Monthly Archive for February, 2010

Cut The Crap, Folks

Posted February 22, 2010 at 7:13 pm // 4 Comments

Yesterday was a weird day for me, I must admit. From a spiritual perspective I’ve been challenged pretty heavily over the past 40 hours.

It began yesterday morning when I went to church — right now the church is having Family Life Week, a three-day session of ministry with a guest minister from California. It began yesterday morning during the normal Sunday service, continued last night and will also continue tonight before wrapping up tomorrow.

The guy seems really cool…his sermon yesterday morning was relational and it was very effective in reaching the congregation. I enjoyed his style as he injected some humor into it, but he hit hard on every point he wanted the church to hear. It was really neat.

The gentleman referred to himself as a prophet and began to speak words of encouragement into individuals’ lives by calling them out of the congregation and telling them what God was going to do in their lives. He began to speak prophetic words of blessing and telling individuals what the Lord was going to use them for in the future. The crowd seemed generally receptive through the whole thing, and it was good to see someone stepping out in the way the pastor did and use his gift to bless others.

It got a bit dicey and uncomfortable for me, as I personally thought it was a little bit of showmanship myself. Maybe it’s because of how I’m spiritually wired — I tend to be more quiet when it comes to demonstrating the Holy Spirit and worshipping in general — but honestly, I’m not going to agree with every single thing everyone does in church. So I overcame that by sitting back and praying that if the words were from God, that they would come to pass, and if they weren’t, that the guy would not speak.

I’m not saying that last sentence to be harsh, but we are supposed to support true leaders and rebuke false prophets. That’s Biblical.

That said, I do think he got back on track by giving words of encouragement and prophecy to the church in general that did resonate with my spirit. It made me excited to be a part of the church.

However, when I came home I spoke with a friend on the phone and told her that I couldn’t shake a feeling of just general discomfort throughout the entire service. I don’t know what it was, but I didn’t feel right in some way or some fashion. I know I’m right with the Lord, I’m not demonized or anything, but for some reason I got sick to my stomach during the service. I don’t know why.

Maybe God was trying to tell me something.

I think He was, because I continued to pray about it later and I had a thought popped into my mind.

For what I disagreed with the pastor’s style and the way he went about what he did, at least I had to admit he was very effective in reaching out to the congregation. Maybe there were people who have not yet given their lives to Christ there, and that was a way the Lord could have touched them through that. I’m not sure…all I know is that he was effective, that’s for sure.

Then I had a thought completely blindside me, and this really weighed on my mind.

For someone to be that effective in their faith, they have to live it 24/7. Not just at church or in front of certain people, but all the time. I’m talking consistent prayer, consistent Bible reading, fasting, accountability to others, you name it. To do this means they have to cut the crap out of the rest of their lives.

How much more effective in our faith could we as Christians be if we cut the crap out of our lives?

(You all are going to hate me for this upcoming part but I have to say it anyway.)

Crap, as in the things that could potentially poison their relationship with God. Crap like television shows that degrade Christianity and promote moral depravity. Crap like sights and sounds that glorify violence, objectification of women, filthy language, etc.

We have become largely desensitized to simple things that the Bible calls sin. Seriously, we have and we admit it all the time in our prayer groups, small meetings and even in our church services, but we never truly change. Or do we even want to in the first place?

Think about how Jesus Himself lived his life. We say we strive to be like him but we’re doing a piss-poor job of it, to be frank.

And we wonder why our churches never grow and why our ministries aren’t effective in the body of Christ.

We wonder why the church has to resort to the political arena to try to enforce moral codes, when if we would have taught them and lived them in front of our kids, they wouldn’t be growing up without a spiritual identity.

We wonder why our vertical and horizontal relationships grow stagnant no matter how much we try to maintain them.

We wonder why prayer and fasting takes us nowhere.

Folks, our lives have to be reflections of what we say we believe.

To be frank again, we hold the key to our spiritual success. We hold the key to being effective. If we are truly saved and truly living for Jesus, we are going to shed the things of this world and we are going to devote ourselves completely to Him. Then and only then are we going to see things happen in our lives and in the Christian community as a whole.

