the archives, the entry entitled, Chuck.) But after watching the funerals of my parents and kin, I decided I want my remains buried near theirs. This morning, as I read Mom's One Year Bible, I saw where she had underlined Deuteronomy 34:6 from the entry for April 10. (OK, I admit I was one day behind.)
" He (God) buried him (Moses) in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is."
We find in the book of Jude that Satan and the archangel Michael argued over the body of Moses but still no clues to the resting place of the deliverer of Israel. Google Earth won't help you find the grave of Moses should you be curious but it can help you locate mine. There is only one thing left to be determined: move in day. I'll keep you posted!

Applicable quote of the day:
"Show me your cemeteries, and I will tell you what kind of people you have."
Benjamin Franklin

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Prayer And A Little Girl

 

Prayer And A Little Girl

 

There are things I don't understand about life and death. This is not about those things. It's about something I heard a man in a hospital say. It's from December 13, 2013.

I'm sure many of you have been following the tragic case of a young girl in California. Thirteen year old Jahi McMath underwent a tonsillectomy three weeks ago and due to complications from the surgery, went into cardiac arrest and was declared brain dead several days later. What has ensued is a legal battle between her family and the hospital on whether to keep her on life support. I have no idea of the legal issues or much of the specifics of the case. But as I rotated from one station to the next this afternoon as I lifted weights, I saw a bit of a television news segment on the story. I was struck by a statement made by a spokesman for the hospital, struck so much I got a piece of paper and wrote down his words. This is what he said:
"There is no amount of prayer that can bring her back."
I don't think I heard what he said out of context. His belief, apparently, is that the girl is beyond any hope. I have no idea of the gentleman's belief system but I have to take issue with his brief statement which may well have been off the cuff and in response to a question. Medically speaking, he might be absolutely correct. He likely was just expressing the graveness of the situation. But the scriptures are replete with statements/questions like Nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37) and Is anything too hard for the Lord? (Genesis 18:14) and Is the Lord's arm too short? (Numbers 11:23) I know the hospital and its staff are in a difficult position. I also know it's never my job to dictate what our God can or cannot do or when He will or will not act. It's my responsibility to pray. I always sign off with Luke 18:1, a verse my students touch when they leave my classroom daily. This is what it says:
"Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them they should always pray and not give up." We have our orders.

Applicable quote of the day:
"We must begin to believe that God, in the mystery of prayer, has entrusted us with a force that can move the Heavenly world, and can bring its power down to earth." Andrew Murray

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Shirt And Tie

 

Shirt And Tie

Tonight's entry is about a blood spattered shirt I wore to worship. This is from January 14, 2014.

Today is Sunday. During this school year, as I have chronicled, my wonderful 
freshman student Jean picks out what I will wear from the shirts and ties I bring to my classroom along with a chart of my pants/shoes/belts. In the cause and effect department, I have noticed a direct correlation between Jean's arrival on my fashion scene and the number of compliments I receive in regards to wardrobe. Unfortunately, I do not have access to Jean and her fashion skill on the weekend. Typically, I wear a suit and tie to Sunday morning services. I have eight white shirts and I typically don't wear them to school so I wear all eight before washing them in one load. This morning, I pulled a clean one out of my closet and turned on the iron. I fought the same minor mental skirmish as always- do I iron the back as no one will see it anyway? But I did- it bothers me not to, like my mom, rest her soul, would be mortified if I didn't. Then, I noticed the blood stain. It was about half the size of a dime and it was right to the left of the button line in the front. It's odd- who bleeds from the stomach? But, there it was. I thought about going back into the closet and getting another but decided to stand my ground. After all, I always wear a tie and no one would possibly see the blood spot unless the tie got twisted or pushed to the side. And so I wore my less than pristine white shirt to worship at 9 AM, crimson blotch and all.

Our sermon this morning by Dave Yasko was about addiction, which always carries with it the implication of cover up. Nobody sees, nobody knows, nobody guesses- at least not at first. Most of us, maybe all of us, have something to hide or at least attempt to minimize the awareness of others. We think no one will understand and we might be shunned or even worse, pitied. But shouldn't it be the nature of believers to catch their sisters and brothers when they fall as we all inevitably will? Look at what Jude wrote in verses 22-23 of his short book:
Be merciful to those who doubt;  save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
It might be a stretch to compare my very slightly tainted shirt with addictions and mercy but then again, it might not. Doesn't every addiction/bad habit/harmful behavior start as a small or even tiny action, a mere blip on the radar of our lives? One bad decision can lead to a lifetime of pain and grief that wasn't in the plan. Oh well, I hope I can get that blood spatter out with a combination of SHOUT and a VERY long soak in Borax Bleach. But if it resists treatment, the hiding can go on for a very long time. After all, I have 300 ties or so.

