NFL Preview & Predictions!

Today we're going to be looking at the NFL, with team-by-team predictions, and fast-fowarding to Superbowl match-up and winner.

I'll be back next week for a detailed preview of my favorite team: The Denver Broncos

AFC EAST

Buffalo Bills

8-8; Show me something before I believe.

Miami Dolphins

6-10; A much improved club under Big Bill's leadership and solid QB play from Pennington

New England Patriots

13-3; I don't see New England coming 'back to the field' too much, although the age on defense can't escape AFC offenses this year. Even under the mad-genius' schemes. Great record is due impart to an unbelievably weak schedule.

New York Jets

8-8; I don't see much improvement with Brett Favre changing uniforms. It's an 8-8 league, and this team will be a decent 8-8. Winning a couple on Favre's arm, and losing a couple on him slinging it around carelessly like in the NFC Championship game...

NFC EAST

Dallas Cowboys

11-5; A very solid 11-5, however I can see this team reading a bit too many of its' summer press-clippings in a very tough NFC East

New York Giants

7-9; This team is more ripe for a Superbowl hangover than any past champion I can remember. They've lost key personnel and I just don't see them getting it done in their own division, let alone the conference.

Philadelphia Eagles

11-5; Wildcard team, with excellent all around season. They will rebound. Great organization.

Washington Redskins

8-8; A decent team, with good pieces will also have really solid coaching. QB play is everything in this league, and I just don't see Jason Campbell getting it done.

AFC NORTH

Baltimore Ravens

4-12; I just don't see anything to write home about here. In fact, I would close the team offices and give everything back to the City of Cleveland.

Cincinnati Bengals

8-8; Same story, different year. Marv Lewis leaves at the end of the year. Bungals are back.

Cleveland Browns

8-8; Not buying all of the hype. Tough schedule, but benefit of having to travel the least number of miles in the NFL. I just don't think Anderson is the long term answer at QB. In this division, limiting turnovers and being able to run the ball is everything.

Pittsburgh Steelers

12-4; Which brings us to the team that will do that best. Look for a great year in Pittsburgh from QB, both tailbacks, and the defense.

NFC NORTH

Chicago Bears

3-13; Fresno St. will have better QB play this year. Disaster in waiting. I would burn my equipment, throw it in Lake Michigan and quit.

Detroit Lions

6-10; They're the Lions. What more needs to be said. The teams' logo should be "6&10". Gross.

Green Bay Packers

10-6; I feel Aaron Rogers gets it done in caretaker form at QB, and the depth of the roster comes through time & again this year.

Minnesota Vikings

11-5; Adrian Peterson scares me. Tavaris Jackson does not. Running the ball and stopping the run still works. This team will be very good.

AFC SOUTH

Houston Texans

10-6; In the best division in football, a very well coached, great pass-rush and very solid run game with a caretaker at QB, this team would runaway with any NFC division besides the East. Thing is, they're in the AFC and the South. Brutal schedule. With 19 former Broncos in the organization, "Denver South" will miss the playoffs. Barely.

Indianapolis Colts

11-5; Slow start will be overcome by Peyton being Peyton once he's fully healthy.

Jacksonville Jaguars

11-5; Solid, solid football team. I don't think Garrard has ever thrown an interception. Even if he does this year, they're still winning 11 games.

Tennessee Titans

4-12; Vince Young will be out of a job by week 9. Total sham.

NFC SOUTH

Atlanta Falcons

3-10; They would be 3-13, but they will probably quit like their coward coach Bobby Petrino did last year. Poor Matt Ryan.

Carolina Panthers

8-8; Average team that never plays average football. They play really good, and surprisingly bad.

New Orleans Saints

11-5; Good football team. Defense will be much improved with Ced Ellis. QB play will be amazing, and maybe, just maybe, Reggie Bush will average more than 3.8 yards per carry

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

9-7; Love Garcia, but last year was more of an aberration for this team.

AFC WEST

Denver Broncos

11-5; Run defense will return to its' top-5 form that is has held for all of this century until last year's Jim Bates debacle. Look for a franchise year from Jay Cutler. (at least 30 TD's and 4,000 yards). No, Selvin Young will not have 2,000 yards, but the Broncos RB's will have more than 2,300 yards--which means they are a playoff team.

