moneyball convictions

watched the new brad pitt movie "moneyball" sunday night.. great stuff. this could stem from the fact that i like just about anything pitt does, but it correlated with some stuff i've been thinking on lately.

first: i'm not a movie critic and don't pretend to have great taste in movies.(my favorite movie is sweet home alabama) but i'm developing an ability to look past surface level themes and to see how Jesus has interwoven qualities of himself into creation. colossians 1:16 talks about this in creation as both "visible and invisible" elements that are a "shadow of the things that were to come" (col 2:17), referring back to the person of Christ. 

but here's the deal: 

pitt plays a character modeled after a real guy named billy beane, who is the current general manager of the oakland a's baseball team. a reality of the oakland a's is that on a regular basis, the money they spend on players is 25-50% of what bigger market teams like the yankees or red sox spend on players (see chart for details). as you would expect, this     

handicaps them from signing big name players and leaves them with young unproven players. the reality of the situation is that teams with money were the most successful and for years, it was few and far between that the "have not's" could catch the "haves." 

 that being said, beane (pitt) decides it's time to try something new. he decides to try a new system based off a book previously written with mathematics being the determining factor, not the eyes of scouts and what naturally seems right.

and this is what i like. as he goes about achieving his dream, he meets opposition. things don't go as planned and people don't like what he's doing. his own manager (head coach) refuses to buy in and he has to go to drastic measures to set his plan fully into motion. a couple lines between beane and his assistant gm in the stadium offices really put this in play for me: 

assistant describes how this system isn't going to make them any friends and how it's about time to hang it up

beane (loosely) "see that's the thing: we can't spend all our time worrying about what other people think, we just gotta have faith in our system and live with whatever happens." 

while that may have not been what he said verbatim, you get the idea. even if it cost beane his job and livelihood, his dream of making a difference and ultimately changing the game was held higher than the short term consequences of unhappy people. 

this past summer, i heard a sermon by a guy named rene shclaepfer at twin lakes church when i was in santa cruz. he talked through the book of daniel, and as he talked through chapter 3, a story about 3 men came up. the king of babylon was hacked and in daniel 3:14, he confronts these men for not worshipping him: "is it true, shadrach, meshach and abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold i have set up?...... if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace."

stakes are a little higher here. it's not about being the risky g.m. that makes some crazy moves, it's 3 guys going against thousands and the government authority to keep their faith in their God. ultimately, a miracle occurs and they're thrown into a blazing furnace (v.21) and walk back out (v.26). it's crazy but their faith in God wasn't in vain. 

 a few things the pastor said in his talk is that people are driven by different things, that these are there dominant life principles:

1.circumstances (how things are)   2.convenience (what's easiest)  3.criticism (what others think)   

and 4.convictions (what matters most).

as i'm determining who i want to be and what guides who i am and decisions i'll make, i find that the first 3 guide my life alot. but what i admired most about billy beane and the 3 men in daniel is that they were driven by their convictions. going against what others thought and being satisfied with knowing you're doing what is right, regardless, is one of the most admirable things i think anyone could do. i wanted to share that with you and ask you what it is that drives you. 

have a good one friends

redwoods and big waves

something i'm fascinated by is how big things can be. this summer, i've been so incredibly blessed to be working in northern california in a smaller city called santa cruz. the two things that santa cruz is known for is it's big waves and big trees. various surfer magazines call this the number one surfing spot in the country (i wouldn't know yet, the water is 55 degrees at best!) and is also 15 minutes away from some of the most famous redwood trees (pictured above). we've been pretty busy planning and getting to know the students that just arrived but i was stuck on the trees this morning. let me digress

around 6:30am, i was on my way back from the airport (dropped off my sweetheart for a wedding she was going to). i was cruising down the windy roads in the middle of the trees and podcasting one of my favorite pastors as he talked about consistency in our walk with the Lord. as i was surrounded by such beautiful scenery, one of my favorite passages came to mind. in jeremiah 17:7-8, it discusses the idea of a man of God being someone that can weather different seasons. never fearing because of it's firmly planted root system that sustains it regardless of temperature or weather.

