To Be A Lobo or Not

I had an interesting invitation today. An old friend, an avid fan of the Utah Utes, invited me to desert the inept New Mexico Lobo football team for a new team. He also graciously offered me a spot as a Ute. His invitation at least made me think. It’s not the first time Lobo football fans have been treated to winless seasons. In the late 80’s, there were 6 years with a total of 9 wins. Considering each year usually includes a game against a division 2 team and a game against New Mexico State, it would seem the minimum number of wins in 6 years would be 12.

So what if a guy decided to abandon his alma matter for a new team, what considerations should be made? I am not saying it is a real possibility, but what are the alternatives?

For the last 10 years Salt Lake City, home of the Utes, has been home. I have no plans to move anytime soon. My daughter is a graduate of the University of Utah, so I guess it would seem logical to switch allegiance to the Utes. In addition, they have enjoyed some recent success. In one Sports Illustrated article that told the best years for each school’s football team, Utah’s greatest success is in the present. (Lobos experienced their best years in the late 50’s and early 60’s.)

Just because you live somewhere, you don’t have to adopt their teams. I lived in Texas but didn’t desert the Colts for the Cowboys, the Lakers for the Mavericks, nor the Yankees for the Rangers. In addition, I lived in Fort Worth and didn’t’ become a TCU fan. (More on that later.)

Since the day I enrolled at UNM, the Lobos and Utes have played football once and basketball at least twice every year. After rooting for one team against another for 42 years, it is tough to even think about changing sides.

What are the other alternatives? Well the only other major college in New Mexico is the New Mexico State Aggies. That is using major college loosely. Becoming an Aggie would be no easier than switching to the Utes and wouldn’t solve the futile football anyway.

Other alternatives? Well I was born in Texas. In my very early years, actually until I enrolled at UNM, I did follow the Longhorns as much as you could follow an out of area team back in those days. It wouldn’t be much of a switch however, as I continue to think of Texas as my favorite “National” team. That isn’t much help locally though since there isn’t much chance that New Mexico or Utah will play Texas in football. They do play occasionally in basketball. I remember a NIT game in the Pit between UNM and Texas that went into overtime.

I could never be a BYU fan. The Mormonism would keep getting in the way. But what about the flag ship college of my Baptist denomination. Cheering for the Baylor Bears is about as hopeless as cheering for the Lobos, with the exception that at least they play in a BCS conference.

The College nearest my birth place that I lived close to for the first 8 years of my life is Texas Tech. However, I don’t have any logical connection to the Red Raiders. A lot of folks in Eastern New Mexico consider Texas Tech the home team.
The other city I lived in while getting my education could solve the dilemma. I earned a Master’s degree in Fort Worth, Texas. In fact, the church we attended in Fort Worth was University Baptist Church. The University in the name being Texas Christian University; TCU. In addition, they haven’t been a conference foe all that long. They have a winning program and there is the added benefit of seeing them play a couple of times a year.

Texas has a great live mascot, Bivo the Longhorn. I think the orange shirt with the white longhorn emblem is a great logo. I have such a shirt. TCU on the other hand has a horned frog. It is as fake as Lobo Louie and Swoop. Baylor has live bears and Tech has a real Red Raider. While I am glad that Utah didn’t go the politically correct route and dump the Ute name nor the feather logo, swoop looks like poop, and their live mascot is a . . . red tailed hawk? (New Mexico dropped the live Lobo when they had trouble with it chewing the fingers of children who tried to pet it.)

Well enough of this. I know, and you probably do too, I ain’t changing. Eventually NM will get on track again. I think it is going to require a new Athletic Director. The one we have seems to make poor choices where coaches are concerned. Utah will eventually come to the end of their current run. In the meantime I will ask you to remember the Lobo football mantra that is at least 40 years old. “Wait til basketball season.”

The Further Adventures of Giblet

I am sure many of you have lost sleep wondering about Giblet the wonder chicken we took with us on the Appalachian Trail. In a post last spring I told you she was missing. Well today we found her. She was located in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

She decided she had enough of hiking, so she caught up with some motorcyclers. They were a nice couple and said that Giblet wasn't too much trouble, but I couldn't help noticing the biking had put quite a bit of stress on her.

