It's Garbage!

I was tipped off yesterday to something that happened after OSU beat Texas Tech on Saturday. No, the goal posts weren't taken down. No, there were no mass MIP/Public Intox busts involving the whole team (that we know of). But Coach Mike Gundy did have a bone to pick with Jenni Carlson of the Daily Oklahoman.

It seems that Ms. Carlson wrote a column in Saturday's Oklahoman about Bobby Reid (one of OSU's players, who used to start at quarterback) that Gundy felt went too far in criticizing Reid as a person - which Gundy contests is inappropriate to do with amateur athletes that aren't getting in trouble off the field.

So after what ESPN erroneously reported as the biggest win in Cowboy football in 25 years (I believe those were the anchor's exact words) - I say erroneously because I can think of at least 2 Bedlam wins that were bigger, a romp over Texas in 1997 that was a big, big deal, and a few others that are more important than this win albeit a great game and a needed win - Gundy had nothing to say about the game, only some words for Carlson (who you can tell is sitting/standing not far from the podium).

Gundy's thoughts

In the interest of being "fair and balanced" here is what Jenni Carlson and her editor had to say.

Now, I don't want to glorify Gundy for going off like that, but props for standing up for your player. I don't know anything about Bobby Reid, but if he is taking care of business off the field like Gundy claims, then he shouldn't be personally attacked in the media. I hope the effect of this incident on the team is that it unites them around their coach and Bobby Reid. At the very least they know they are following a leader (Gundy) who isn't going to hand them out to dry. Whether you like the way he handled the situation or not, it does mean something when you know your coach/boss/friend/etc. has you back.

Three other things to note:

1. In the entire incident Gundy didn't utter one profanity. Kudos to him for keeping himself under control when he was clearly angry.
2. The newspaper landscape in Oklahoma is this. The Daily Oklahoman (the big paper in OKC) is owned by a family that is very OU loyal and given it's location tends to cover Sooner athletics in greater quantity and more favorably than OSU - the argument could be made that this is easy because there's always something going on down there on the field or off. The Tulsa World tends to be a little more balanced on sports, but was never a favorite of mine to read for political coverage.
3. At the very end of the video notice the guy standing just outside the door (holding the door) as Gundy exits. His name is Tyler Moss and he was an intern here at CIY a few years ago. Tyler works in the athletic department at OSU.

Are you sure you want to use that debit card?

My wife was somewhat surprised when I informed her (this weekend) that I was pretty sure I'd never actually used my Debit/ATM card as a debit card - had only ever used it to get cash with. Millions now use Debit cards for everything under the sun, this we know, but is that the smartest way to buy?

It definitely comes with some conveniences - no checkbook, it's fast, accepted anywhere Visa or MasterCard are, etc. But what are the drawbacks?

I ran across this article today that details a few of the drawbacks to using a debit card. The article specifically deals with debit versus credit. Now clearly, if you are buying things you can't afford with a credit card, that is bad and you need to switch to cash. But if you're going to use plastic and you have the discipline necessary to not overspend you might be surprised to find some important advantages of using a credit card instead of a debit card.

Having been on both sides of the card transaction equation, I find it annoying that a consumer would be charged for using a debit card. Why? Because the vendor got charged for the same transaction as well, so the bank is really getting it going both ways.

The difference in liabilities in the event of identity theft is also significant. The impact of $50 of liability versus $500 is huge.

The bottom line is that you've got to figure out what enables you to be the best steward of the money you have, but don't assume that debit is preferable to credit, there are issues there too.

Encouragements of the Day

One of the dangers of "being in ministry" is that it can be easy to miss the amazing things that God does around you. This is especially a challenge in a para-church ministry where our role is primarily facilitation, not person to person ministry, for much of the year.

A couple of things today have really reminded me of the incredible things God can do through willing servants and the level of sacrifice that some people will make because they believe in seeing lives changed.

I sat in a meeting this morning listening to a man tell us his passion for influencing life change in students. In the process I was asked to briefly tell about myself. As I thought about a concise way to explain why I do what I do I was reminded about how incredible it is to see students lives changed by the power of the Holy Spirit at an event that you had a small part in facilitating. It is good for me to be reminded of that once in a while, maybe more than that when the days are long.

