March 27, 2012

1. How could I not help but appreciate OCTOBER BABY. It was professionally done. The acting was high quality. The cinematography was excellent.

            If you have not heard, the main character is a young woman, who discovers that she was adopted—after her birth mother tried to abort her. Without giving away too much on the plot, the film offers struggle, realistic outcomes (not all is “happily ever after”), pain, redemption, and forgiveness.

            I appreciate the way young woman’s friends and loved ones desired to help her get to the place she needed to be. However, you sometimes have to let a person go and hope she will get there herself. People need time to process. That is real life.

            I don’t know if OCTOBER BABY is playing in a theater near you. If so, I encourage you to go.

2. I heard on a secular radio station this morning that since the year 2000, all churches in the United States have shrunk in number. This comes as no surprise. I was surprised to learn that the amount of mosques built in the United States since the year 2000 have doubled.

            Now, it is tempting to say something snarky and funny here, or to be sarcastic and ironic. I am going to take the high road, which makes what I am thinking even more difficult to contemplate.

            I wonder to what extent the growth of Islam in the United States is due to an unspoken recognition that since 9/11, those of the Islamic faith have taken a risk to be part of that religion. Muslims have been particularly marginalized in the U.S. since September 2001. The fact that they're willing to risk pain and suffering, and allow themselves to be placed in the margin, has impressed a sufficient amount of people to encourage their religion to grow here.

            I wonder how many of us in the Christian faith are willing to experience this as well. It might be fewer than I would hope. This might explain why rather than growing, all churches are shrinking in numbers.

            Humans, including we Christians, want to experience the good life. Many say that Christianity is headed for persecution in the U. S. I don’t want that, but could be this will be the only way the Kingdom will grow.

3. I love it that Roger Goodell was so tough on the New Orleans Saints. He had to be. I consider this to be the equivalent of Judge Landis' banishing from baseball nine members of the Chicago “Black” Socks, who threw the 1919 World Series.

            I also recall reading about NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle’s suspension of Paul Horning and Alex Karras from the National Football League for the entire 1962 season. In both of those cases, much good was done in curtailing gambling.

            I think the same will be the case with regard to offering bounties to players for putting their opponents out of football games. Sean Payton, general manager Mickey Loomis, and defensive coordinator Greg Williams were guilty of making a grave mistake.

            Hindsight is always 20/20, but I remember watching the 2010 NFC championship game between Minnesota and New Orleans and having the distinct feeling that New Orleans was playing dirty with Brett Favre.

            I blame Williams most for this scandal. I would not have considered Goodell to have been out of line if he had suspended Williams for life. Having said all of this, I do appreciate the way Sean Payton has responded to the suspension so far.

4. The Denver Broncos are wise to sign Peyton Manning. I am not so sure that Peyton Manning selected the best team for his talents; indeed, I think San Francisco is clearly the better team. I sense that Manning intuitively realized that he is a better fit with a weaker team and a defensive minded head coach, then a stronger team and an offensive minded head coach. John Fox will leave Manning alone.  Manning will have much more input, much less friction, and much more chemistry with the Broncos. Kudos to Manning.

   As one who is fascinated by Tim Tebow, I must admit I'm looking forward to his season with the New York Jets. I think he handled his press conference extremely well yesterday. He showed the proper amount of humility, kindness, and competitive spirit. In no way did he come across as calculating or lacking integrity. I wish him the very best in New York. I heard this morning on the radio that not only is he one of the most marketable athletes in America, he is one of the most marketable people in America. Only Oprah, Princes Kate, and Adele pass him in marketability. Amazing.

5. I am happy to see the Baylor Bear girls go to the Final Four. I was disappointed slightly to see the Boys team lose so badly to Kentucky. Still, Kentucky may very well win it all and it is no disgrace to lose to such a fine collection of athletes. I am picking Baylor to win the girls tournament. In the men's Final Four, I pick Louisville in an upset over Kentucky, and Ohio State to triumph over Kansas. By this time next week, Louisville will be the National Champions.

 (With a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. Learn from my experiences. I want to try to do this in the spirit of “Consumer Reports.” If I am off base, I apologize. Here is my tale:

            Last summer, we decided we needed to replace our old dishwasher–Haleigh, who had left for college. (Rim–shot, please!)

            So, Judy and I began shopping around for non-human dishwashers. We found one at Home Depot that we really liked. The salesperson said, “Why don't you apply for our Home Depot card, and then buy this dishwasher using our card. If you pay it off within the year, will not charge you interest. For people who are disciplined, it is a good way to purchase. You're basically using other people's money to make your purchases. This is how successful businesspeople operate.”

