Random Wonderings...

Moved!

2015-02-25T06:28:00.002-05:00

This blog has permanently moved to

www.pittsfitness.com

That Guy

2014-03-16T14:55:00.000-04:00

I am "that guy".

You know "that guy".

He is smart, talented, funny and charming.

He is gifted, seemingly could do whatever he wants.

Everyone looks at him and says "wow, what potential."

He's the Ryan Leif or Aaron Carter with flashes of greatness but a life of disappointment.

And he is forever underachieving any of his dreams or the dreams set out for him.

In sports he is the classic 1st round pick that never pans out. In college, he is the Magna Cum Laude that fails on the opportunities that lies before him. In life he is the guy that excels in middle to low level career roles, but never becomes the man he could become.

Potential is scary. Potential is powerful. Potential holds the capability of becoming real. Potential is the teeter-totter of life that can tip one way or another but rarely holds stable.

Potential is label we use to express hopes of future outcomes. And a label pasted on others who fall disastrously short of expectations.

Within me is the potential, the possibility, the opportunity to become something or someone of greatness.

How does potential become reality?

For guys like me that seems to be the answer that is always just out of reach.

Most days, I feel like "that guy".

Missing it

2014-02-11T12:26:00.001-05:00

Not gonna lie, I miss it.

I took myself out of the game by choice. I was injured. I was hurting. I was in need of getting healthy.

But in my most honest reflection, I miss communicating and teaching. I miss standing in front of the audience/congregation. I miss the tinge of nervousness as you begin with a not so funny joke that you are hoping goes over. I miss the look in the eyes of someone as the gain understanding and connect with what you are sharing.

While 99% of people would rather face a grizzly bear in a steal cage match, I love speaking! But when this is who you are it is hard to deny!

I love conveying truth to people. I love giving people tools to better their lives. I love digging out ideas and presenting them in a way where someone says "I've never thought about it that way." I love the creative process. I love partnering ideas with music in an artistic marriage in that moment. I love to draw pictures with my words and sell my paintings to eager listeners.

My healing process has been long and pro-longed, mostly by me. I have built my own roadblocks to my recovery. At times thinking that staying away is the best answer.

Yet what I realize and know deep down is that what I am built, wired and birthed to do is teach and speak. Hiding from that is like asking a lion to be a house cat. Not a good plan!

In time this tame tabby cat will once again become king of the jungle and "you're gonna hear me roar."

Opportunities, Options, and Liking Neither

2013-12-19T12:13:00.000-05:00

I have sat in the same grey chair with a slightly defective right arm for the last three years. Everyday I sit and spin out to my left (hence the damage right arm) to and fro where my job leads. This has been simply a "job", a place to earn a paycheck.

In recent days my career path has presented two new opportunities. And for the first time in 3 years I have options.

The struggle...I can't say that I really like either one. Nor does staying put in my grey chair excite me anymore.

What all three options lack is the one thing that makes me feel alive. Like much of the world I live in the tension of provision and passion. The place where we stay put in order to provide. But where we find ourselves currently planted has nothing to do with our passions, callings and giftedness.

As I stand with a small plethora of possibilities, needing to make a choice, I feel that none of the choice equate to choosing me. Really they are just one more station to provide provisions lacking the fulfillment of passion.

Trying to unstuck my life to place myself in position to pursue my passions...

You're not alone!

2013-11-14T12:25:00.000-05:00

Despite what you may feel like right now, you are not ALONE!

I think we all have moments when we feel alone in our journey, whether that journey be health and fitness or just part of our walk through life. It is easy when we get down and discouraged to feel like we our left out their on our own! There is an old adage that say everyone loves you when your are on the mountain and no one walks with you through the valleys. What is most interesting is that the valleys are when we need others the most.

Here are three benefits of walking through your valleys with someone else:

1) Two are stronger than one.

There is a bible passage the says two are better than one because there is a better reward for their work. Find someone to journey with you - a workout partner, a running partner, an accountability partner who checks in on you. If your journey is not health and fitness, find someone who can partner with you in business or even just in your life.

