TREVOR'S WRITING

There was a boy named Wally, Wally was bigger than most other kids his age, and used his size to his advantage. At first it wasn't too bad, he would skip the line at the slide in the playground, or force people off the swings. As things went on, he realized he could use his size and strength to his advantage in many different ways. He had some of the smarter kids do his homework (under threat of a beating), and later on he started to steal lunches and money from the other kids at school. There were a few times when some of the kids would complain and say that is was not fair that Wally was taking advantage of them, but Wally always seemed to find out and an appropriate threat was made to silence the criticism. Eventually Wally realized that he might need some of these people as friends and couldn't make too many enemies. So, he came up with a great plan. He stole lunches from many of the kids at school, then he would pick through them and sell the good stuff to other kids....

Have you ever seen an interview with a major professional athlete, when they say something like, "I get paid to play a game that I love!" At which point I experience a bit of anger, jealousy and loath. I usually think something along the lines of, "well of course you should love to play a game and get paid millions of dollars to do it! Everybody would love that!" I guess I have to admit that the wishful thinking in me always wishes I would have pushed myself in some sort of sport, because then I surely would have been a professional athlete!!!??? Maybe that could be me saying that in an interview! "I get paid to play a game that I love!" In that moment I wish my Dad would have been more like Tiger Woods dad and spent hours and hours and hours and hours on the golf course with me...MAKING me a better golfer. Then I snap out of it...I would never have let my dad do that, I was way to lazy! So, I realize I will have to settle into being who I am, the non-...

We were at the toy store looking for some good toys for our kids and noticed a bunch of Playmobil Advent Calendars. One of them was a pirate set, you know, what says Christmas more than pirates!? Owen (our 3 year old) loves playmobil stuff and has a fascination with pirates, so we took a close look at it. Here is what we found: Many of these things seem relatively inappropriate to me but the keg near the top left hand side is my favourite. Nothing like getting a keg to remind you of Jesus. There is a story about Jesus turning water into wine in some big basins, or kegs if you will.

I am reading Jesus Wants to Save Christians by Rob Bell and Don Golden. I am only 4 chapters in but needed to throw this out there to help me process the things that he is saying. I love the way that Rob tells stories and this book is a great example of that. The authors have told basically the whole story of the Bible in these 4 chapters, weaving together the story of God and his relationship to people. How the story of the Bible is basically a story of oppression and freedom from oppression. When people call out to God they are freed from oppression, which is the ultimate meaning of Jesus life and death. Freeing us from the oppression of the law, and pointing us to grace. It is a beautiful concept and, so far, basically told as a great story. My issue is this. There is never any mention of confession or repentance. There are plenty of mentions of things like, moving from oppression to freedom, moving from light to darkness, and becoming new creations. However, it is never me...

I feel as though I am about to have a fight with a bully, I fully expect this post to be read as hurtful and condemning to many. That may be the case but here goes anyway. I have long been frustrated by coffee drinkers. I realize that probably 95% of those who are in the blogosphere are those who are regular coffee drinkers, actually *ahem* probably not regular coffee drinkers, they are people who are very particular about the coffee they drink. Most times they take one sip of coffee and declare it to be horrible, or wonderful, or somewhere in between. They do NOT drink any free coffee, especially the coffee served at churches, they do not just go to the corner store for coffee, their coffee must meet very specific requirements and standards. If they make it at home they do not just use a coffeemaker, they must use a various assortment of grinders, presses, and perhaps going as far as to roast their own beans. I know that I am not cool for criticizing coffee drinkers and their habits,...

You must check out Graham's blog , he is a good friend of mine who has just entered the blogosphere. I have always really enjoyed my conversations with Graham and I always look forward to getting together with him. When we do my thoughts are challenged and provoked and I always come away inspired to be more authentic in my own faith and push the church to do the same. Hopefully he will do the same for you in this venue.

The last 6 months or so, I have been easily moved to tears. It has lead to some interesting moments, like the time I was sitting at the church denomination I am a part of had their national conference and the general session speaker was speaking. He shared an emotional story that obviously struck a chord with me. I remember getting choked up, tears streaming down my face, but the crazy thing is, that is not where it stopped. I realized that I needed to hold back the sobs, I start looking around and realize that no one else was finding this particular story all that emotional (or at least I saw no other tears). I also realized that my sobs were becoming more evident to the people around me (as evidenced by the people looking away and pretending they were not staring at me). I began to really hope the speaker would move on to something funny, or perhaps something I could get mad about, anything but sad...finally he did. I am not really embarrassed that I cry, although I know a lot of men...

I was laughing out loud as I read this one... Thanks Greg for sending it! ABOUT THE WRITER Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist for the Miami Herald. This is from newshound Dave Barry's colonoscopy journal: I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenterologist, to make an appointment for a colonoscopy. A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point passing briefly through Minneapolis . Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough, reassuring and patient manner. I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really hear anything he said, because my brain was shrieking, quote, 'HE'S GOING TO STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR BEHIND!' I left Andy's office with some written instructions, and a prescription for a product called 'MoviPrep,' which comes in a box large enough to hold a microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail l...