The Winter Olympics

I love the Olympics.

Not because the sports are actually interesting. Not because I really care if America wipes the ice with the other competitors. Not because Bob Costas is my favorite sportscaster of all time.

The reason I love the Olympics is because of the people who compete in the Olympics are normal everyday people.  The vast majority of American athletes are unknown, and when the Olympics are over most of them remain that way. Sure, occasionally Olympic athletes gain fame from doing well in their sport. Everyone knows who Apolo Ohno and Shawn White are, but what about the other medal winners? What about the non-medal winners?

When the Olympics are over, most of the athletes go home, keep rocking their sports, continue in relative anonymity. But for this brief 2 week period, these athletes get to play their sport on the world stage, represent their countries and their families. And we get to cheer for these strangers.

At any other time, we're not interested in watching someone whose name we can't remember slide a big rock across ice while other nameless people sweep the ice in front of it. But this is a time when the whole world stops to watch these people play their sports. We cheer for them to win, and we enjoy watching them do what they do.

In a world where fame and popularity are prerequisites for public interest, it's refreshing to take a break from that to cheer for normal, unfamous people.

You know... I'm kind of glad God doesn't operate like us. He doesn't just watch the super Christians. God's attention isn't always on the spectacular christians in the world. God's attention is on all of us. He always cheers for us in the situations we're in. Each of us has the opportunity to do incredible things for God.

In fact, God often picks the "normal" person to do his will. One famous example is David. Even though Samuel would have picked any of David's brothers to be king, God picked the one who was still in the field with the sheep.

Jesus could have picked anyone to be his apostles, but he chose fishermen.

And now, we have an opportunity to wonderful things for God despite our position. We don't have to be famous and well known. God lets us work for him in any situation. There is no Christian Olympics of working for God, because God always uses the normal person to do his work.

That's encouraging because it means each of us can do powerful things for us.

May God bless you with the ability to do powerful things for him  May you be encouraged in your walk with God. May you in turn be a blessing in the Kingdom of God.

--Tyler

The Green Pen

As a graduate student at Abilene Christian University, I have a lot of really cool opportunities. One of those opportunities is that I get to work as Curt Niccum's graduate assistant. Sometimes, that means I get to do work with manuscripts of the Greek New Testament that are 800+ years old.  Sometimes it means I get to pick his brain over all things textual criticism (Yes I know, totally boring to you, but totally exciting to me). Today, it meant I got to grade tests.

Ok, ok, I understand that doesn't sound remotely exciting. It's certainly not the best task I've ever been given, but it was actually not too bad. It's kind of thrilling to think that the academic well-being of these students depends on the strokes you make with that green pen. As I got into it, I realized I began rooting for different papers in different ways.  What I mean by that is that I would find myself hoping for certain results from certain papers. If the first page would be perfect, I would find myself really hoping the rest of the test would be just as flawless. I would root for that particular student to get a 100.  However, if the first page was already marred by lots of little green marks, I found myself wanting to see how many this person could miss. 

I know that makes me a terrible person. I really do want everyone to learn as much as possible in every class that they take, but sometimes it's just fun to try and see how many questions you get to mark wrong.

The problem with that is that sometimes you just get on a roll. There were a few instances in which someone missed several in a row, and so I absently marked the next one wrong, only to discover that that person had actually answered the question correctly. My pen got ahead of my brain.

Now before you get all upset, I double-checked and made sure that I correctly graded every test. Every test has the correct total on it. There are just several that include corrected mistakes made by me.

Anyway, this whole grading process got me thinking about how glad I am that God doesn't look at us the same way I looked at these tests.  God doesn't pick people to cheer for and others to cheer against based on how well they are performing.  God doesn't get pleasure out of recognizing the mistakes we make. God doesn't anticipate our failure. He wants every single one of us to live according to his will. And if we don't do so well on the first page, he doesn't dismiss us. If we do everything wrong, he doesn't cross us off as hopeless.

When it comes to grading tests, I imagine I'll probably always be the same way I am now. I will always be fair, but that doesn't mean I won't enjoy the process of passing and failing students. However, when it comes to real life, I really want to be able to say I look at people the same way God does.

I want to be able to say that I don't dismiss others just because they don't seem to get it. I want to be able to cheer for everyone, regardless of how well they seem to be doing. I want to use my "green pen" as little as possible. I don't want to be someone who judges others.

I'm so glad that God doesn't look at people the same way I look at tests. And I'm so happy that we have an example of love in Jesus so that I can escape my tendencies of judgment and dismissal. I'm so thankful for a God that is forgiving and that is always on our team, even if we don't seem to recognize the sport we're playing.

May the love of God guide your relationships, and may compassion always stay your hand.

--Tyler

Not-So-Happy Thursday

One of the things that I learned going to Pine Springs Christian Camp was that Thursdays are happy days. If there is any day of the week to celebrate, it is Thursday. We used to have rousing "Happy Thursday" celebrations every Thursday that we were at camp. As far as I know, they still celebrate Thursdays at Pine Springs. Thursdays are supposed to be happy days.

This past Thursday was not a happy Thursday.

Don't get me wrong, there were parts of it that were fantastic. But overall, not my best Thursday.

It started with snow. Quite a bit of snow. It made my morning drive to work a little difficult, but overall not too bad. I made it to work, and was having an ok day in the office (I even got paid!). I was excited at the prospect of making a snowman and getting in a snowball fight with Andrea. The morning went ok. Nothing to complain too much about. Lunch rolls around, and I decide I need gloves for our snowball fight. I drive to Wal-Mart to purchase some gloves, but due to the snow, they are all sold out of gloves(They did ask if I would be interested in purchasing work gloves, though. Wal-Mart employees are so gosh-darn helpful!), so I drive to Old Navy instead.

