Last week, a 12-year-old boy, Wayde Hamar, was killed when he was bucked from a bull and stepped on by the 900 lb. animal.  He died of a ruptured left ventricle in his heart.  When questioned about the accident, the mother said that no one was to blame and that Wayde died doing what he loved.

I’m fascinated by the bull riding community.  There is this air of toughness and insanity that rules.  They certainly know that when you strap on your Ariat riding boots and other bull riding gear, it’s go time.  It’s like some strange fraternity with initiation.  They know the danger.  They know their kids can die.  But they are willing to still let them ride.  This rite of passage is like something out of an old western movie with John Wayne.  These kids aren’t content to play with Thomas the Tank Engine toys like their fellow children friends.  No, instead, I need to ride an enormous animal as long as I can until it throws me to the ground.  Then, I have to get up and run for my life, hoping that it doesn’t step on me or gore me to death.  This is a sport?

While I think it’s absolutely crazy, I’m just fascinated by the parents of bull riders.  It is part of their culture, their DNA.  It’s not abnormal.  It’s tough.  It’s rodeo.  Said Angie Hamar, the boys mother, “You can’t keep your kids locked up in a closet. There are some kids who take motocross racing, and we take our kids rodeo riding.”  Wow.  What do you think?

Have you read this article on CNN? There is a serial killer on the loose in this 13,000 people town.  He’s left 5 dead in the past few days.  Police don’t have any real connection between the deaths, and people are panicking.  I’d say.  Although, some of them seem to be looking for revenge.  One resident said, “If he comes to me, face to face, I’m ready, I’m loaded, and I’m aimed for him.”  It appears that some people are looking to take justice into their own hands.

If I lived in that town, I’d have one of two reactions.  Either I’d be packing my bags and go visit one of my nearest relatives until they caught this guy, or more than likely, I’d try to prepare myself for him.  Many people do this anyway with different security methods.  I know folks who have wireless nanny cams set up (although many times they are trying to catch a taser.)  Others have guns or if you don’t want to kill someone, a taser c2.  Tasers are great for protection when you are out, but I’d probably want a gun with this guy lurking around.

Hope they catch him soon.  This is terrible.

South Carolina Serial Killer Sketch

Along with my roommate, I’ve been working out with Crosffit consistently since last November.  This program is the most intense form of fitness training I have ever done in my life.  I’m not the guy who is crazy into fitness or anything, but I do want to stay in shape.  I leave all of the technical details to my roommate, and he answers the questions I have.  One of the best things about this program that I like is that every day, you login to their site.  If you don’t know how to do an exercise, they have tons of videos and resources to show you.  It doesn’t require a ton of expensive equipment, and it doesn’t take 2 hours of my day.  Crossfit is growing everywhere around the world, and a ton of military bases use it as their training.  Now, I’m not going to get some kind of sweet Marine corps pin for my efforts, but it feels great to be stronger and in better shape than ever in my life.  

So, yesterday’s WOD or workout of the day was this:

For time:
Run 800 meters
40 L pull-ups
Run 800 meters
40 Strict pull-ups
Run 800 meters
40 Kipping pull-ups

L-pullups look like this.

I finished in 26:50 – which I felt good about.  I was trying to break 30 minutes.  I saw a friend at the track after my workout, and he asked me what I was training for.  I just said, “for life.”  I know one day I’m going to get old, lose all my hair and need Toppik hair building fibers.  I don’t want to be an old fat man who loses out on seeing his grandchildren.  I want to train my children and help them train theirs.  I want to be their to play with them when they are young, take them to the park, instill wisdom from the Scriptures.  So, I work out.  I used to do to workout for my future wife.  Now, I workout for my future grandchildren.

My brother in law is graduating from high school in a few days and is thinking of going into the military.  His goal is to become part of the Air Force airborne, but I don’t know if he can get in that elite group.  If not there, he is planning on being in the army infantry, so he can be on the front lines.  The kid wants to see action.  He’s got some friends who are in the military, and their stories have him all fired up.  He’s been around their guns and 5.11 tactical gear, and wants it to be a part of his lifestyle.