A Trillion

I came across an interesting comparison in World Magazine this month. It compares 1 million with 1 billion with 1 trillion.

This is relevant since our beloved government is talking about debt in the trillions now. In our current budget we are slated to spend 1.5 trillion dollars more than we take in. But that is just a number. One trillion is 1,000,000,000,000. To met that is just so many zeros.

Thus the comparison. 1 million seconds ago was 12 days ago. 1 Billion seconds ago was 30 years ago. 1 Trillion seconds ago was 30,000 BC.

I am not an economist but this is what think. Well, backoff, it's my blog. This will affect our children and grandchildren as they live with a grossly indebted government. It will affect us in that the only possible way to ever pay it off will be by inflation. Over the next few years inflation will rise steeply and as it does, the money we have set aside for retirement deflates.

I Would Do Church Differently

Attending churches as a guest has left me with an impression of some things I would do different if I were to ever be in charge again. Our worship is designed so totally for those already a part of the church outsiders can miss the whole message. By outsiders I mean, not just the unchurched, but believing church goers who are simply guests in our church.

We sail through our order of worship as mindlessly and as heartlessly as if it were a formal liturgy. We sing the song and say the words and if they ever had meaning to us, they no longer do; and anyone looking in from the outside would have to wonder, “what are they doing?”

In a newly designed format of worship I would continually explain to people what we were going to do, why we were doing it, and then after it was over explain what we did. Everything!

EXAMPLES:
“We are going to begin our Worship this morning by singing this amazing hymn about grace. It is a song about God’s amazing grace that allows us to experience Him without deserving to experience Him at all.”

“In our opening prayer we are going to ask the Lord to bless our church service this morning. We are calling on the Lord to make Himself present with us as we spend this hour with one another in His presence.”

“Prayer is when we address our thoughts and our requests to God believing He hears us and responds to us.”

I would include in each service a statement of belief. Either one of the traditional confessions of faith or I would write one for our particular church.

“I believe in One God, present in three persons, The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

It would be short, and maybe change the emphasis from week to week, or month to month and I would take a minute or two to explain what it is we are confessing as our faith.

I would insist that each song, hymn, carol, chorus, etc., be introduced with an explanation of why we were choosing to sing this particular song, or in the case of a string of music which is more the norm in today’s worship, what are we intending to accomplish, say, confess, pray, etc., by using these particular choices.

I would attempt to use the purpose statement of the church in each service to remind our members and to inform our guests of the purpose for which this church exists.
I would explain scripture readings before they happened.

“This passage of scripture was given to the prophet Isaiah by the Holy Spirit some 700 years before the birth of Christ. Isaiah, whose name means “the Lord is Salvation” was a prophet in Jerusalem after the time of David and Solomon whose main purpose was to remind his readers of the special relationship they had with God as members of his covenant community. ”

Now this is only a seedling of an idea. I see some pitfalls in it. You would have to be brief, yet you need to be sure your explanations really explain and not just further confuse things. You would have to change what you said, or before long it too would become ritualistic and ignored.

God has given us the privilege of meeting with Him and his earthly family on regular occasion. I believe we ought to work harder to give it meaning.

Go Ahead Turkey, Jump!

Would you be interested in a new ministry? Suicide Jumper Assistant. Don’t threaten to jump from the bridge when Lian Jiansheng is around. He will help you jump, rather, he will push you off the bridge.

Lian was an observer at a possible suicide jumper event in the city of Guangzhou in southern China. Chen Fuchao had been atop the Haizhu Bridge, threatening to jump for 5 hours.

Traffic was held up for those five hours as a crowd gathered. Chen sat on the bridge, threatening to jump. Lian offered to talk Chen down but police refused. Lian then broke through the police cordon, climbed to where Chen was sitting, shook his hand and pushed him off the bridge.

"I pushed him off because jumpers like Chen are very selfish. Their action violates a lot of public interest," Lian told Xinhua news agency. "They do not really dare to kill themselves. Instead, they just want to raise the relevant government authorities' attention to their appeals."

