Category: faith

Biblically fit

Just how far and seriously are you going to take your faith?

My weight, eating habits are one area I keep falling down on. Over the last 3 years I’ve lost close to 30 lbs., but I still have a good 20 lbs to go and I’m still stuck in the same rut/spot.

But maybe this will help inspire me… from Tripp Fuller’s Doctor

“it’s hard to consume 2000 more calories than you need and large amounts of meat that took even more energy to produce when our sisters and brothers in Christ are starving around the world.”

I missed the gym on Saturday and yesterday due to other things on my schedule – better do everything I can to get back to the gym tonight – and better get me a new workout strap for my Zune so I have some motivation while I’m working out.

Maybe I should put the photo that really kicked start my weight loss a few years back on my Zune as well. Let me tell you – I was a fatty McFatty.

I don’t have that photo online yet – but here’s a photo just a few months before the other one was taken:

hbk and jdb

A different sort of evening

Had a fun evening with my life and friend Eric Lidji tonight.
Laurie picked me up from work today and we started the evening off with an enjoyable time shopping at Gap Body. It definitely wasn’t because of what they sell at Gap Body – but because of who I was with.
After we left, we browsed several other shops in the Mockingbird Station area before heading to Light Fantastic.
I remember going to Light Fantastic several times with my dad when I was growing up and he owned his own electrical business. He would go there from time to time to pick up lights and chandeliers for his customers. This time it was window shopping for us – or at least what we might like in the somewhere distant future.
After light shopping we made a visit to World Market where Laurie grabbed a couple different bottles of wine (both apple flavored) and I grabbed a “Make Your Own Six Pack” of various beers. A bottle of Shiner Black Lager, a couple different bottles of St. Arnolds and two brands I was unfamiliar with.
After our shopping trip we headed over to Cafe Brazil (an old favorite of mine – and one of the places Laurie and I went to on our first date) and we met up with Eric who was in town from Alaska for his sister’s Bat Mitzvah.
Eric and I worked together for more than a year at the Waxahachie paper.
Always enjoy conversations with Eric, either in person or now usually via the Interweb. He has great insight on things and great perspectives.
We talked national and local (Ellis County) politics, the newspaper business, the oil business (which he now covers in Alaska) faith and general catching up.
It was a great time only made better by the Chicken Chipotle Enchiladas I had for dinner.
And as the conversation wound down, Laurie and I headed back to Red Oak for a quiet wrap up to the evening.
Tomorrow – we meet with the Home Owners Association to figure out what they’re doing with all the money they get in our neighborhood. Should make for another interesting evening.

McLaren talks Homebrewed Christianity

My buddy Chad and his friend Tripp interviewed Brian McLaren this past week for their Homebrewed Christianity podcast.

I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet but Chad promises it’s great. It’s already 9:19 tonight and I’m debating on downloading it and listening to it before heading to bed or waiting and listening to it on the bus tomorrow.

Here’s the quote Chad pulled out for his blog:

“You know, if people want to say that the gospel of sin management is easy and hopeful, I have to ask myself how deeply they’ve thought about it, because what it really ends up doing is making most of life for most people pretty much meaningless, and yet, to me, the gospel of the kingdom then brings meaning and value into every dimension of life, and it brings value to all people’s lives as well. So, I would say, the good news is 10,000 times better than I used to believe.”

You can listen here or subscribe via iTunes.

UPDATE: I’m listening to the podcast now – this quote grabbed my attention (around 11:30 in the podcast):

I would never want to say this in a harsh way, but in a true way the gospel for an awful lot of people has become the ultimate spiritual commodity and it’s a consumer product. And an awful lot of what we call Christian activity is the marketing of that product and the winning of new customers so that they can remain satisfied customers for life. When you contrast that with the idea of being invited to join God in the healing and on going development and growth and fertility and goodness of the world — the difference is staggering.

City Ministries in Nigeria



Mike Blyth shared an info-video from some of the missionaries serving with City Ministries in Nigeria.
City Ministries is the same group we worked with when we went to Jos, Nigeria in 2006 and also when CWF went in 2007.
Also friend and UMHB alumni, Erin Rigsby, works with City Ministries as well as a nurse for many of the children in the homes.

40 years ago today

Loraine Hotel

Early morning (evening), April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love…

Pride (In the Name of Love)
U2

Have we changed any since April 4, 1968? Or are we just the same people, worrying about our eight dollar hotdog and ignoring our brothers and sisters around the world who are starving, thirsty and dying of treatable diseases?

(if you can’t see the video, click here)