Fall from Grace? Examining the Tour-de-Lance

I'm so tired of hearing about poor Lance Armstrong.  He hasn't lost a thing, really, and there's no reason to feel sorry for him at all.  Several years ago Lance defeated cancer, and good for him, I sincerely mean that, good for him.  Unfortunately, it was his cancer that confirmed his disbelief in God. 

From his book, "It's not about the Bike: My Journey Back to Life," (Title is a little ironic now isn't it?), he writes:

"I had developed a certain distrust of organized religion growing up, but I felt I had the capacity to be a spiritual person, and to hold some fervent beliefs. Quite simply, I believed I had a responsibility to be a good person, and that meant fair, honest, hardworking, and honorable. If I did that, if I was good to my family, true to my friends, if I gave back to my community or to some cause, if I wasn't a liar, a cheat, or a thief, then I believed that should be enough."

Oops.  So much for fair, honest and honorable, not a liar and cheat is out too, however he has given back to his community; to a certain cause, something he believed in. Doctors, Treatment, Self; "believing in whatever I chose to believe in, that was the most important thing, I decided. It had to be."

No Lance, it's not the most important thing.  Sorry. More from his book:

"At the end of the day, if there was indeed some Body or presence standing there to judge me, I hoped I would be judged on whether I had lived a true life, not on whether I believed in a certain book, or whether I'd been baptized. If there was indeed a God at the end of my days, I hoped he didn't say, "But you were never a Christian, so you're going the other way from heaven." If so, I was going to reply, "You know what? You're right. Fine."

If things continue as they currently stand, I really don't believe that's what Lance will be replying to God.  You see, Lance is still alive, but he's not really living.  Lance hasn't lost anything because he never had anything to begin with.

He's got no hope and is "far off": Ephesians 2:12-13
His trust and belief in man and self is wrongly placed: John 14:6
He does not know God and therefore does not know love: 1 John 4:7-8
He does not have life: 1 John 4:9 and John 1:4
He has no confidence for the day of Judgment: 1 John 4:17
He cannot live without fear: 1 John 4:18

Lance may feel ashamed, although it doesn't appear so from his latest "confession" with Oprah, but he may feel ashamed.  He might be embarrassed and may have difficulty "rebuilding his reputation."  The days ahead might be hard for Lance who was once hailed as an all-time great athlete, king of his sport of cycling.  Maybe even harder than his battle with cancer, I don't know.  But I do know this for certain, there is a bigger battle in Lance's life.  One that he is losing every day.  Thankfully, there is still time....

Lance is still alive...A self-described competitor, a win-at-all-costs competitor....

It's not too late.  Here is the winning formula (for starters):

⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Lance hasn't lost anything.

Fortunately, he has everything to gain.

21774 - Jack's Room a.k.a. the Library

This ain't your Grannie's library. No sir. We got bright colored walls, dark curtains and a drum set! Jack's room wasn't done before we left for camp. Tandy got started on it as soon as everybody left town Sunday and by that evening was finished. Jack wanted an orange wall. When we were at church on Wednesday getting help with the pre-mentioned squares and I mentioned that the North wall, (the one closest to Stillwater) would be orange, Randy Hampton got really, really quiet. I said, "It's going to be ok Randy" and he said, "I can't breathe." We quickly found a nearby brother with the antidote printed on his shirt in crimson and after Randy recovered we continued with our conversation. Poor OU fans......good people......weak constitutions. Anyway, Jack just wanted one wall painted orange and that's it, but since we had already purchased the paint we convinced him to put gray on the other walls. It's an OSU color I told him and he argued with me, but I'm looking at my cup here on my desk right now and the logo is outlined in............gray.

I win.

I know many of you can't bear to look at the color orange but with the gray to offset its brightness the room looks pretty good. It is the same sidewalk gray that we used to do Jeff's room. His sheets are OSU, which Tandy found at Overstock.com for about 1/3 of the price of local retail, ($90 versus $280 local) and she finished off the windows with some black curtains. I don't have any in progress pictures because I was gone to camp, but here are a couple of finshed room shots. I plan to print copies of both J's rooms and post them on the door so that they will have a reference of what a clean and organized bedroom is supposed to look like.

