A few things that have torqued me off in the past 24 hours. All of which I am handling well and aren’t effecting my life too much. But they still annoy me.

1. We lost to GPN. I can’t explain it, but the head coach just gave up fighting with them and gave it to them. It is now virtually impossible to win the MAC Red.
2. The golf team continues to play like crap. It wouldn’t be so annoying if they were terrible golfers who played really hard and lost. It makes me mad when I see really good golfers slack off, play like crap and not give a rip.
3. Megan’s preschool meeting was an annoyance. I really hated it when the leader said “your child’s teachers are partners with you in raising your children.” That’s BS. They aren’t our partners, they are our employees. We pay them to teach our children because they are experts at teaching, but God has not ordained them to be parents of my children.
4. We had a near coup with my student leadership kids. I know they are frustrated because they want to step up but are lacking instructions… But this is by design. I just can’t wait any longer to start developing them as leaders or they will sour on me. I had to put them in check this morning, I hate that.
5. I’m not getting anywhere with our summer 2005 mission trip. I want it nailed down soon. I know it’s my own fault, but I’m still POed about it!
6. There are not enough hours in the day to get everything done. I’m trying to finish my reading for grad school, I have to prepare a talk on Daniel 3 today, I have to lead the whole golf team this afternoon and get them started on a match with Eisenhower, I have to get this jr high retreat scheduled and I have about 100 e-mails to send out.
7. I had to turn down a ticket to the Ryder Cup! I can’t believe I said no. A parent from the golf team invited me and I was simply booked on that day. I hate being responsible! I could have gone to the opening ceremonies of the biggest golf event of the year.

OK, I feel better now. I vented.

Again, I stand at the top of a tall mountain called my week. There is still lots to do. Thankfully, the past week was very productive and I managed to stay ahead of everything.

Monday: Getting a big jump on my Wed. night talk will help. I’m talking about the fiery furnace found in Daniel 3. Also, need to pound out some serious reading time for my grad school class. I have to complete reading this little book called Contagious Faith. I’d also like to draft a schedule for our Sr. High retreat and put in some calls about our Jr. High retreat. The more I get finalized on that stuff this week, the better. This afternoon I have golf practice at Romeo GC until 5:00 ish as well as a parent’s meeting for Megan’s preschool tonight.

Tuesday: Bible studies at 6:15 AM and 6:15 PM. In the middle continue with leftovers from Monday. In the afternoon I will be in charge of a golf match vs. Eisenhower.

Wednesday: See You at the Pole is at 7:00 AM. We’ll see if that really happens or not. At this point, I think it’s about run it’s course. Finalize my talk. Golf practice. Light Force. Leave for Huntington.

Thursday/Friday: Grad school at Huntington.

Saturday: Off day, watch college football.

Sunday: Normal morning duties, go to Ann Arbor for Lost & Found concert with my adult leaders.

Another killer week. It’s good to be alive!

Apparently I was very subconsciously bothered by the horror that had become my golf game. Today I again landed at a place where I could work on my game. I rolled over to Greystone GC (Romeo was closed for and outing) and they were happy to supply me with unlimited balls since there were tons left over from an outing earlier in the day. I must have hit 300 balls.

I was driving the ball great. I worked a little more on getting my hands perpendicular to the target by training my brain to hold the club back further in the stance. While this feels retarded, it is actually a good alignment. From that point on I was able to feel my hips and hands releasing at impact and ripping the ball again. No more pain. Of course, this radical change to my address is not without it’s problems. Mainly, I now have a tendency to hit the ball a little right with the irons and even a bit of a slice with the driver. However, the ball is flying a lot better. In the middle of the session I had the 7 iron dialed in and was pouncing on the flag at 160 yards. Two strokes in a row I flew it inside 3 feet of the cup, took a big hop and stopped.

I also got back to the 65 yard money shot I had down earlier in the year. I’ve got that flying right on the target line every time and it’s just a matter of lengthening the shot for distance. (I worked on the Ernie Els “nipper” shot a few times and was only able to get it to work 3-4 times. A nipper is a shot that is hit like a very crisp and hard chip. It hits the green with a tremendous amount of backspin, hops once and stops. It’s awesome when it works but it’s like hitting a flop off the fairway. Pretty when it works but ugly if you hit it heavy.) I must have used over 100 balls on the little 65 yard shot alone.

One more day of practice and I’ll be ready to play again on Monday. It seems I’ve gotten past that embarrassment.

IN OTHER NEWS: I received my one book for grad school and have gotten a good run on it. I leave for Huntington in only 5 days.