This afternoon a list of comments that have been received during some calling that is going on currently at CIY was emailed to me. One of the comments came from a mom who said that she has 4 kids and at times struggles to put food on the table, but felt that the ministry of CIY is so important she wanted to donate (financially) to CIY. That's being committed to something, that's passion taking on hands and feet, that's someone who trusts in her Savior to provide even when she's not sure where it will come from. That challenges me. What have I done recently for the Kingdom of God that was so bold?...I don't intend that to be a rhetorical question, I just don't have an answer.

What to Make of the Rate-Cut

In case you missed it, the Federal Reserve cut key interest rates by .5% yesterday.

What? That doesn't send you into a euphoric state?

Me neither, though I can say I was in favor of the cut, because it will likely pull mortgage rates down a little bit and as I'm hoping to sell a house and buy another in the coming months that's a good thing for me (I mean us, my wife and I).

But what does a half-point rate-cut really mean? I guess that kind of depends on who you are.

If you're an investor and your portfolio is in stocks, you probably made some money yesterday and may continue to do so. In general, the stock market likes it when "the Fed" cuts rates. Why? Several reasons.

One reason is that it means borrowing money is cheaper and that factors into business models for the companies they are investing in (i.e. XYZ, Inc. can borrow money to expand operations and drive higher revenues more cheaply, which makes their returns more valuable, because they will have to pay less to service the debt).

A second reason is that the investors (and by that I primarily mean institutional investors, the big guys who work for big firms that manage billions) have more access to cheap cash that allows them to expand what they're doing and improves the outlook on returns.

A third factor for investors is that the rate cut generally bodes well for stimulating the economy at large, which drives spending, which means companies make money, which means stock prices go up, which means they (the investors) make money - in theory.

If you are a consumer and have debt with adjustable rates or are in the market to purchase something that you'll finance, a cut like this will likely reduce the interest rates you'll pay. What this should mean is that you will spend less in interest on the purchase, what it shouldn't mean is that you're going to borrow more than you were before just because you think you can afford more now. Rates change and if you're using a credit card or any kind of adjustable rate financing you have to factor in future rate increases - particularly if the financing will last more than 12 months.

If you are an investor who is primarily in bonds or using some sort of money market or savings account that pays interest this rate cut isn't great for you. You will notice that the rates you get paid on your money will decline in general as a result. Now a half-point isn't going to drastically alter your retirement outlook probably, but will effect what you make in interest over the next few months - depending on where rates go from here.

Financial markets are complex beasts. I don't claim to fully understand them. The fundamental principles that they're built are are fairly simple, but size and time builds complexity until grasping all the nuances is a full-time job. Plus you're dealing with people who don't always make rational decisions - so even when something like a rate cut happens you can't really predict exactly what stock prices will do because there is a human element involved.

I wouldn't get too wound up over this half-point cut just yet. If you're concerned about it talk to your financial adviser (I need to get mine to start paying me to drop his name in stuff like this). I wouldn't go trying to refinance your mortgage just yet, I don't think this is a big enough cut to do you much good by the time you pay the closing costs.

I will say this, however. If your home is currently financed on an ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) that is going to reset anytime in the next 12 months, this might be a good opportunity to try to lock in a fixed rate loan before that adjustment happens (assuming you're not planning to sell the home prior to the reset). Rates could go down from here, but with inflationary pressures still on I'm not sure they're going very far (one other effect of a rate cut is that it can fuel inflation, that's one of the things that keeps the Fed from dropping them way down all the time).

So there it is, several thousand percent more than you cared to know about what it means when the Fed cuts interest rates.

What Happened to Sports?

News this week of the New England Patriots having video-taped opponents during games in order to decode their hand signals has been fairly wide spread. Word came today that the Patriots coach has been fined $500,000 and the team fined $250,000 along with the loss of 1 or 2 draft picks next season depending on how the Pats finish this year.

The story you might not have heard about is the penalty that was slapped on the McLaren team in Formula 1 auto racing. It seems that one of McLaren's employees ended up with a technical "dossier" from the Ferrari team involved in the same racing series. Ferrari fired the guy who gave up the documents and FIA fined McLaren $100,000,000. Yes, that's One-hundred Million US dollars (maybe the Patriots got off easy?). In addition, they stripped the team of "constructor's" points - the equivalent in NASCAR would be manufacturer's points - for this year. It got so bad that the McLaren drivers cooperated with the investigators in order to get immunity and avoid losing their driver's points in the 2007 standings (oh, by the way, the McLaren drivers are ranked 1st and 2nd in the standings and the Ferrari drivers are ranked 3rd and 4th).