Chen is recovering from his fall in the hospital, Lian is in police custody at last report.

There is no information on Lian. Beyond his comments, why did he feel compelled to give Chen a hand? He was probably in the five hour traffic tie-up at the bridge. He grew weary of waiting for Chen. He decided to do something, even if it was wrong.
Don’t you feel like that sometimes? “Go ahead and jump if you have to, just get out of the way. You are holding things up.” That is not very compassionate nor Christ like but sometimes we grow weary in helping the hurting. One of the hazards of serving the Lord is compassion fatigue. Several times Paul warned the church to not get tired of doing the right thing.

“But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good.” 2 Thessalonians 3:13 (NASB95). See also Galatians 6:9

Here’s wishing you patience for today.

AT Journal

Jen and I have been reading the journal of our AT hike day by day as it happened two years ago. Every day was an awesome experience. Of course reading it in my easy chair I don't feel the knee pain. By now I was existing on 3200 mg of Ibuprophen per day. That is maximum dose, but I knew I would not be smart to keep it up for another 4 or 5 months.

That isn't what I wanted to blog. I wanted to write down the awesome experience we had. We had opportunity to enjoy life, one another, new friends, and develop a new kind of relationship with the Lord. The mind is an incredible thing, and as you hike, hour after hour, day after day, you can spend a lot of time in prayer and meditation.

We are aproaching Virginia in the Journal. 150 miles from our drop out place. How you can be so thrilled and so sad reading a journal you wrote only two years ago is beyond me.

Appalachian Trail Redux

March 15 arrived and our thoughts returned to Georgia, 2007 when we set out to hike the AT. We have been reading the journal of our travel, reminding ourselves of the experience. Last night we had a serious conversation about whether or not we should give it another try. We agreed that if we were to do it at this point, we would want to return to Georgia and start all over. We also agreed that it is impractical to even think about.

Today I am working on Lectures for a Doctoral class on relationships I will present in May. Jen has already left for her shift at the hospital. (It is 6:16 AM) Two years ago we were hiking out of Hiawassee, Georgia and crossed into North Carolina. We hiked 11.6 miles that day, almost all of it was uphill. Life is much different in 2009 than 2007.

Today I have to go to the gym to get an hour’s workout, then this afternoon I will walk 3-4 miles with Uma and the rest of the day will be spent sitting on my hinder. Then I was on my feet all day long with maybe an hour on my hinder all day. Then I was possessed with finding water, today I am stressed confining my liquid intake to water. Then I was satisfied with a tortilla spread with peanut butter and honey, today’s lunch will be significantly more complex I am sure. Then a cup of instant coffee hit the spot. Today I am about to have my third cup of brewed coffee from gourmet beans we purchase by mail. Then I was looking for places to put everything, my bag, my groceries for the week, my water bottle, the pump, etc. Today I am wondering where the best place to put the piano would be, and whether or not we can let Amy take the sofa that is in the basement den. Then I was wondering about the best way to put duct tape on my feet to avoid blisters. Today we are thinking of getting a new car before the tax credit runs out on hybrids. Then I was deciding which shirt combination would be the best to wear to combat the weather. Today I am wondering if the weather will return to warm enough to play golf on Thursday or Friday. Yes, life is different, but life is still life.

The tree is a trail landmark, about 100 yards after passing into North Carolina. My thoughts are with the fine folks who will be camping at Muskrat Creek Shelter, North Carolina tonight. There is a great campsite about 30 yards on up the trail from the turnoff to the shelter.

Customer Service that is really Service

Let me pause among all my criticisms for a moment of praise. I am quick to complain about poor customer service whenever it happens, like last week. . . oh wait, this is a praise blog. I want to tell you a good story about customer service.

I purchased a Magellan RoadMate 700 GPS back in 2006 when we were going to Baltimore to see our kids and our new grandson. I bought it used in an EBay auction. It worked flawlessly, but for a few Interstate exits that had been moved. One night in Nebraska we were looking for what the GPS said was a Golden Corral Steak House and turned out to be some kind of sleazy nightclub. So some of the data was a little out of date.