I just got back from hitting about 150 8 irons at the church. I seem to have some parts put back together. Here is a small list of the things I was doing wrong.

– Grip was closing the face.

– Hooding the club (hands in front of face at address)

– Too narrow at address which leads to natural loss of power

– Left foot squared, but not at 10 o’clock which prevented my hips from clearing at impact

All of this resulted in a closed, hooded shot with my hands well ahead of the clubhead at impact… Thus effectively delivering a massive pull hook every time! I plan on working the long irons and woods tomorrow. More after that.

Not too long ago I would write on my blog that I was unhappy with a 40-41 score. Well, those days are history. For the last several weeks my golf game has officially been on vacation. It seems that perhaps I made too many equipment changes right before the high school season took off. I just cannot depend on my swing right now. It’s either a dead hook, a big push to the right or dead on. The trouble is that I can’t predict which swing will pop up at any given moment.

I’ve played with some friends over the past few weeks and been embarrassed. There just isn’t any other word to describe it. During the summer months, I could plug a tee into the ground and just rip the ball down the fairway. Now, one the first tee I dream of any kind of a fairway. All of the clubs in my bag are failing me. Even my beloved 6 iron got away from me a couple of times today.

I suppose the only way for me to work this out is just plain old fashioned work. The bad news there is that it would take some time which I presently don’t have. I’m hoping to get to the range 2-3 times things weekend. Hoping.

Today was a pretty good day for the Bulldogs. Despite terrible rounds by all of our varsity players [that is, except Nate who carries us on his back] we still managed to hold off a very weak Utica Ford II team 168-169.

On the JV side things were a little easier as they sailed in 173-177. Next week we should be able to pull ahead a little bit from the pack as we have Eisenhower on Tuesday.

Forget all the stuff about Vietnam. Both Kerry and Bush were in some regards idiots the best I can tell. Both were little rich kids with agendas. Neither man should be basing a political campaign on events from 35 years ago anyway. Let the American people note be confused. This election is about major issues.

Here are some thoughts that were brought to light on the YS boards and my “not so politically correct answers.” For the record, though I am not a card carrying republican, it just so happens that they get most of my votes.

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QUOTE

I am voting for Kerry but I still feel that I am voting for lesser evils than the right choice. I hate that! Does anyone else fee the way I feel?

I always feel that way. So I error on the side of being conservative.I know how you feel. I’m not in love with Bush, but John Kerry is the wrong man. If they had John Edwards as the front-runner they would have a chance… but I digress.For me, there is a single issue that dictates my vote. Abortion. I cannot justify voting for anyone who is OK with killing babies. This dictates my vote from local elections on up. Sad, but true.But I will disagree with the stuff about Kerry caring for the middle class. Under Bush I have been freed up tax wise in unprecedented ways. I expect that if Kerry wins I will be paying 2-3 times more taxes within 4 years. His plan will put less money in my pocket, which I don’t like. The health care has nothing to do with Bush. Here’s a little history lesson that Bush would be wise to start looking at. (I used to work for a monster health insurer, I know why these increases are happening.) In 1993 Bill Clinton inacted HIPPA. Now, on the outset HIPPA was a good thing. It ensured that insured people could take their coverage with them anywhere in the country. So, being insured in MI I would get covered if I got hurt while vacationing in FL. This part of HIPPA went into effect in 1998 for all of the BCBS plans and barely raised rates an inch. However, the vast majority of health care cost increases come from HIPPA’s dirty little secret. Hidden inside the bill were privacy laws that have literally ground hospitals and insurers to a hault. Besides the billions of dollars of HIPPA training the federal government forced insurers and providers to pay for (Who do you really think paid for this?) each company had to re-write how they do business. (Who do you think they passed this cost off to?) Now, under these new privacy laws insurers cannot use any personal information as identifiers. (Who do you think pays for this?) If you call about a bill, under HIPPA the hospital may not be able to tell you things about your bill without your doctors permission. (Who do you think pays for this?) HIPPA requires that everything containing medical information not be sent to landfills but be shredded and burned? (Who do you think pays for this?) I could go on and on. All of these privacy laws are bad. Not a single one of them prevents anyone from hacking into computer databases and stealing personal information. But they all prevent insurers from doing their jobs effeciently and cheaply, taking full advantage of technology. They all slow down claims, which raises rates! (Who do you think pays for that!) You may be wondering how a bill that was signed into law in 1993 didn’t effect health insurance rates until Bush’s term. Well, the darned thing was so nasty to understand and train for that no one was ready when it was supposed to go into effect, plus we had to deal with the Y2K fraud, that the federal government delayed inacting the privacy parts of the law until 11/1/00. Long story short, don’t blame Bush for increased health insurance rates. This has everything to do with the Clinton administration… by the way… HIPPA has been good for some people. Computer programmers, document shredders, white collar administrators for hospitals/health insurers. But all of those new facets to the business add another layer of cost to you as the consumer.