I don't remember a year with more sports cheating stories in it. Think about it. You've got the on-going baseball steroids scandal, repeated NASCAR suspensions and deductions for equipment violations, the NBA referee betting fiasco, the Patriots trying to get on i-Caught, and the aforementioned F1 debacle (anything involving a $100 million fine is a debacle).

On one hand these are all sports stories and one could argue that they are less important than if they were all related to corruption in government or scandals in our churches (there have been a few of each of these this year too if you think about it).

But here's why I think this matters: Who do your kids look up to? What do they pay attention to? Maybe not F1 racing or NASCAR, but I'll bet a lot of little boys and girls for that matter (and not so little boys and girls) are paying attention to the Patriots situation and the NBA referee case. What does it communicate to them when the athletes and teams they look up to can't even manage to play their sport fairly? I'm not even picking on an NFL team for being full of thugs (Michael Vick, forgot that one earlier), this is even more basic. Character is character. While Bill Belichick may not have a criminal rap sheet (I have no idea if he does or not), clearly he had a lapse of character here (or simply lacks character). If you don't see why the video-taping of opponents was a big deal keep in mind that it is something the NFL has a rule against - so at the very least they were knowing breaking a policy of the league they play in.

So what are we to do? I don't think there's an easy answer. With money, power and prestige come temptations that can bring down even well intentioned people. The pressure to win (and keep winning in the case of the Patriots and McLaren) is so great in many sports that teams will go to any length to get to and stay on top. I love sports, but I think this is becoming an increasingly sad testimony about the priorities of our society. I get frustrated with people who repeatedly talk about how terrible the U.S. is (I'm referring to U.S. citizens who just bash all the time), but today it's me doing the bashing. Sport and competition are beautiful things in their pure form. Inject enough media attention and the money that comes with it and they can become very ugly as we've seen.

Even sadder still is that we see performance enhancing drug use and cheating starting to pop up even within youth sports. It's not uncommon for an athlete to be suspended from a high school football team for steroid use. Where does it end? How do we turn it around? I don't know. I do know that as someone who hopes to have kids who play sports someday it concerns me. I guess the first line of defense is going to have to be parents who are not willing to go to any length to win and are paying attention to what their kids are doing and are teaching them things like integrity and character. But to do that, those same parents will have to display those traits in their own lives, if not, their kids will see through it very quickly.

I'll quit now, I think I've passed the point of actually making a coherent point.

Webb City v. Carthage 2007

I'll keep this short (as short as I can).

This was a great game early on. The Carthage offense is for real. They have a very good passing game, which was able to pick apart the WC secondary much more than I expected. I felt like WC controlled the line of scrimmage most of the game and ultimately this was a deciding factor.

Carthage has 2 or 3 receivers that are big for class 4 high school football. This combined with accurate throws from the QB made for some matchup and coverage problems - particularly early on.

WC - as they always seem to do - just kept coming. That's the killer edge for WC, they just never quit coming at you, never quit hitting you. And at the end of the day Carthage couldn't match WC's intensity or physicality for 48 minutes (though they hung tough for the first 24). As the game wore on you could see that some of the Carthage players - the QB specifically - was just tired of getting hit and didn't really want to hit the WC players when WC had the ball.

The surprise for me so far this season with WC has been the play of Mack Kyle. I wasn't impressed with him last season, a few flashes of raw talent, very little indication of standout quality on a consistent basis. But through 2 games he has shown a raw determination combined with great speed and power as a runner that made the difference offensively last night. There were several carries where he just refused to be denied. He initiated the contact with the defenders - rather than outrun them. He is still learning the offense and has a ways to go, but shows a lot of promise - in my opinion.

For WC to go far this year I see two major things that need to happen. The offense needs to continue to come together. So far their passing attack has been pretty weak - despite having a stellar receiving corps. So far I've been more impressed with Austin Lepper than any of the wide receivers. Whoever it is catching the ball, the passing game must be a real threat in order to open up the ground attack. That is why the 2006 squad faired better (especially late in the season and in the playoffs) than the 2004 and 2005 squads (depsite those earlier teams having more speed and talent in the backfield).