<sup>Applicable quote of the day:
"Now they show you how detergents take out bloodstains, a pretty violent image there. I think if you've got a T-shirt with a bloodstain all over it, maybe laundry isn't your biggest problem.Maybe you should get rid of the body before you do the wash."
Jerry Seinfeld

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1</sup>

Through Clenched Teeth

 

Through Clenched Teeth

How does dental work relate to working out? Read this blog from June 9, 2018 to find out!
We've had several weeks between the end of school and the commencement of our WCS summer basketball camps. I'm not sure if it might be celebrated in our camp but this will be my twentieth year working and perhaps even my 100th session- I lost track of that long ago! It's been a lot of Musical Triple Threat, Cookie Days, free throw clinics, etc. and the years become a kaleidoscope, impossible to differentiate. I've spent time during my break getting ready for my 8th annual Vietnam mission which kicks off in twenty-five days on the Fourth Of July. I've also taken the opportunity to get some dental work started. Part one is in the books and was detailed nine days ago in a blog entitled What My Dentist Said Today. Part two will be on June 19th or in ten days. Two days after step one of the procedure, I returned to the gym to lift. However, I made an addition to my normal equipment of t-shirt, shorts, shoes-socks, lifting gloves. I started wearing the mouth guard I use when sleeping for teeth grinding. Since I have a temporary crown, it only makes sense to protect it as best I can. There's quite a bit of clenching the teeth when lifting but I still kind of feel like a middle school kid with a retainer at lunch time. I take it out when people talk to me and I feel the need to explain. Oh well, just a little while longer!

When I googled weight lifting when wearing mouth guards, I found out that a number of lifters wear them when working out. One source stated that you are sixty times more likely to suffer dental damage as a strength athlete when NOT wearing a mouth guard as opposed to wearing one. Also, there are studies which indicate that strength increases when the athlete clinches their teeth so it would seem logical to use one. While all that was interesting to me, I have a very simple reason for using mine. Dental work is painful as well as expensive so I am protecting my temporary crown and bridge. I don't want to go through that stage again as well as possibly risking permanent damage. I'm smart enough to sense a risk so I'm taking precautionary measures to guard my teeth. The Scriptures make reference to being careful in the same manner. We're told to guard our steps (Ecclesiastes 5:1) and to guard our mouth means to preserve our life. (Proverbs 13:3)  Proverbs 4:23 teaches us to guard our hearts with the exclamation point of above all else. Why would we need to guard these parts of our physical beings? Because we know ourselves intimately and we have a good idea of what is dangerous to our well-being. The cute, and married, co-worker. An acquaintance we tend to react to with anger. A vice which dominates our thoughts. But we are not left without help! Prayer, the Word of God, the armor of God, the Holy Spirit who helps us in our weaknesses, the blood of Jesus, and something we often forget, our brothers and sisters in Christ, are there in the struggles. Satan is real and we can't lose that awareness. This life isn't permanent and neither are several of my teeth in the short run. Will I keep wearing my mouth guard when I'm back to normal? I think I will! Gives me an excuse to clinch my teeth which aligns my jaw which makes me stronger which makes me....... That remains to be seen!


Applicable quote of the day:
Hair is the first thing. And teeth the second. Hair and teeth. A man got those two things he's got it all. 
James Brown

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Hair Apparent

 

Hair Apparent

We study Nazirites each in both my eighth grade and Gospels classes. That always leads to discussions of what girls know that boys don't - and don't want to- understand. One of those topics is the importance of hair to the fairer gender. This entry is from May 3, 2007.

It used to drive me crazy. When I first started coaching girls' basketball, the fingernail polish and matching ribbons drove me up the wall. As time passed, I came to understand that my players were girls before they were athletes. I read where a prominent coach made the point that boys take masculinity for granted but girls often feel the need to reinforce their femininity while they compete. I think there is validity in his view. Jennifer is a perfect example to me. A sophomore now on our high school team, she was my point guard in middle school. During the NCAA men's basketball tournament, she confessed that she picked the team she rooted for by determining which school had the cuter guys. (Shockingly, other young ladies in my class share her outlook.) Earlier this week, Jennifer entered my classroom for her fifth period Bible class and I complimented her on her hair. It resembled the hair in one of those Miss Clairol television commercials. She was obviously very pleased with the way it looked that particular morning. As we prepared for our quiz, I asked the female students if they could tell as soon as they woke up in the morning if it was going to be a good hair day or a bad hair day. With one accord, they unanimously agreed that you could. The boys were incredulous but I've received the identical response each time I've asked over the years. Girls just know. Since at that age hair is so important, it must be a component in the perceived success or failure of any particular day. (My all-time good hair-bad hair student was Mary Ellen, an eighth grader in my classes in Tennessee during the frizzy/boofy hair period. Sometimes she loved her hair, sometimes she despised it, but it looked the same to me every day of the week.)

