Hyper-green

Jakeb and I ran in the dark this morning. When we got home I went outside to feed the dogs and in the first light of morning noticed that the world has turned green while I wasn’t looking. When did this happen? The trees are in full color and the yard has lost the brown tint. There is this canopy over the backyard where I used to be able to see through the limbs of the pecan trees; now I just see folage. The world outside is in hypercolor.

It’s good to see that spring is really back – even though it took me a while to notice.

Just a penny is a treasure

I like listening to Andrew Peterson’s music. It is not a style of music most would pick for me. I told my friend Dano that when I listen to Andrew Peterson’s music I want to hand craft a guitar from a tree I cut down in the backyard of the cabin I own on the side of a mountain overlooking a clear stream in which I spend my evenings fly fishing; when I’m not playing my guitar, of course. The fact that I don’t play the guitar very well, don’t own a cabin anywhere and have only fly fished a couple of times doesn’t matter.

Sometimes I get in one of those funks where I feel as if I am worth nothing. You’ve been there too I know. We all have been there. If you say you haven’t … well, you’re lying (I don’t know how to be less blunt). I’ve been there some lately and I’m coming out of it – I always seem to. There is a song that has helped me see the other side, written by Andy Peterson.

Jesus tells how important we are to him in a story. It goes something like this (as recorded by the good doctor):

"Or imagine a woman who has ten coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and scour the house, looking in every nook and cranny until she finds it? And when she finds it you can be sure she'll call her friends and neighbors: 'Celebrate with me! I found my lost coin!' Count on it—that's the kind of party God's angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God."

Luke 15:8-10

Andrew Peterson puts that idea into a song called Loose Change – about a penny:

I'd give you all of me to know what you were thinking
And if I had one wish I'd wish I wasn't sinking here
Drowning in this well
Oh can't you tell

That I can't pick myself up off the ground
I've been face down
And pushed aside
Well, you know I'd rather just turn tail and run
Than lie here in the sun
And watch you pass me by
'Cause I ain't worth a dime

But if only I could stand up straight
I wouldn't have to lie and wait
I could up and roll away
And never be ignored
I've got a feeling that I'm something more
Than just a piece of copper ore
Turning green and looking for
The reason I was born

Well, I've been around since 1974
In banks and bottom drawers
On railroad ties
I've been passed around and cast aside
And skipped and flipped and flattened wide
Spun around and thrown away and left alone to lie

But I heard about a penny found
Lying underneath the couch
By a woman who was kneeling down
Looking for some change
Then the woman danced around
Called her friends all over town
Told 'em what was lost is found
It's another penny saved

So I find that all this time
Beneath the surface, I could shine
Like all the gold a king and queen could measure
See, even just a penny is a treasure

The man knows how to use words and turn phrases. And a spiritual truth (that “a penny like me, is a treasure”) makes more sense.

My running start

On a comment to a previous post Michelle asked how I got started running so I decided I would write it here.

During Andrea’s pregnancy with Tori she was gestational diabetic and her doctor put her on a 1000 calorie a day diet. I think gerbils eat more. It was torture for both of us (more Andrea than me). After Tori was born Andrea weighed less than before she got pregnant.

As a side note when Andrea was pregnant with Tori she craved Funyuns. Tori has always loved Funyuns, they are her favorite.

A little less than two years later Tori came up to me one evening while I was watching an Astros game. She threw herself in my lap and handed me a note (written for her by her mother) that said “Am I going to have a little brother or a little sister?” Andrea was pregnant again and we were excited. One of the coolest things though was the doctor told Andrea this pregnancy was normal and she could eat what she wanted. “Party!”

I was already heaver than I should be but if Andrea could eat for two I figured I could as well. So I started eating and gaining some serious pounds. Jakeb was born on March 18, 1993 and to celebrate I went to Zumgasthaus and ate one of their mongo steaks. I weighed more than I had ever weighed in my life and more than I have since.

In May, after Jakeb was born I decided that enough was enough and stepped out the door of our house in Richwood to run…and lose weight. I barely made it around the block and the shoes I ran in were Reebok tennis shoes. The next day my arches were screaming at me and I almost quit. My vanity wouldn’t let me though.

Like I do with everything I went to the book store and bought a book about running. It told me how to start. I went and bought a cheap pair of New Balance running shoes and marked out a three-mile course. I ran until I was close to being worn out and then I would walk until I recovered. I did that until I could run the whole three miles. I took what seemed like forever.

Then I put my headphones on and turned up King’s X “Faith, Hope, and Love” as loud as it would go and I got to where I was running about 20 miles a week. I lost weight. I trained for my first 5k, which I finished in 25:11, and I’ve never looked back.

I am a runner. I have been a very devoted runner. I’ve been a not so devoted runner. I’ve trained hard and I’ve trained not so hard. I’ve run far and I’ve run short. I’ve been much faster than I am now but I’ve been slower too. I’ve backslidden and not run at all for months. But I’ve never stopped being a runner.

Runner – It isn’t the sole word that defines me, but it is in the definition of who I am.

I started running to lose weight.

I run now because it is a discipline I cannot walk away from. It is epidemic.

