JRMITCH85 Character, Ramblings

Happy Veterans’ Day 2010

I am proud to thank all of those who have put so much on the line. I am thankful that men and women have willingly signed up for our armed forces. I am thankful for generations past, that have laid their lives on the line so that we can walk in freedom. I am thankful for so many who have sought the greater gain of society above their own personal gain. To all men and women who have answered the call of service, I freely grant you my sincerest gratitude.

I pray for the day when these brave souls no longer have to put their lives in danger. I pray for their safety today. I pray a blessing upon all of their families, and I thank them for their sacrifices as well. Let us all take a moment to pray for those who have given us so much, and those who continue to give.

JRMITCH85 Character, Decisions, Faith, Ramblings

Illness Ignored

I am just getting over an illness that I could not understand, nor could I kick it until I decided that I needed to change the way I was living to allow my body to fight it properly. I went about my day, working and playing as if nothing was wrong, staying up late, eating whatever sounded good to me at the time, and not paying any mind that my stomach was upset, and living in this manner aggravated the symptoms, and I felt worse. Eventually, I got tired of feeling sick, and realized that if I wanted to get better, I would have to alter the way I was living, and maybe even go see a doctor. (Strangely enough, even at 31 years of age, I still have an uneasy feeling about going to see the doctor.) Eventually, I stopped eating whatever, and went on a diet of foods that were easy on the stomach, I went to bed earlier, I rested when I could, and I gave my body a fighting chance against whatever the bug that was attacking my system. Now, I feel better, and am taking it easy, sort of.

I missed the opportunity to truly enjoy spending time with my son, because I wanted to be able to just fight through this sickness. Because I fought taking a step back, I ended up going through the motions in our play and not fully engaging in the way I want to engage him. If I just would have taken a day to allow my body to rest, I’m not saying it would have been better immediately, but I wouldn’t have just been “blah” in the precious time he and I had together.

Many things in life are like this illness. Whether it is our habits, routines, addictions, lust, sloth, our current emotional state, mental health, physical health, any number of vices, or our lack of spiritual well-being, all of these can contribute to our illness. This illness affects the type of person we are with our loved ones, it affects our ability to work, and eventually it breaks down our physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies, until we are defined by our illness. It starts with something manageable, with something that doesn’t rule us, but because we convince ourselves that we can control it, we lose control without ever knowing when we have reached that tipping point.

So many things get in the way of being the best us! Whether it is something that happens to us, or something we do to ourselves or others, we are susceptible to contracting this illness. When it eventually hits us, and it will hit us, what is our response going to be? Are we going to try to just live our lives as if we are in control of the symptoms? This is our pride surfacing. Most All of the time, we have an out. We need a doctor to guide us through the maze, to help protect us from ourselves. We are not able to do this on our own. A change needs to happen, and Jesus is here for us, so let’s not ignore the fact that He chose to dine with us, not the scribes and pharisees. (Mark 2:16-17, Matthew 9:11-13)

We are all sick, don’t ignore it, dine with the Physician tonight.

JRMITCH85 Character, Faith

Intrusive Vanity

As I was running this morning I had to question my intentions. Why am I doing this? Am I doing this to lose weight so I am healthier? Am I doing this so I can be in good enough shape to run a half-marathon in December? Am I doing this because I am living out a life to which God is calling me? Or am I doing this so that I can simply be more attractive, or because of vanity?

I would be a liar if I began to say that vanity had nothing to do with it.

Certainly, there are good reasons why I am running; it does aid me in a healthier lifestyle, and my body is a gift from God, and I am called to be a good steward. The half marathon is more or less a neutral rationale, because there is also an aspect of vanity there.

While vanity was not the reason I started running, or planned to run a half marathon, the fact that vanity has crept into my desires to run bothers me greatly. This vain trap is intrusive, as it works its way into the things that are good and tarnishes them, making them less than what they once were.

I love the complements I have received about losing weight. However, my love for those comments tarnishes the fact that it is a good thing I lost weight.

This isn’t the only thing that vanity has intruded upon. When I preach, when I play with my son, when I blog, when I sit and read, and the list goes on and on and on. It works its way into so many things, and it feels as if everything I care about is vulnerable to the ugly tentacles of vanity.

It may be impossible to eradicate the danger of vain thoughts, what I can do is recognize them, and prevent them from influencing my actions. I do also need to continuously review the reasons I do things, and if they have anything to do with me and my pride, I should reconsider. I need to give these up to God, and not hold onto them. This is a difficult task and certainly not one that I have mastered, but have to flexible and ready to keep working on it.

I pray that pride and vanity do not take over, but it is something that I know I have to understand better, and make sure that my focus is upon the God that loves me, and calls me into the kingdom, and that I do this for God and not myself.

