Author: Jonathan Blundell

I'm a husband, father of three, blogger, podcaster, author and media geek who is hoping to live a simple life and follow The Way.

Classified Special

So in about 10 minutes we put together this ad special for Harker Heights today.
I think it should be a good sale – I almost want to say – if you pass on this deal, you’re an idiot. But you can’t do that, now can you.
Here’s the sale: Buy a 2×3 (classified) ad or larger at our regular $6 a column inch rate, and get an unlimited number of line ads (20 words or less) for $1 an ad.
If I were a realtor or salesperson – I’d jump all over that.
Get the office or dealership to buy the 2×3 ad and then each salesman can buy as many ads as they want for $1 a piece.
What do you think?

Observations of a traveling musician (v. 2)

A few months back a friend and I spent an evening with singer/songwriter Allen Levi.

Now as a disclaimer, that might sound like it was me and him just hanging out – and that’s not entirely true – but in the intimate venue it felt like it was just Allen, me and a few friends.

Allen pointed out that as a singer/songwriter his main job is to notice things. I thought that was a good job summary.

As an editor/columnist/storyteller, I think that’s my main job as well.

I was listening to Allen’s music this week and thought I’d share some of the observations I remembered from an evening with Allen Levi.

People are big. Houses are small.

I think we’ve all seen drawings done by younger children.

People are rarely drawn proportional, but nine-times-out-of-ten, they’re all smiling as big as they can.

They may have eight fingers on one hand and two on the other.

They may be as skinny as a blade of grass, with a giant pumpkin for a head.

They may have no clothes or feet, but the people in drawings by children, don’t seem to mind.

They’re a part of a great big happy universe, where judging and laughing at others does not exist.

Allen told the story of a four-year-old friend of his who loved drawing with chalk on the sidewalk.

Her drawings were a wonderful representation of how she viewed the world.

Levi noticed that in all of her drawings, Olivia would always draw the people big and the houses small.

These giant people that Olivia saw would never be able to fit into their tiny houses, but that wasn’t important to Olivia.

She put the importance upon the people.

And scripture tells us that that’s exactly what Christ did as well.

He didn’t care what house you lived in, what position you held, whether you were a leper, a blind man, or a He-man. You were important in His eyes.

I have several friends working in Russia right now with orphans. My sister just returned from working with orphans in China.

As they send back their pictures and as I look at Kara’s picture book, I see what’s really important to them.

While if I went, I might take tons of pictures of big, fancy, ornate buildings, their pictures are full of smiling, happy children.

Their homes don’t matter, the clothes on their back don’t matter. They’re all “precious in His sight.”

People are big. Houses are small.

Southern Living vs. Southerners living

If we were to take two houses, you might find a stark contrast in their make up.

The house at 610 might be the picture of beauty and class.

While the house at 612 might be cluttered with bikes in the yard, mud on the floor and a wet dog chasing kids over the couch.

610 has a ghost of a man, with a wife and two kids who are never seen.

612 is a family of five who love each other and those around them.

610 never has company, they’re too busy with their job, school and soccer games.

612 never minds the interruptions of “happy lightening,” when people stop by unexpected, just to enjoy the company of friends.

It’s never really known if the people at 610 are home or gone.

The house looks the same; no one outdoors, no bright welcoming lights on and no invitations to the neighbors to visit.

You can always tell if the family at 612 is home, there kids are playing in the yard with the neighbors, the barbecue grill is smoking, there is laughter and music in the air, and an unwritten “Welcome” sign always hangs in the yard.

610 was pictured on a post card and a part of Southern Living magazine.

612 is the picture of where real southerners live.

Which house are you?

Are you concerned with the appearance of perfection, or the appearance of a friend?

The moon is round

As we left the gathering that Friday night, we looked up in the sky to see that the moon was about the shape of a football.

Some days, the moon is full and bright in its glory.

Other days, it’s a sliver of silver that fell to the floor from a carpenter’s bench.

And some days it doesn’t matter what shape the moon is, because the clouds are so thick you’ll never be able to see it.

But in all of its seasons, in all of its changes, the moon is round.

The very same moon is round in America, Asia, China, Russia, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.

The moon is round on your day of birth.

The moon is round on the day you find your first love.

The moon is round on the day you get your first kiss.

The moon is round on graduation day.

The moon is round on the day you get your first promotion.

The moon is round on your wedding day.

