O happy day...

Okay, so I'm excited today. The Cavaliers picked up Shaq in one of the most lopsided trades in NBA history. Shaq for Ben Wallace, Sasha Pavlavic, and the number 46 pick in the draft, and $500,000. For you none basketball fans, that's a steal.

I know, I know, "Shaq is washed up, old, and isn't the player he used to be". So? He's still stinking Shaq. He'll bring a big man and dominance in the paint that we desperately need. Who cares if he isn't the player he was in L.A., with LBJ it won't matter. He will help us win a championship.

So, I'm happy today. Bring on the NBA season, and bring on June 2010!!

Peace

Being a Cleveland Fan is hard...

In my lifetime Cleveland sports teams have lost and blown seven major opportunities I can think of. A few I don't remember, like The Drive in 1987, or The Shot in '89. Unfortunately some I do, like the '95 and '97 Tribe losing in the World Series, or the Tribe blowing a 3-1 series lead to Boston to miss going to the World Series. I've seen a Hero Browns team with a 10-6 record, become a Zero Browns team the next year. I've also seen a Cavs team lose in the Finals.

I would hate to know the stories and griefs of the old timers who haven't seen a winning Cleveland team since '64. Oh how they must be dying to see a title. It's not easy being a Cleveland fan.

I fear the Cavs are about to create yet another crushed Cleveland dream. What a fantastic year they've had. What a great team they were. Everyone thought they were invincible. Everyone thought they were unstoppable. The press, the fans, the Nation! Someone forgot to tell Orlando, because they're proving they're the team that's unstoppable. (If you don't follow sports, then know that shooting 50% from the 3-point range is unheard of. And Orlando is consistently doing it.)

Some call me pesamistic, some may even say I'm a bandwagon jumper, but the truth is they can't match up against the Orlando Magic. I don't see them coming back from 3-1. Is it because it's impossible to happen in sports? Not at all. It's happened eight times in the NBA, and heck the Boston Red Sox did it to the Cleveland Indians a few years ago. But no, I see a Magic team that's more determined, with a deeper bench, and better shooters.

Indeed, it's not easy being a Cleveland fan. In fact it's hard. I wish I were like some people that could just root for the current best team. Those people who buy up the Celtics, Patriots, and Giants gear the minute they win, claiming they're fandom... but I'm not, I'm a Cleveland fan, and I bleed Brown, Blue and Grey, and Wine and Gold.

What angers me the most (again my pesamism is coming out) is no one forsees the Cavs winning 66 games next year. No one sees us being as good as we are this year. I don't see it either. This year we're seeing something special, and it's all about to come crashing down on us.

I guess I'm writing this to rant. I guess I'm just trying to clear my mind of Cleveland sports.

I'm not sure it helped....

More travel on the Horizon

I love to travel. Please don't ever tell me I have to stay put. I used to long for places that I had never seen. It was almost a feeling of homesickness for a land on which I had never set foot.

I have prospects for travel this summer. The middle of June will see me in Naples with some of my favorite Milligan girlies. There will be multiple weekend excursions to Cincinnati again, I hope. Somewhere before school starts I'd like to go to a certain lakeside cabin in Louisville, KY. And I will wrap up my summer as usual at the Annual Former PCC Campout.

In the slightly more distant near future (got that?) Tony and I plan to take a little weekend in Chicago to fulfill one of the items on my life list, a U2 concert (No Line on the Horizon- 360 tour).

And last but not least, I envision a two week jaunt to Italy in 2010. The plans are in the works of my mind, and soon they will be actually in the works. I've got friends and some family lined up to go, a possible itinerary, and a little money saved up. Bring on the passport forms and the crash course in Italian!

I hope to live long and travel well! The more friends I see along the way, the better!

Faculty devotions - May 13

I’m probably the last person who should be writing a devotion that has anything to do with sports, but because my household is so immersed in sports and sports talk this time of year, I thought that I would take a stab at it.

Talk about the Cleveland Cavaliers fills my ears for a good chunk of the year, especially in the spring. I enjoy about the last four minutes of a basketball game. Of course, four minutes of basketball time is about half an hour normal time. I usually wonder why the other three quarters are even played, nothing good happens until the end. Anyhow, the buzz that fills my ear these days is about what a good team the Cavs are, not just because they win the game, but because of how they play the game as a team.

The conversation Sunday night around the dinner table at my grandma’s house eventually led to the Cavs. My uncle and husband quoted opposing teams’ players (don’t ask me who they were) who said that playing against the Cavs is so difficult on the morale of their own team because of how well the Cavs play together. One player said it’s like showing up to a big challenge for your own team, and the opposing team is just acting like they are there to play playground basketball. The Cavs just love being together and playing together. It seems to me that the other teams watch the Cav wistfully, wishing that they too could have that camaraderie.

