Greatest Game Ever?

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Jason

Obviously, it should come as no surprise to most of you that I’m on cloud nine today. My beloved Cardinals, down to their last strike, not once but twice, the season hanging by a precarious thread with the Rangers poised on the top step ready to erupt in blissful jubilation…my Cardinals, against all odds, backs against the wall, fouling off pitches and fighting and scrapping and clawing, “manufacturing” runs in the 8th, 9th, 10th AND 11th innings to win what is already being hailed as “THE GREATEST WORLD SERIES GAME EVER.”

So yeah, I’m pretty excited.

But greatest game ever? Not so fast.

Sure, as a Cardinal fan, there’s the personal investment I have in this team and the thrill of watching them win after botching it royally in the early innings. (Sidebar: Matt Holliday should do David Freese’s laundry for a year, if not the duration of his 17-million-a-year albatross contract.) And it’s next to impossible for me to separate this game from it’s context: 10.5 games back in August; getting into the playoffs on the final day of the season; down 2-1 to Philly in the DS; down 3-2 to Texas; down to our last strike (twice!!!). Add in the back-and-forth nature of this thing and Freese’s dramatic extra-base hits and, sure, you have an epic. No question.

But how about we let the hyperbole run its course and come back a week from now, a month from now, and see how we feel.

Again, I’m mustering up all the objectivity I can find, but I can’t quite anoint this as the Greatest Game Ever. For starters, it was only Game 6. There have been quite a few dramatic Game 7’s in the sports history that outrank this one (’91 comes to mind immediately; ’01 would be in the conversation, too). As dramatic as this Game 6 was, it wasn’t for all the marbles. As colossal as the Rangers’ FAIL is here, they could easily come out tonight and score 14 runs and win it going away. Plus, this game was just sloppy in places. Hard to compare this one to the pristine 1-0 Game 7 of 1991.

So let’s recognize this one for what it was: an intensely epic game, one of the most thrilling World Series games we’ve seen in quite some time. And let’s hope for one more good game tonight, since it’ll be a long, long time before they’ll be at this again. (To say nothing of the fact that we might be bidding Albert adieu at Series’ end. Shudder the thought.)

Go Cards. And Happy Game 7, everybody.

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Quote: Jesus Went the Way of the Cross

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Jason

From First Importance, a great daily reminder of the nature of the Gospel:

As the captain of salvation, Jesus Christ in his earthly ministry marched from Sinai to Zion, leading captivity captive. Resisting the way of glory falsely promised by Satan in the temptation, Jesus went the way of the cross, marching all the way to the gates of hell to crush the serpent’s head and to throw open the prison doors.

— Michael HortonThe Gospel-Driven Life(Grand Rapids, Mi.: Baker Books, 2009), 167

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The Greatest of These

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Jason

Over the years, I’ve developed my own working theology of Paul’s discourse on love found in 1 Cor. 13. I’ve used this material in sermons, in premarital counseling, and in conversation with good friends. In particular, I’ve always been struck by Paul’s statement relative to the superior quality of love.

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. — 1 Cor. 13.13

Best I can tell, there is an enduring, eternal quality to love that makes it greater than faith and hope. Although faith is integral to our walk with God — conviction of things not seen — faith someday becomes sight. At the revelation of Jesus Christ, our confession of His lordship will be a matter of fact, not faith (Phil. 2). The inevitable outcome of faith is sight. The same is true of hope. As essential as hope is to the life of the believer, hope culminates in the realization of our hearts deepest desires in relationship with God. When Kingdom comes, we won’t want for anything more as we experience full satisfaction in the glorious presence of the Lord. Faith and hope, important as they are in the present, reach their end (telos) in eternity.

On that day, all that will be left is love: the love God experiences within Himself, the interpenetrating divine quality that binds Father, Son, and Spirit in eternal relationship; the love God chooses to share and reveal with creation, a love most fully understood in the suffering and resurrection of Christ; and the love God’s image-bearers experience in community with one another, a self-giving and hospitable posture of reciprocally redemptive concern.

As the Psalmist writes:

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever.

This means our God’s love will reign eternal. His enduring love never ceases, never fails, never ends.

No matter how bad it gets — His love endures forever.

Christ on the cross — His love endures forever.