2) Plateaus get broken

It is amazing what happen when you partner yourself with someone else. The combined energy does not just create double the energy, but has the potential to create synergy. There is an story that paints this that says if one horse can pull 700 pounds and another horse can pull 800 pounds, what is the total they can pull together? Most would answer 1500 pounds. You would be wrong. The combined efforts created a maximum of 3000 pounds. If you partner yourself with someone else who is willing to push and give effort as much as you are than your efforts get compounds past what you can do by yourself. Weight loss plateaus, running plateaus, fitness plateaus will be shattered!

3) You need someone!

"You know that I can use somebody. Someone like you!" The King of Leons penned those lyrics, but they are true for all of us. We all could use somebody. Somebody to struggle with, someone to celebrate with, someone to overcome with, someone to face the challenge with. You and I both need a "somebody" to go with us! Maybe this is a silly question, but what is the point of getting fit and healthy if you don't have any to celebrate the milestones right along side you! Find a "somebody"!

If you need help finding a someone, I would love to get you connected to some other somebodys with similar health and fitness goals! Bear this in mind when we are partnered with others in life, when one of us wins, we all win! I want to win alongside you!

Coach Jeff

First Kiss

2013-05-04T09:00:00.002-04:00

Sunday morning sittin in Grandpa's yard
Sippin' lemonade out of a mason jar
I sit and listen to that old guitar
As grandpa sings

He strums and picks songs from his past
Talks of harder times and childhood laughs
But one there's one memory that seems to out last
Every other thing

He stops his song, winks his eye
As his love passes by
He looks at me and says

(chorus)
Boy this may catch you by surprise
Of all the good things in my life
The one thing I will never forget
Is the sweet taste of that first kiss

We were just leavin' Johnson store
Where we been sippin' on cherry cokes
That sweet cherry bliss still on her lips
As I leaned for that first kiss

He goes back to singing them ole songs
Grandma comes smilin' and humming along
You can see how there love is still so strong
As it every been

(chorus)
Says boy this may catch you by surprise
Of all the good things in my life
The one thing I will never forget
Is the sweet taste of that first kiss

We were just leavin' Johnson store
Where we been sippin' on cherry coke
That sweet bliss still on her lips
As I leaned for that first kiss

Middle of Nowhere

2013-05-03T12:28:00.003-04:00

Have you ever been to California
Watched water fall off the pallisaides
Stayed all day at the beach
To watch the sun set on Laguna Bay
Sailed the ocean to the middle of nowhere
Girl, I wanna take you there

Have you ever seen the sunrise
Over the a Smokey Mountain range
Spend a drunk Friday night
Singing the blues on Beale Street
Snuggled in the bed of truck in the middle of nowhere
Girl, I want to take you there

I'm California boy, You're Tennessee girl
Two different lives, two different worlds
Loves tangles us in a hot mess
(Chorus in progress)

We could be in an Oklahoma dust storm
Tornado alley on Midwest summer night
We could go from West coast to East
We could end up broke on any ole' street
Even if it is right there in the middle of nowhere
Girl, I wanna take you there

Lyrics - When You Don't Know Where Home Is

2013-04-11T21:11:00.000-04:00

Been a vagabound, homeless
and out on the loose
Been a wanderer, lost
and man with worn out shoes
I've been out here on the fringes
This is where you go,
when you don't know where home is

I've been a drifter, a sailor
lost out at sea
I'm poet, a painter, a writer
lost in a mystery
I've been out here riding fences
This where you go,
when you don't know where home is

Where do you go___
When it's a cold shoulder and turning back
Where do you go___
When your train has jumped the track
When you have burned all your bridges
It's where you are
When you don't know where home is

When the world has left you all alone
When there is no place to call your own
When you can't go back home
Where do you go_____

Where do you go___
When it's a cold shoulder and turning back
Where do you go___
When your train has jumped the track
When you have burned all your bridges
It's where you are
When you don't know where home is

Been a vagabond...

You bring out the hurt in me.

2013-03-21T12:24:00.004-04:00

You're silence is deafening as you pass me by
Your eyes cold and distant, never meeting mine
It is like we never met, never shared this bed

The distance is great in our king size life
Somehow you cut me without words like knives,
Girl is there anything of this love left

We don't fight, we don't speak
We don't shout, we don't scream
Then why all this space in between...