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QUOTE (Theresa @ Sep 9 2004, 08:45 AM)

It may be more urgent to get someone into office before the country goes bankrupt. Since the United States economy controls all of the rest of the worlds economy… I don’t think we have to worry about this. I think the tally has gotten to a couple trillion dollars in the early 90s. Besides, who would the federal government file for chapter 11 with? France?PA

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I would like to point out that a huge reason for rising health care costs in our country are trial lawyers like John Edwards who sue and sue and sue, often times in situations where the wrong people are sued for the wrong reasons etc…don’t have time to go into it, but look into that before you’re quick to criticize Bush/Cheney for healthcare costs.

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QUOTE (estall @ Sep 9 2004, 08:58 AM)

No, I do not blame Bush for healthcare. I do blame him for what is happening in Iraq. Therefore, I think he needs to be fired.Ed I think it’s a little funny that you are contradicting yourself. The United States has taken a stand on terrorism. The United States has taken issue with a rogue nation that refused to live under United Nations rulings as they agreed to do. Bottom line is that Sadaam Hussein broke 1441 with the ramifications being his removal of power. Under the Geneva convention, when a nation does this they are responsible for rebuilding the nation… which is what we are doing. So you think it’s wrong that the president took a stand against a man who slaughtered and gassed his own people? Yet at the same time, the bottom of your post says the exact opposite.

QUOTE

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Elie WieselPretty contradictory… don’t you think?John Kerry has promised to “work with other nations” on solving the problem of Iraq. Who? Germany, France and Russia. Three nations that only exist because of American presidents taking a strong stand against oppressors and living up to the statement of Elie Wiesel. Pretty cute.

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I just thought these opinions were worth sharing elsewhere. We shall see how bad I get flamed!

As promised, the trip to Grosse Pointe sucked. Our students played well and it seems as though they have held out for the victory, but it still hangs in the balance. Believe it or not, 24 hours later we are not the official winner. There was a discrepancy with one of the groups on the final hole. As it turns out, their coach initiated a ruling after the foursome had already decided on what to do.

Now that this is in the open we should be declared the winner by a score of 165-166. Let me say this again, I hate going down there.

We look forward to a home match with Ford II tomorrow. This should be an easy victory for the Bulldogs and put us back into our rightful 1st place in the MAC Red.

Note: This is the first talk for the Light Force year. For those Sonlife addicts, this is our official launching point into season two: Equipping. Along those lines we will be concentrating very heavily on peer share skills training as part of our Wednesday evenings. While I am still teaching from Daniel/Revelation this fall, the primary hardcore Bible teaching is happening in our home bible studies.

Between now and Christmas, we are going to be taking a very close look at the books of Daniel and Revelation. It’s is my assumption that as we get into this study that you will see how clearly these two often misused and misinterpreted books of God’s word are tied together.

Some introductions

The book of Daniel covers a time period that is unique in Jewish history and the history of the world. In some regards, it is a narrative of what life was like for the Jews when they were under Babylonian rule. And in other regards, it is a glimpse into our future.

This book was written in about 530 BC. (2500 years ago!) Israel was captured and taken to Babylon in 580 BC, and Daniel wrote this book as they neared the end of their exile from God’s land.

Where is the setting? Almost the entire book takes place in Babylon. This is in present day Iraq.

Why was Israel in exile? Simply put, they had disobeyed God’s commands. If you’ll remember from last years study God repeatedly told the Jewish people that they could remain in the land conditionally. If they disobeyed God’s commands, they would be removed. In this case they were removed for 70 years as repayment for skipping the Sabbath Year command to allow the land to rest every 7th year for one year.

A quick summary of chapters 1-2

Þ Jerusalem was captured by Nebuchadnezzar

Þ Daniel and three friends were chosen to be in the kings service

Þ Daniel and his friends began an intense 3 years of training

Þ While in training, Daniel refused to eat the kings choice food

Þ Daniel convinced the guard to allow them to try eating veggies only

Þ The young men passed the test and were allowed to skip eating the meat

Þ During the 2nd year of training, Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream

Þ Later, they passed the kings test and entered into service.

[Detail dream interpretation]

Before we move on, I think it’s really important that we take a few minutes to look at this how Daniel interpreted the dream… it will give you a good glimpse into what kind of guy Daniel is.

