Community pride...

I want to tell you a story. A story of a little girl that had much adversity in her life, she wasn't the smartest girl and she wasn't the most athletic girl but she had one thing...determination. This stubborn, strong willed girl started playing basketball in the 4th grade. It was a horrible season, they barely knew how to dribble a basketball but this team had a coach who knew that to be successful you had to teach the kids how to win. The first season wasn't a good one until they found a team they could beat and they scheduled them for AAU games as much a possible so that the girls knew what it felt like to win. The 5th grade season rolled around and the team went undefeated. AAU continued in the spring and summer. The 6th grade season they had a new coach but still only lost one game that year. Jr. High years, they had their old coach and went undefeated in 7th grade, and lost two games in the 8th grade. This team was a family, the parents encouraged the team & coaches even through the losses. They made it to AAU state tournament every year but one.

Then high school rolled around and a lot of changes happened, the athletic side of it was disappointing a lot but that little girl continued to work hard because you see talent didn't come natural for her. She had to work to get anywhere. Her parents knew that the school couldn't be responsible for her total success so they spent a lot of time and money in travel sports, it wasn't always easy and it was very tiring but they were committed to seeing it through. Coaches don't do it for the money, they do it because they love the game and they care about the kids.

This little girl went on to play NCAA Division 2 softball. Her school didn't get her looked at, her travel sports did and her parents making the effort to get recurring forms filled out did.

That little girl is my daughter, Aimee. The coach... Her dad.

You see I tell you that story because that team that became family made a lot of people believe in them and the sense of pride for Shoals improved because of that. Aimee is a junior at OCU still playing softball and she came from Shoals and didn't have to move to get where she is.

I was born & raised in Bedford. I went to high school during the Damon Bailey era. I know what pride is about. I have lived in Shoals for 15 years and I am proud to say I am from here. It saddens me when I see others trash our small community and to see people that live here do it devastates me.

Shoals is a wonderful place to raise a family. My kids have thrived living here. Community pride goes way beyond athletics. It's about how we treat others, how we rally around people when the storms of life overtake them, I have seen some amazing things done out of the love that people in Shoals have for each other.

So, I challenge you to do one thing. Find something in your community that you can be proud of and celebrate it.

I am proud to live in Shoals, Indiana. I hope you can say the same.

Taking a stand, tolerance, hate...

Before I even start let me say that I believe Chick-fil-A (CFA) is a great company & I admire their taking a stand however my issue comes in the fact that the response it has caused from some people is less than appealing. As a matter of fact it is downright disgusting how some have turned this into hate.

 Now I don't believe in same sex marriage and I believe what the Bible says about it. 


Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NKJV)


I am all for Christians taking a stand but what I'm not for is the hate this whole CFA thing has brought about by some NOT all. Jesus ate with sinners and the last time I checked I am a sinner. Stealing an ink pen knowingly from the bank is no less a sin than murder, adultery, or homosexuality. 


To quote a movie that most Emmaus people know "Jesus loves just about everyone". 


The other irony is there are people standing behind a $5.00 sandwich but will not stand up to the church conforming to the world. There are denominations approving things that re clearly against what the Bible teaches and even some that say the Bible isn't 100% true. 


And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? (Matthew 7:3, 4 NKJV)


Kudos to you Chick-Fil-A for taking a stand. Shame on you that have taken what they have done and turned it into something I am sure they never intended it to be.

The churches biggest obstacle... Apathy

I don't watch the news, I skim the paper. I take in enough to seem informed.

I don't get my heart involved...

I stay in a state of willing ignorance. I read the statistics but they are just numbers. I see the faces of starving children on tv, but they are just faces. My human mind cannot keep processing the state of the world. I know what will happen if I let go and find out what really is going on. I will break, my heart will cry out "why".

But there are times when I do let go, I become broken for the faces I saw, the children I held in my arms. It comes in waves... I see a brown baby and I am captivated. I smell something that reminds me of Africa and it takes me back there. I pick up a book on justice and my heart strings tug. "Helping the poor isn't undeserved charity. It's justice" Bono said that. He has taken up the cause of so many living with Aids. He is being proactive.