No broken picture frames
There are no holes in the wall
As a matter of fact,
We don't talk at all,
But everything about you
Brings out the hurt in me

I look at the image of you in white
On that day we were all smiles
I never guessed this is where we would be

Is there a chance that our love lives on
Can we find what we once had
Girl can you ever again love me

No broken picture frames
There are no holes in the wall
As a matter of fact,
We don't talk at all,
But everything about you
Brings out the hurt in me

Eastwood

2013-03-19T20:59:00.001-04:00

Dirty Harry on a Friday night
Delivery pizza, cold Bud Light
Just you and me at your place

You get a funny look on your face
Point your finger start to say
Boy, go ahead and make my day

I've been waiting for oh so long
For the right moment to come along
Just so girl I could say

Make your day, make your night
Make it last the rest of our lives
Make love, make it right
Girl, I wanna make you my wife
So every morning I can hear you say
Go ahead and make my day.

I think I caught her by surprise
Tears well up in baby blue eyes
And left her without a word to say

Finally when she caught her breath
She looked at me and she said
Boy, go ahead and make my day

Make my day, make my night
Make it last the rest of our lives
Make love, make it right
Boy I wanna be your wife
So every morning I can say
Boy, go ahead and make my day.

Point that 44 at my heart
Pull the trigger, blow it apart

Make your day, make your night
Make it last the rest of our lives
Make love, make it right
Girl, I wanna make you my wife
So every morning I can hear you say
Go ahead and make my day.

The Songs of My Life

2013-03-17T22:17:00.002-04:00

The songs of my life...

Encapsulated in the my time capsule buried in my heart is music. Each song telling a story of a time and a place and usually a face. The way "Lady in Red" takes me back to a sorority formal with my date who would become my wife. Or "Can't Touch This" moves to back to a junior high dance with my moves that totally lacked any kind of rhythm. Music marks moments. It's MotownPhilly and Detroit Rock City. It's Two Pina Coladas and Margaritaville. The smell of teen spirit is shared with all my friends in low places...music tells our stories.

I have often found it amusing and amazing how a three and half minutes can last so long in our lives. It's comes in the burned image of the first slow dance. It is the long highway of Bon Jovi's Lost Highway. Somehow the melody creates a memory. I was Livin' on a Prayer on my BMX bike through the neighborhood. It was the Eye of the Tiger marking my underdog story of life. I can't explain the process but somehow our heart connects to pulsing melodic tones captured by our ears. The perfect blend of beat, melody and lyrics is like a branding iron on our soul so that every time that song plays we are instantly transported to a place in our past.

We ride the roller coaster of emotions of the music...the laughter and joy of girls just wanting to have fun to the tears of my heart going on. It is the toe tapping fact that I wanna dance with somebody to the heart stopping tear jerking break up song. It is the moment our song plays when there is no longer an "our" to have a song. The music doesn't know you are heart broken, but it plays on like the first cut was the deepest and the realization that I can't make you love me and love don't live here anymore.

We are the champions, we are the champions...takes you back to that moment in a high school gym. It is the way louie, louie was played by the pep band that launches a rocket man into a trip down memory lane. And yesterday was just a game we played...and one of your friends says there goes my life. Crate paper filled the a darkened gym where you built up the courage to save the last dance for her. It is the smell of the lake air where you realized it's so hard to say goodbye and knew it was the end of the road.

Although your glory days are gone, the music lives on...in the songs of my life!

I'm On My Way

2013-03-17T21:33:00.000-04:00

I left a girl in the music city
For a show in Little Rock
Down a two lane road to Biloxi
For 2 night gig at the Hard Rock

I hit the road chasing a dream
In hopes of finding my heart's peace
Making music of the melodies in my mind
In every little bar in the South

(pre-chorus)
They say my stock is rising
They say I'm gonna hit the chart
Girl this is just the start

(Chorus)
They are calling my name.
I'm on my way
They need me on the stage
I'm on my way
Girl, can't you just see me on that walk of fame
I'm on my way

The road gets cold and lonely
One more night, one more stage
Another smoke filled tavern
Not sure they even know my name

