Rick Nier...Woo!

Suffice it to say that in this technological age of streaming and DVRs, my kids have likely watched fewer commercials than when we were kids. They have seen ads. We all deal with ads, but when we're focused on trying to get past the ad, how much do we really pay attention? But we recently switched from Dish to YouTube TV, something I don't regret. While watching a show as it was being aired, my kids saw a political ad. Their shock at the shade being thrown made me wonder if they've never seen a political ad before. They laughed out loud as the smear campaign was played. Not in an amused way. No, it was the sort of nervous laughter that happens when you wonder if you really just heard what you think you heard. It's the recognition that these are things we hear in TV shows, but didn't realize that, in this case, Hollywood imitates real life. Are my children sheltered? Is that what happened? They go to public school. They remind me every day that I force them t...

Well, I'd like to tell Jonathan McKee that he wrote this book about 20-25 years too late. But since we're about the same age, I suppose I can't hold that against him. But Guy's Guide to God, Girls, and The Phone In Your Pocket  is a bold package of advice I could have used more of when I was a teenage guy. I have read a lot of Jonathan' writing, from previous books to faithfully following his blog . If you're in youth ministry, or a parent of a teen, you should too. The subtitle to this gem is 101 Real-World Tips for Teenage Guys . He could have just as easily called it Tellin' It Like It Is! McKee doesn't mince words when handing out this advice, nor should he. If men want to be treated like men, then they should stand up and hear the truth like men. Jonathan has written a book aimed at teenage guys and thought it through in doing so. Each chapter is short and has good questions to ask of yourself, or use in a small group setting. I don't thi...

Watching the news, my wife and I came across 2 interestingly timed segments. The first was of a woman, Lindsey Stone, who took a picture that went viral. She was standing next to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, near a sign that read 'silence and respect.' The pic showed her yelling and holding up her middle finger. What was interesting was how people were calling for her to be fired. She works at a nursing home, who separated her actions from their core beliefs very quickly after the pic went viral. My first thought was to ask how her job was connected to what she did on her own. I know this is a slippery slope and can be instantly asked of every president who made a crucial error in moral judgement that likely did not affect job performance. (Read:Bill Clinton) This question has been asked of sports stars as well. Tiger Woods, anybody? And while I wondered why others might feel the need to call for Lindsey to lose her job, I couldn't help but imagine that th...

I'm sure this has been said before. Certainly I'm not the first to rant about this. I'm positive I won't be the last. And in my usual manner of coming to a story late, I want to comment on Bobby Petrino, recently fired head coach of Arkansas. But this isn't really about Bobby, or I should say, not just  about Bobby. He is simply the latest in a series of stories where big-time athletes, coaches, or celebrities does something stupid and gets caught. But that's not the story, because, quite frankly, we all do dumb stuff. But when too many people get angry, defenders line up to separate the personal life from the professional life. I actually heard a woman quoted, in relation to the Arkansas story, saying that Bobby has won a lot of football games for them. Oh, so that makes it ok?  Arkansas  went 11-2 last season, so the head coach can be immoral? Is that how this is supposed to work? Why draw the line there? If splitting personal decisions from professiona...

Last Friday I posted a story about a meal with my kids. Luke (8 years old) forgot his manners. Jacie (10 years old) called him out. Luke (still 8 years old) did not like it. It was a good time and you can read about the details here . As funny as I though Jacie's comment was, I did feel bad for my son. After all, he already has to live with two sisters. That's not easy. I know this all too well. (Feel free to comment, sisters.) But he had just been called out cold on something that he already finds frustrating. Shouldn't we all be able to sympathize? Or maybe you're some super person that enjoys having others call out your faults. Perhaps you're the type of person who enjoys sitting around while others list, in detail, all the things about you which annoy them. Oh, you're not one of those types of people? Maybe we don't have to enjoy it, but I think we should expect it. And, in our experiences, it won't be somethig relatively harmless like talkin...

On a mostly weekly basis, I write a thought or two out for teens to read, along with weekly announcements and perhaps a joke or two. I assume, stupidly, that at least some of them are reading it. A couple of weeks ago, I put it to the test. I was teaching on forgiveness and used the Old Testament idea of the Cities of Refuge to do so. This is an idea I blogged about just a few weeks before that. After teaching about the idea, I asked the teens if they had ever heard about this idea before. You've never seen so many blank faces looking back at you. Not one even vaguely recognized the idea. This made me wonder about what I'm including in the weekly email. If a man writes about something and no one is there to read it, was I really that funny? It reminds me of the classic question like that; if a man speaks in the forest and no woman is around to hear him, is he still wrong? Actually, it does make me stop and think of the kind of person I am even when no one is looking. Because t...

You think our economy is bad? You should try paying five shekels for a bowl of field greens. (Pause for dramatic gasp) Wait, you didn't gasp? Perhaps it would help if you knew how much a shekel was worth. Without going into much detail, the shekel was a measurement of weight in gold, so even a conservative comparison would be that one shekel was worth $400. So, do the math, and we find that people were paying the equivalent of $2,000 for a bowl of field greens. (Ok, now pause for dramatic gasp.) These prices were found in 2 Kings 6:25. Apparently there was a bad famine going on. How bad was it? It was so bad that women were eating their children. Now, my wife has threatened to eat our children if they don't start behaving, but it's never been because there was a lack of food. But that's what happened in 2 Kings 6:26-29. How crazy hungry do you have to be that you look at one of your children and think to yourself, 'I bet he'd taste alright.' And how crazy is...