This and That and Miscellaneous Stuff!

Over the past few weeks, I have found it hard to find topics to blog about. Finally, I just decided that I would do a potpourri of various topics until something just stands out.

While driving through the Dallas/Ft. Worth area recently, my wife and I kept seeing the billboards with pictures of people saying, "I am Second!", with the web-site IAmSecond.com underneath. We finally looked this site up. It is a site dedicated to people who are in recovery from various addictive behaviors. These recovering addicts tell their stories about how they realized that they needed God to help them in their lives. By putting God "first" in their lives and putting themselves "second" they are working to overcome their problems and stay on the road to recovery. It is a cool site. I really like the story of Josh Hamilton, who currently plays outfield for my Texas Rangers.

Speaking of the Texas Rangers, baseball season is almost upon us. This is my favorite sport by far of the major 4 (Baseball, Football, Basketball, and Hockey) in the United States. It seems the Rangers are going to have to rely heavily on their young pitchers to step up and perform well. I agree with the Rangers strategy of not "breaking the bank" to sign big name players, and I hope our young guys, with some veteran support can do well this year. If I get to attend any Ranger games live this year, I will have to get a Josh Hamilton t-shirt.

Other news from the baseball front. It seems the ever so wonderful, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroid use back in 2003. Well, well, what a surprise! It seems baseball's golden boy did a little juicing himself. What is really sad, because of this recent scandal, one sports writer has resorted to calling the Rangers the worst abusers of steroids in baseball. The nerve of that guy. I am not going to sit here and say none of the Texas Rangers have ever used steroids, but to call them the worst abusers in the league; Come on man!

I refuse to comment on the goings on with our nation's government. If you have read any of my past blogs, I think you know I feel about throwing out billions of dollars to agencies, businesses, and even the common tax payers in an effort to stop the current financial crisis we are in. Hey, I am not about to turn down free money, if it comes my way, but I think we brought this crisis on ourselves by not being good stewards of the boundless blessings God gave us. Throwing more money our way will not help us learn the lessons we need to learn to prevent this from happening again in the future. I guess I commented after all! Sorry!

Sunday, our preacher, gave us an excellent lesson about. "Flying Stand-By!" Have you ever flown stand-by? I have not. People who fly stand-by have to wait to find out if someone else has cancelled a flight or if their will be any unbooked seats on a plane in order to board that particular flight. It creates lots of uncertainties and stress because they do not know if they will be able to board the plane or not. People who have already booked their flights and have their tickets can arrive at the gate with a more relaxed attitude because they know they are going to get on the plane.

As Christians many of us live like we are on "stand-by" when it comes to our eternal salvation. Despite the many promises of God and the gift of Grace through the death of Jesus, many Christians have not accepted God's "free ticket" to get into Heaven. We still believe we have to earn our way into Heaven. We live a life of uncertainty, as if we are unsure if we will get into Heaven or not. Those Christians who have fully accepted the Grace of God through Jesus, can live a life focused on the important things we have to do while still here on this Earth. We can relax (to an extent) knowing we are going to going to live with our King forever. All we have to be concerned about is fighting the battle against darkness and making sure others know that God has give them a free-ticket on the plane to Heaven.

Also just to catch you up on the recent concerns regarding Jamie's health; read her recent blog about what is going on with her health.