Above the noise of the bar
I still her voice saying
Come home, boy come home (female vocal)
(I'm on my way)

You Carry On

2013-03-17T21:00:00.000-04:00

When I'm too heavy,

When life is too much to take

You carry me on

When I'm too much for us both

Your patience is long

You carry me on

You carry all my sins and still love

To move me past my past

You carry all my weakness

To make me stronger than I could ever be
Without YOU

When my love comes and goes

When I am cold as stone
You carry me on

When you love and I leave
When I come back heart in hand
You carry me on

You carry all my sins and still love
To move me past my past
You carry all my weaknesses
To make me stronger than I could ever be
Without YOU

It's not fair to ask you to bear all this load
I would leave, never come back, ask me to go
So Girl you can carry on, carry on
Without Me

The Invisible Man

2013-03-16T09:05:00.000-04:00

I walk on this stage every day
Just in hopes of capturing your gaze
But you look right through me

I pause, I walk, I move your direction
You stare in the looking glass, but miss my reflection
You only see you and never me

You're in the spotlight
I am in the background
Your star shines bright
I am the one making the sound

Your voice brings joy and pain
While I am a man in the band
You live and die off all the fame
And I remain the invisible man

Like fragile China you're easily broken
The tabloid voices all have spoken
And once again you shatter

You may walk head held high
But I know your dying inside
You crumbling under all the glamour

You're in the spotlight
I am in the background
Your star shines bright
I am the one making the sound

Your voice brings joy and pain
While I am a man in the band
You live and die off all the fame
And I will stay the invisible man

Small Towns, Big Lives, Two Worlds (Part 1)

2013-03-03T21:40:00.000-05:00

For a stretch of 181 schools days in little community in central Illinois I exchanged my stylish semi-ripped up blues jeans and cool graphic t-shirts that proclaimed me as "Pastor Jeff" for some khaki pants, collared shirt and the title of Mr. Pitts, substitute teacher. It was an insiders look at a place most grown ups do not want to go, the everyday lives of small town teenagers.

It is a paradoxical planet with lives steeped in irony and complication. Yet at the same time the world is incredibly simple. It is world of big dreams in a small town. It is Friday night basketball games and school pride blended into an explosive mix of discontent for the zip code listed on every piece of mail from universities near and far wooing them away. It is all the freedom of youth while being saddled with chains of small town living. For many it is home and it is Hell.

For many of those 181 days I roamed the halls as outsider to their world. I was there to take attendance, start the video, hand out the worksheet and yell "quiet" a couple hundred times a day. I was there to fulfill a role and collect a paycheck, they were there many just trying to survive until lunch just to suffer through the rest of the day. What I never expected was to become someone they liked.

Youth pastoring gives you authority to speak to matters of the heart and life. Students have entered into your "space" knowing that you are going to say something about God, life and somewhere down the line SEX! As a youth pastor, you have a level of permission - permission from the powers that be to preach, permission from the students to a certain degree to challenge them and the way they are living. But when you enter "their" world wearing a blue and white name badge that is the substitute teacher equivalent of a Hello My Name Is...they know that you don't belong. They smell the fear in your heart, the sense the quiver in your voice and what they know is that you don't in their savanna. You are a wounded zebra and they are the pride of lions just itching to tear you apart and feast on your dead carcass. Fresh meat...and somewhere day after day in your khakis and collared shirts they realize that chase as they wish, wounded as you may be they are not going to chase you out of the field.

What I never expected to happen is to see what I saw, hear what I heard and learn what I learned. Students openly admitted drug use, sexual partners, big dreams and broken hearts. I never expected students to find me on my prep hour just to sit and talk. I never expected of all things a Facebook group dedicated to me as a substitute teacher.

What I learned from those days teaching math, science, culinary arts, chemistry, and the occasional P.E. class amounts to more than anything I could teach them. I learned a lesson in small town and dreams. If I was Malcolm Gladwell I would scientifically and eloquently dissect the differences in the two varying factions in a small town. But all I have to work with is my days in the classroom.