There's only one more room left at the end of the hall. What color will it be?

21774 - Jeff's Room a.k.a. the Doll Room

So, having painted the girls room, Tandy moved on to Jeff's room later that week. Jeff had settled on a two color scheme, which in itself is fine, but rather than having different colors on separate walls he wanted squares. Squares! Anyway, Tandy said, "yes, ok." I have since been trying to teach Tandy a new word that many would consider the linear opposite of yes. Well, the damage was done, (Squares? Sigh.) and the painting was begun. Four walls of sidewalk gray and then the squaring could begin. Squaring begins by taping off the walls in an up and down pattern, realizing that the squares are not of equal size, pulling down the tape in an up and down pattern, retaping the walls, then looking at Jeff and saying Squares!?! what were you thinking? Why not stripes? After a break to go to Wednesday night worship and get some advice (lots of advice, some of it was even helpful), the walls were once again retaped in an up and down pattern this time in an acceptable manner. Squares were achieved!

Squares!


Taking the picture down the walls like this give it the illusion of being convex, it was really weird to look at and we thought that Jeff might need dramamine when we were done to get to sleep without getting sick.


Tandy thought that the walls looked like the Holodeck on Star-Trek The Next Generation when they were all taped up like this. She's really Trekkie that one, oh, I mean tricky. So, once the paint was (mostly) dry, you might as well get down with your squareness, right? She was just going to do a "few", but then Amanda wanted to try a few, and soon enough it was 1:00 am and most of the squaring was done.


The remaining wall was taped and mostly painted by the time that I got home from work the next day. Here's Picasso finishing up the last of the red squares. Another quick coat of red and off comes the tape. Voila!


The finished product looked much better than I anticipated. This project took 3 days I think and Jeff spent them in the living room on the couch. He had no idea that he was getting new bedsheets and stuff and was quite surprised by his black/red comforter and sheets. So far there have been no reports of motion sickness or sleeplessness from Jeff.

Next we will move across the hallway where no squares will be found. Stay tuned!

21774 - The Girls Room a.k.a. the Guest Bedroom

Tandy was going to surprise everyone by painting rooms and installing new curtainry and bedstuffs while we were gone to camp. The secret got out though and on Amanda's birthday while Jack and I were out helping a friend with his blown-down fence, Tandy asked Amanda if she wanted to see her paint color and Amanda replied, "Cool, can we paint too?"

So, after a couple of hours of helping a friend I returned home to a wife covered in paint from top to bottom and a formerly white room with dramatic changes. Tandy and I later went to town for some groceries and we could see the bright blue through the curtainless windows all the way out at the road. For me it brings to mind memories of the ranch in Johnson City. The room that was always simply referred to as The Blue Room.


Here is Amanda in the mostly completed room. Her new bedsheets are blue and orange. The quilt on top is reversible and with Elizabeth's lime green and hot pink sheets it is a startlingly colorful room. I will post a picture later of the completed room with the new curtains, (also colorful) and the finished walls. There are currently plans for the girls to put bright colored, (green, orange, yellow, etc.) handprints and stars and stuff all over and they will also put their names over their respective closets in, wait for it, silver.

Later, we had some LC's pizza for dinner, and then Amanda cut the ice cream cake and the cookie cake. Craig likes cookie cake. Believe it or not, Jack made a smart remark just prior to the taking of this picture.

So, that was Amanda's birthday-day, (we did a small party thing after camp). Once the painting got started, it was hard to stop. Hang on, there's more on the way.....

Minor Adjustments at 21774

So, how do you make a house, a home? Little by little. 21774, formerly route 1 box 110A, has been home for me for a long, long time even though things have changed over the years. I can't run and play on the other side of the creek like I did when I was younger because there are some trees down and it has grown over a little bit. But, it was never really mine until I signed papers for it 2 years ago. So, to make it mine I work the yard trying to get it back under control and make it a place that the kids can run and play in. I am desperately trying to win the war against poison ivy but so far have only succeeded in making it mad. I have killed and pulled up bags full already early this spring, which is great, but I must say that the new growth since then is absolutely lush. Leaves of 3 let it be they say, but I say Leaves of 3 kill it me!!