            I knew enough about business to know he was right. On a much larger scale, successful businesses use other people’s money to their advantage over an extended period of time.

            Now, understand, Judy and I try to purchase everything paying cash. There have been exceptions—our house being the most obvious one.

            I felt like this purchase could be an interesting experiment. We had the money saved up to pay for the dishwasher in cash; however, we decided to take the salesperson's advice.

            I would obtain a Home Depot card. I would purchase the dishwasher on the card. I would make regular payments on a monthly basis. I would pay each payment early so there would be no chance of a late fee.

            Why not give it a try?

            Last summer, I made my first payment two weeks early. Thereafter, I kept on a disciplined program to pay off the dishwasher before this spring.             

          Consequently, you can imagine my surprise a couple of months ago when I received a bill with a $10 late fee on it. I called the good folks at Home Depot National Headquarters, and they told me that, yes, indeed, I had made a late payment.

            Raffling through all of the bills I had in hand, I could not find a single late payment anywhere. Then the representative pointed out that I had made two payments in January.

            I tried to explain to her that I had never considered that to be a problem. In my mind, I was way ahead of the due date of the February payment.

            The Home Depot representative explained to me that when I had made that second payment in January, the billing cycle had not even ended for what was to be the February bill. Therefore, not only did they NOT count my second payment in January, they counted the payment I had made at the end of February (in my mind, I was paying early for March) as late.

            I considered asking her why Home Depot accepted my money, since it appeared they had no place to earmark it. I decided this would be inflammatory.

            I have a Discover card that I use to make purchases for my ministry at Shiloh. I pay those purchases off every month.

            I can remember once receiving a late fee, calling Discover Headquarters, finding out that I was indeed at fault, and being told that since my record was so good, they would waive the penalty in order to assure that “we can continue to maintain good customer relations.”

            Hence, I was surprised when Home Depot did not say something to the effect of, “Hey, since your credit record is so outstanding, and since we can understand why you did not understand our policy regarding billing cycle, let's just waive the $10 fee in order maintain your business.” Alas, it was not to be.

            I guess this is how Home Depot makes money on deals such as the one they offered us last summer. I immediately paid the fee, paid off the dishwasher, and closed down my account.

            One more thought: it occurred to me later that I had never heard anyone on the planet say, “Boy, Wal-Mart sure ripped me off.” Surely, somewhere there's a person who is unhappy with a transaction at Wal-Mart, although I have never heard of it.

            The attitude I have encountered at Wal-Mart is, “We want to err on the side of caution in any transaction that we have. If you're not happy, we will take the responsibility. Here is your money back.” Maybe that is why Wal-Mart is where they are today.

2. I have heard good buzz about the movie OCTOBER BABY, which is opening this Friday. It is a movie about a young woman, who discovers that she was adopted—after she had survived an abortion attempt on her life. The cast includes former television stars John Schneider and Jasmine Guy.           

            My understanding is for OCTOBER BABY to have a chance of staying in theaters, and to be shown in more theaters, this opening weekend of March 23–25 is critical.

            I like the movie trailers; I like the stories, both of the movie and of some of those who participated in it; I, for one, plan on seeing the movie this weekend.

            The actress who plays the birth mother in the movie aborted a child in real life about twenty years ago. She has found God’s healing and forgiveness, which empowered her to participate in this story.

            I would love for Shiloh to be known for its compassionate and redemptive ministry to those who have experienced abortion in their lives—male or female. I know there are a lot of folks out there who are suffering.

3. I finally got to take Judy to see the movie THE VOW last week. The story is of Leo and Paige. They were a couple that was involved in a car crash shortly after their marriage. She lost much of her short-term memory, including any remembrance of her wedding to Leo. He patiently tries to win back her love by wooing her all over again.

            The movie offered spiritual themes including a high view of marriage, commitment, and, ultimately, of forgiveness. It is based on the true story of Kim and Krickitt Carpenter. Unfortunately, my understanding is Kim's book describes much more the faith in Jesus that sustained the real-life couple.

            I wish more of the spirituality of the original story could have been conveyed in the movie; still, I appreciate the fact that Hollywood did not glorify immoral sex, and, instead, lauded love and commitment in marriage.

4. I finally got to see the movie COURAGEOUS Sunday night. We had some of my singles’ class over for pizza and a movie, and one of them brought the DVD.

            I had been putting it off, waiting for an opportunity to watch the movie with my entire family. With Haleigh off to college, that has not happened. However, when this opportunity arose, I could not resist.