Read Daniel 2: 12-13

Þ Then, Daniel convinces Arioch to let him interpret the kings dream. [To save his hide and that of his friends!]

Þ Daniel goes to the king and this is what happens.

Read Daniel 2: 37-45

OK, now look at the diagram and let’s define some things about the past.

Head= Babylon

Chest/arms= Persia

Belly/thighs= Greece

Legs= Rome

Feet= Christ’s church

Þ The king believes Daniel’s interpretation

Þ He gives Daniel and his friends very high positions in the kings service.

Let’s change gears right here. We need to take a minute to explain something bigger that is going on… I want you to see exactly how examining Daniel’s life is going to help you in your walk with God.

Þ For the past 15 months Light Force has been on a mission to get to this point.

Þ Almost everything we’ve done over the past year has been done with the idea of building our group to feel like a family.

§ I think we’ve accomplished this goal. LF does feel like family.

§ We’ve taken tons of road trips together, spent time like a family spends time

§ We done all-nighters, high ropes courses, mission trips, tailgating, movie nights, service projects—on and on!

Þ In the meantime, we as leaders have been concentrating on building you up in your relationship with Christ. You should have a pretty good idea of who you are in Christ, what your personal mission in life is, who we are as a group and what it means to be Light Force. Hopefully, you’ve also learned what value you get out of all of this.

Þ You as a group and as individuals have grown tremendously in the last 15 months. It has been amazing to watch.

Þ But I want to draw your attention to a fact. Have you noticed something that we haven’t done that a lot of other youth groups do?

§ Pushed you to bring friends here to hear the gospel.

Þ I want you to know that we haven’t done that for a reason.

§ We as a group weren’t ready.

§ You, for the most part, as followers of Christ have not been ready to lead your friends to Christ.

§ Before we could do that, we needed to grow up a lot as a group. It has been healthy and good to wait until we were ready.

Þ So, you’re probably wondering what my point is?

§ Am I asking you to start brining all kinds of lost friends to LF?

Þ NO!

Þ But, as of this moment, we are going to start giving you some skills so that you can start brining your friends to Jesus. See the difference?

Þ And the first thing you need to know is that bringing someone to Jesus is a process, not an event. It’s something that takes time.

Þ So let me ask you, do you feel ready to start learning some skills? Here’s some indicators… which prove to me that I know you all are ready to move from building our group to equipping you to do peer-to-peer ministry.

§ Ask yourself some questions.

Þ Is God’s love real to you?

o If it is, then you will know because you’ll want others to know God’s love too.

Þ Do you have a relationship with God that will last forever?

o If you do, then you’ll know that your lost friends need that relationship too.

Here’s your first skill. Lesson number one!

With this first challenge, I’m not even really asking you to do anything hard. I’m not asking you to go out and do anything… but I am asking you to start searching inside yourself.

What you are going to do next is hook up with one of the leaders and work on the back side of our sheet. First, you are going to each open up your Bible’s and start searching for the people that Daniel was looking to lead to God. I want you to see that Daniel did this ON PURPOSE and that time and again he looked for ways to plant the idea of God’s love in non-believers hearts.

After that, you are going to identify 3 people in your lives that you will eventually be sharing Jesus with. Again, you don’t have to do anything now except identify who these people are. I know you don’t know what to do next… OK? The last thing you are going to do is literally tell your leaders who these people are. Your leader is going to write them down and the two of you will start praying for those people. We’re not going to call them or send them a letter. All we are going to do is pray for them. Got it?

PRAY

Because of the holiday yesterday, this is a short week. I remember back a few years ago I loved short weeks. I lived for them. It meant less work for me and a great outlook on life for everyone else. Now, times are different. All a short week means now is that I have a weeks worth of work to do in 3 days instead of 4.

Put that together with an already hectic schedule and I’m in a world of hurt time-wise.

Tuesday– HBS at 6:15 AM. Office work, talk prep until 1:00 PM. Golf match at Grosse Pointe North from 1:30-6:30 PM. HBS at 6:15 PM.

Wednesday- LF prep until 2 PM. Golf practice from 2-6 PM. LF from 6:30-9:30 PM

Thursday- Office work in the AM. Lunch with students at RHS from 10:30-12:30 PM. Golf match at Romeo from 2-6 PM.

Friday- Off (yeah right, I still have to prepare for Sunday school and Sunday nights prayer & praise time.) RHS football game at 7 PM



I also am in desperate straits to read my assigned reading for grad school next week. Holy cow. There is lots to do.