Searching

Today is a strange day, and to keep my mind occupied from the things it would rather not occupy itself with I'm thinking about Jimmy Buffet. Not so much the man, but that fictional character that many of us think we now and sometimes rely on for advice in times of questions without answers and wrestling without an opponent.

I've been thinking about Parrot Heads and Margarittaville and the party that is the Jimmy Buffet franchise, and thinking how different that is than how I think about my first Jimmy Buffet record (yes record, my Dad still has it). When I discovered Jimmy I had yet to taste a Margaritta, but there was some deeper longing for meaning that I could tap into, and as I have gotten older songs like "A Pirate Looks at Forty," and "Tin Cup Chalice" seem to speak even more clearly to me about what I'm still looking for. I don't have any desire to go have a cheeseburger in paradise or drink margaritta's until I can't remember the questions, but I'd like to sit down with Jimmy, at least the fictional one in my head and ask him what he meant when he wrote or sang some of that stuff. The parrothead franchise doesn't appeal to me, but their is something deeper that does.

As I was thinking about this I'm going to make a quantum leap and say the same is true with Christianity for me these days. I still love going to church, still love to hear about Christ. But there is a franchise nature to it that makes me want to run away and hide or worse. Like wanting to find out who Jimmy was when he was hanging out in Livingston, Montana (not Texas as has been reported) I want to read my Bible and find Jesus that was hanging out with real people. Yes, as the story of Simeon shows Jesus was God from the time he was a baby, but somehow like Jimmy Buffet in the mass marketing of it all I think we have it wrong.

Three and 0, 0 and 3

Just an update on the team that we are 3-0, but the varsity is 0-3 which is probably more important. We play 5 games in the next 8 days, and as of this weekend they promoted my best players, so I'm guessing my perfect season is in trouble, but I'd rather see the varsity get over the hill at this point than to win 9th grade games.

Interesting ideas kicked around on Sunday between church and our small group. Basically, it all came down to a challenge that to live fully as Christ would have us live we must live boldly and follow where many others may not go. Part of it came through the story of the wise men in a sermon, and part of came out of John Ortberg's, "If You Want to Walk on Water You Have to Get Out of the Boat" DVD that we discussed in small group. Somewhere in there I kept getting the message that I'm currently out of my boat, but where God wants me to be, and fighting against it sucks the joy out of what he is doing in my life. Lots of other related thoughts.

Christmas is really kicking up. Seems to bring about so many emotions in people and things for me can pretty high and low which I don't think is uncommon. I'm sending out prayers that the highs would be real, we would count our blessings in the low spots, and get an unexpected call from a friend when the lows get too low.

One and O

The Watertown Mayer Basketball 9th Grade Girls basketball team is now 1-0, which surpasses my win total for last year before Christmas by 100%. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with coaching, I have a phenom 7th grader who turns broken plays into 3 pointers.

In other basketball news the 5th grade girls are 1 and 1 after two games this weekend. The middle daughter went 0-1 from the field but is showing some improvement and is a lot of fun to watch.

The 8th grade boys play only once before Christmas and a dance scheduling conflict looms large in possibly changing the date of the game. Priorities - it's good to have them when they are convenient.

Also, got some time with great friends on Saturday. It's great when God provides some unexpected moments with people we care about.

Cat vs Griz and other nonsense

I'll admit that I love to terrorize my niece by pretending to big the world's biggest Grizzly fan, but the bottom line is I just don't give it that much thought. Once you move out of state if either school does well good for them. For instance I was in Dickinson, North Dakota over the Thanksgiving weekend and it was fun to watch UM Western hand it to Dickinson State.

However, I've been watching some of the posts on the Cat-Griz rivalry on the Billings Gazette website and some of these people are nuts. They have way too much time and energy wrapped up in finding denigrating ways to refer to one school or the other.

By the way, am I the only one who thinks it is interesting that Myles Brand can keep a straight face while testifying before Congress that the NCAA should remain tax exempt. If I had a few extra million dollars I'd take a run at creating a new league. The NCAA is simply a big business monopoly. It may not be all bad, but let's go ahead and call it what it is. It may even be the lesser of several evils, but it comes with it's own problems.

Then again, I may be just having a cynical day but it is kind of ironic that Dr. Brand is talking about how it is really for the good of the athletes in front of a body that says it is really for the good of the "people". I have a hard time believing that either one of those things is true anymore.