i pushed back and thought of the men i most respected. i can appreciate people who can do things physically that i can't. lift heavy weight, jump really high, speak very eloquently, dance with coordination. but the people i admire most are the ones with perseverance. i watched a movie recently called "the way back". it was about 7 men who escaped a camp from siberia in 1941, only to enter a desert followed by the himalayans to round off a 4,500 mile trek for freedom in india. they didn't do anything fascinating other than move and survive and that blew me away. that's not my point, but what a crazy story right?

anyways, the people i respect and admire the most are the ones who do something good and admirable on a continuous basis. the qualities of steadfastness and perseverance blow my mind. i watch my friend brandon lead his family well over and to consistently give himself up for them, it just witnesses to me. i watch countless other men work jobs and consistently die to themselves and i'm amazed.

so i guess my point is this: as a 23 year old, i'd rather start to be a tree than to be a bottle

rocket. i know every "carpe diem" person threw up when they heard that, but i love that idea. for a generation of men to consistently die to themselves would be so impactful. so i guess that could be a challenge for us, be trees.

catchy leadership

this last weekend i went to fayetteville,arkansas (which for some reason i absolutely love doing, it's just so wonderful there) to be trained for a philanthropy i want to be a part of. between eating chocolate sprinkled donuts and listening to and pretending to know the words of music sang by men that wear eyeliner, it was an absolute blast.

but i think the most interesting and intriguing thing that i saw was the leadership of the man involved with the organization. the group i'm involved with is called 99 baloons, an organization centered around serving families with special needs children. it's got an amazing story behind it that if you haven't seen, you're guranteed to cry your eyes out. click on "amazing story" if you want to watch it.

but here's what i was most intrigued by, how a guy named matt leads this organization. he's elliot's father from the video if you watched it. but here's what i most enjoyed about how matt does things: (it's really almost a how to for a volunteer organization)

1. he's someone you want to be around.

-as i observed interaction after interaction, i saw how everyone involved from male students at the u of a to moms in their 40's and 50's interacted with the authority in the group, and it with both respect and smiles. it's so hard to be caring, loving and humorous while still firm, focused and driven but i feel like that's what was going on. any person who walked in to our training meeting was greeted with some sort of yell or humorous comment while still solving what they needed solved.

if this comment had a part b, it would be the trait of being comfortable in your own skin. matt's not necessarily a specimen of a man, being 6' tall with a thin frame and lacking an authoritative tone, but he was confident in his purpose and cause and that led to purpose and direction in minor decisions, and i would expect the same thinking in major decisions.

2. clear, contagious and concise understanding of the purpose and potential of the organization

-if you sit down with him for 5 minutes, he could tell you what, why and how he's doing what he's doing. the effects are that you're filled in enough to understand what the group does and if you love children, a strong desire to be a part of that. i think you could err in two directions here: people want to talk your ear off for days and go off on tangents that really don't tie back to what the purpose is. on the opposite side, someone could not really know or care enough to give you a knowledge of what's going on. matt displays a fine medium here and has enough emotional, logical and ethical reasoning behind what he's doing to call you to be a part of it.

3. a model of a leader

i think the qualities that matt brings to the table are the necessary ones. granted, i've been around him for a total of 6 hours in my life (and 1 of those comes from repeated viewings of the video) he doesn't lead from positional authority but rather from a respect that is derived from three things: a. his intellectual capacity. a law school grad that went through the situation and would be able to completely empathize with the families involved with the group. 2. he's comfortable. as previously mentioned, the guy's comfortable in his skin and confident with the direction. i think that the leader establishes the tone for the organization and it trickles down from the top. 3. unselfishness. servant leadership is the most attractive style of leading that i'll ever see. if the leader will do anything for everyone involved, it sets a tone of humility that affects all involved.