            The movie was made by the folks from Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. I read they filmed it for $2 million. Last I saw, it has grossed over $33 million. (Why am I not investing my retirement money in the Kendrick brothers’ movies!)

            It seems the quality of their movies improve with each new product. I know they have been accused of a “paint by the numbers” approach, but this movie is rooted in tragedy—so much for the “happily ever after” theme.

            I'm looking forward to Haleigh returning home from college and our entire family sitting down and watching it together.

5. I am pulling for Baylor to win the men’s’ and women’s’ NCAA basketball championships, but in the women’s division, I am rooting also for Elena Delle Donne. I read a great article in SI about her a month or two ago.

            She was a phenom given a scholarship by UCONN. She left in part because she missed her sister, who is blind, deaf, and suffers from autism and cerebral palsy.

            The University of Delaware campus was near her home. She joined their volleyball team and later picked back up with basketball.

            She is having an amazing year and the U of Del is in the tournament. I’ll be watching.

1. I had a chance to watch the greatest western of all time last week with my two oldest daughters. Haleigh, Abby, and I watched LONESOME DOVE. This is the fourth time I have seen it; the last time was 1998.

            I had forgotten how good the cinematography was in this mini-series. The actors’ work with the horses and cattle, and the stunt persons’ work was phenomenal.

            Of course, this series is where Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall sealed their legends. Still, others in the ensemble cast such as Danny Glover, Ricky Schroeder, Diane Lane, and Chris Cooper gave strong performances.

            None of that would've mattered without a strong story. Larry McMurtry's novel deserved the Pulitzer Prize it won back in 1985. If you know me you know that I don't normally read fiction, but I made an exception years ago, in this case. I found the book to be an enormously pleasant read.

            I am glad to say that my girls enjoyed the miniseries as well. I would like to thank my wife for allowing Haleigh and Abby to finally watch this miniseries.

2. A couple of years ago, the magazine TEXAS MONTHLY did a retrospective look at Lonesome Dove in commemoration of its 25th anniversary. The piece was entertaining, but one of my favorite lines came from a friend of Larry McMurtry, who was commenting on how long it took for the literary elite in New York City to accept McMurtry as a peer: “People in New York have extremely narrow horizons. The parochialism (narrow-mindedness) of the center is always greater than that of the provinces. In the provinces, they keep an eye on the center, but in the center they just gaze lovingly at themselves with both eyes.” I think that is an outstanding observation.

3. One of the great stories from the magazine article began with Tommy Lee Jones noting, with amusement, that an executive from CBS (the network which was going to broadcast Lonesome Dove) called one of the producers of L.D. to ask, “Do we have to use cows?”

            It turns out that CBS was astonished by the cost of the using cattle in the series. A meeting was called, and Bill Wittliff, one of the producers attended.

            At the conference, an executive asked him, “Bill, listen to this. What if they start the drive and right away there's that storm and the cattle scatter? You're the writer; why not let the cows go and have [Captain] Call (Tommy Lee Jones’ character) say, ‘Let's just keep going.’ Then you have all those guys going to Montana, doing all that stuff, but we don't have to pay for the cattle.”

            Wittliff was stunned. Intending to show subtle sarcasm, he responded, “Here’s a thought: why don't we just forget the cattle and get a herd of Angora goats? They can be the first guys to drive a herd of goats to Montana.”

            To his dismay, one of the executives snapped his fingers and said, “Yeah, goats!” Then Wittliff was forced to admit, “No, that's a joke.”

            Fortunately, saner heads prevailed, and the cattle stayed in the series. The rest is history.

            Let's be honest: would you have tuned into the Lonesome Dove had it been about driving a herd of Angora goats all the way from Texas to Montana? Me, either.

4. One last story on Lonesome Dove. In September of 1998, Judy, Haleigh, Abby, and I were vacationing. We stopped at Archer City, TX–the hometown of Larry McMurtry. This was my family's concession to me. Knowing how much I liked books, the family dropped me off at one of Larry McMurtry’s bookstores in Archer City (he had four huge stores there at the time.)

            I was looking around at the books when lo and behold, I spotted the great man himself. He was sweating profusely unpacking boxes of books. (This was definitely one hands-on owner.)

            Sitting near him was a young man, in his 20s, holding a pen and a note pad. He was a graduate student working on his Ph.D. in English. He obviously wanted to take notes.

            He peppered McMurtry with dozens of questions attempting to infiltrate the McMurtry's mind. This young man was hoping to discover the hidden meaning behind Lonesome Dove.

            McMurtry was clearly disinterested. He may have even been a little irritated. As I recall, McMurtry at one point looked at the student and said something to the effect of, “People are always asking me about the metaphors and symbols of Lonesome Dove. There are none. It's just a book.” He then went back to unpacking his books.