It's pretty amazing to me that the value of a twenty-four hour span could hinge on unruly hair. How shallow is that? Well, I have to admit that some days have been ruined in my estimation by much more trivial matters. The Scriptures remind us that the Lord has a round of delights for his children on a daily basis. In the middle of the mournful Lamentations 3, Jeremiah does a U-turn with these words:
"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness."
The blessings of the Lord await us when we struggle out of bed, even before we steal a hesitant glance in the mirror or run a comb through our matted hair. Our grooming may be less than perfect in the short-term but it shouldn't matter. If hair issues can be detected at the crack of dawn, we should detect God's loving mercy as we embark on his mission for a day in the life. Good hair day or bad hair day; the Lord made them both. We have to rejoice about that.

Applicable quote of the day:
"Hair brings one's self-image into focus; it is vanity's proving ground. Hair is terribly personal, a tangle of mysterious prejudices."
Shana Alexander

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Melting In The Dark

 

Melting In The Dark

Loved this song! The entry is from June 7, 2018!
I have written so many of these devotional blogs that I find it hard to come up with new stuff. Often, I ask the Lord to help me with ideas; I should do that every day, honestly. Yesterday, the song MacArthur Park started running through my mind. If you've never heard it, the link is below. My take is that it's one of those songs you either love or hate. It's considered a classic but has turned up on the worst song ever lists. It was penned by Jimmy Webb, one of the great songwriters of the 60s-70s with a slew of hits to his credit like Up, Up, And Away and Galveston. The singer of MacArthur Park was not really a singer but an actor. Richard Harris, star of stage and screen, was the voice behind the recording, more or less reciting the lyrics which were full of very vivid imagery. With the length of the record running to seven and a half minutes, it was very non-typical of a single. My intent tonight was to write something I read Jimmy Webb mentioned in an interview on the various stories he's told over the years about MacArthur Park and its meaning. (Many listeners over the decades tried to decipher each line, akin to the scrutiny of Carly Simon's, You're So Vain.) But the more I read about Webb and the song that had piqued my interest, the more I noticed something else: Suzy.

Jimmy Webb and Suzy Horton knew each other in high school and would be classified as friends. Apparently, he was in love with Suzy but her feelings didn't quite match his intensity, at least according to interviews. They went their separate ways and ending up marrying other people but that's not the end of the story. From the accounts I read, you can make the case that five or maybe six of Webb's songs can be attributed to his love for Suzy. Besides MacArthur Park, where Webb and Suzy sometimes ate lunch together, there was also By The Time I Get To Phoenix, The Worst That Could Happen, Where's The Playground, Suzy?, Didn't We?, and perhaps Wichita Lineman. And these aren't filler songs for albums or the B side of singles- all were legitimately big hits. What they all have in common, if what I read is true, is the relationship that never really took off between Jimmy Webb and Suzy Horton.

Looking back from the vantage point of fifty years, I wonder if they would change the past if they could. She was obviously the love of his life and his muse, although she probably never knew it at the time. If you took Suzy out of the picture, his fame might have been limited and the doors that opened to get involved in other parts of the industry perhaps could have stayed close. It's funny how one person alters the path of another. I could make a long list of people who changed the course of my life path and I would also say most aren't aware of their significance. You undoubtedly could do the same. Some of those encounters were long term and some brief. And not all were positive at the time but ended up beneficial to me, I think, in the end. I'm also sure I've played that same role in other's lives but I'm blissfully unaware of how and why that came to be. One thing I love about teaching the Gospels is that we see the impact Jesus had on the lives of those whose paths He crossed. Many interactions were brief; the demon possessed, Zacchaeus, the woman at the well, the dead He raised, the blind who gained their sight. Not all were positive; some walked away, like the rich young ruler, and some deserted even with long term contact, as in the case of Judas who betrayed despite years of evidence none of us believe we ourselves would reject. At least a half dozen songs were written with Suzy Horton in mind but thousands upon thousands have been composed about the Lord and Savior of Mankind. Jimmy Webb survived and maybe even survived nicely Suzy Horton's rejection of his heart. But the survival rate is not the same if we reject the invitation of the Christ. Suzy married and that door was closed to Jimmy. Fortunately, the love of Jesus is still available to anyone who will receive it! And the good news is you won't even have to write a love song to pay him back.

To listen to Richard Harris and MacArthur Park, copy and paste or click the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iplpKwxFH2I

Applicable quote of the day:
''I can speak for most songwriters - those breakup love songs are so easy to write, as far as the inspiration and all that.'' 
Lucinda Williams

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1