it's so fun for me to see how these things are ran, it just made me want to have a vision of my own so that i could effectively administer this pattern that was modeled for me. it's just legit to see someone loving and serving and doing it well, serving out of their respective gifts. have a good one friends

a desirable perception

i love to be perceived as a genuine, relational, laid back and caring person. if honest, i think we all desire to be looked upon in whatever manner we see as the best way to be. i would also contend that we look at situations and people with a grid of knowledge consisting of what we situationally feel is best. i tend to view things with a short checklist:

1. does it pertain to me? 2. can i fix this problem? and 3. what can i learn from this?

as a young man, i have a high tendency to perceive myself as having an unsually large ability to believe that i am what stands between a problem existing and it being solved. some could accredit this to the truth that young men have high testosterone levels, which could be valid. i don't think it's necessarily an awful desire, legitimately it could be how things happen.

but i'm finding a problem with it. if i have the ability to achieve and for some reason, don't achieve.. then what does that do for my self view? failure presents an interesting situation for self esteem. and an even greater question for christians, how does this effect God's perception of me?

one of my favorite authors, a guy named brennan manning has some great thoughts on this question: "we can not assume that he feels about us the way we feel about ourselves unless we love ourselves compassionately, intensely and freely. in human form, Jesus revealed to us what God is like." i would hardly say i have an intense, compassionate love for myself, and i don't know that i see that in a ton of people.

i heard a famous pastor once say that "he's never seen a lazy, undisciplined man who's life wasn't in inner turmoil." agreed. so what about the disciplined, achiever? and what's their life like when they're not disciplined and achieving? i don't know. but i think we have two choices and that's to view ourselves the way God does, with a ferocious, unfailing love based on his immutable character. or we could walk by God's biblical definition of himself and make it conditional.

ps: in honor the title "desirable perception", i thought it would be fun to put up pictures of celebrity actors that i think it would be so sweet to look like when aged.

paul and the patriots

have you ever played that fun game in the car where you try and connect two actors? example: brad pitt to john cusack. john cusack was in high fidelity with tim robbins, who was in shawshank redemption with morgan freeman, who was in that very gory movie i never should have watched called se7en with brad pitt. it's such a fun game, i used to play it in class when i was sleepy too. i was stirred towards this game when i was able to connect the apostle paul and the 2010-11 new england patriots. haha we'll see if it's valid while they weren't in any movies together.

as i watched espn this week, i saw something unusual. the new england patriots are playing the new york jets in 2nd round of the nfl playoffs on sunday and the coaches and players are being interviewed about the game. the jets players and coaches are consistently slandering the patriots and they aren't getting any kind of a response. across the board, the patriots are responding in a very cordial manner with a quiet confidence about the upcoming contest.

the character quality i see here is that this football team is so confidently established in their identity, that regardless of the accusations or opinions of others, they have a strong assurance about their self image.

flash back 2000ish years ago, and hear about a guy named paul. something i've been studying about him is how he had a "thorn in his flesh" in one of his letters, 2 corinthians. we don't necessarily know what this thorn is but it appears to be some sort of physical ailment. while paul pleads that it could be taken from him 3x, he comes to terms with it in verse 9 when he's told by God that His "grace is made perfect in your weakness."

does that sound weird to you? it's not natural that weakness and imperfection would be good for anything. except maybe humility. but the beauty of being a Christian is that my identity isn't in me, it's placed in the cleansing work of Jesus and my weaknesses as a sinful person point me to the need of a Savior and it draws my heart to him.

"When you were dead in your sins... God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."

colossians 2: 13-15

the patriots are secure in their identity as a prepared, tested champion of professional football, while i'm more leaning towards paul's side where i stand confident in my identity as a sinful yet completely loved and forgiven christian.

ps here it is: the new england patriots play the new york jets this sunday, who appear to be a thorn in their flesh in a very similiar manner to paul's ailment.

haha i hope your new year is starting off very well friends!