The empty tomb — His love endures forever.

As we commune with one another — His love endures forever.

As we weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice — His love endures forever.

To the God who is over all and through all and in all — His love endures forever.

This makes love the greatest of these.

Posted in 1 Corinthians 13, Kingdom Values, Love God, Scripture | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Guts

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Jason

This might be my favorite Cardinal team in recent memory. When ace Adam Wainwright went down in March, Cardinal fans braced for a long season. “Let’s just sign Pujols,” was the prevailing sentiment among many. Play for 2012 and beyond.

But this club never bought into that line of thinking. Not when all the pundits picked them to finish 3rd in their division. Not when former All-Star closer inexplicably lost the ability to get anybody out in the late innings (or any inning, for that matter). Not even when franchise stalwart Albert Pujols fractured his wrist mid-summer, potentially ending his season. Pujols came back, and so did the Cardinals. They kept showing up, kept grinding. Refused to throw in the towel, showed lots of “guts”, even when they were 10.5 games out of the wild card race in late August. They went on a ridiculous late season tear — thanks to the “Happy Flight” rally call and a colossal choke job by the Braves — and made the playoffs on the last day of the season. They faced the Phillies and nobody gave them a chance to win…but they found a way to grind out a series win in 5 games. Then they played Milwaukee and again, nobody expected them to win…until they did, this time in 6 games. And now they’re in the Series, chasing their 11th championship all-time.

But I love that TLR has been wringing production from each member of the 25 man roster. There’s Octavio Dotel, or the Ryan Braun-equalizer as he’ll be remembered; there’s erstwhile closer Jason Motte, who has nearly as many saves in the postseason as he had in the regular season; Allen Craig, Mr. Pinch Hit; Mark Rzepczynski, or “Scrabble” as his teammates call him; David Freese, the NLCS MVP whose assertion as a force in the #6 spot makes the Cards lineup as deep as any in baseball; Lance Lynn, who looks like the 2nd coming of Bruce Sutter; and Arthur Rhodes, whom the Rangers are paying to get Josh Hamilton out this postseason.

I don’t know if the Cardinals are going to win the Series this year. But I know this: the ’11 Cardinals have showed more guts than any team I’ve ever followed. And that’s why I love ’em.

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In October, Beauty Is…

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Jason

...the series-clinching dogpile.

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Breaking the Fast

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Jason

So about a month ago, I decided to take a two week fast from Facebook. A few days into my fast, I heard a bunch of people griping about some changes Facebook had made, how much they hated it, etc. But I held fast. With the exception of replying to some ministry related message in my FB inbox, I didn’t log on at all; no status updates, no news feed perusing, nothing.

After two weeks, I decided to slowly immerse myself back into the world of Facebook. A month after my fast began, here are some of my observations:

  1. Initially, I was shocked at just how many times during the course of the day I had to catch myself from logging on to FB just out of habit. Got a few minutes before a meeting? Sitting at a red light or waiting in a doctor’s office? Out of force of habit, I’d just mindlessly check in to Facebook. My fast revealed to me that at least 10 times a day, I had been wasting time on FB, which is WAY too much.
  2. On the flip side, I was amazed at how much more productive I was by channeling all that energy and time into meaningful tasks. I got more work done, which freed me up to do more of the things that I really want to be doing, rather than wasting time on Facebook.
  3. I knew this would happen, but I felt a lot less connected to my “extended” friends. Like extended family, extended friends are those people that you’re close to, but you don’t talk to them or see them often. Through FB, you’re able to maintain some semblance of correspondence with them, even if the correspondence is intermittent and limited to status updates and comments on walls. By unplugging from FB, I instantly lost what little connection I had with these friends.
  4. But I was hoping this would happen, too — I immediately felt more connected to some of my closest friends. Rather than checking in on them via FB, I had to actually pick up the phone and call them if I wanted to talk. I also felt more present to the people I love the most — my family. Rather than being distracted, I was more fully present in conversation with my family, which was a huge plus. Think about it: how often are you on FB when you could be talking with your spouse or playing with your kids?
  5. In the end, I’ve realized how little I really miss Facebook. The fast has been a really healthy exercise to help me see how much of a distraction FB had become in my life. But thankfully, it was just that, a distraction, not an obsession. But after a month (more or less) away from it, I’m ready to come back to FB on my own terms.