Kansas City Chiefs

8-8; Well coached. Good talent. It's an 8-8 league. Young team will play 8-8 ball.

Oakland Raiders

5-11; They're the Raiders. Napolean Kaufman...err, Darren McFadden will win them five games, Jamarcus the fat, will lose them 5 games. The other 6 will be lost by penalty and turnovers.

San Diego Chargers

13-3; The best team in the AFC. As much as it pains me to say it. Man, I wish Marty was still there to jack something up in the post-season. Maybe LT will pout or the jackass Phillip Rivers will start a bar fight in week 12.

NFC WEST

Arizona Cardinals

10-6; Seriously, I do believe this will be the year that the good drafts and personnel finally come together under Whisenhunt. This team has the talent on both sides of the ball to get it done, and Leinart, though not my vote for most mature QB, will mature enough on the field to lead this team to the division title.


Cardinals update!

Well, that’s the NFL!

One week after Leinart seemed to have the QB position locked-up in Arizona, he goes out and vomits a 2.8 QB rtg,and loses his job.

Oh well, I’ve always liked Warner and feel he can lead them to the same record—he just doesn’t have the salary-cap, draft position, age and frailty working in his favor.

(Really says something about how bad Leinart had to play to lose that job)


St. Louis Rams

9-7; Never sure what to make of this team. Now that Stephen Jackson got paid, will he rush for 2,000 yards, or pull a hamstring in week 4.

San Francisco 49ers

6-10; Whoa, again, Fresno St will have better QB play this year.

Seattle Seahawks

8-8; I respect Holmgren, but this team missed its window. The Dallas Mavericks of the NFL, people still think they're better than they are, and they royally blew their one championship opportunity

The only thing that matters in this years' playoffs is that the Broncos will be back. They will lose their second game to San Diego and I will cry for 6 months.

So, I wont bore myself (or you the loyal reader) with week-by-week predictions or playoffs scenarios; I'll fast-forward to the end:

Chargers over Cowboys in Superbowl XLIII.

Some more thoughts on the Church & men

Being that sanctification is God’s way of extracting from us, a more Christ-like heart, producing an evermore Christ-like life, I think we should expect it to look much different for us all as believers. If we agree on that, I think we can agree that masculinity and femininity, combined with personality and sanctification, will look different for people within the constructs of God’s genders.

I think people are right about Mark Driscoll communicating masculinity narrowly sometimes. I’ve never watched a UFC fight and don’t like fight scenes in movies, so some of his stuff is lost on me. But in general, I guess I just “get him”. I served in combat with all sorts of men around. I love my “band of brothers” and am by nature a very ‘fraternal’ type of guy. I also cry with my girls and my wife…so my masculinity might not look like everyone’s either.

However, I also think that the Church has defined or laid out an expectation of masculinity that is just as narrow as many would see more traditionalists to be. I feel there’s a large segment of the Church and Church academia, that has an expectation of its own values of masculinity. That men are to be only meek, that they are to be only forgiving and never fighting, that men are to be only turn the other cheek and not defend or pre-empt. I hope you get my heart when I say, I “get” what some of these men are preaching. I don’t feel the problems in the Church and our families and our culture is that men are too strong. I think many men are way too weak, passive, indecisive, non-confrontational and accepting…and hide under post-modern cloaks of tolerance and acceptance.

I understand why people have taken offense to some things that Mark Driscoll has said. I do. Some of the things were offensive!

I listen to him, Matt Chandler (our pastor at The Village Church), John Piper, Tim Keller, Tommy Nelson and others, having respect for them because they're a great Bible teachers & preachers. I love their faithfulness to the Word. But they're just men. I loved Ted Haggard for his preaching, teaching and what I perceived of his marriage to Gayle, for years as well. I mean, I love my Dad with all of the love that a son could ever muster, but I don’t idolize him either…far from it. I hold him in reverence and respect, as the loving father & earthly, male head of my life. But...he’s just another sinful, fallen man. When he’s done with his race, if I am given the grace of God to outlive him, or view it from Heaven, I hope that both my Dad and these pastors have run great, beautiful races. But until then, I understand that in even expecting godliness from a man admire, I may be let down as with Ted Haggard. But I digress...I want to talk more about The Church.