JRMITCH85 Character, Decisions, Ramblings

Chilly Mornings

This morning was chilly, and the fact that a vent directly above my bed allows a breeze from outside to blow into my bedroom certainly contributed to the chilly condition in my room. The temperature and breeze contributed to my reluctance about getting out of bed. I missed my morning jog, my morning coffee, and my morning reflection time. Each of these are enhancements to my day, and I sacrificed them for the opportunity to get another hour of sleep in my warm bed.

The extra sleep and warm time is great, but I don’t know if it was worth what I lost. What things do we sacrifice for a moment? Sometimes those moments are worth it, but this one wasn’t, at least not for me.

JRMITCH85 Character

What Should I Do?

In case you haven’t seen the latest Nike commercial, I have embedded it below.

LeBron James asks, “What should I do?”

In case you were in a cave, or just didn’t care, this past summer LeBron James, arguably the best player in the NBA, decided to leave Cleveland as a free agent, the team he played with for the first seven years of his professional career. This caused an uproar among people in Cleveland, and  an especially nasty public letter from the owner of his old team.

He ended up joining forces with another superstar, Dwayne Wade, and an All-Star, Chris Bosh, by joining the Miami Heat. One commentator affectionately referred to this team as “Super Team”, because these three were the three best free agent players available. Any team would have been pleased to land one of the three, but Miami got all three.

But the third strike against James in the eye of the public, was that he and ESPN got together and put together a show called, “The Decision.” (This is what he is spoofing at the beginning of the commercial.) Here he announced his decision to leave and join the SUPER TEAM. This was also when the former team found out that they were losing their best player and any hope of competing for a championship.

These three strikes and Mr. James was out.

After the summer of criticism, LeBron lashes out at those who criticized his decision and the way he presented his decision through his commercial. (Nike probably knew this was going to be a lightning rod, and probably also forcefully pushed LeBron in this direction.)

Sure there were definitely things that could have been done differently, but ultimately all he, or any of us, can do is live our lives to the greatest potential. We will have to live with the fallout from our decisions, but we cannot control how people are going to perceive or act around us. We only control our own actions.

What should I do? Live life trying to bring God the glory in all things. As for LeBron, I would suggest the same.

JRMITCH85 Character

Lacking Perfection

FAIL

Today, when I went to pick up the results of my four ordination exams, I found out that I passed two of them, and did not pass two of them (I thought this was a funny and gentle way of saying that I failed). My first instinct was disappointment, because I was going to have to take two of them again. However, my biggest disappointment was that I will never be able to say that I passed them all on my first try, I will never have a perfect record.

A sad thing about this experience is that I was so disappointed that I was not able to truly accept a friend’s congratulatory remarks. While I should not gloss over the fact that I should strive for perfection, I also need to be able to appreciate the good news that I passed two of the exams. It really is just a matter of perspective. If I were a hitter in baseball I would be the greatest of all time if I hit 0.500.

However, I looked at it from the perspective of a basketball player shooting free throws. 50% is Shaq territory; awful! This is why I focused upon the tests that I didn’t pass. However, there is a good lesson that can come out of this. I need to humble myself, and prepare differently for the exams that I didn’t pass. When Shaquile O’Neal, a horrendous free throw shooter, played for the Lakers he was encouraged to work on his free throws, and he reached out to one of the best free throw shooters in the history of the NBA, Rick Barry, to help him with his free throws.

As seen below, Rick Barry had an unorthodox way of shooting free throws. Shaq had set up a meeting with Rick Barry to possibly changing the way he shot free throws to the between the legs version of the free throw shot. Unfortunately, this meeting got cancelled, because, as rumor has it, Shaq’s publicist told him this would hurt his image, and thus they idea was jettisoned.

However, I cannot worry about my image in failing, and studying extra hard for the next time around, but rather I must humble myself to working on and continuing to drive into my head the things that I may think I have fully understood. I can’t be above doing the things that will help me succeed in the future. Which, to some extent is a microcosm of our relationship with God. Sometimes it takes doing the “weird” or “different” thing to really explode with success in ministry, as it is most of our greatest successes come from the lessons learned during our greatest failures.

Not that this is my greatest failure, but I must understand that there is a lesson here to learn. I must not allow the failure to rule me, but I must yield to the process and to the power of the Holy Spirit constantly at work in our communities, places of employment, and homes. My focus must not stray from God! I think this is a major struggle many of us have when we get disappointing news.

Also while I am not currently perfect, I strive after holiness, and the power of the Holy Spirit working within, and thus am continually in the process of being sanctified. Thanks be to God!