As you can probably imagine, his mom is worried sick.  I can’t imagine watching my baby who grew up in Thomas the Tank bedding going off to fight in a war.  It’s heartbreaking for her right now.  It doesn’t matter if he buys her nice gifts like this mom jewelry, she just wants him to be safe.  It must be both a blessing and a curse to be a mother.

Seems he is just not satisfied with life.  The kid definitely needs discipline.  He had trouble in school, and he mouths off to nearly everyone.  He’s going to get quite a wake up call with a drill sargeant yelling in his ear.  But it seems, that’s what he wants.  I honestly think he’s just searching for purpose because he doesn’t understand his original purpose.  My wife and I keep praying for him, and that God will keep him safe and eventually reveal himself to him.

My best friend just got engaged last weekend, and I couldn’t be more happy for him.  He has been searching for a wife for the past 5 years, and God has brought him the perfect bride.  I can’t wait for their wedding.  Some great news that comes with it is that he asked me to be his best man, which is an absolute honor.

This will be my first time to be a best man, which is strange because I’ve been in about 13 weddings.  I’m already working on the bachelor party, but all I know so far is that we are going to party hard.  We will for certain have the best cigars like these, and have some great conversations.  I can’t think of a better way to celebrate for him.

I don’t know his fiance too well because he lives in a different city, but I’m anxious to get to know her.  She’s not a very high maintenance girl.  I know she doesn’t go after a lot of designer fashion jewelry or anything, but she is in love with him.  The great thing is that he is so anxious to pour upon her the love that Christ has for his church, which he understands at a deep level.  This means she is a very lucky girl.  I can’t wait to see them united as one!

Did you see Sandberg’s latest digital short on SNL last week?  If not, here you go.  Caution, it’s pretty outrageous:

Timberlake and Sandberg are funny, but this is definitely a different style of comedy than the Dan Akroyd and Chevy Chase days.  It’s pushy and on the edge.  If you didn’t know about Samberg’s group, here’s some info from Wikipedia:

The Lonely Island (TLI) is an American comedy group composed of Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Andy Samberg (aka the Dudes). The group is from Berkeley, California, and are currently based in New York City. The group began creating live comedy skits in junior high and continued to do so, expanding its repertoire to comedic shorts, music parody (both songs and videos), and one full-length television pilot, before coming to the attention of Lorne Michaels ofSaturday Night Live (SNL). Once on the show, they wrote “Lazy Sunday” a better-produced music parody video much like the group’s previous work.  It became an instant Internet success, and led to the digital shorts the group produces, writes and stars in for Saturday Night Live. “Dick in a Box”, “Jizz in My Pants”, “Like a Boss” and “I’m on a Boat” have subsequently had huge success both on the show and on the Internet.

With the success of these three guys and others like them, there are tons of start up comedians looking to use video and the internet to get them their break.  Maybe they use a post production Portland company like this one to help it look professional, but there are just as many amateur videographers out there trying to make their way.  

When it comes to Mother’s Day gifts, I’m not sure the above idea is what most moms are looking for.  Edgy, yes.  Funny, yes.  But also kind of repulsive.  It’s a far cry from the days when Samberg and Timberlake were playing with kids toys like these.  I wonder how their moms felt about the video.  Instead of some flowers, a card and some eco nvey cosmetics as a gift, they went with the idea of having sex with each other’s moms.  Hm.  Kinda gross.  What do you think, funny or repulsive?

I created these hubs recently and thought I’d share here.  They have to do with a variation of shopping and fun stuff I like.  Enjoy.