These groups were not so neatly divided into those with BIG dreams and those that will never leave this small town. While groups may not be neatly divided, the lines oftentimes are clearly drawn. What this blog will not answer is why? Why one group will go one way and the another the others. All I am saying is the line is there.

One group will venture off to schools with University and College neatly tagged in the title. From there they will set up residence in neighborhoods in cities that are larger than the town they grew up in. The other group will stay...stay in this small town, raise kids in this small town, make a life in this small town. This is not an statement on one choice being more right than the other. It is simply an observation. The recognition of a dividing line that sets course for the lives of students in this one small town. But if I were a betting man, I would bet the house on the fact that this one little small community is much like every other Small Town, USA.

to be continued....

When you don't know where home is

2012-12-11T12:28:00.002-05:00

I oftentimes find myself lost in a Hallmark movie daydream. Quiet little quirky town with streets lined with beautiful Christmas lights. Little shops where the owners have been there for years and know you by name, your momma by name, and your grandmomma by name. It is a place where every tension is neatly solved by the end of the time frame allotted for this little escape from reality.

What I quickly realize is the role I play in this reality is the newcomer, the outsider, the kid in town that no one quite knows what to make of. While not a villain, just the misunderstood stranger. I would love to say that life is full of happy Hallmark endings, but that would just not be true. Sometimes the tension remains and remains and goes unchanged, unresolved.

As that lost highway traveler, I have often picked up my bag and headed to the next quiet small town. While with every move I hope for a different outcome, it always seems to end the same, another place to lay my head, but no place to call home. My existence as a vagrant continues and carries on. No place to call home.

What is the affect of not knowing where home is? What is the result of the individual who has worn the holes in shoes and in his soul? I often see that picture in the looking glass of my life. Maybe all the searching, maybe all the people who have come and gone in my life, maybe what I am looking for is home. Maybe home is not the quiet little village with Joe's Bar & Grilll and Cuties Bakery on the corner. What I really believe I looking for is a place where I am me.

Home for most creates an anchoring point, a reference that reminds you where you are from, where you have been. Home for most is place of returning that allows for a proper reflection of the person you have become balanced against the person you were. What I seemingly have is suitcase full of momentary polariod memories of places I have lived. Each had a house and family and people I called friends, but none of them are home. Life has been much like a two-man canoe trying to sail in the ocean. It is the wrong craft for the environment being faced. The little boat cannot handle the waves that overtake you. There is no anchor to keep you in place. And fight and fight as you will against the tide, it just carries you further and further away from where you have been...the previous place you tried to call home.

The constant beating of the waves just leaves you weary and lost with no anchor to drop. What you realize is you have no idea where you are, where you are going and not really sure that where you have been is where you were supposed to be in the first place.

When you don't know where home is you end up anywhere and everywhere all at the same time, you end up someone, but no one. When you don't know where home is you never seem to gather the truth about who you are but live with the constant shifting of becoming who you think everyone wants you to be. You shape shift into to the person you believe everyone will accept you as. And with each different version of yourself you become, the person you were intended to become gets filed down as some sculpture that was intended to be a masterpiece, but is simply a mimic of several other works of art. Too many hands have grabbed hold you and reshaped and reshaped the clay of your life into what they want you be. In hopes of becoming something great, you let them. You become a quilt of leftover patches from other peoples hopes and dreams for your life. The seams are crooked, but secure enough that they keep you sewed into the image they place on you, all when you don't know where home is!

The Price of Rice in China

2012-09-08T09:21:00.001-04:00

My mama used to say this expression when I was a kid "what's that got to do with the price of rice in China." That expression made about as much sense to me as whatever it was that I had said that obviously did not make sense for my mom to use that quizzical expression. For one I only liked rice with my Sweet N Sour Chicken and two I did not know the price of anything, let alone rice in China.

Really this blog has nothing to do with rice or the price of it in China or anywhere else. But this expression brings to the forefront an interesting idea. Do we really know what we say? Language has always intrigued me, maybe that is why I moonlight as a part-time blogger. That being said I have been just as guilty as everyone else of loosely tossing around expressions that I have no idea what they mean or where they come from. Or worse yet, just dumb expressions. There was one summer in high school that everything I said started with the words "Dude, man..." I wish I was kidding about that but no. Literally the first words that left my mouth before anything intelligent or even semi-coherent were pre-fixed with "Dude, man..."