The moon is round when your first child is born.

And the moon is still round when you discover you have cancer.

The moon is round when you company closes down.

The moon is round when your parents pass away.

The moon is round when your child is hurt in a car accident.

The moon is round when your sister dies suddenly at the age of 24.

The moon is round when your spouse passes away.

And the moon is round when you pass away.

In all of its changes and in all of its appearances, we know – the moon is still round.

“The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of His hands.”

If the moon is faithful to be round, isn’t its Creator the ever more faithful?

There are many more things I learned that Friday night from a storyteller, a songwriter and a singer who took the time to notice — and chose not to hold it all inside, like the house at 610.

What will you notice this week from the Creator?

CWF Updates

Well we finished our summer schedule at our Rockwall warehouse Saturday night.
As of right now, we don’t have any other shows scheduled there.
I’d love to see us continue our free shows there once each month, but we’ll see how that goes. We have noticed more and more “church folk” at our shows and not as many neighborhood kids, but we had a good number this past week and I think they are still interested and still bringing their friends. It’s amazing to think what God could do in that area of Rockwall with a few Christian kids on fire for him.
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Here’s a quick run down of Saturday’s matches:
Battle Royal – Three way tie with Chris Idol, Michael Malick and The Zealot. The match set up a three way number one contenders match for the CWF title.
Jonah def. The Bishop
Eagle def. Son of Thunder
Jonah def. Michael Malick and Chris Idol. After a horrible beat down on The Zealot by Eagle and Chris Idol following the Battle Royal, I had no choice but to pull The Zealot from the three-way and I let him choose his replacement. He chose Jonah who defeated his former teammate Chris Idol and Michael Malick – making him the number one contender for the belt.

We had an interesting night Saturday night. Rob “Jesus Freak” Vaughn was away moving into his new home and left the logistics of the show up to Chris and I. I think the show went fairly well, but we did have a few gliches here and there. Our sound guy was sick and our backup was not available either. We even called other possible options and got no love. So I did most of the ring announcing from the sound booth as I played intro music and such.
We were also amazed to see a group of three college-age “fans” who traveled from Alabama to watch our show. Last month we had two kids from Kansas who were on vacation and made sure to stop in Rockwall for our show — and now Alabama. So weird.
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I’ve been thinking a lot about CWF lately and continue to be amazed at how God has been working through the ministry and the refocus on ministry from several key players as well as a focus from all the green guys.
God has been doing some amazing things and I think he plans to continue doing some amazing things.
I wish I could go into everything, but since several things are still way up in the air I’ll just mention a few.
Last week we had a couple from HBO come and film part of a documentary during our weekly Bible study and work out. Apparently since the 2004 election, even HBO is getting interested in Christianity.
We also had another couple from NYC come and get notes for an upcoming book on Christians in America. They took pictures and talked with several of our guys about why we wrestle for Christ.
Earlier this year we had a Japanese television crew come and tape us for a game show of some sort in Japan. As far as we can figure, they played portions of several matches and the contestants had to figure out what was unique or different about us.
In the end they showed that we were the Christian Wrestling Federation. We’re not exactly sure what was said about us, since it was all in Japanese, but any chance God can use us – let’s let Him do so.
We’ve also had another group interested in doing a documentary on us, been contacted by a former WWE Superstar – interested in working with us as well as several other projects that just seem too unreal.
I’ll keep you posted on how all it turns out.
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Prayer requests: As are the opinions above, these are my personal requests for CWF as a whole, and would ask that you consider each one as you go before the Throne of Grace.
1. A continued focus on ministry and not the wrestling or amazing shows.
2. A continued burden for the lost.
3. A continued peace and building of strong relationships between the team.
4. A dependable sound-man who is passionate about ministry and loves wrestling. Someone who is able to travel when needed and can setup and teardown sound equipment when needed.
5. A new portable sound system, capable of amplifying our intro music and mic work to large audiences. I’d prefer the system have a mini-disk player and two handheld wireless mics.
6. Churches to see and understand how God can work through our ministry and continued bookings across the U.S. to reach the lost for Christ.
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Well I know this is a longer update than normal, but I thought I’d be a little more open about the ministry and encourage each of you to lift us up in prayer daily.
There is a spiritual battle going on for lost souls and we hope to be on the front line, but pray that we will remain steadfast and true to our calling.
God bless you all.