I run because I can think.

I run for accomplishment.

I run because it’s something not many other people do. One of those “stand out from the crowd” kind of things. Which is smug, I know.

I run to listen to music.

I run to listen to nature.

I run because sometimes right before first light mexican bats swoop around my head. How else would I even know there were mexican bats in Lake Jackson in the summer time?

I run to listen to silence.

I run because I can.

…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus.
Hebrews 12:1-2

Movie Date Day

Life has kept Andrea and me on different paths lately. Nothing has been wrong in our relationship; we just have not had much time to exist alone in one place together. Both of us know that we can’t go on like that very long, so we decided to have a movie date day on Monday. I picked up two movies on Sunday night and as soon as we got the kids off to school we sat down to watch the first one.

Spanglish was an okay movie. The best part of the movie was seeing that two people could put aside their selfishness and do what was right for those around them - A decidedly Christ-like theme in a movie that didn’t take a side. Adam Sandler did a good job of acting in a very un-Adam Sandler way. Tea Leoni was funny.

After running some errands, eating lunch at school with Jakeb and an afternoon nap Andrea and I put in Finding Neverland.

What an excellent movie. Johnny Depp is just too good. I have a friend named Jim from Scotland and Depp did such a good job with the accent I thought I was listening to my friend.

Finding Neverland is a film that reminded me of the importance of imagination without ignoring how harsh reality is sometimes. There were no simple answers to the complex issues the characters faced. It was a movie full of wonder and yet sometimes disturbing. Just like life.

Jakeb is blogging

There is a new blogger under the Stunz roof. Check out what my son Jakeb has to say here ...> Link

Blog Stats

Today I was checking my site statistics to see how many people have shown up at my blog and where they are coming from. You can see it for yourself by clicking the small multicolored box at the bottom of this page. It seems that on average there are fourty-one people who read my blog per day.

What I find interesting is how people find “Stunz blog”. Most people connect to my blog through the Brazos Pointe Fellowship web sight. But some people find my blog through search engines. Just today people came to my blog by making the following searches:

Google ………. “running is bad for you” (#22)
Yahoo ………... “marriage mentoring” (#18)
Yahoo ............. "Making Marbles" (#5)
Yahoo ……….. “is Lance Armstrong a good role model” (#7)
Lycos ………… “A Trip to the Dentist” (#24)
Yahoo ……….. “A 1000 things I want to do before I die” (#4)

Blogs still amaze me. And I am amazed at how people find mine.

Gator Gallop 5k

Jakeb, Andrea and I ran the Gator Gallop 5k on Saturday. There were quite a few BPF people running and watching the race. Mary Margaret, Jennifer, Edwin, Jason, Terry, Cy, et al. The danger of trying to name people is I will inevitably miss someone who was there. If that’s you I’m sorry.

Friday night I went to see Jakeb’s baseball game and there were Brazos Pointe Fellowship people wherever I looked. It is amazing to me the relational potential for pointing others toward Jesus that the people at Brazos Pointe Fellowship have as we live life in the Brazosport area. BPF exists everywhere, even when we’re not meeting.

Back to the race - Andrea and Jakeb have both been training for a 5k. Their goal race is not until next month but they both decided to run the Gator Gallop 5k at Brazosport College. Andrea hasn’t run the full distance since her foot surgery. Jakeb ran 3 miles for the first time last week.

Andrea is my hero. She was feeling sick a couple of days before the race and on Thursday when she and Jakeb were running she tripped and fell on the concrete. Even with the pain she gutted it up and ran/walked the 5k.

I ran it and felt pretty good. I maintained a comfortable pace and finished in twenty-four minutes and twenty-something seconds. I didn’t stop my watch so I am not sure of an exact time.

I was going to grab a drink and go back and help Jakeb run the rest of the way in. I took a drink and looked up and there was Jakeb striding to the finish only about a minute behind me. I was suddenly struck by the realization that I will soon be beat soundly by my son.

When it was all said and done Jakeb won second place in the 12 and under category. I finished 3rd in the 30 – 39 age group. Jakeb second, dad third. The beginning of a pattern I'm sure.

It was a good day! The whole family have to do it again soon.

Pope John Paul II

There has been so much coverage on the death of Pope John Paul II that I hesitate to write because I probably will not say anything most of you have not heard already.

As I listen to all of the stories of his life what strikes me is how much the Pope enjoyed the same aspects of life everyday people enjoy. He skied, played soccer and kept up with culture as we all like to do. I am also stuck by how brilliant the Pope was. Knowing numerous languages, understanding theology, and relating to both heads-of-state and working folks. I am struck by a man who stood by what he believed to be true even though the world pushed so hard against those beliefs (some of which I disagree). Above all I am struck by a life that was lived in such devotion to God.

I want to be a well rounded person. I want to be a person that enjoys all life has to give. I want to learn as much as I can learn. I want to live what I believe. I want to be as devoted to God as I possibly can be. I want to live well.

“He’s taught us how to live, he’s taught us how to suffer, and now he’s teaching us how to die.”
– Jim Mulligan, a Missouri deacon studying in Rome (From April 11, 2005 U.S. News and World Report)