I think that most people who have tried physical training, starting a workout schedule, or just attempted to get into shape, know that these tasks are easier and much more fun when shared with a friend. Be it peer pressure, our competitive streak, or whatever, most of us are more motivated when another person joins us. I think that if we are setting out to run a race, to win a prize, we too are going to need a support network.

This makes me think about the sports analogies that are familiar to us from the New Testament.

^{Hebrews 12: 1”}Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

The use of the word “Us” here indicates that this is not a single player event, this involves “us,” a team of people. There are people watching all of us, and so together, we must throw off the things that hinder us as a group, our preconceived ideas, our hypocritical judgments, and our feelings of superiority, anything that keeps us from presenting ourselves as a united front to all the witnesses.

I think about how Atlanta might have felt when they faced the Cavs. The Cavs came out with so much spirit, determination, confidence, and love for one another that the Atlanta Hawks probably couldn’t help but feel fear and trepidation when faced with them. Now imagine if Satan and his minions were faced with a united front of Christians coming at them with spirit, determination, confidence in our assured win, and genuine love for one another. Satan would be forced to bring his “A” game or turn and run.

As a spectator, watching the Cavs can make you feel fired up. People like going to the games because cheering on a winning team can make you feel like you are part of something great. When the confetti falls in “The Q” at the end of the game, you feel the celebration too. So what about the witnesses watching us? Do they see something great, something worth getting excited about, something that they long to be a part of? Sometimes Christianity becomes so organized, so procedural, so wrapped up in rules and regulations, that I wonder if people can look at us and see our joy. Do they just see the issues and the arguing that takes place, and think, “Wow, I’ve got enough of that going on in my own life”? Or do they see our genuine love and respect for one another, and our reaching together for a higher purpose and wish that they could be a part of something so big?

Corinthians 9:24-27 gives us a much bigger purpose than just winning a championship trophy when it says, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. ²⁵Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. ²⁶Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. ²⁷No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

Paul knew that it was certainly important for him to be on the right track, but he also wanted to take other people with him. He knew that there was a purpose, something great to be earned, something to strive for. Paul reminds us that we are to pick up others along the way, while never letting our own eyes leave the finish line ahead. There isn’t just one trophy at the end, or one open position in heaven that for which we all contend. We don’t need to push, foul, scratch, or knock down other players, because in this sort of race, they are not our competition, they are our fellow victors. The more people the confetti falls on at the end of the game, the better the celebration. Let’s run our race so that others want to drop what they are doing, lace up their shoes, and join us on the trail.

Two years ago from today was a bright sunny Saturday. I spent the morning working at Express in Belden Village Mall. My last day working at any Express at any mall, I hope.

After clocking out, I returned to my townhouse apartment where most members of our families and a few friends were assembled and loading two big pickup trucks and a few cars with everything we could fit. Not everything was put in as carefully as I would have liked, but almost everything made the trip to Wooster in one piece. The last things to be loaded in to my almost packed Jetta were two wailing kitty cats.

Upon arriving in Wooster, the kitty cats went into and were closed into the upstairs bathroom, and everything else was carried back to the media room. As it turns out, the newly refinished hardwood floors were still not dry, along with the living room walls' paint.

We began unpacking and putting things into the places that they would belong for hopefully the next twenty years, at least!

Since then, some things have changed both in the house and in our lives. New friends have arrived and some friends have drifted away. Old friends come to stay for days at a time, and they are always welcome, and sometimes I wish they would never leave. I started a job I loved at the library and left it for a job I love even more, which I wasn't sure was possible.

Homeownership is exactly what I have hoped it would be. This grand old house is exactly what I wanted. I love making changes and improvements on something that is mine to keep. I love dreaming about what we will someday change and remodel, and the things that I love just the way they are. Sometime around last spring I also learned that my decorating personality can also carry outside in the form of flower gardening, which I definitely didn't foresee happening. I know that Tony could do with a little less bat drama and a little less yardwork, but those are just some things that make our house special and unlike anyone else's house.

So happy HOUSIVERSARY. (I know it's not a word, but like I tell my students, "English teachers are allowed to make up their own words!) Come stop in to our little bit of joy on earth. Just call first, we always need to clean.