-mandy candy

belief

i don't think i like to analyze this word in relation to me. with pride from natural growth in understanding, skepticism ensues in my life and that doesn't always play out in a pretty way.
some of the questions to ask are what do i believe in and what does that mean in my life? how strongly do i believe that? when anything challenges what i believe in, how do i respond to that? i would say i'm definitely an unusual combination of laid back and strong willed but how does my personality rub situationally?
tangibly, conflict brings this out. as i have a deep faith that God loves and accepts me unconditionally, why do i respond in an unbelieving way? when any situation resulting in my ways or desires being disregarded, i'm called to arms. my time and schedule, my want to spend quality time with a friend, simply a need to shift my perspective from me to someone else, often if not always brings discomfort.
"and we know in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." romans 8:28
yeah paul, i hear you. down the road, i'll more than likely be very thankful for the embattling situation as it's very likely this is building and changing me into who i want to be. but right now, i don't believe that's whats best. i firmly believe in my infinite wisdom of 22 years of age that this other situation and accompanying outcome is what's best for me.
it's so silly but nearly anytime i'm offended, these thoughts rise to the surface. how do you respond when you're pressed friend? do you believe in the underlying truth that you're sure of when things are going great? or do you default to a selfish bitterness that a "me first and above all" society teaches? just a thought, have a great day friends.
mandy candy

manly movies

so i watched robin hood yesterday. consequently, i want to shoot bow and arrows with precision off horseback and visit the countryside of the united kingdom. while i do have some history with horses, i have no skill in the field of archery and it's not likely that i'll be flying off to london on my intern salary anytime soon. on the contrary, thematically, there were tons of things i get to take home! so let's talk about it.

1. the power of a visionary

as robin returns home, he fulfills his vow to a dying man to speak to his father, on his behalf. as robin speaks with the noble father, he receives more than he bargained for. robin only bears faint memories of his dad. alternatively, the nobleman was very familiar with robin sr. and his character and life.

as sir locksley unveils the hidden truth of robin's dad, we find out that he was much more than a common stonemason. he was a man of decorated character, a layman burdened with a heart for truth and justice. we don't know much about his dad but we hear a quote associated with his cause: "rise and rise again until lions become lambs". and we learn that he was executed for withholding the names of men who stood for the cause of a just government, that honored the value of every man.

from this point forward we see a renewed vigor in robin. one that stands and fights for the same objective, ignited for the cause of standing where men couldn't stand for themselves. the change agent in robin's life could potentially have been this new knowledge of his heritage of fighting for a higher cause. i think that's what we're all looking for. a higher, nearly darn unachievable belief to simply take part in. something that we're completely caught up in that's greater than ourselves. robin found his in saving england from invaders and tyranny where i know i've found mine in the eternal cause of knowing God and making Him known. what's yours?

2. a right perspective of females

towards the end of the movie, we find the last battle. france is storming through the english channel about to hit the beachhead and the traitorous godfrey awaits with his army, preparing to take england. russell crowe and the calvary charge the slope towards the sand, climactic elements abounding. as robin and his pals charge, he runs in to an unexpected visitor, his girl. lady miriam is on the beach, ready to fight. i think it's every male's protective instinct that says "please don't let her out there bro.." but i love his response. after a brief fit, he affirms her "rally your troops, locklsey. join the charge."

my eye brows move and i'm put off, for reals? but robin attacks my false thinking here. she was made for that charge. as an english woman, she will be just as affected by the fall of the country as he would be. i'm completely aware that men and women are made completely equal but different. yes, he does valliantly fight to save her from the villain and i love that imagery as well. but what i'm rebuked for is something altogether different, the confusion of women and this ultimate battle we fight as men.

as i've gone down the checklist of idols in my life, a relationship with a girl has been one of them. what the Lord has been so gracious to reveal to me is that a girl will never satisfy the way He does. ultimately, that if a relationship with a girl ever takes the top spot reserved for him, where i find my hope and security, that relationship would inevitably come up short. i think as men we have the tendency to see a girl as the ultimate joy in our life, not the transcendent cause we were made for.

life is going really great friends, i love fall! i'm really enjoying my job at oklahoma state and there's so many people that i'm blessed to get to interact with on a weekly basis. but i hope you're doing well and have a great november!

your friend,

steven