Apathy- 1.absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement. 2.lack of interest in or concern for things that others find moving or exciting. 3.Also, ap·a·thei·a, ap·a·thi·a Stoicism.  freedom from emotion of any kind.

I see Christians suffering from this and I do to at times. It's when we see those images that are harsh that we let guilt take over and we whip out the checkbook and write a check to the first organization we find and we breathe a sigh of relief, guilt taken care of, charity met.

 I feel a sense of doing something above the call of duty.

BUT... God continually calls us to help the needy it's all throughout scripture. God's grace and love transform and maybe that comes from guilt. God will transform us through the Holy Spirit. He will break our hearts for what breaks His. I pray often that He gives me His eyes to see with and the courage to step out in action.


You see God doesn't care about numbers ad statistics. Numbers create guilt. William, Mary, Christina, Bernard, Benidicta, Raul, Cornelious. THAT'S what God cares about. That's who God wants me to love.

When my religious activities have seemed to be a little too much about me

 "Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart I have overcome the world." John 16:33

How many times have you read that verse and thought "boy that's the truth! So and so did this to me; my kids won't mind; I can't catch up on my bills.... And the list goes on and on. If we are really honest with ourselves we will find that we tend to focus a little too much on "me".  If you think about that verse it's hard not to think that it's an understatement. 

There are 1.2 billion people in the world living in extreme poverty on less than one dollar a day. 

There are nearly 30,000 children under the age of 5 dying each day of hunger and preventable diseases. 

This is a harsh and messed up world in which we live and yet we sit on our couches and think it's a great injustice when the cable goes out or the Internet isn't working.  We have MORE material wealth than any other generation in history. We are prospering. But I wonder if God is pleased with what I am doing? I'm afraid I know the answer! 

 "Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?" Isaiah 58

Feeding the poor, caring for the oppressed can be messy, hard stuff. But what if what God wants is messy not our neat, got it all together religion. God is calling His people to do something.

He is a God of hope to bring restoration to me and you and a world full of hurt. 

"You can't comfort the afflicted without afflicting the comfortable" Princess Diana

If God is stirring in you a desire to do more, to do something my prayer is that you will seek Him for what he has for your life. 

 "He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8

My Body is About Him

by Max Lucado

“Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 6:19 NLT). Paul wrote these words to counter the Corinthian sex obsession. “Run away from sexual sin!” reads the prior sentence. “No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.” (v.18 NLT).

What a salmon scripture! No message swims more up-stream than this one. You know the sexual anthem of our day: “I’ll do what I want. It’s my body.” God’s firm response? “No, it’s not. It’s mine.”

Be quick to understand, God is not anti-sex. Dismiss any notion that God is anti-affection and anti-intercourse. After all, he developed the whole package. Sex was his idea. From his perspective, sex is nothing short of holy.

He views sexual intimacy the way I view our family Bible. Passed down from my father’s side, the volume is one hundred years old and twelve inches thick. Replete with lithographs, scribblings, and a family tree, it is, in my estimation, beyond value. Hence, I use it carefully.
When I need a stepstool, I don’t reach for the Bible. If the foot of my bed breaks, I don’t use the family Bible as a prop. When we need old paper for wrapping, we don’t rip a sheet out of this book. We reserve the heirloom for special times and keep it in a chosen place.

Regard sex the same way—as a holy gift to be opened in a special place at special times. The special place is marriage, and the time is with your spouse.

Casual sex, intimacy outside of marriage, pulls the Corinthian ploy. It pretends we can give the body and not affect the soul. We can’t. We humans are so intricately psychosomatic that whatever touches the soma impacts the phyche as well. The me-centered phrase “as long as no one gets hurt” sounds noble, but the truth is, we don’t know who gets hurt. God-centered thinking rescues us from the sex we thought would make us happy. You may think your dalliances are harmless, and years may pass before the x-rays reveal the internal damage, but don’t be fooled. Casual sex is a diet of chocolate—it tastes good for a while, but the imbalance can ruin you. Sex apart from God’s plan wounds the soul.

Your body, God’s temple. Respect it.