We are also working the inside little by little to make it uniquely ours. I posted previously about some of the changes. The next few posts will highlight more recent changes at 21774. It is slowly becoming our home. It's about time I guess, we've been there 2 years now. Audrey said the other day when she saw the changes that, "It looks like my uncle Craig's house now." That was really a sweet thing to say and Aud, I appreciate it.

So first up is a "minor adjustment." We purchased a new refrigerator a few weeks ago. Our old one died almost a year ago I guess and we borrowed Richard and Angie's extra one for a while. It's a side by side and the shorter doors really work well at the end of that counter even though the refrigerator is bigger than the old one was. Speaking of bigger......the house was built in 1973 and the spot for the refrigerator is pretty much standard sized. Standard for 1973 that is. Since then, refrigerators have gotten bigger, but the spot has not. So the excitement of a new refrigerator was briefly dampened by the realization that it would not fit in the spot made for it. Minor adjustments were required. I debated cutting the countertop back to increase the space, but Tandy wouldn't let me do that. As I began to cut the trim on the dining room side of the spot she realized, "Oh, if you cut my countertop, I get a new one don't I?" Oh well, maybe next time. What I thought was going to be a big operation turned out to be pretty simple and although it needs a little touch up paint, it looks pretty good.


More to come, stay tuned.......

For This Reason......

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. Genesis 2:24 (NASB)

Well, there you have it. It's pretty simple really. Man grows up, man leaves home, finds a helper, ("It is not good for man to be alone."), becomes one with his wife, and eventually, (with a few exceptions), become father and mother and the process begins again. It is the way we were designed to interact with one another from the beginning. It is natural and it makes sense. Man and Wife fit together. They are uniquely designed to compliment and to enhance each others qualities by their differences, not in spite of them. Man and Wife become one in a way that no one else can; emotionally, physically, and spiritually. These bonds are described in detail in the books of Genesis, I Corinthians, Galatians and Ephesians as well as other scriptures in the Bible. Nowhere, however, is there made a provision for any other type of family system and it is a perversion of the Word to press these natural functions into any other mold to suit a personal preference.

How can Man and Man or Wife and Wife become Mother and Father? How can either become one flesh? Neither one can compliment the other, because they are the same. It is not natural and it does not make sense. The notion that this is the result of a gene is simply preposterous. An entire generation is being deluded into thinking that this is somehow natural. It's being taught in many schools and our children are buying into it as well. But I have to ask how is this gene passed on? The day that a man and a man, (or woman and woman), reproduces, will be the same day that an evolutionist creates life from non-life. When that day comes I will post a lengthy apology on this same blog to all that I have offended.

If you have followed the news lately at all you will know that Miss California, Carrie Prejean, made quite a stir when she stood up for her beliefs on this subject recently. I will not extol the virtues of miss Prejean in this post, and I have no plans to begin living my life by her definition of moral value. I do not know where she attends worship, or even if she attends regularly anywhere. I do know that she claims to be a Christian and live her life by Christian values. I also know that she does or has done some things that I would consider risque or perhaps even immoral, but then, so have I. If she is trying to live her life as she claims, then she is, perhaps, no more a flawed follower of Christ than I myself am. Just because she, (and I, and everybody I know), makes mistakes, does not necessarily make her a hypocrite. What this post is about is the one character trait of hers that has clearly been on display that I wish more of us who claim to be Christian would show.

She was asked the one question that she hoped would not come up in the competition. Her answer many say cost her victory in the competition. (You can make up your own mind about that but, the asker of the question, a militant, gay blogger who was one of the judges, gave her zero points for that portion of the competition and surely that hurt her chances.) After being vilified by the press and numerous other threats she was asked if she regretted her answer. Not only did she not regret it but when asked if she had it to do over again replied, "I would not change my answer." She refused to set aside her principles for the "popular answer."

Today I read an article written by one John Tantillo titled "Miss California USA Should Quit or Be Fired", read it for yourself here http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/05/02/miss_california_usa-2/. His reasoning for this is marketing. You see, she does not represent herself or her own ideals but that of "everyone." I'm guessing that he believes that all of these beautiful women that parade around for our viewing pleasure are not allowed to have any thoughts of their own, but rather be just hollow shells that follow the establishment rule. He says:

Now, Miss Prejean is using the Miss California platform to promote her own beliefs and her own brand –not the state she is supposed to be representing. As a result she is not upholding the responsibilities of her crown. She is, after all, Miss California, a representative of a state and a people that are many things but unanimously anti-gay marriage is not one of them.

