It's A VERY Special Day!!!

'But does it have a CD player?...'

Students from Louisiana Tech are participating in the EcoCar Challenge in California; here are their weapons. The goal is to get the most miles to the gallon. Check out their progress here...

http://www.latechecocar.com/

A New Way to Walk

A buddy of mine bought his 3-year-old son some cowboy boots. One morning the dad walked by as his son, sitting on the floor on his rear, tried wrestling a boot on, neck veins bulging, boot not budging.

“You’re trying to put your boots on the wrong feet.”

“But daddy,” the little boy looked up and said, trying hard but not understanding, “these are the only feet I got.”

As a Christian only six months into the walk, I’ve tried many mornings to meet the day with my new boots on the wrong feet. My brain spun so fast with so much, I couldn’t form a solid thought.

Some still small voice told me to slow down. (It might have been a doctor.) Rest. Sleep 7 or 8 hours for a change. Exercise. Eat right.

Be still.

God has given me new boots, a new way to walk. He’ll show me the way. He’ll explain if I study and pray and listen.

But do you ever get scared, even in placing your faith in the Sovereign God? Faith is messy business. Francis Schaeffer said that being a Christian means “to walk with a victorious limp.” Learning to trust and obey, dying to self, is a battle Abraham and Jacob and Moses and so many other Bible heroes fought. We are in good company. They pushed through; so can we.

So I have to take my time, put my boots on the right feet and with the right frame of mind. If I pray and pursue Him, he’ll show me where to walk.

The Bible tells us that someday, he’ll even let us wear His boots.

Homespun Sports Hero

Mark Fidrych.

That was such a fun summer. 1976.

"The Bird" was baseball.

Pumping gas when a Tigers' scout signed him for a $3,000 bonus.

Dead in a dump truck accident on his farm Monday? At 54?

Bad bad deal...

If you never got to see him pitch -- 'play' is a better word here -- I wish you had. He was all about joy out there. You had to root for him.

"Don't Cry for Me, Kenny Perry..."

With all due respect to the Argentinian (Argentin?, Argentian? ????) who won, I was rooting for Kenny Perry at Augusta National because of the Geezer Factor. And he had The Masters won, too. If it had been just 70 holes. Or 71.

Bogey. Bogey. Playoff. Seeya.

Love my Kenneth Perry tho. 48 years and change, he would have been been the oldest Masters champ ever and continued The Year of the Sporting Geezer.

A 10 year old dog wins at the Westminster Dog Show.
Kenny wins the Masters.
A 4 year old wins the Kentucky Derby. (Wait...illegal.)

I usually grind the Sunday Masters. Sunday I watched for only 90 minutes, the most TV I've watched at one time, maybe total, in 8 months. And I left as Perry and Angel headed to 17, knowing I might miss a big finish. But I wanted to walk so I did, then came back and read about the collapse.

Hope your Easter was good. I think Abigail found the Money Egg, out at my sister's. It was the World's Fastest Egg Hunt; just barely beat the rain.

So I'm looking at this holiday greeting card...

... and it's the Easter Bunny in a chair and he's facing his psychologist in the other chair, and behind the chair legs are some Easter eggs and behind the potted plant are some more Easter eggs and in the potted plant are some more eggs under the leaves and the psychologist looks through his black-rimmed glasses right at the Easter Bunny and the psychologist says, "I get the feeling you're hiding something from me."

So I was reading something...

... that suggested we should remember that every person we see is "a person worth dying for."

Took a few minutes before I got it: the guy was saying we should remember that Jesus died for every person you see. Whether we like them or not.

And that if we remember that every person we see is a person worth dying for, we might treat them differently.

I've come out of a long spell of treating many people as objects. Sometimes strangers, sometimes those we know, sometimes those closest to us. Not good.

Everyone is a person worth dying for.

The guy went on to write to girls. Or dads of girls, big ones and little ones. And to the girls' dates. That each girl should remember that she is worth dying for, and make the guy treat her that way. And the guy should remember that too, and want to treat her that way. And if that's not happening, seeya.

This "worth dying for" stuff sets the bar high. Where it should be. Won't work if you don't work it though. I need to remember this and actually do it, so I felt I should write it down.