• Great Cigars Online
• Great Kids Halloween Costumes
• Yo Gabba Gabba
• The Awesome World of Narnia

The Cincinnati Reds are rolling right now.  Winners of 5 of their last 6 and 8 of their last 12 has jettisoned them up to 5 games above .500 and 1 game out of first place.  Right now, there is quite a buzz in the city because we have a winning team, a rarity in the Nati.  Reds tickets are going faster than a Las Vegas show ticket or any other kind of event.  This Saturday, they had 9,200 people walk up and buy tickets for a sell out crowd.  I was at that game, and it was awesome.  All kinds of people were scrambling to get to the game and get tickets.  I’d even see people straight from work in their business suits or Koi scrubs because that’s what winning does!  It brings people to the ballpark.  Enough with the gimmicks.  Ok, bobbleheads, fireworks and other giveaways can help bring kids to the game, which brings families to the game.  But long term, if you want to see the attendance go up, you just need to figure out how to win. 

It seems as if Mr. Walt Jocketty knows exactly how to do this.  He has transformed this team into just the right mixture of youth and talent.  The team is fast and plays great defense, and now their bats are starting to come alive.  Votto and Bruce look like they could carry this team for years.  Taveras has been an amazing pickup, and his OBP is no joke.  But it’s not just the stars, the bottom of the lineup has done their part.  Hernandez, Rosales, Hairston, and Nix have all been great contributors of late.  I love it!  I look forward to an exciting year, chasing down that NL Central pennant.

Picture taken at a Biker Blessing at Landmark Baptist Church by Lisa Hannekan.  This is kind of scary how much this looks like me.

 

The Future Eric Sztanyo

I got an answer in my study this morning to the question I had (in our Spirit class) last week about seeking God’s face. You may or may not be interested, but thought I’d share.

As a reminder, my confusion was based off of Exodus 33:18, where Moses asks God to “Please show me your glory,” and God responds “you cannot see my face.” I did not understand this when comparing to David’s response to God in Ps. 27:8 which is “Your face, LORD, do I seek.” It seemed odd to me that David, knowing this story in Exodus, would seek God’s face which would kill him.

So, the big E on the eye chart I was missing was the sin of the golden calf. God’s relationship with Israel changed in several ways after Moses came down Mt. Sinai the first time and they were worshiping an idol. Here are 3 major changes:

1. The Angel – Previously, God had sent his angel with Israel to destroy their enemies (23:23). Now the angel is with them lest God himself would destroy them (33:5).

2. Tent of Meeting – God had commanded Israel to build the Tabernacle. Its purpose was to be the place where God could meet with his covenant people. (29:42-43). After the calf, the Tent of Meeting was only for Moses and Joshua and it was set apart from the people themselves. There was as shift from a tent where God would dwell with his people to a means where he was set apart from them.

3. Moses and the Glory of God – In God’s original descent upon Mt. Sinai, all of God’s people could see His glory, (24:16-17), and it looked like a consuming fire to them. When God spoke to Moses on the mountain after the calf, it changed in 3 ways:
a) No display of God’s glory before all people
b) Moses’ face was covered by God’s hand so he could see only the back parts of God’s glory.
c) The Israelites saw God’s glory only as a reflection from Moses’ face (34:30). Going forward, the covenant that God makes with Israel focuses on the role of the mediator. Through him God will display his glory to his people.

Along with this change in the display of God’s glory, there was a change in the purpose of revealing God’s glory. At first, it was “to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning” (20:20). After the “great sin”, when the Lord passes by Moses, what Moses learns about God is not fear, but that God is a gracious God, full of compassion. (33:19, 34:6-7)

(All of this found in Sailhamer’s The Pentateuch as Narrative commentary, forgive the improper citation.)

So, what I gather is that there was a time of covenant between God and his people where he would reveal his glory. That was lost and things were changed after the golden calf incident. Moses, who had seen God’s glory face to face was not pleading that God would again reveal his glory to him, but God would only allow it in part. As this relates to David, there seems to be a prompting by God to David (and all people) to “seek my face” (Ps. 27:8a). And David responds that his heart says, “Your face, LORD, do I seek”. And then in v. 9, he asks God not to “hide” HIs face from him, apparently as God did with Moses.

So, there appears to be this beckoning and call back to the pre-calf covenant state of relationship, prompted by our gracious, compassionate God who is slow to anger.

All this to say, I want to seek God’s face with all my heart.