Old Navy had one pair of gloves left. So I purchase them for $6.47, and head back out to my car. I attempt to start my car... nothing. That's ok! I think to myself, Andrea can come jump start my car, and my day can continue as usual. So I call Andrea who heads on over to help out. She pulls in front of my car and we attempt to jump start it. No luck. A friendly old man stops by and asks if he can help. He takes a look at the battery and determines I need a new one, because my current one is 8 years old. (It was a 50 month battery... did I get my money's worth or what?) So I remove the battery, Andrea drives me to Interstate Battery, and we replace it for $104.72. She drives me back to my car, where I drop the battery in, connect it, and attempt to start the car.

Victory. The car starts, we cheer a bit, and then I tell Andrea to kill the engine so that I can tighten the battery connectors a bit more. She does, and we tighten the battery. I climb in to start the car and drive back to work.

Un-Victory. The car doesn't start. We complain a bit, and we pop the hood all over again.  Another friendly gentlemen heads over to help out. He tinkers around with it a bit and determines that it's the starter. So we call a tow-truck and have the car towed to Max's Automotive where it is confirmed that my starter is dead. Max tells me it's going to cost $314.93 including the new starter, the labor, and the cost of towing.

By this point, it's too late for me to go back to work. I'm tired, frustrated, and rather cold (Whose car waits until the biggest snow of the half-decade to die?), and we head back to my apartment.

We do manage to get our play in the snow in, and that was wonderfully fantastic.  But then I lose one of my gloves. Not so wonderfully fantastic.

By the end of the day, I'm out over $400 and a left glove. Happy Thursday indeed.


I was not at all happy by the time the whole car ordeal was over. I hated the way it went. But I tell this story not so you can sit back and say, "Oh poor Tyler and his car!" But rather to say this:

My day had all of the makings of a Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very-Bad Day. I was grumpy and not at all happy. But when I look back on my day, I notice a few things:

1. I got paid that day. I had the funds to handle my broken car.
2. Both times I was wrestling with my car, someone very friendly and much more knowledgable about cars stopped to help out as best they could.
3. My wonderful, amazing, fantastic girlfriend sat in the snow with me to keep me company. She drove me around so I could get my car fixed, and then she built snowmen with me and made me hot chocolate when we finished.

When I look back on my day, it wasn't so bad after all. I mean, I've certainly had better days. I've certainly had more productive days.  But it's on days like this past Thursday that I can see the intense blessings that God has put in my life. God put my broken car in just the right spot that those two very helpful men would stop and would kind of know what they were doing. God kept my car running until I had the funds to fix it. God sent snow for me to have something fun to do to unwind after my stressful day. And God blessed me with an awesome girlfriend who was willing to give up her day to help me and spend time with me.

It's funny how God works like that. He uses less-than-fun situations to show us our blessings. He uses some of the worst days to create some of the best memories and stories. I can't look back on Thursday and say it was a terrible day. I get to look back on this past Thursday and say it was a day that God reminded me of all the blessings he's given me. It was a Happy Thursday after all.

May you find all of God's everyday blessings, too.

--Tyler

New Blog

Happy Fat Tuesday!

For those of you unfamiliar with Fat Tuesday, perhaps you'll recognize its more common name: Mardi Gras.  Most of us are familiar with the idea of Mardi Gras, even though most of us probably don't really know a whole lot about it. Mardi Gras (Or Fat Tuesday, which I will call it from here on out, as I prefer insulting days of the week in my native tongue.) is the day before Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is the start of Lent.

As Lent is a time of self-deprivation, fasting, and repentance. Fat Tuesday is the day you stock up for all of that. It's a day of over-indulgence. It's a day of partying, food, sex, and anything else that you would enjoy in large amounts. It's the day that you spend the next 46 days repenting from.

I've never exactly observed Fat Tuesday as I didn't grow up in New Orleans nor have I ever cared for overweight weekdays, but it does precede a very interesting time of the liturgical year.  Lent is a time of repentance and self-deprivation (as noted above), and it is something that I have only very recently gotten involved in.  Last year, I gave up sodas for Lent. This year, I'm giving up sodas again, but I'm adding Facebook to that list.

This will be a very interesting experience, as Facebook is kind of what I do. I'm not sure what I will do with all of the extra time that I will surely gain from not being on Facebook, but I'm hoping that it will result in positive things.  The first thing that I'm hoping it will result in is that I will spend some of my internet time blogging, rather than mindless Facebook perusal.  And that being the case, I've started this blog "Thoughts, Ideas, and Happenings".  I'm considering a name change, but for now, that's what it is.  Hopefully over the course of the next 46 days, I will get into a habit of blogging. And hopefully, some of the information will be useful to you, the reader. This blog will be a bit of a hybrid of blog types. First, I want this blog to be a way for me to express ideas and thoughts, most of which will be theologically based. Second, I want this blog to be a way for me to tell what's going on in my life. Being the type of person I am, I intend for the blog to be somewhat humorous, but we'll see how that goes. Finally, I want this blog to become a medium of discussion. I encourage comments on anything because I want to see where these comments will lead.

So there you go. Happy Fat Tuesday.

And let me know if you have any ideas for a name change for the blog. "Thoughts, Ideas, and Happenings" is a rather bland name.

--Tyler