Maybe it is the season that we are in that drives my thinking right now. It is Presidential election season. What I have always found most disheartening about this whole process is the fact that we have to cut someone else down to build the other up. In this battle for the world's most powerful office, it is never about how good the candidate is and why you should vote for him. It is mostly about how much the other guy sucks. I guess I am a little like my mom, "what's that got to do with the price of rice in China?" When has my dislike for the other option been the deciding factor in my pick on anything? Oh I hate Taco Bell, I better go to McDonald's. Thanks McD's for reminding my hate for Nachos Grande and leading right to a Big Mac. This thinking only make sense in the political realm.

Okay, off my soapbox and onto something more beneficial. So here is the thought that centers this whole thing, because it is true does it have to be said? At what point do we place a guard on our tongue at the benefit of guarding another's heart? Mama also said "loose lips sink ships." In my day I have sank my fair share of battleships. Maybe as we watch others sling mud and launch missiles we should become more aware of our words. Just maybe the price of rice in China is more important that I ever realized.

The Man I Hear When I Laugh

2012-08-31T11:49:00.002-04:00

It used to be a scary thought. It was the one thing I did not want to be when I grew up. That one thing was...my dad. I am sure I don't stand alone in this world as the only rebellious son that wanted to push against the very image of who his 'ole man' was. It's the Christopher Columbus or Neil Armstrong in us all that desires to chart our own course, go where no man has been before, set out on our own adventure. The one thing in life we don't want to be is our dad.

To be honest, my dad is a great guy. Hard working to a fault. Faithful in every sense of the word -- despite his split decision on being a Reds and Cubs fan. Conservative and generous. He is a great guy! Yet, as a young man, he was the one thing I did not want to be. And maybe it is the human nature of boys to push against the grain. Maybe it is the arrogance of youth to believe you can do it better. But whatever it is or was, it was the one thing I was trying to avoid.

But the other day it happened and has happened more and more. I hear my dad when I laugh. It is a loud, short chuckle kind of laugh. When I first noticed I nearly subconsciously turned to see if my father was in the room. Which upon the briefest moments later I realized was next to impossible as he was hundreds of miles away. The next time it happened I tried to fight it, I tried to laugh differently.

I think it eventually happens to all of us sons, the one thing we have spent most of our lives running from, eventually catches us. Charles D. Pitts' DNA courses through my veins. It is unavoidable. So what I have learned to do is embrace it.

While there are pieces of his life that will teach where not to tread, there are also pathways he has carved that lead me to being a better man, a better husband and a better father. For sure, we have not always seen eye to eye, but that does not mean I did not look up to him. While he faces his own struggles, he does so with grace, humility and an honor I could learn from.

When I hear the laughter of my father in my laugh, I become thankful the man that taught me to ride on two wheels and play catch. And I realize that possibly one day my sons, will hear me in their laughter...my hope is that they are grateful for the man I have raised them to be.

Thanks dad!

Walking in Circles...

2012-08-18T10:46:00.002-04:00

Sometimes a shout, sometimes a whisper, and at other times dead silent. That voice that has been called intuition, conscience, or even Jiminy Cricket is the voice of God, the Spirit of Jesus. It is the voice that leads us into and out life's decisions.

For me I am an outside thinker. I have to audibly say something for my brain to soul to catch up with my brain or maybe really it is the other way around. Either way I have to make verbal sense of the seeming nonsense swirling inside. I have taken to a habit based on a book I read and teaching series we have done at church. I have begun walking in circles. Yes, literally walking in circles - around the things that I long to see God do in my life. In this case, it is the building that I desire a job in.

God's promise is not the job. I never heard that voice whisper or shout "this is your job". But the promise came in an overwhelming assurance from God that there would be an end to our struggle. For years, in all honesty, our finances have been a roller coaster - times we have been making progress on paying off bad financial choices and times of struggling having more month than money. So I have circled the promise of God's provision and placed my faith into action by literally "circling" the specification of how I believe God wants to answer that promise.