God doesn’t reward halfway jobs and the church in general is a reflection of his unwillingness to reward such behavior.

I’m tired of what people have redefined Christianity to be. It’s taking us all to hell in a handbasket quickly, and the world around us is going to pot.

We’ve been lulled to sleep in the body of Christ and it’s time to wake up.

It’s time to cut the crap.

And it starts with me.

My Blog Is Screaming At Me To Update It

Posted February 21, 2010 at 2:41 am // 3 Comments

My blog is screaming at me to update it, and I kindly oblige.

I don’t celebrate Lent, but I was going to use the Lenten season as an excuse to not post anything on my blog for forty days. Seeing as how I only made it four days, my current post is proof positive of the reason I don’t celebrate Lent. Instead of giving up something for forty days for Jesus, why not just dedicate my whole life to Him, right?

Simple enough.

Actually, and this is the real reason for my lack of blogging — my new job as a print reporter requires me to type out 12 to 24-inch stories on an iBook G4 using Adobe InCopy.

(Yes, you read that right, InCopy DOES run on an iBook G4. Amazing.)

So with all this typing I’ve been doing lately for a job that lines my pockets with coins, I have had to slow down on blogging over the past couple weeks. Not only am I running out of fresh inspiration lately, but I actually — and I never thought I would say this — have less of a desire to spend my time in front of a computer screen. Especially when (1) said computer is a slowly-functioning IBM ThinkPad T41, and (2) I have made plenty of cool friends around here and they all live within 15 minutes.

‘Nuff said about that.

But I will give a courtesy rundown of the past couple weeks, because my life in Centralia has just begun and I’ve actually received emails from a few people wanting to know how everything is going. I’m happy to report that it’s going quite well — I thoroughly enjoy the job and while I thought the transition from videography to writing for print would be tough, it’s been made easier by my new co-workers helping me along and showing me the ropes. That, and the fact I’ve always been the writer type has played to my benefit.

Aside from the job, social life is great here. Every single day over the past couple weeks has seen me hang out with at least two friends here. That was unheard of for me in Vancouver, and I welcome the change with open arms. In fact, I welcome my new friends with open arms.

Tomorrow, I’ll be throwing people down in the grass with open arms too. This is because we have started a new chapter of the Sunday Open Football Association in Centralia, and we had eight people at our first game last week. My team lost 44-34 but it was some immense fun, and everyone has been clamoring for more. So off we go tomorrow, and I’m looking more forward to it than [insert stupid comparison here].

Church has been going well as well, and that’s where the majority of my friends have come from, in fact. Not lost in this is the fact that most of the young adults are female — whew, tough life, I know, right? They’re all great people, and yes, I do temper this by hanging out with some of my guy friends up here when they’re not tending to their own female counterparts.

I’m still single and it’s the way to be right now, FYI. My mom has been prodding me to change that quickly but I’m in no hurry.

Love you, Mom.

The folks I am staying with up here are incredibly great people. In fact I’m housesitting for them while they are on a nice vacation this week. I have the place to myself, so if you want to party, the address is 123 Bojangles Boulevard. Come on up and we’ll play some poker, maybe watch some movies in the media room, or just even sit on the patio and watch the sunset.

Life is good here.

Of course I’m bound to come back down to earth soon, but the last couple weeks have been chock-full of blessings from the Lord and Him showing me reasons why I moved up here. I was telling a friend tonight that it definitely had to have been God Himself opening the door for me to move to Centralia, and the fact that everything has fallen into place so quickly is evidence of that fact.

As my Mom told me earlier this week in a phone conversation: “When God opens a door, no man can shut it.”

No argument here. In fact, I’m enjoying the gentle breeze right now.

Post-Valentine’s Day Conundrum

Posted February 15, 2010 at 2:04 am // 1 Comment

Got a whopper for you here. It’s purely hypothetical but let’s pretend it’s real.

Mr. X is good friends with Ms. Y. Ms. Y brings her friend Ms. Z to hang out and Mr. X digs Ms. Z. The only thing is, Ms. Y likes Mr. X and after a casual advance, is rebuffed ever so gently by Mr. X. Ms. Y subsequently seeks out moral support and tells Ms. Z what happened to her, which causes Ms. Z to dislike Mr. X even though he digs her, simply because he turned down her good friend. Ms. Y is heartbroken, Ms. Z is disgusted and Mr. X is up in arms.