Her decision to star in a television ad campaign for the National Organization for Marriage should be the definitive last straw in the question of whether she continues as Miss California.

From a real marketing perspective both sides (the Miss California people and Miss Prejean) would benefit from a divorce. The Miss California organization could regain its brand identity and Miss Prejean could freely do what she seems intent on doing anyway: representing her own agenda.

I'm quite sure that for whatever reasons miss Prejean decided to compete, "using the Miss California platform to promote her own beliefs and her own brand," was not at the top of the list. As far as I can tell, from the vote of the people anyway, California is not unanimously pro-gay either. I just don't see that she is "representing her own agenda", I believe she was asked a question and she answered it truthfully and honestly. And, o my, has she paid a big, big penalty for that. But really now, is there anything at all that she could have said that wouldn't have offended somebody? It's just not possible, I mean there is a chance that a majority of people that read this post will agree with it, but there is a greater chance that somebody doesn't agree with my opinion on this and will be offended. Anybody's opinion on anything, stated or unstated, disagrees with somebody else somewhere. It's only her "agenda" because so many that have a loud voice in the media disagree with her. by that reasoning John Tantillo's article, from its title all the way down to the last period, represents an agenda, no doubt. If Carrie Prejean, (and by the way what a strange name that is, Prejean, what are Prejeans? Shorts?), had answered differently what would the outcome have been? I would imagine that all of these voices that have blistered her for the last couple of weeks would have been vocal in a much different manner, praising her for her forward thinking and holding her up as a hero for "gay rights."

Ridiculous.

I submit that God needs more of His children speaking out publicly in support of His Word, nevermind the backlash when everyone finds out that we've got flaws. Legalized immorality is still immoral. It's still sin. But if we don't start speaking out soon, it's going to happen. I for one am tired of my belief system and way of life being brutalized daily and replaced by new "normal" and "accepted" values and behaviors. There is only one pure and exact truth, and I will use it as my guide. It's time to tell the media to shut up.

--end rant--

Craig

Update:
Before I could finish writing this post, the Donald comes out in support of Carrie:

"Carrie will remain Miss California," Donald Trump said at a press conference Tuesday.

Trump, who owns the Miss Universe organization, praised Prejean for her "honest answer" when she was asked a "very tough question," noting that it was the same answer that President Obama has given.

Ultimately however, Trump said that after careful review, the pictures taken were "fine," and that while some were indeed risque, many were in fact "quite lovely."

Quite lovely indeed Mr. Trump, yes in fact, generally speaking, pictures of half-naked women usually are quite lovely. It's just one reason why pornography is such big business. I'll not comment here on the morality of President Barack (an obscure passage in Romans) Obama and how well he has stuck to his statements of belief publicly, (or privately). **sigh**

Well, hooray for the Don sticking up for his girl. And hooray for Carrie sticking to the truth and winning at least a small victory for morals. And hooray for, finally, the end of this post.

See you soon,

CD

Breaking the Silence

It has been 1 year and 3 days since I posted on this blog. As I look back through the posts I see that it started out much like a self-counseling journal with a lot of posts dealing with feeling and hurts. Over time it moved into thoughts and ideas, musings and random irritations, and then finally, the post on the Expelled movie I guess would be considered political.

So, why am I back?

I was a bit stunned by several comments referring to how good I was at writing. And stunned also by who these comments were coming from, I mean, I had no idea that I had that many people, (well over a dozen!!..some of whom I had not met until I began attending worship at NorthMac) reading my blog. Anyway, those comments got me to thinking that perhaps I should consider writing again, and it is in fact, very therapeutic. But the real reason I'm back is because I am annoyed to the point that I want to holler at anyone who will listen and I'm afraid, once again, that this next post will be somewhat political/religious in nature.

So stay tuned for a rant, or discount my return to the blogosphere altogether if you wish. Either way, if you were at one time a loyal reader, I know you will first have to overcome your shock that I have posted again.

Peace,
Craig