Truth is, I may not get that job, but it doesn't change God's promise of provision. It simply changes the specifics of how he fulfills it in our life. Either way...I will keep circling.

the sleepy bear

2012-06-24T08:09:00.000-04:00

It has been way too long since my fingers have raced across the keys to punch out some seemingly thought that to no one else makes sense but me. While I steal a minute away from my life I wanted to see if I could unearth some thought in me that has been hidden in the recesses of my heart and mind just dying to be exposed to the light of the blogosphere.

While I am really starting with no ending place in my (dangerous, I know), I at least have this thought bouncing of neurons in my brain: it is funny how passions can be de-passionated by our lack of use or involvement in them. If you look back it has been nearly "forever" since I last posted to my blog. Here is the question: did my passion for writing go away or did I just fail to fuel the passion?

Let me give a life example. I grew up playing baseball. That may be understated, I played baseball all the time. I played summer league, I played in the neighborhood, I played with tennis balls and tennis racquets, we played wiffle ball, I played imaginary games where the Cubs seemingly won the World Series every year and I either hit the walk-off home run or was the shut down closer. Baseball was my passion. Somewhere around 17 that stopped or at least faded away. Sure I followed the Cubs on Sportscenter, I even attended a few games, but that passion for the grand ole game was not the same...until I had boys.

Two summers in to my sons' little league experience and I find myself not only oiling their mitts, but my own. I not only am teaching them the fine art of hitting, running and fielding, but am finding my desire to sharpen the skill set (just in case this is the year I get drafted, in terms of baseball). What lied dormant has been breathed new life on. It is like the hibernating bear - sure the bear is asleep, but it is still a bear with all the power and fierceness of a bear. And if you awaken that sleepy grizzly you will see all the power and fierceness come to life.

So the question then becomes: what are the hibernating bears in our life? I realized I will never play professional baseball and for the most part understand it is a long shot for my boys. But I have enjoyed awakening the bear. But there are other bears in our lives that have gone to sleep...the bear of our marriages, the bear of our spiritual lives, the bear of a friendship or relationship with a family member, the bear of gift or talent that we use to give back to others. In all of our lives there is something that has fallen asleep that when awake has a great passion to inspire us and move us.

The challenge is to awaken the bear...this post is me poking a stick at the writing grizzly asleep in the cave.

Spiritual Real Estate

2012-04-06T12:30:00.001-04:00

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and then walked away with the perfect thing you should have said? That happened to me last night.

While working I got engaged in a conversation about faith and religion(s). The entire conversation hung around one principle: how are you sure that other faiths are not right too? While we cordially conversed sharing thoughts and opinions on the topic, what seemed to keep arising was an us/them language. For whatever reason as people we love dichotomy - right/wrong, black/white, Cubs/Cards.

What I realized is God does not see sides. The verse popped in my head where Paul declares that we are the buildings of God. The image that polluted my mind's eye was that we are all God's buildings. Each and every one of us was designed and built to be the inhabited by a loving God. The truth is that agnostic, Islamic, Buddist, or whatever faith group that the "them" of our conversation exists in, does not change the fact that they are spiritual real estate designed and constructed to be inhabited by a living and live-in God. The "thems" might be looked at better as abandoned or empty buildings, space God is looking to purchase with the price of the cross. Maybe our view of the "thems" is not as opposition but space that God desires to live in.

To take it one step further, we are not space for lease. We do not let God just occupy the space as a renter but we surrender ownership of heart and life to God. I remember as a teenager kicking God out from time to time so that I could turn my building into whatever I wanted it to be - brothel, nightclub, cigar shop. That is not God's plan. Faith in Christ is giving over all ownership rights to Jesus, who is designer, engineer, contractor, constructor of who you are. Who better to own the building than the one who out of love designed it, built it and paid for it.

Who lives in your spiritual real estate?

Tuesday Tune Mat Kearney

2012-03-27T22:52:00.003-04:00

I remember the first time I heard "Undeniable" on the radio and thought "that is amazing". Mat Kearney has an amazing craft for spinning a lyric that is delivered uniquely in the form of spoken word or smooth vocals. His story telling ability over the top of sweet melodies soothes the soul and is as unique as can be found.

