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 Faith, Ramblings

Election 2010 Postmortem

First of all, I have friends that are happy, I have friends that are sad, but most have some sort of mixed reaction to the results from last night. I am proud to say that I have friends I disagree with, and that no matter where we stand on any of the issues, we can still be friends. (Just like a lot of people don’t like the fact that I am a Laker fan, but they’re still my friends, right?) However, that is the hardest thing for me to see during these election cycles, my friends, the people I love, divided over this person or that person, this proposition or that proposition. The great thing about this country is that we are free to see things differently than somebody else, but that in all reality we are a lot more alike than we are different.

“If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.” -Jon Stewart

Certainly, many think that one solution is better than another, and we should be able to have a certain amount of civil discourse to discuss the merits of each other’s proposals. However, neither side is generally willing to complement some one from the other side of the aisle. Pardon my opinion that the concession speeches I hear seem utterly disingenuous. It is hard to hear that LOSING CANDIDATE wish WINNING CANDIDATE well and think that it is genuine, especially since we have heard the two candidates bash each other’s heads in with their negative advertisements for the last six months. (This is an another issue I despise, and am sad that it is the most effective strategy. Negative advertisements work, which is why they get used most often.)

I hope and pray that we as a people rise up and make this statement from then Sen. Obama ring true in our hearts.

“There is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America”

If we join together and work for the welfare of all people, and we all get together and push, the United States of America will be “One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” However, if we are going to allow our partisan politics divide us, we will not progress as a nation, and will fall short of the ideals to which we cling.

As for me, I will pray for these leaders. Not that they personally succeed or fail, but that we as a nation are able to bring hope to those that lack hope or options, and that we as a nation succeed together, not by standing on the backs of others. I truly believe that a non-zero sum is possible, and that through honest leadership, and the leading of the Holy Spirit, we will be blessed. I am not going to wait until my team wins to pray, I am not going to bicker, I am not going speak poorly of my leaders, but I will pray, I will fight for truth, and through it all I will strive to be a voice for the Kingdom of God in this place.

JRMITCH85 Hope, Ramblings, Uncategorized

World Series Champions?

This blogging thing has worked out well for my favorite professional teams. Yesterday night, the San Francisco Giants actually won the World Series. This group of young core players with colorful nicknames like “The Freak” and “Black Beard”, surrounded by a group of veteran castoffs from other teams, was able to make it past the Braves, beat the supposedly unbeatable Roy Halladay and the Phillies, and knock around the Playoff Pitching Ace Cliff Lee to beat the Rangers to take the World Series in 5 games. Humm Baby! Go Giants!

Giants Victory Celebration

To be honest, I had almost lost hope that this was even possible, especially not this year. However, it goes to show that sometimes anything is possible. This year I got to put away all the disappointment that has come at the hands of the Dodgers and in 2002 at the hands of the Angels. This year living in LA is a little more bearable. All kidding aside, it is nice to see that the Giants finally have something to hold against Dodger fans when they start taunting me.

However, the Giants showed me that the past doesn’t have to define the future. Neither does our past define our future, greatness can be attained no matter how much failure we have encountered. God has a beautiful future for us, dive in, and don’t let your past define who you are. YOU could be a champion! Dive in.

JRMITCH85 Decisions, Ramblings

Monday Morning (Halloween Edition)

Sunday was Halloween, the holiday filled with candy and costumes and tired parents. I include myself in this mix. My almost three-year-old son really got the idea of trick-or-treating a lot more this year than last year, and he has a better understanding of the greatness of candy.

However, neither of us were really prepared for the effects of the candy. It was nearly impossible to get him to take a bath, brush his teeth, or stay in bed on Sunday night. While he eventually did crash, the sugar high had to end, I felt as if I was dealing with a completely different kid.

This frustrated me and tired me out a lot more than usual. However, I also knew that there was an opportunity and an obligation to walk the line between grace and discipline. This is probably the line God walks with us, or at least me, a lot!

Monday morning was difficult as I had to get him ready for school, and myself ready for work. We dragged, I was tired from the battle, and he was tired because he didn’t get as much sleep as he usually does and he had a night of a lot of activity. We were both extremely cranky, and probably would have done better with another hour of sleep, but then out of nowhere, he gave me a hug.

That was love and grace as if directly from the Almighty God.

We continued to forge on and finished getting ready, and although we continued to struggle, and it took three times longer to get through the door, non of that matters because, I KNOW I AM LOVED, and I have the opportunity and responsibility to respond to the love of God, by loving my son.

JRMITCH85 Hope, Ramblings, Uncategorized

A Team with Two Personalities

As a Cal fan, this football season is hard to stomach.

This season has been full of ups and downs, one week we score 50, and the next week we struggle to score at all. One week the defense gives up 0 offensive touchdowns, and the next week we give up 5 to 7. (Yes I am using “we” to describe the team.) This is hard to understand. How can a team play similar competition week in and week out, and have such a radical disparity with the level of play. The list of excuses ranges from the fact that all the games they have dominated have been at home, and all the losses have been on the road, to injuries, to passion.

However, most of us have up and downs from time to time. Some days we are up to performing our best, and other days we desire to merely phone it in. (Again using the collective “we”.) However, I think it is times like this that we have to find it deep within our gut, to fight that urge to just be content with mediocre. It is that mediocre performance that maintains the status-quo. Even if we are great on some days at fighting the injustice in the world, striking out against the forces of “evil”, and bringing hope to the world, if we don’t contend with our own slipping into mediocrity, we endanger ourselves into becoming the biggest opponent to our own goals.

Therefore, each day go after greatness, even on those days when we are struck with injury, or are otherwise prone to fall into the trap of mediocrity. We can’t always control our situation, but we can control our response. Go forth and press forward bringing glory to our God Almighty.

JRMITCH85 Hope, Ramblings

Interwoven Messages

This morning, like many mornings, I was listening to Colin Cowherd, and he had Bill Walton on his show to talk about his NBA observations. Walton is a former NBA champion, the father of Luke Walton, and apparently he is also the spokesperson for Yum! Foods World Hunger Relief Project. As he was answering the host’s questions he would correlate the leadership of NBA greats to the leadership it takes in all of us to help those who are hungry. He would answer a question about how well a team worked together, with a corresponding comment about how we all need to work together as a team to help combat hunger.

His invite to the show must have been understood by all of those involved as primarily a commercial for the World Hunger Relief Project because the host did not seem to be phased by borderline ridiculous nature of Walton’s responses. I believe our awareness needs to be raised about the hunger in the world, but it seemed a little like a joke to weave this message within Walton’s answers about the state of NBA.

However, if this tactic is effective, I support it, because it is important that we give hope to those lacking even the most basic provision, and I pray that this initiative is successful in the long run.

UPDATE: Apparently, Bill Walton has been doing this all over the place. Here is a link to another site that published their transcript of their interview with the legend. http://blogs.thescore.com/tbj/2010/10/28/tbj-qa-bill-walton/

 

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.