For 75 dollars I bought a software update and all new maps and points of interest. We were going to take another long drive, this time to Austin, Texas and decided it was time to get updated maps. Well, they came and after hooking the GPS to my computer I entered the cd rom and followed instructions. First, it erased all my old maps, then started loading the new ones. In the middle of the upload there was a file it could not copy. I called Tech Support and they suggested trying it on a computer with Windows XP Service Pack 2. My computers all have Service Pack 3. So I tried it on a Service Pack 2 computer and it failed in the same place. Now I have a GPS unit with no maps.

I called tech support back and gave them the news. They said it was probably a defect in the software on my gps unit put there when I tried installing with Service Pack 3. (Nowhere in the documentation was that fact mentioned.) It just said the installation was for Windows XP. But before I even had time to get my dander up and ready for an argument the agent said, “we don’t support the 700 anymore so if you will send us the 700 we will send you a new 800 to replace it.”

So there you go. For the price of a FedEx to Tennessee I will have a new Roadmate 800 GPS. Of course I don’t have it yet. Mine will not be delivered to them until this Wednesday. And the date for us to leave for Austin has come and gone leaving us GPS less. But we didn’t go anyway so no harm done.

I suspect that the next time I am thinking GPS, I will be thinking Magellan. That is pretty good customer service and they have one happy customer. If you are looking for a GPS unit for your car, may I suggest Magellan.

The Incommunicable Attributes of God

We had a great Theology study this morning about our great God. For two weeks we are studying the attributes of God. Next week we are going to study the attributes that God shares with others. This morning we studied the attributes that belong to God alone. He shares these with none.

We studied 5 of these. God is 1. Independent; 2. Unchanging; 3. Eternal; 4. Everywhere Present; 5. Unified. Will you read one paragraph about each of these, beginning with Wayne Grudem’s (the author of our textbook) definition?

Independence. God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything, yet we and the rest of creation glorify him and bring him joy. (ref. Acts 17:24-25; Job 41:11; Psalm 50:10-12). Both sides of this attribute are awesome. Our God is so great and powerful that he can exist totally by himself, but he allows his creation to bring him joy. I want to serve a God that is not like me. And I am thrilled that my worship brings him glory.

Unchanging. God is unchanging in his being, perfections, purposes, and promises, yet God does act and feel emotions, and he acts and feels differently in response to different situations. (ref. Psalm 102:25-27; Malachi 3:6; Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29). If God could change, he would either change for the better or for the worse. And that is all I am going to say about that. If you need explanation send me a message. The fact that God does not change means that we can trust his promises, they will not change.

Eternity. God has no beginning, end, or succession of moments in his own being, and he sees all time equally vividly, yet God sees events in time and acts in time. (ref. Isaiah 46:9-10; Psalm 90:2; Job 36:26; Revelation 1:8; 4:8). There are two kinds of existence. We all live in time and space. God exists outside of time and space in eternity. Because God sees all time at once, he sees even the future that for us hasn’t been written yet. Depending on your trust in God this is either a very comforting statement or a horrifying one.

Omnipresence. God does not have size or spatial dimensions, and is present at every point of space with his whole being, yet God acts differently in different places. (ref. Deuteronomy 10:14; Jeremiah 23:23-24; Psalm 139:7-10). Just as God is unlimited or infinite with respect to time, so God is unlimited with respect to space. As David understood in Psalm 139, God is present to punish, to sustain, or to bless. Once again, how you feel about this attribute depends on your desire to be holy. Wholly his, or selfishly yours, it is your choice.

Unity. God is not divided into parts, yet we see different attributes of God emphasized at different times. (ref. Compare 1 John 1:5 with 1 John 4:8). One attribute of God is not more important than the rest. God is not partly light, partly love, partly just, partly merciful, etc. God is all of these things completely. God is not loving at some point, or wrathful at some point. The little boys statement that Jesus is really nice but he has a mean father is far, far, from the truth.

This was a great study. But it was the study of a great God.

(the book, if you are interested is Grudem, Wayne, “Bible Doctrine; Essential Teachings of the Christian Faith, Zondervan, 1999 which is an abridgment of Grudem’s Systematic Theology Book)

Red Sky at Morning

Red Sky at Morning: A Novel by Richard Bradford

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Looking at New Mexico magazine's issue on books, this book was listed as a favorite of most of the people, (authors) interviewed. So we ordered it.



It was a delight to read. If you have ever lived in New Mexico or wondered why we New Mexicans are so strange, this is a great read. Warning, you may have some trouble understanding some of the language even though it is all English.




View all my reviews.

On the Origin of Species

In the current edition of World Magazine editor Marvin Olasky gives four key themes to remember when Christians are responding to evolutionists. I think these are good points to remember.


1. There is a difference between types of evolution. That there is change within a species is obvious. To say that all dogs had a common ancestor is an example of microevolution. It is false to say evolution does not exist, because microevolution is observable. But what Darwin and Darwinists want to do is to expand the concept of microevolution to evolution beyond species. That is saying that some other kind of organism became a dog. That kind of evolution is called Macroevolution and this is what we oppose.


2. DNA is complicated. “Bill Gates has said, ‘DNA is like a computer program, but far, far more advanced than any software we’ve ever created.’” When you see a computer program, one thing you know is that some intelligent being created it. The same can be said of DNA.


3. Irreducible complexity. Here is what that means. “We know that cells have complex circuits, sliding clamps, energy-generating turbines, rotors, stators, O-rings, U-joints, and drive shafts. . . Each little engine depends on the coordinated function of many protein parts and doesn’t work unless all the parts are present. Could all those innovations arise sequentially, or would they all have to happen at once? Irreducible complexity says they all have to happen at once and it is a killer for Darwinists.


4. We need to debate with the evolutionist with compassion. They know there is no hope for them. They are going to die. We can share our hope in Jesus Christ. “Whosoever believes in him, shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

If you would like to read Olasky's article it is online at http://www.worldmag.com/articles/14943. However, to access it will cost you $5.00 but you also get two issues of World Magazine. If you are not familiar with World I would highly recommend it to you. It is a biweekly magazine that looks at world events through a Christian worldview.

Do You Want To Be Happy?

I think I always knew this. About 25 years ago I decided that most Television was pretty much a waste of time. Since then my viewing is limited to news and sports. (24 doesn’t count because Jack Bauer sent me a message and said, “watch!” You had better do what Jack Bauer says.)

A recent study of the activities of happy people collected data from the last 34 years on social activity and media usage. What do happy people do? Well, they read, they socialize, and they go to church.

What is surprising is what happy people do not do. In the study it was determined that out of 10 activities happy people were more active in all but three. Those three were socializing at a bar, surfing the internet, and watching TV. What the study does not tell us is if those three activities contribute to our unhappiness or if they are the refuge of unhappy people.
Robinson, John P. and Martin, Stephen, What Do Happy People Do? Social Indicators Research, Vol 89: Issue 3, 12/01/2008, p. 565

So if you want to be happy, why are you surfing the blogs? Happy people are those who are serving not surfing, interacting with other people not the remote control. God did not create us to be hermits, but to make a difference in the lives of others. Countless times in the New Testament, believers are called to participate in the lives of others. Paul tells us to “Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:11 NASB95).”
Now, turn off this computer and go visit a friend. Only if it is after 9:30 don’t come over here, we are trying to be happy and happy people get plenty of sleep.

The Inauguration Of Barack Hussein Obama

OK Already! There is a news blackout at the Russell household this weekend. It is three days until the magical moment when the smartest man in America will take the reins of government from the imbecile W. and already the news channels are Barack saturated; well that and the endless reruns of the heroic pilot that saved all the people on USAir by crashing into the Hudson River instead of the World Trade Center. “We are talking now to Jonathan Doe who was in New York when the plane went down.” “Mr. Doe, What did you see?”

“Well I didn’t actually see anything but I heard all the sirens and I said to myself, ‘something big has happened in the big apple today.’”