(This is not really to be a post on in some defense of Driscoll the preacher & teacher. But I feel his teaching is so faithful to scripture and the movement (Mars Hill, Acts 29, the Resurgence) is so important, I hate to see the Church get caught up in shooting its own. And my thoughts jump around here. Hope that makes sense.)

Frankly, for quite a while now I’ve been increasingly bothered by the “teams” that develop in Christianity, that you can almost depend on to hammer on one guy and love another. You’ve got the missional, emergent crowds, the staunch fundamental doctrine hounds, each with its heroes and leaders, you’ve got the various Seminaries and denominational affiliations…and painfully obvious allegiances within them. I certainly understand that some of that is doctrinally based. I take issue with certain parts of the Church and certain leaders because of it. But as we steward the Church into an amazing convergence of technology and information (see my friends' Rhett Smith's blog and Matt Singley's blog to stay current on this convergence!) But All of these constructs by the way, are institutions of man, or loosely codified ideas of man. "Teams" and allegiances...of man. We need to be careful not to be too ‘religious’ in our affiliations organizations and keep it all focused and preaching, teaching and living Jesus’ transformative power…through His love and grace.

It may be a little off-topic, but I don’t understand the offense to the Ted Haggard blog. And not to justify by implied association, but I’m not alone in that. I’ve talked to many men and women that say, “yeah, we see it in our Church with men AND women. Pastors and congregation.” He clearly wasn’t talking about Gayle. Clearly not talking about Gayle...I don't understand why the reach there. (Not to mention, Gayle couldn't fit the characterization any less; she's a beautiful woman) It was an observation and judgment about some pastors wives. (With a really bad choice of words, worse timing, and horrible choice of forum in my opinion!) I think many that share the point of view are reticent to share less they run afoul of the sensitivity police. Even in sharing this, I debated internally because I don’t want to appear to be the ‘insensitive jerk’ that’s subconsciously labeled as such and dismissed within Christian circles because I’m not offended…and I am willing to take the risk of sharing my views honestly.

(Although, hopefully the good grammar police among you would be offended by my run-on sentence. Whew...sorry!)

Just some thoughts folks, as God continues to turn my heart towards the study of His word, Church, teachers and the revival that I believe we're at the forefront of.

Pac-man is not a smart man

No, I'm not going to call him "Adam Jones". His name is Pac-man. Living here in Dallas and getting Cowboy reports all-day every day, I know that inside the world of the blue star, he still goes by pac-man. His momma calls him pac-man, I'm gonna call him pac-man.

So anyways, Pac-man "make it rain" Jones took some shots at Denver wideout, Brandon Marshall yesterday after the team's first joint practice together at the Broncos' training facility at Dove Valley, in suburban Denver.

Said the big yellow chomper:



"TO is 10 times faster than Brandon Marshall. 10 times stronger than Brandon Marshall. #15 ain't no TO."

Curiously that was after #15 made several big catches against Dallas' first-team defense...after shaking-off the chomper.

Now maybe Mr. Pac had a bit too much to drink at one of Denver's "scrip clubs" (listen to his sound bites, he does not say strip club, but scrip or script club. Maybe he actually thought these establishments were for writing SCRIPTS and in his script, he plays himself, makes it rain, degrades women, leaves people shot & wounded on the scene, and then declares in all of his genius that "it ain't no sin to go to the scrip club") I severely digress...

Maybe the public schools in Atlanta where pacman grew have really low math requirements, or pacman's stint on TNA wrestling banged-up his round, yellow head, but by my estimations, Terrel Owens would have to be the world's strongest AND fastest man (including cartoons and superheros) to be 10 times faster and stronger than the BIGGER (6'4", 230lbs to TO's 6'3", 218) Brandon Marshall.

Now while I believe the 35 year old Mr. Owens is pretty darn strong and fast, I think it's highly unlikely that he benches 3,500lbs, and runs a 0.43 40-yard dash.

Not only that, but if TO's "ten times faster and stronger" than the 24 year old Marshall, then why, on a team with less weapons, a much less effective offense, and much less scoring than that of the Cowboys, did Marshall have 21 more catches than TO (102 to 81), with significantly more yards-after-catch (505 to 358)?