Mat hails from the great northwest of Eugene, OR which is mentioned in more than one song, but currently calls Nashville, TN home. Kearney has been dubbed one of the up and coming songwriters in Nashville. He has pulled a double feat by having a single currently airing on the pop charts with "hey Mama" and another one climbing the Christian charts with "Down" both off the his latest release "Young Love".

Today's tune is a two for one, featuring Renaissance originally from Nothing Left to Lose LP, but featured here off Acoustic EP. Hey Mama, freebie for the week, is off Mat's latest release. Enjoy one of my faves!

Spring Break at 35

2012-03-24T19:44:00.002-04:00

University students have just finished their week of rest, relaxation and unruly behavior. My kids are a week away from a week's vacation to nana's house. Which leads to the absurd, but brilliant question of my four year-old daughter. "Daddy, when do you get spring break?" My initial reaction to her questioning was adults don't have spring breaks or summer breaks or winter breaks. And the more I thought about it, we don't often get breaks at all.

At the ripe age of 35 (or nearly that) my spring breaks are not Panama City Beach parties, nor are they the week long high school baseball trips, nor are they even 7 days of riding bikes and sleeping late. Okay sure we have weekends. Which are usually filled with work of another sort -- working in the yard, working with our kids, working at the church, working at whatever else fills our schedules that are already full. Maybe a spring break is not such a bad plan after all. Now must of us cannot afford to take a week off of work and spend it on the beach or even at nana's house, but maybe we need to be more aware of our need for breaks.

God took six days to create the earth and everything in it and then he rested. A better expression is he stopped or paused. For most of us the day to day grind multiplied with the weekend of non-stop on the run scheduling keeps us from the one thing we may just need the most, a Sabbath, a rest, a stop, a spring break of sorts. This spring here is the challenge take a day or a weekend and stop everything or at least as much as you can. Find time to be refreshed, to be renewed, to recharge because if you do everything else will benefit from it. You will become a better spouse, parent, employee, boss. Take a spring break!

The Quiet Life

2012-03-23T12:17:00.001-04:00

My house is filled with the noise of the warring sounds of two televisions airing Nickelodeon and Disney, a little girl singing songs she makes up, a fight over which Kickin' It character is which and small whimper about hating homework. At this moment my life is filled with the white noise of other peoples conversations and carts bounce across a tile floor moving from one building to the next while NEEDTOBREATHE fills my earbuds. Later tonight shouting and hollering and cheering for two boys as they swing for the fences and hustle around basepaths. Only to be followed by the religion that is UK basketball that comes with hands raised, knees bents, shouting a pinstriped shirts and possibly weeping if things do not go well.

Life is noisy.

In the midst of the plan of this day is the challenge of what I read as a stole a moment away to find quiet. (Take your guess where that was.) I ran across the verse that said to live a quiet life. This tidbit of insight is tucked away in the first letter to the church at Thessalonica. Paul was not addressing the outside noise, but the noise we make a Christians. The challenge was to let your life speak on your behalf in order that those who do not know this God we serve will respect the way we live.

This got me thinking about all the times my faith has been noisy for no purpose other than just to make noise. Now I believe, as believers, we need to take stands for justice and mercy. But how often have we just been noisy to those who have no understanding of the noise we make? How often has the noisiness of our faith been more of detractor than and attraction to those who do not know Christ?

"Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. Then people who are not Christians will respect the way you live..." I Thess. 4:11-12

I would love to hear your comments on this question: Is your life too noisy?

Tuesday Tune - Give Me Faith

2012-03-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

Oftentimes when we think of faith, we think that the opposite is simply a lack thereof. While simplified the answer is yes, if we dig deeper what we find is that a lack of faith leaves us with an abundance of fear. Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC released a song tied to a teaching series and book by lead pastor Steven Furtick entitled "Sun Stand Still". The song title is simply a declaration and request of God to "Give Me Faith".

In recent days this has been an anthem of my heart as I have personally looked to overcome the fears of my life with the faith God gives. If your life has been overrun with fear and you need a double shot of faith in your life let your ears and heart be made glad with this week's Tuesday Tune: