The World According To Chris Brewer

I read James 3:1-13 in my Bible study this morning. Pretty powerful stuff.

Don’t be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards. And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you’d have a perfect person, in perfect control of life.

A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything–or destroy it!

It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.

This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue–it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!

My friends, this can’t go on. A spring doesn’t gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don’t bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don’t bear apples, do they? You’re not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?

Personal notes:

It’s amazing how clearly James writes this. Obviously our words have some sort of power, and it’s pretty cut and dry here–we either build people up with what we say or we tear them down. And something I’ve been noticing the past couple days is people’s reactions to what I say. It’s simple–usually if I say something uplifting then it opens the door for good communication. But I can shut that door just as effectively by saying something derogatory.

Our words contain a power greater than anything we could ever imagine. Our words shape what people think of us–they show what we’re thinking, what we’re feeling, etc. There is another Bible verse that says “your mouth speaks what is in your heart.” Even if we (I, specifically here) talk without thinking, though we might not be THINKING what we say, it was still audible–people heard it, they processed it, and there you go.

I know I’m going to make a greater effort on what I say to others. Not only what I say, but being a good listener. That Bible study is coming up tomorrow.

Other personal opinions and comments are gladly welcomed.

What I’m Currently Listening To:

Artist: Pink Floyd
Track: Welcome to the Machine
Album: Wish You Were Here [1977]
Rating (out of 10 stars):
Web Link: Listen to a 30-second sample of this track

Artist: The Kry
Track: Heavenbound Train
Album: You [1994]
Rating (out of 10 stars):
Web Link: Listen to a 30-second sample of this track

A wonderful Thursday night and a pleasant happy birthday wish to Krista from church. Sweet 16!!!! Oh wait, turn that 6 upside down, it’s more like 19. I remember when I turned 19, I was so young and….eh, forget it. Happy birthday Krista, and enjoy many more.

Speaking of her birthday, I went with Mike, Jessie and Krista to Cheddar’s for her birthday dinner. It was pretty low-key but we had some good discussions about life and other stuff. By the way, DO NOT ORDER THE MOZZARELLA STICKS FROM CHEDDAR’S. THEY ARE LETHAL. I AM FINDING THAT OUT RIGHT NOW. Be right back.

(12 minutes have passed…)

Ok, I am back. Now I can post more, hopefully, without interruption.

Here’s how the day went, in this order. Don’t blink.

I woke up. Took a shower. Read the Bible. Went to work. Tweaked my fantasy baseball team. Worked on a news story. Krista called. Melissa called. Mom called. I called Dad. Worked more on my news story. Went to Sonic for lunch. Came back. Worked more. Watched the Cubs win. Went home. Fell asleep for an hour. Went to Cheddar’s. Went to Farm Fresh on Jefferson by Wal-Mart. Went home again. Typed some stuff. Wrote a couple emails. Read the Bible again. Chatted with Dad on the phone again. Here I am now.

That’s it! Back with a Bible study tomorrow morning.

I’ve been thinking. Sometimes I think too much, but this is something that really requires some time and attention.

Tonight I had a couple people who are close friends of mine call me out on a personality trait of mine I honestly wish I could get rid of. Sometimes I tend to focus a little too much on myself. I don’t know why it takes people conking me over the head with the proverbial two-by-four for me to realize I’m screwing up, and it sucks.

To everyone that I’m effectively pushing away, I’m sorry. I realize that I need to be friends with people to be real with them and show them I genuinely care about them. Deep down inside, I do care, and I haven’t shown it. So my credibility in that department is shot. All I can do is ask for another chance and for everyone to work with me as I ask God for help, and as I work on establishing effective friendships and relationships with people. I’ve become a pro at burning bridges and I don’t want to burn any more…in fact I want to rebuild all of them and build some new ones.

I know the most important thing I have to do. Life tends to fall apart when we put God on the back burner and concentrate more on what we want. My life is not exactly going too great right now and I know it’s because I haven’t put God #1. My credibility is tanking, my friendships are nothing more than “Hey, what’s up?” and I plain don’t enjoy life, work, church, anything at all right now. It’s all because I’ve failed to put God as the sole most important priority in life. Once I start to put Jesus first, everything else is gonna fall into place.

There is no better time to start than right now.

And to those who saw an earlier blog entry that has since been deleted, I apologize for even posting it. No excuses from this man.

Currently Listening To: “Groove On” by Roni Size, from the album Return to V (2005)

Link: Listen to a sample of “Groove On” at The Dance Music Resource Pages (MP3, :30)

For some reason, I have never been really interested in celebrating passing birthdays. Every year July 20 comes and goes, and I usually don’t think anything of it. Especially over the past three or four years, I guess I have grown up in that aspect….I used to complain that nothing ever happened over my birthday, but at least I got presents from my family, cards from church members, etc. and my mom would make me my favorite cake with chocolate peanut butter frosting. It was the best, I would always have to drink about six glasses of milk just to clear my throat.

I think I’ve given myself more presents than I have received over the past couple years. Last year when I turned 20 and I was the morning show host, I asked the American Forces Network station at Lajes Field (where I was stationed from June 2003-September 2004) if I could format the playlist according to my musical preference. Of course they said no, but they did let there be a Chris Brewer Music Hour, where I played my top 10 songs of all time (which have of course changed). I’ll even post the songs I played below if anyone wants to see it. Oh, and that evening after the show was over, we had a softball game, and I repeated my performance from the year before, hitting two home runs off the medical warehouse in right field. Thank God for short porches, I think it was only 270 in right. I had done the same thing in ‘03 when I turned 19. Of course I was still really really skinny then and people’s jaws dropped when they saw me hit two moon shots into right field. July 20, 2003 was Chris Brewer’s first softball home run ever. I think I only hit seven the entire time I was at Lajes, and four of those came on two birthdays, July 20 in both ‘03 and ‘04. Don’t know how I did it. Maybe I was pissed that no one from back home thought of me.

So in nine days I will turn 21.
Many people lose their sanity when they turn 21. I have already done so.
Many people drink heavily when they turn 21. I will not do so.
Many people will go on dates with beautiful members of the opposite sex when they turn 21. I cannot do so because I do not have any willing candidates to take me up on the offer.
Many people will go to church when they turn 21. I will do so, considering July 20 is a Wednesday.

What am I saying by this? I don’t want to drink when I turn 21 (read: I don’t want to drink EVER, it’s moronic, I don’t care who you are), so in place of doing this, I want to do something that will still be memorable and commemorate the day I turned into a completely legal adult. So I’m thinking about inviting all my friends (read: NOT limited to church people, that’s moronic too) to a dinner after church, probably somewhere like Cheddar’s, Outback, I don’t know yet. That’s it. If you read this, consider yourself invited. I’ll provide details later.

And yes, it would be neat if someone remembered me on the day I turn 21. Send me a card, put Happy Birthday in your AIM away message, give me a hug, whatever. Just remember me, that’s all I ask.

Thanks.

Yeah, I changed how it looks. Let me know how you like it.

Mariners take their third straight game over the Angels, 6-3, by the way.

This post on my blog is brought to you by the wonderful world of the wireless internet. Because I’m sitting here on my bed, half-laying, still typing, and talking to about four people on AIM.

I’m in the middle of ten days off. Count ‘em–a four day weekend, three days because of wisdom tooth removal, one day of official leave, and today and tomorrow–that’s ten. And honestly, as much as I hate work, I can’t wait to go back and actually feel like I’m doing something with my life. Although it does feel good to go 2/3 of a pay period without even stepping foot inside Command Visual Communications and still receive money. Ah yes, the benefits of salary. Think of it, I get paid $745.80 per 15 days. Since I’ve been out ten days and ten is two-thirds of fifteen, that is $492.23 of free money I am getting for having my wisdom teeth removed. I’ll take that any day.

Okay, so yeah this week has sucked hardcore. I’ve been so bored that I actually WANT to go back to work. Until Friday, I wasn’t supposed to drive my car because of the painkillers I was on. Screw that, Wednesday night I sucked it up, went a night without medicine and drove to church. Brilliant move, except I couldn’t sing to Jesus because my mouth was throbbing…it’s ok though, I talked to Him later on.

I’ve never taken a prescription drug before that has had such a wild effect as Percocet. That stuff rocks your world. I was sitting there one night talking to one of my friends on the phone right after I had taken the pill, and about 20 minutes later the walls started to cave in, my vision became blurred and other people started talking to me too. It wasn’t long before I had to hang the phone up and lay down because I could barely stand up and it felt like someone had grabbed my room and was violently shaking it around.

ADVICE BREAK: Never take Percocet unless you really have to. It is habit-forming.

Not to mention, I couldn’t eat solid foods until today. And even then, I have to take this syringe and squirt water down into the holes the wisdom teeth used to live in, to clean all the food out. It really opens my eyes as to how much food can get stuck in your teeth if you don’t take good care of them. I feel like I want to brush my teeth every 5 minutes now. And now, about 30 minutes ago, the stitches that held my upper left section of my gums together have fallen out. Thank God, they were more annoying than helpful.

Wow. Never thought I could take living without pain, eating real food, and being able to live a normal daily life for granted. I should be better next week.

So since I’m sitting here typing, let me run down the events of the day. I set my alarm clock to go off at 7:45 this morning so I could go to our church’s prayer breakfast for men only (I have to make it sound secretive). Unfortunately, I accidentally set the alarm to quiet mode so when I woke up at 1:30 PM I was tuned into a lovely “Mmmmmmmmm.” That being that, I got up, showered, watched CNN try to rile the world up with terrorism alerts and crap for about five minutes, then changed, called Jonathan and Mikey, and went down once again to the wonderful world of Williamsburg Hooters. It’s honestly only wonderful for one reason, though.

Of course we went down there to see Melissa. Even though I go to see her, I can’t go down there by myself because I don’t want to look like a dirty female-hungry idiot, so I always drag someone with me. Jon, Mikey and one of his friends came along for the ride, and my car screwed up pretty bad. But we made it and were greeted by all the Hello’s the Hooters staff give you when you walk in the door. So we sat down, chatted for awhile, Melissa brought our drinks and food, and we had a merry old time. Praise be to God, they showed the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers NBA Championship on NBA TV directly in front of me. It was like I was in heaven. I had never seen the full game in its entirety and here they were playing it. Then Melissa came to talk and of course I had to turn away from the game. We all sat there and talked about topics ranging from stupid high school days to what we are all going to do with our lives in the future. She even told us about this dude who keeps calling her after she gave him her number, after they met at Hooters…she won’t call him back and he won’t leave her alone–

ADVICE BREAK: Guys, never call a girl over and over if she won’t call you back at first. If you keep calling, you’re giving her more and more reasons to not call you. Yeah you might be obsessed with her but leave her the flip alone.

Anyhoo,

So one of my friends asked me once why I go all the way down to Williamsburg to see Melissa. I provided them with this answer: she is interesting, funny, sarcastic, blunt, hilarious, beautiful (more on that in a second) all rolled up into a nice burrito. Ok, burrito is not the way to put it, but come on, you get the picture. Ok, she and I clash on a variety of topics and beliefs, but all in all, I consider her one of my better friends because she almost singlehandedly helped me get over Stephanie when I was feeling really terrible…seriously, she was the only one who called, asked me how I was doing, and provided some female insight and advice. (And I gotta let this out too, she is probably the most naturally beautiful girl I’ve seen. I’m not kidding at all. She could just wake up, not even do her hair or anything, then walk into the room and still be stunningly beautiful.) Okay, moving on…simply put, I go see her because it’s one of the few opportunities I ever get to see her because we don’t hang out for a variety of reasons, and she is a good girl to hang out with.

I can’t type any more. Over and out.