TO clearly had an amazing year, but #15 is going to be a force in Denver for the next decade or better...and certainly faces better competition every day across the line of scrimmage in Champ Bailey, than he has to face this week in the Pacman.

Just wondering Adam...err, Pacman, where were you in coverage this week against Brandon Marshall?

Get lost in the maze? Eat too many yellow dots?

The Southern White Male Empire Building

(An aside to my post that I wrote last week; I started this blog post on Thurs of last week. It has taken me four days to get back to it and finish it)

I heard Collin Cowherd say something yesterday that made me stop what I was doing, laugh out loud, call my wife Jill and inspired me to blog about it. It's not often that someone's comment will get me to blog about it, let alone what I feel was kind of a 'throw-away' line of comments by 'Herd. He didn't open the segment with the take, it was in the middle of a long line of conversation on the topic de jour (well, topic of the week, no...month) Brett Farve.

Collin astutely observed when speaking about the way some guys view everything, (rough plagiarism from memory, and not direct quote, as I couldn't find the segment online) "guys in the south feel they have to empire build. Build walls, prop-up and defend everything in their lives". He went on to note, "I don't run into this guy in L.A.. You won't find this guy in New York, where there's just so much more to life than what white southern guy knows".

Oh. How. True. I've been calling this guy, "SEC* guy" for a number of years now (*SEC is the Southeast Conference in college football). Stereotypes are fun, because you can always find enough people to live into them for you (and you don't get in trouble for using them unless you apply them across racial lines). And boy, have I encountered these guys.

In general, you just have these guys that build up little things in their lives that they live so vicariously through, that they become giant sources of identity and ritual (create idols, much?)

Southern myopic white guy will bang relentlessly on SEC football, SEC tradition, SEC tailgating, SEC coaches, Southern ______. SEC football, the stadiums, the experiences are legendary in part because of this, but I want to focus on what Collin was getting at.

Having been to 31 countries and lived in four different states (with family across three others), I guess I just have a different perspective on it all. I share some of the same passions, and perhaps ideals as SEC guy, but I just view the world through a much larger lens. Sure it sounds arrogant to presuppose this...but it's true. College football worship or whatever other vice is seasonally inserted into the life of southern white guy, is truly a marginal or secondary passion in the rest of the country (to say nothing of the rest of the world). So, while your stadium might have registered on the Richter scale, (seriously, so cool to me! The main reason I wanted to see a game at LSU well before I married Jill) that stadium is only the center of your small little world.

There's more to do in the rest of the country (especially on the West Coast).

There are far more competing interests for the entertainment dollar and passion (people want to talk about making movies in L.A., companies in Silicon Valley, hedge funds in NYC, baseball in Boston and meth in Fresno).

This is not to say that the whole premise is even right; SEC football is the best in the country right now. And the PAC-10 is by far the most dominate athletic conference in the country. The best programs in the country all recruit heaviest in CA and TX outside of Florida. So what? So football is strong and loved in the South. Great. If my Aunt had a pair, she'd be my uncle. Is that all that goes on down there, SEC guy? I ask, because it doesn't look like a whole lot of studying is going on there. The PAC-10 has had 137 Nobel laureates to the SEC's 9. Don't even get me started on the salaries and accomplishments of alumni out of the two regions. Now, it doesn't take a degree from UCLA to understand that that's lopsided. Jeesh, crack a book once in awhile. Try to break attendance records for class instead of games for once. Put a tutor in your Fav-5 instead of just your 35 year-old tailgating buddies. Find a resume builder instead of a college football message board.

It's just plain weird to love something more than the teenage boys do, that you place in a position of idol every fall & spring. And if you don't think SEC guy loves his team/conference MORE than the actual players and coaches out there, well, you just haven't been around enough athletes. SEC guy loves it more & derives more identity from the sports than do the athletes.

I mean, that's not to say that Les Miles doesn't have himself painted on a trailer, but Les Miles doesn't have himself painted on a trailer.

It's just myopic empire building, like Collin pointed-out. You don't find this guy out West and you definitely don't find this guy in someone who's got their identity and priorities rooted in the right place.

Oh, and FIGHT ON USC! ;)

The premise of the book I'm going to write

So, I've had this huge desire to write and tell stories for the better part of 5 years now. And embarrassingly so, I've yet to act on it. Sure, it hasn't been one of my primary focuses in life--but that's part of what brings me the embarrassment--I haven't made it a primary focus.