The second key for WC is on defense. Just like last year, they are still finding themselves in these early games and will have to come together for WC to march through the playoffs. Last year it all changed for WC in Pittsburg when they had their backs to the wall. At some point, the light has to go on and the defense has to decide that no matter what we're going to stop people.

Small Group - Round 2

Our small group met again this week and began talking about dealing with fights and conflicts within our relationships - with friends, family, etc.

As we tore into this topic it became clear it wasn't something that could be adequately explored in one session. So we split the topic into two parts. This week we dealt with what the Bible had to say about situations where one person sins against another and how we are to deal with that from both sides.

Instances where one person wrongs another are somewhat more straight forward in the way Jesus instructed us to deal with one another. In Matthew 18 (verses 15-20), He lays out a very specific way that believers should address situations where they have been wronged.

Specifically He instructed us to first attempt to resolve the matter between just the two parties involved. If that is unsuccessful, a second attempt should be made with the help of one or two other people as witnesses to the situation. If that too fails, Jesus instructs us to bring the matter before "the church".

We talked about the ramifications of taking a matter before the congregation and wondered whether the word "church" in that context referred to a large corporate body or perhaps to either a smaller "house church" setting or the leadership of a larger body. My lack of knowledge regarding the original languages of scripture left me in the dark.

Jesus goes on to say that if the confrontation before the church fails to resolve the matter, the offender is to be treated as a pagan or tax collector. My interpretation there is that the person is not to associated with - as that was the common practice in Jewish society at that time.

While that paints a harsh picture, the very next scene in Matthew 18 (verses 21-22) is where Peter asks the famous question about how many time shall I forgive my brother? And Jesus tells him seventy-seven (or seventy times seven).

Our discussion seemed to center around a couple of thoughts when it comes to a situation where we are the one who has been wronged.

First, Jesus placed responsibility for addressing the matter directly with the person we believe wronged us on us.

Second, we are to forgive as many times as a person seeks it and in light of Matthew 6:14-15 our forgiveness from God is dependent on whether we forgive others.

Third, there comes a time, while we must forgive a person, we may have to choose no longer to allow that person the opportunity to hurt us. Forgiveness doesn't equal tolerance or enablement.

Next we turned to the reverse situation, one in which we have wronged our brother. In Matthew 5:23-24 Jesus gives instructions when we realize we have wronged someone to drop what we're doing - even if we're "at the alter" - and go to our brother to seek forgiveness. Clearly Jesus was placing responsibility on the part of the offender to seek reconciliation and to do so immediately.

The significance of the setting Jesus placed this scenario in (a person offering a gift at the alter to God) is big, because to the people who would have heard him say these words nothing trumped activities in the Temple. Jesus was sending a clear message that righting wrongs is a priority. We also discussed the fact that when we have knowingly done wrong to someone we cannot truly worship.

All in all, this was a fairly practical discussion that hit pretty close to home for all of us. It's not something anyone likes to have to put into practice (from either side), but is pretty straight forward in scripture.

Next week we'll move on to situations where two people have legitimate disagreements - that don't necessarily involve one sinning against another - and what scriptural examples show us about dealing with those situations.

5 years already?

Tuesday marked a somber anniversary for me. September 4th was the fifth anniversary of the destruction of my first Trans Am.

The short version of how it happened is this:

College freshman shouldn't be allowed to drive cars. (Only kidding)





























I was sitting at a stoplight in Stillwater headed back to my apartment briefly before going to a night class at OSU after which I was driving to Springfield, MO for a CIY Summer Conference (now Move) planning meeting. The light changed and I proceeded across the intersection and as I came to the last 10 feet or so of the intersection a red Dodge Neon came out of nowhere and hit my car on the passenger's front corner. The young man driving the Neon, who I genuinely tried to check on a for a few days afterwards, had not seen his light change to red and because of the cars stopped in the two lanes next to him I was unable to see him coming. The results were two totaled cars and a third with slight damage (80's Mustang, main color: Primer gray).

No one was hurt seriously, just a little sore. That was the huge blessing in the whole thing. I was sad to see the car go, it was something I valued greatly - but that's another story. The end result was good. God was gracious to me throughout the incident. The circumstances of the accident and my general stubbornness aided in the process of getting the other guy's insurance company to pay a fair value for my car. That payment enabled me to replace my car with the Trans Am I now own, which is a more rare vehicle that has the potential to be a true collectors car in the future.