Check this out. Joseph Edward Duncan, the sick freak who took those two Idaho kids and did some nasty things to them, apparently has his own weblog. Pretty eerie how he titles one of his entries “The Demons Have Taken Over” and it is dated only three days before Shasta and Dylan Groene were reported missing (and their parents found murdered).

Link: Blogging the Fifth Nail Note: Some content is not appropriate for all readers.

Today is by far the worst day since I had my wisdom teeth removed. Besides there being four holes in my mouth (and one of them stitched up), and still not being able to eat hard food, I have this constant terrible taste.

It’s like I’m being forced to chew on metal. It really sucks….these things had better heal up before Saturday.

Last night before I went to bed I listened to a track from one of my favorite groups, the Pet Shop Boys. The track is called “King’s Cross” and is a social commentary on living conditions around the King’s Cross Underground station in London.

Already eerie enough is the fact that the Pet Shop Boys wrote and recorded this song in 1987, and a short time later there was a fire at King’s Cross, killing 31 people. The lyrics of the second verse contain the lines, “Only last night I found myself lost / By the station called King’s Cross / Dead and wounded on either side / You know it’s only a matter of time.”

Even more eerie is me listening to the song last night and turning on the news when I woke up at 1 PM today.

I guess I should delete that song from my library.

I had another weird God-oriented dream last night. I think God’s trying to freak me out or something.

This is all the dream consisted of:

I went into a church full of people I didn’t know, but there were no pews, only hospital beds. You could tell who the pastor of the church was–he wasn’t preaching, but instead going from bed to bed talking with people one-on-one about Jesus and the message of salvation. All the hospital beds were full and there were church leaders bringing in more people than the church could hold. I walked through each row of beds and saw that each person was injured in pretty gruesome ways. Some were missing arms, others had blood spurting from their throats, and still others looked like they had been crushed. And here were all these church staff bringing more people in.

I saw one person stationed at each bed not treating the person, but rather telling them about Jesus and what He could do for them. As I passed by one bed, I saw an older woman with her head wrapped, lying there with someone telling her Jesus can restore a relationship gone wrong. A young boy in another bed, missing his right hand from the wrist up, was listening intently to another person tell them that his parents’ recent divorce was not his fault. On my way out of the sanctuary I saw a teenage girl run in screaming, bleeding from a gaping head wound, screaming for help because she was pregnant and her parents had kicked her out of the house.

I stood there as she ran past me and began to sob…I never imagined a church being like this, I thought.

I walked out of the sancutary, into the foyer, and saw a bunch of kids standing there. To my amazement, they were singing a song as they looked into the church:
“In the presence of Jehovah
God almighty, Prince of Peace.
Troubles vanish, hearts are mended
In the presence of the King.”

I was stunned to see these kids just repeat this chorus over and over. As I walked back out into the parking lot of the church, I saw people being escorted back into their cars and waved goodbye by the church staff. It finally dawned on me after I saw about five people leave like this, that they had been healed and were leaving the church, er, hospital or whatever you want to call it, and going home completely well.

As I drove home, I stopped at a gas station to get a bite to eat. No one was there, it was a small rinky-dink place on the side of the road, owned by an older man who was pretty quiet. I bought some chips and while I was waiting for my change, the man wrote something on the back of the receipt. When I got back to the car, I read what he had written and I started shaking.

It read, “Now it’s your turn to act. Step up.”

That’s about it for the dream. And I know exactly what it means.

For me, it was a direct, personal call from God to get with the program and minister to my friends that have needs. I have more to offer spiritually than I give at church (or in life in general), and I need to step up.

Corporately, God is calling our churches to be like hospitals, places where people who are hurting spiritually, mentally and emotionally can come and be healed. Each one of us, like the people stationed at each bed talking to each person about Jesus, has been called to minister to the hurting. The injuries described in the dream were not actual physical injuries, but rather emotional, spiritual and mental needs one had. The only way the people described could be healed, is by God working and ministering grace through each of us.

We need to heed the call. We have people in our very midst who are hurting and we need to take time out to help them. It’s what church is all about in the first place.