There was a window when I returned from Iraq that it would have been most relevant to tell the story of Baghdad 2004. Of course, the story I wanted to--and intended to--tell, was one of the 'romance' of the whole battle. The epic adventure that it was for me and my own band of brothers. So, perhaps the window of relevance for that story isn't closed, but it's not what I feel I need to write about now.

I need to write about being a man. I feel the lack of real men is an epidemic in our culture.

I feel it it is at the root of so many parts of our culture that are in decay.

I feel it is at the root of crime and incarceration statistics in the black community (yes, I'm going to write about it even though the race-mongers in our country won't let you talk about race unless you're black and your name ends in ___arpton or ___ckson)

I feel the lack of real men in our culture is an epidemic that is damaging a generation of women

I feel encouraged by the men in MY LIFE that embody the ideal to me.

Over the years I've come to see some character traits that are generally accepted as "manly" as stupid, machismo and ignorant. Over the years, I've also seen some of the cultural pressures on men to be poisonous lies and feminist propaganda.

I've also come to believe that young men today have such a false sense of identity because in large part they grew up as the first generation in this country that was absolutely at the center of the universe in terms of how their parents approached parenting.

I also feel that we raise emotionally constipated men that are unfit for raising other boys, let alone raising and loving little girls.

Men should cry. They should cry for joy, they should cry out of anger if they share the heart of God. They should cry when the weight and magnitude of their parents or spouses or God's love HITS THEM for the first time. It's cool. It's necessary and empowering to have a good man-cry.

Men should instinctively react to protect, defend and fight for what is RIGHT. I feel women are far more gifted at caring for the hungry, homeless and orphaned; I want to DEFEND THEM.

Men should find their identity in the right place. In their creator God, and His purposes for their lives. If they don't they will chase woman after woman in search of that identity and validation. Or, once married, they will still chase women, either through the fantasy of porn (53% of men use porn, even more have at one point been addicted) or through emotional and physical affair. Men, seeking their identity in the wrong place will chase the next job, the next promotion, the face-time with the boss and winning the quarterly 'xyz' as if it that promotion, raise and VP title were the ones at home every night, just wanting to be loved, hugged, admired and spent time with.

A real man figures out how to make it all work, and has the perspective on life to know that "it all" working means taking some rest, enjoying a laid back dinner of drinks and a meal with great friends, Bible study alone in the morning, a nap on Saturday afternoon with the wife. A real man can find balance in life through perspective, before finding perspective on life through things being out of balance.

Guys, we've got to instinctively know how to love, live, fight, defend, make peace, teach, lead and follow. The book I'm going to write is my belief in a road-map and framework to do so.

I need all the encouragement and accountability possible. After all, I'm three years behind on my first book.

July 2nd, 2008

That's the last time I wrote an original piece on this blog.

Gosh, that sucks.

One month. One whole month. Why am I even blogging, if that's all I've got? However, in that same time period, I had 480+ 'micro-blog' or mini-takes on twitter. That's 15% more than any other single month since I joined twitter last July. That's really interesting to me. Really tells me something about the platform and method that works for me. Also might tell me something about my attention span.

I don't understand. I don't know why I'm not writing. I think about it. And just like the Fairfield Police Dept "failure to show proof of insurance" citation on my desk (I've always had insurance, just not so good at putting an updated piece of paper in my car), my blog just sits there. I look at it. Hoping that all of the things I think about writing, would just suddenly make time for themselves in my life. And while they're at it, I wish they would just write themselves. I wish this citation would just pay itself. Put postage on itself and mail itself.

I'm really trying to understand why I'm not writing more. I know it's a gift. It's something I love to do. It's something I feel the need to do. It's something I feel called to do. I just don't do it. It just seems to cumbersome, time-consuming and (get this) distracting to sit down and focus on writing. I find it's tough to keep the rhythm of my life when I cut away to think and write. I feel that there's just not really the time to do it well. With work (July was also the most productive month of work I've had in a couple years!), being intentionally invested in marriage every evening, being intentionally invested in daddyhood every evening, with some working out, some running, some Bible study, some rest, some travel...it just doesn't feel like I ever have the time needed to lay out some thoughts. It feels like I'm taking away from something else, unless I'm blogging late at night or first thing in the morning, when nobody else is awake. Even then, I value rest or Bible study more than blogging.