What will those terms be? Here are a few suggestions I’m mulling over:

  1. Limits. We all need parameters and limits in our lives. With something like FB, it’s probably even more important because, a) we don’t see it being something that’s very harmful, and b) we don’t see how much of a time suck FB is for us. A healthy relationship with FB respects time and frequency parameters.
  2. God-honoring. The good thing about FB is that it gives you a tremendous platform to communicate with others. A good question to ask: How can I use this platform to best honor God? Status updates can be completely mindless (as plenty of mine are) or they can be intentionally God-focused. I want to use FB to share more scripture, more spiritual thoughts, ask more faith-oriented questions of my friends.
  3. No substitutions. FB communication is an inevitable part of our lives now, but if I can help it, I don’t want to let FB be a substitute for “real” interaction: a phone call, a conversation over a cup of coffee, etc.

All in all, I’d recommend a FB fast for anyone serious about re-evaluating their relationship with social media.

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Still Alive

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Jason

Just a quick post to let you know I’m still among the living. This is finals week for school, so doing a lot of school work this week. But I hope to be making regular posts again real soon. Until then..

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2011 MLB In Review

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Jason

So every year, I make my picks for division winners in Major League Baseball. With one day left in the regular season, it’s time to look back and see how I fared.

AL West

This one was fairly easy. Not only did we all know the Rangers were the best team in the division, but I wasn’t able to make my pick until early June. Still, the Rangers have secured a second straight division title and they’re right where they want to be: nobody’s even talking about the 2010 AL pennant winner heading into this postseason. I picked Oakland to finish second; I really liked some of their offseason acquisitions, but only Josh Willingham can be considered a successful signing. And who could’ve known Brett Anderson would go down like he did.

AL Central

All right, so this is one place where I really blew it. I picked Minnesota to win it all, although I made the pick with quite a bit of hesitation. At the time, I was thinking Morneau and Mauer would be healthy for a good chunk of the season (which didn’t happen). I was also thinking Francisco Liriano and Scott Baker would elevate their play and pitch like aces (which also didn’t happen). I had Detroit finishing second, so I was at least in the ball park on that one. But when it came to my analysis of the Chicago White Sox, I made what is now a laughable statement:

Adam Dunn could lead the league in home runs playing half his games at U.S. Cellular.

What? You mean to tell me you knew he would hit .160?

I did say that Ozzie Guillen “might want to keep the resume handy”. So there’s that.

AL East

Like most of the baseball world, I had Boston pegged as the most complete team in the game coming into the season. Deep lineup, deep rotation, deep pen, deep pockets to make in-season acquisitions. And after an atrocious start, Boston quickly righted the ship and looked the part for about five months. But 161 games in, this is getting ugly. Losing guys like Buchholz and Youk have really hurt the Sox, but this squad simply doesn’t have a stopper, an ace that can take the ball every fifth day and stop the bleeding. And other than Ellsbury, the rest of the lineup appears to be in a month long funk.

Contrast this with Joe Maddon’s indefatigable Rays. They’re middle of the pack in runs and slugging percentage, but they’ve pitched and stolen their way into contention, forcing a Wild Card tie with one game to play. Can’t say I didn’t see it coming. In April, I wrote:

When you can pitch well and catch the ball, you’ll win your fair share of games. I expect the Rays to contend for the Wild Card.

I didn’t see the Yankees being so dominant. Beyond C.C., I couldn’t see where the wins were going to come from. Little did I know Ivan Nova, Freddy Garcia, and Bartolo Colon would show up like they did. But Yankee fans, do you feel comfortable with these guys starting a Game 2 in the playoffs? That feeling in the pit of your stomach should tell you everything you need to know.

NL West

Okay, so I can admit when I’m wrong. I picked the Giants to repeat. Not only could they pitch, but I expected Brandon Belt to put up solid numbers as a rookie and Buster Posey to assert himself as the league’s premier catcher. Didn’t happen. I expected Colorado to contend on the strength of their formidable lineup and a few young arms. Also didn’t happen. The one surefire pick in this division was Arizona. Here’s what I said:

This is the one divisional pick I feel the best about. I just don’t see Arizona rising above any of the other clubs in the West.