“Mr. Doe, what color were the ambulances that were seen rushing to the scene?”

“Uh, I didn’t actually see any ambulances, but their sirens had an urgent pitch to them.”

“Thank you Mr. Doe, or can I call you Jonathan?”

Enough! Do you think we would have seen that kind of coverage if Delta Connection flight 4323 crash landed in the Great Salt Lake? I don’t think so. The biggest thing about that crash was that it happened in New York City. Yes the pilot is a genuine hero, as is the flight crew and I am thankful that all passengers lived to take another flight. But I have heard enough and seen enough pictures of the stack of seat cushions used as floatation devices stacked in a corner. One news person gave a 5 minute presentation on how the seat cushions really do float, just like every flight attendant has told us before every flight we take.

But this blog is about the new president. I am totally amazed at what is happening. It is an historic moment. We are about to have our first non-white, non-European, president. I can understand the elation of the people who are going to have a president for the first time that looks like them. It is an amazing thing. It would have been nice to have elected a Black person president who has actually accomplished something besides being black, however.

People have lost their minds over this. On National Public Radio, the radio network owned by the people, just before Christmas a soloist on Garrison Keillor’s show sang her rendition of “In Bleak Midwinter.” In case you don’t know, it is a traditional English Carol about the coming of the Christ child. But in yuletide 2008 Renee Fleming sang these words. “In the bleak midwinter, at the Christmas feast, a family leaves Chicago and travels to the East, for a public mansion in Washington, D.C., in a time of trouble and festivity. All across the nation, sea to shining sea, people watch the passage of that family.” (See National Review, Jan. 26, 2009, p.14)

So now B. Hussein Obama is not just the second coming of FDR and Abraham Lincoln, he is being compared to the first coming of Jesus Christ. I don’t know which to feel worse about. That the American people can be so taken or that BHO is set up for failure. Here we have a new president who has no accomplishments to speak of. Democrats rail at the inexperience of Sarah Palin while ignoring the fact that she has more experience than BHO.

But of course, BHO is much smarter than Sarah Palin, John McCain, and George W. Bush all put together. You know of course how that intelligence is measured. If you agree with the left you are smart. If you are conservative, you must be stupid. Former NY Gov. Mario Cuomo said yesterday on Mike Huckabee’s TV program that BHO was incredibly intelligent. How does he know that? What evidence did he give? Even if he is egghead smart, Henry Kissinger seemed to be mighty intelligent too, but who would have wanted him as president?

God puts kings and presidents in position and our responsibility is to obey them and pray for them. Those two things I will do to the best of my ability. The Bible does not say I have to watch the coronation, uh, I mean inauguration for 5 days straight.

I Am Glad To See 2008 Go—Sportswise

I don’t think it possible to have a worse sports year than 2008. It was an awful year for any team to have me as a fan.

It began in the spring when the Lobo Basketball team, once again, was only futile in any attempt to gain the NCAA tournament. It is sad anyway when you measure success just by getting into a tournament, even if you never have a chance to win. I wonder what it is like to root for a team that has a shot at the final four.

Of course the Jazz stumbled early in the playoffs but my longtime team, the Lakers made the finals, only to lose to the hated Boston Celtics. This year may be different. We must wait and see.

In Baseball, the Yankees got off to a slow start and never sped up. The last year in the House That Ruth Built was the first year in a decade that the Yankees didn’t make the playoffs. At least the Red Sox didn’t go anywhere either.

When fall came around and football started the Lobos got off to a slow start losing their first two before picking up and beating Arizona. After that, it was downhill, losing to both Utah and BYU and congratulating themselves on close games. With a final 4 win season the blow came when head football coach Rocky Long hung it up.

The Broncos, with a mediocre team beset with injury, led their division from week one, only to collapse in the final three games to spend another January at home. Then the unthinkable happened. Another coach bit the dust.

Here is hoping for a better 2009.

Oh! One more. I was home at thanksgiving when my old High School Football team went to the state championship game with an unblemished record. They lost and now hold the record for the school that has lost the state championship game more than any other school. What a record. (They did win once, back in the 1950's)