But I really WANT to blog more. I really want to develop an audience, folks to talk to and hear from. I comment on others writing more than I've been writing myself. So weird.

I feel that I have a gift for the multi-page-length blog, but am always challenged to write the two or three paragraph blog. Seriously, it's difficult for me to say, "this is what I think & why". No, I want to dissect, break-down, build-up, deconstruct and re-construct.

Just yesterday I wrote a really difficult email defending my wife, making some things crystal clear and basically blowing-up someone for how some communication had gone the previous couple days. It was 2,400+ words and 6 pages (12pt, Times Font) in Word. I cited 8 or 9 verses of scripture and it might as well have had a preamble and footnotes (it didn't, actually).

I guess that's the problem with my blogging. I just see any piece of writing that I might undertake (notice how long this one is getting), as one that has to be well-written, well-reasoned and insightful. To me, that has yet to ever mean concise.

I know that being short, sweet and to the point is a valuable skill. However, I have also found that it leaves room for squabbling and back-and-forth in trying to 'further clarify' or expound.

I guess the other reason that I might be dragging my feet is it just doesn't feel rewarding enough. I like to hear myself talk and read my own thoughts just as much as anyone (yawn........) but not when I'm writing. I want feedback. I want thoughts I want discussion. I want affirmation...or if so intended, I want reaction.

I'm thinking aloud here, but I guess I just don't get it. What's the point? What am I writing for? Why am I not writing more? Where is my writing or blogging going? Is the 140 character take on twitter an art-form in writing, or is it the lowest-common-denominator? As someone that has a heavy, deep desire and calling to write books, is that where my sub-divided writing attention should go? I just don't know.

And this blog as a platform; what exactly am I here to say? It's title, "leading at the speed of thought", gives you an idea of where I intended to take it. But I find myself only able to process big book-length type of ideas on leadership and Biblical manhood. I don't know. Personally, leadership is something that's never "off". Always on. It has to permeate every aspect of my life, or I'm not living into my full ability or responsibility. So, do I write about everything under the sun and try to wrap in neat thematic packaging?

I'm a pretty eclectic guy, and as anyone in my life will tell you, have a pretty eclectic collection of passions and intrigues. I'm blessed enough to be able to have a conversation about a vast range of topics. I truly feel its one of my greatest strengths. But I guess I just don't know what in the world to talk about here.

God Values the Journey. What King David can teach us about the nature of God

GOD VALUES THE JOURNEY. WHAT KING DAVID CAN TEACH US ABOUT THE NATURE OF GOD

2008 PREAMBLE:

This is a re-post of one of the blogs that was most rewarding for me to write. I still find myself working and wrestling through “the journey”.

Many landmark, amazing, incredible things have changed since I wrote this last summer. Jesus has been rocking my world! Most importantly, I am blessed, overjoyed and amazed by the marriage to my best friend and soul mate (who has the coolest name too) Jill Still. I’ve written countless other times about what the true, deep, soulful love has done to my life, hope, faith…and even understanding of and relationship to, God’s love.

I am blessed to know and live into a gigantic part of my calling as a Dad and step-Dad! I am so in love with the opportunity to love and lead our five little angels! It is absolutely the greatest thing imaginable.

I am no longer the dead-broke entrepreneur with no income or hope for financial upside. By the grace of God, I am in a pretty cool role at Raytheon. I now remain as founding-director at Wishy.com, and keep a bit of a stake in the company that I pray so strongly takes-off under the execution and leadership of Deano. Now I manage contracts for cool military technology at Raytheon. Again, by God’s total blessing, I’m well compensated, and while we are definitely dead-broke and barely keeping “altitude”, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We’re trying to be obedient to God’s directions financially, and pray that the long, long journey back to financial solvency can be sanctifying and rewarding as we go through it together.