I picked Arizona to finish fifth. In the words of John Locke, “I was wrong.”

Granted, I think most prognosticators missed this one, too. But still, you hate to miss something by this much.

NL Central

I picked Milwaukee to win, which has seemed kinda obvious all season. The Brewers are a very good team and I expect them to really make some hay this postseason.

And of course, we all knew the bottom of the division was just terrible. Here was my sage-like prediction for all my Cub fan friends:

If you seriously think you can rely on [Carlos Zambrano] for quality, non-tantrum filled innings this year, you’re crazy.

For the Pirate fans:

Their cleanup hitter is Lyle Overbay. What else do you need to know?

I actually laughed out loud re-reading that tonight.

The pick I wrestled most with was St. Louis. I wanted to be a realist after Wainwright went down in March, so I picked them to finish third. But I noted that this was still a veteran team with a lot to prove. Their season has perhaps been best typified by the production of Lance Berkman, the aging slugger the Cardinals picked up in free agency last offseason. The pick was generally panned by most industry pundits, and while I didn’t completely castigate John Mozeliak for the move, I did say this:

Lance Berkman has to a) stay healthy, b) not kill himself trying to play RF for the first time in 5 years and, c) reestablish himself as an offensive force.

Check, mostly check, and check.

This is still a very flawed team. Heck, look at the bullpen. But this team has done more than simply make things interesting these past few weeks. In what may be Albert Pujols’ swan song in St. Louis red, this club has played inspired ball. When Cy Young contender Adam Wainwright went down in spring training, if you’d have told me then that we’d be going into the final game of the season tied for the lead in the Wild Card, I would’ve taken it. Now, it’s real simple: Keep winning. And when we stop winning, sign Pujols and get ready to win again in 2012. Go Cards!

NL East

I had Philly here, which just about everybody did. But I also had Atlanta finishing second, contending for the Wild Card. I really think Atlanta is a great team. They’ve done what they’ve done while sustaining their fair share of injuries, too. Tommy Hanson has absolutely electric stuff and losing him for the remainder of the season really killed them. But this bullpen has been lights out and guys like Freddie Freeman have really stepped up their game this season.

If you’re keeping score, that means I correctly picked three division winners and I was also high on Boston, Detroit, Tampa, and Atlanta. And I completely whiffed on Arizona and San Fran. All in all, not bad.

Happy postseason.

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The Perfect Church Service

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Jason

The perfect church service would be one were almost unaware of. Our attention would have been on God. — C.S. Lewis

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A Facebook Fast

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Jason

Let me begin by saying: I don’t think I have an unhealthy relationship with Facebook. If I had to guess, I’d say I’m probably on Facebook a couple of times a day, sometimes to reply to messages, but mostly just to waste time. But still, I wouldn’t say I’m on there too much. Honestly, I can’t even remember the last status update I posted.

With that caveat out of the way, I’m starting to think that whatever time I’m spending on FB is probably too much time. I have this growing wariness toward social media. (And yes, I’m well aware of the irony of “blogging” about this wariness.) Think about it. The interaction is fairly shallow and disposable. How much time do you waste reading updates from people that you honestly don’t know all that well? Facebook may give you a false sense of “connectivity”, but I challenge you to consider the depth of that connectivity. Does Facebook make your face-to-face interactions more or less meaningful? Do you have “friends” that you follow on Facebook, but you have nothing to talk to them about “in the flesh”? I’ve just about come to the conclusion that social media connectivity is nothing but a myth, a facsimile of the kind of interaction we truly desire.

So after reading this guy’s pretty compelling argument for taking a Facebook fast, I’ve decided to give it a shot. Lots of other people have done this over the years, so this isn’t an original thought. It’s just something I want to take a shot at. Here are a few of the groundrules:

  • I’ll be fasting from Facebook for the next two weeks, until Sunday Oct. 2nd.
  • No status updates for two weeks.
  • No perusing the news feed for two weeks.
  • The only interaction allowed is responding to urgent messages via Facebook inbox.
  • All the time I’ve wasted on Facebook will be intentionally funneled back into productive tasks.

I doubt this will be a permanent move, although I’m not entirely ruling it out. I just want to see how I feel about Facebook after a two week detox. My theory is that I won’t even really miss it that much. Time will tell.

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