            I continued my browsing and the young student left a few minutes later. A short time later, Judy and the girls dropped by to pick me up. I told Judy, “You are not going to believe this, but Larry McMurtry is inside the store. Let me bring the girls inside. Maybe he will let me take a photo with them.”

            At that time, Haleigh was five and Abby was three. I approached Mr. McMurtry and asked, “Mr. McMurtry, would you mind if I take a photo of you with my two girls.”

            His whole demeanor changed. “I would be glad to,” he smiled. He could not have been nicer. I took two or three photos just to make sure I got one that turned out well.

            Somewhere in our collection of photographs, I have a picture of my two oldest girls standing next to one of the great American authors of the 20th century.

5. I think I mentioned recently that I have started listening to William Manchester's first volume in his biography on Winston Churchill—THE LAST LION. It’s been good so far. One of the best lines was when Manchester quoted Churchill’s colorful description of what it was like to write a book–“Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.”

            I did not find this to be true with the one book that I wrote years ago. I liked the process very much. Of course, to this day no company has wanted to publish that book. Maybe that is why.

            On the other hand, I have found his description to be very accurate describing my experience writing a doctoral thesis. I am proud to say there are five bound copies of that earth-shaking work in this world—spread out over five different locations. If terrorists for some reason target all five locations, it is safe to say the world will be deprived of a great labor of literature.

 (With a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. I was sad to see that former Monkey Davy Jones died suddenly last week. I grew up watching (periodically) TV episodes of THE MONKEYS. I always enjoyed their music more. Compared to other rock bands, there always seemed to be a sweetness and an innocence to the group.

            Quite possibly, Davy Jones’ status as an icon will remain because of the famous BRADY BUNCH episode, in which he appeared, where Marcia Brady (Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!) asked him to her prom.

            I read last week that was the most downloaded TV episode in history.

2. I remember watching the New Orleans Saints’ defense savage Brett Favre in the NFC championship game two years ago. I could not help but think they were coached to play dirty. Now, I know they were. I would love to see former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams suspended for and entire season. There is no place for bounties in the NFL.

3. More on the Josh Hamilton situation. I consider Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy, and Sam Bradford to be tremendous role models. But I still think Josh Hamilton is one as well.

            It is a hard thing to get through life without making a mistake. It is a hard thing to get through life without making several mistakes. It is a hard thing to get through life without making some major mistakes.

            What I appreciate about Josh Hamilton is: when he makes a mistake, he steps up and confesses it. He does not try to cover it up, and he tries to live out the fruit of repentance.

           Our society seems to have an ability to forgive those who come clean on their mistakes and sins. And that is a good thing.

4. Watching all of the recent brouhaha about government spending makes me wonder if the national divide is so great, our only hope is for the federal government to not fund—anything. 

            Okay, that’s probably not realistic. Still, no one likes the way the money is being spent. You have liberal versus conservative; religious versus secular… the divide grows wider. Moreover, what are the spiritual considerations for federal spending? What are the moral underpinnings?

            I hate to write this. Everybody has something he likes when it comes to federal government spending, and everybody has something he despises.

            I like national parks, federal highways (interstates), etc. as much as anybody. I thrilled watching humans walk on the moon, but what we are doing is clearly not working. Meanwhile, our nation sinks deeper and deeper into debt.

            There is an old saying—all politics is local. Perhaps the more local the spending—the better.

5. Friday afternoon, six freshman Harding students left their Searcy campus in two vehicles to spend Spring Break in Ft. Worth. About 6:30 that evening, they were involved in a chain reaction wreck on I 30 outside of Hooks, Texas.

            Five of the students were treated and released from a local hospital. Ty Osman was hurt critically. While checking on a lady in another vehicle, he was attempting to get back into his pickup when someone hit it. Ty was thrown several feet in the air before landing.

            He was airlifted to Good Shepherd Hospital in Longview, Texas. He never regained consciousness, dying early Sunday morning.

            My daughter Haleigh, a Harding student, was acquainted with these students and left approximately the same time they did. She took a different route after reaching Texarkana. Still, this hits so close to home.

            During this tragedy, I frankly did not find myself asking the question—why? Rather, considering the millions of students who travel in our country during spring break, and allowing for the millions of variables involved, I frankly began to wonder why tragedies such as this do not occur more often. I am thankful they do not.

            My heart has been aching for Ty’s family. Yet, I know they have been strengthened by the knowledge that Ty was a faithful disciple of Jesus. Surely that understanding brings great solace.

            Please pray for Ty’s family and for his friends.