I am in a totally and completely blessed emotional place as we hit the midpoint of 2008. As Jill well knows, I am not an easy person to go through life with. While I am probably the most emotionally available husband, and live and love with my heart on my sleeve, I am (obviously) very emotional. I ache, I mourn, I lament. I cheer. I love. I love. I anger. I hurt. I despair…and through it all, I am learning to be as faithful as possible to my role as leader in the home, by the striking the difficult balance between humble servitude, gentle teacher, strong correction guy, coach, encourager, and always the loving, affectionate praying husband and Daddy. Whoa, is it hard! I can only do this by the strength and grace of God. But that all is a blog for another day!

I want share what I wrote last year about David and the perspective through which we can see our own lives.

ON THE FRONT LINES OF FAITH IN 2007

GOD VALUES THE JOURNEY

This year, and reaching back by extension to much of last year, has been the most difficult, challenging, fulfilling, testing, inspiring, heart-breaking and invigorating of my entire life. It has been one of the years where those further detached from me feel I’ve been through hell and am not “happy”, being beat up by circumstances and trial. That’s somewhat true (anyone that laughs as much as I do, does *not* have a happiness deficiency). However, it has also been one of those years that those closest to my life—my small group, Deano, Alex, Grant, Pastor Keenan, my Mom & Dad and few others as God brought us in & out of each other’s lives and dialogue—have also seen incredible emotional highs, not in reaction to circumstances, but in celebration of God’s strength, redeeming power, faithfulness and powerful grace. This has also been true.

So, where to begin? Let me turn to the lifeblood of the little understanding I’m granted within this hyper-curious intellect of mine: Scripture.

Matthew 6: 33-34

33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Mark 1: 11-13

11 And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." 12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, 13 and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

These two scriptures I believe to be offer an incredible framework for understanding my recent walk with Christ, as well as providing a model for a bit of analysis, for the sake of continual growth. I will explain further in parts two and three.

But, for PART ONE, first we are going to consider 1 Samuel 16 through 2 Samuel 5

36 chapters in the Bible, covering twenty-some years. David was the youngest son of Jesse when called from the fields and anointed to be King of Israel by Samuel. (I don’t know how young, but given that he was yet pretty small when he kicked Goliath’s arse, I think we can presume he was no older than 10, 12 at the most.)

So, why are these chapters important?

Well, first of all, David is said to be a man after God’s own heart. God clearly does bestow favor upon those that seek Him in the manner that we were created (in His image). David got it. We men should try to get David. We NEED to try to be like David

To me the chapters hold incredible importance because they detail the journey of into King for David. It cannot be over-emphasized; THE JOURNEY into Kingship. “David was 30 years old, he reigned for 40 years and he did so in the following locations. Yada, yada, yada.”

Wow. And there in 2 Samuel 5: 4 you have the boldest declaration by our Lord of how deeply He values the process in life. The Journey! 36 chapters detailing a life of battles, trial, torment, victory, struggle, fleeing, lamentations and praises of David before ever becoming King. Then 2 Samuel closes with another 19 Chapters detailing the glory, fall, sorrow and praise of David as King, but the heavy-hitting truth to me was that so much weight was cast upon the journey into Kingship of a boy that had been anointed decades earlier!

(This is perfectly captured by New Life Church associate pastor Rob Brendle in “In the Meantime”, available on Amazon Rob's Book Here)

Whoa. I don’t know about you guys, but I was never pulled from the field and anointed with oils by Ronald Reagan, nor George Bush 41 for that matter; yet I have felt—I do feel—a calling, a purpose, a grandiose mission in life, which was due to unfold.

All of us men do.

It is authored there by the Holy Spirit and it stirs inside of us when we dare dream those things that a life of “the normalization of assimilation” has stripped away from our unique dreams, desires and callings that are scripted to be perfectly refined by our Lord, using our blessings and talents for His glory.

That’s a long, run-on sentence way of acknowledging that we are not the sole authors of our dreams. And that our dreams and the intrinsic adventure and required belief-in-self are REPRESSED by the social constructs (the world) in which we conform to, when we’re not “seeking first, the Kingdom of God”.

Yet, even after reading Rob’s book, I would still let impatience (inherently distrust of God’s will in my life) take over as I just.could.not.sit.still.and.wait.

How God? How am I best to wait on your timing? I just feel so convicted and strangely, strengthened by this example of David’s life.

I mean seriously, just how short-sighted and weak is it of me to feel so restless and lost in my own life’s desert, when compared to what David went through?