In this instance, everyone loses.

But there is a way to ensure everyone wins. How would you solve this conundrum? No variables involved here.

Remember: Winning is awesome. It just takes longer.

Just In Time For Valentine’s Day

Posted February 13, 2010 at 1:33 am // 0 Comments

One of my favorite (literal) sketches…check out “Lily and Jim” from Don Hertzfeldt. A blind date goes HORRIBLY wrong.

I’m single for a reason, folks.

Well, Here I Am

Posted February 9, 2010 at 12:11 am // 2 Comments

I made the 80-mile move up to Centralia on Saturday. It’s been a hectic couple of weeks, I’ll tell you that.

The move still isn’t over as I have to go back to Vancouver and get the rest of my stuff this weekend, but I’m moved up here for the most part.

I’ve made a lot of new friends. Mostly women. I’m not complaining. (Neither is my mom, I’m sure.)

I started my new job today. I’m officially a print reporter for the Chronicle, the local paper here. My main beats to cover are business and education. Check out my work now and in the future at www.chronline.com.

I’ve also turned my Twitter feed (@iamchrisbrewer) into a feed for more news-related stuff. Look there for updates to articles and items of general interest.

I’m looking forward to the rest of my time here, but as for now I have to look forward to sleep. I’ll catch you all soon, I’m sure.

The Best Super Bowl Commercial This Year

Posted February 8, 2010 at 12:42 am // 5 Comments

Here’s “Parisian Love” from Google. Neat little ad showcasing Google Search in action.

David Gray, “Please Forgive Me”

Posted February 5, 2010 at 2:44 am // 0 Comments

What an amazing song.

The video’s pretty cool too.

It was released eleven years ago.

Still relevant today.

The Quietest 52-Point Game Ever?

Posted February 1, 2010 at 2:20 pm // 0 Comments

If you’re a Portland Trail Blazers fan like I am, you undoubtedly have to be impressed by the game Andre Miller had against the Mavericks on Saturday night. Miller scored 52 points and willed the Blazers to the win in Big D for the second time in a row.

In case you missed it, here’s a shot-by-shot video account of Miller’s scoring outburst.

This is impressive for four reasons:

1. Miller is 6′2″ — my height — and he jumps about as high as I do as well, which is to say that the man flat out cannot jump to save his own life. He also has a very awkward-looking shot, with the release point being somewhere extended in front of his head. All those factors conspiring against him, he still hit insane shot after insane shot and got his due.

2. He shot 22-for-31 from the field. With one of those being three-pointers, that means he scored 45 of his points during live game action and not at the line. That is incredible. Most other people you would see with a 50-plus point game earned a good portion of those at the line. Not Miller.

3. Brandon Roy is out, and so is Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla. With the Juwan Howard-Erick Dampier matchup in the post being a wash, LaMarcus Aldridge continuing to be his soft self (even while matched up against Dirk Nowitzki!!!!!!), and Rudy having a bad night, Miller was almost forced to take control of the game. That he did, exploiting matchups against Jason Kidd (who historically has been an alright defender) and J.J. Barea (who committed a couple silly fouls after he knew he was beat).

4. Miller scored 23 of 52 in the fourth quarter and overtime. That’s getting it done.

In my opinion, Andre Miller’s career night against the Mavericks was probably one of the most impressive scoring outbursts in modern NBA history. It won’t get talked about much, unfortunately, because of Portland’s market size and the fact that Miller isn’t exactly marketable as a superstar player.

But if you look at Miller’s game, he brings a lot of intangibles besides scoring, such as veteran leadership and the ability to make his teammates better. Only this game, he took the game over single-handedly and carried a tired Blazer team to the victory in a place they’ve historically had a lot of trouble even being competitive.

Quite an impressive performance, indeed, and I hope Miller’s killer instinct rubs onto the rest of the team. That’s gotta happen if the Blazers are going to remain competitive throughout the season with all the injuries.

GO BLAZERS!!!