“God, here I am! With all the food I can eat, so that I’ve actually gained weight. I’m living by the beach in Santa Monica…statistically-speaking I am among the wealthiest, healthiest and safest 1% of people to ever walk this earth…whoa-is-me, God….boo-hoo…I am Jared, and I am broke and a not-so-starving entrepreneur…and here I am, here I am, God, where are you??”

Yeah, ridiculous.

Now, there’s no doubt that the amount of spiritual torment and emotional trial I have been through in this past year has been real. And it has been real hard. But I, like so many of us, need a freaking reality check sometimes, and for me, I found that in David.

Hurting. Lost. Failing with the company? In despair. Sinful. Tired. Exhausted. Broke (as if I had forgotten the level of impoverishment in India I saw in Feb). In debt (as if worrying about it all was doing any good anyways), and under attack.”

Yeah, in reflection, I’m reminded of how relative life and relationships just really are. Whereas, my relative pain, struggle and turmoil was big-time to me, I will always count myself among the most blessed people on the planet.

But what I felt I was going through was my own Psalm 55. And it was new. Raw. Rough. I’ve been through a combat deployment and have been through divorce. And you know what, I would have traded being under fire throughout my tour in Iraq, traveling the roads in our “soft” SUV’s for parts of this year, in a heartbeat. This year was that tough.

To me, war is the natural romantic, intrinsically male “battle to fight” that we all search for (well, at least those of us who have not been overly feminized by “sensitive Christian man” movement.) You must first be a MAN after God’s own heart, as He designed you, before attaining true sensitivity and righteousness. Love Jesus, take the lead, lay down your life for your wife and kids, be emotionally courageous, not constipated.) Sorry for the language and the divergence. Let’s get back to David….

If David was a bit more Jared, we would have had Psalms that sounded more like:

“Really Lord? Freaking REALLY?? Do ye not the oil on the forehead, remembereth?”

“Lord I didn’t tell you I wanted to be King of Israel, you pulled me out of the fields and said, ‘Yep. He’s the one. Bam! Oil. Head.’ Rememberth ye, O Lord?”

“Lord, my God, savior of my soul, if your anointing leadeth one to live and hide in caves, chased to be killed like a wild dog, I would hate to fall out of your favor! Jeesh….”

“O Lord, just HOW busy are you up there that you seem to have lost track of YOUR OWN plan for my life?”

“Remembereth, ye O Lord?? Field. Oil. Head. Fighting big guys, slaying dirty Philistines….and now this?? I just pretended to be FREAKING PSYCHO to save my life! And oh yeah, still wandering around in ENEMY LAND!”

But thankfully, David was not so Jared-like, and its David’s warrior-of-a-life, that Jared now completely looks to live into.

So, I look to the actual construct of the books of Samuel to a clue into God’s desire for my own life; 36 chapters devoted to a 20-year process of becoming King, one verse about actually arriving at King, and then another 19 chapters about the process of being King.

This year has been the most purposeful in my life, as I have had each and every “strength” I counted my own, broken down completely and built back up by faith alone. No. Honestly. I used to think that some of the things I heard from Ted Haggard, Mark Brewer, Rob Brendle and others, were just too “Christianese” to resonate…that it was hyperbole of the faith and I couldn’t quite grasp. Now I get it. Honestly my friends, if you want to truly know what it is like to be humbled—just ask. God will lovingly, but brutally and systematically break down every construct of strength that you have pridefully erected in reaction to the world’s pressure on you. And it won’t feel so great….but it will be the best process of your life. The model can be seen in our own physiology too; just think about what lifting weights is to your body—the process of tearing, literally tearing down muscle, to refine it and build it back up, strengthened and with rest, invigorated in serving its unique purpose on your body (such as the delts and tris for breaking my stupid phone, if it doesn’t stop blacking-out on me.)

Cool. I get it. God values the journey!

…now Dear God, please strengthen me in actually LIVING INTO that truth for my own life. Patience in your perfect timing. Celebration and praise in the perfect refinement (no matter how hard core) you must exact in my life…and thank you God for letting me come to you, letting me walk with the mighty sword and hand of your Son Jesus...and for picking me and the sword up when I go through life falling all over myself. May I one day grow into the armor befitting of the righteous King David! Amen!