Broken Commitments

Commitments March 11

These days people break promises. I’m from a generation of people who will commit to doing something, but then, when the time comes, if we don’t feel like it, we look for a way out. A perfectly good excuse is all you need to get out of doing something. No longer is this a time of “a man’s word is his honor”, but instead, may the best excuse win. We are a people who are pleasure and leisure seekers and if we feel like we don’t want to do it, we don’t do it.

I don’t like committing to things I have changed hair dressers, dentists, and doctors because the ones I usually went to expected me to have an appointment weeks in advance. I just can’t commit to that. I need to take things day by day, or maybe week by week. If I want my hair cut, I want my hair cut now, not in three weeks.

It’s no wonder that we feel the need to really make others commit to something, to really be assured that they mean what they say. Even as children we want more than just an affirmative reply from someone. As children we start to say “Do you pinky promise?” or “cross your heart, hope to die?” or even “Do you swear?” because we learn from a very young age that people will not follow through with what they say. We know how changeable we can be. We get used to being let down.

Even now, I’ve noticed among my students that they have trouble keeping to their commitments. This year I’ve overseen the Jr. Highers for Spelling Bee and Speech Meet and have had multiple students drop out or try to drop out at last minute. I’ve done everything between guilt trips and coercion to keep to their commitment to the event. When the going gets hard, the not so tough drop out.

I just think that this changeability will lead to irresponsible and unfaithful adults. Your job is hard? Find an easier and maybe unethical way to do it. Marriage is hard? Well, get out of it. Raising kids is too stressful? Let the TV, school, and church do your job for you.

There are people that don’t have a hint of changeability in their bodies. I know people who, if they said they will be there, they WILL be there, rain or shine. You need help moving? They will be there with a truck in the middle of a rain or snow storm. You need prayer? This person prays for you until your problem is resolved, and then they keep praying for you. You are sick or injured, perhaps you have a broken leg? These people will help you with anything from opening doors for you to bringing you meals. We all feel the blessing of people like this in our lives. We know the handful of people that we can depend on, and are glad for them. Do we ever ask ourselves, “Am I that person?” “Can others depend on me?”

In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount he says,
33"Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' 34But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; 35or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

When it comes to our word to God and to those who depend on us, do we let our “yes” be “yes” and our “no” be “no”? When we say we will show up, are we there? When we tell someone we’ll be praying for them, do we forget about it the moment we walk away? Do we keep our promises to our children, our students, and teach them by example that they need to do the same?

If we can’t be accountable to one another, how much more are we messing up in the eyes of our Lord? How many things have we agreed to do, or not do, in his name? We don’t like seeing the disappointed look in another person’s face when we let them down, which is why most of us prefer to do our letting down via phone, or e-mail, or by just not showing up. We don’t want to look into the eyes of the person we’ve disappointed. I actually think it is easier to disappoint God. He seems so big that sometimes we think he won’t notice the little things we do way down here on earth. We think, “Surely he is looking in another direction right at that moment, so he won’t really see this little thing I’m doing to let him down. It’s such a small, one time thing.”

In Deuteronomy Moses reminds Joshua of the Lord’s promise,
“The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."
We are again reminded of this promise in Hebrews chapter 13 when the people are being reminded of God’s faithfulness which will be doled out as a result of faithfulness shown to Him and to one another.
5Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
"Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you."[a] 6So we say with confidence,
"The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?"[b]

We have expectations for God. We wouldn’t want him to forget or forsake us. While we believe in our hearts that his promises are true, some of us remember in our minds what it feels like to depend on a promise and have it broken. We might sometimes doubt that promises come true because of our experiences with other flawed beings here on earth. I know people who have a hard time thinking of God as a “Heavenly Father” because their earthly fathers let them down so many times, that they don’t like to compare the two. On the surface we think, “Yay! What wonderful promises!” But deep down some people may be thinking in a tiny little voice, “When has anyone ever kept a promise to me?” While we DO believe, there is a little piece of us that is braced for disappointment.

To begin changing this perception within ourselves and others we need to do two things:

1. Remember that while we are created in God’s image, we fall miles short of living up to that image. No matter how many times we have been let down by people, God will NOT let us down. He is the exception to the rule.

2. We need to do our earthly best to teach others what “I will not forsake you” means. We need to do our best to demonstrate God’s faithfulness to people through our actions here on earth. We need to let our “yes” be “yes”. People are so used to being let down, that it would be nice if they could see that there is another way.

Let us continue on, trying to show the love of the Father to those around us here on earth, so that more can join us in his glorious promises.

The Broken Leg

Ok, it has been nine days since I broke my leg and I am quite a bit more upbeat than when I wrote my last blog. The beginning was rough because I wasn't sleeping, which made everything I had to do a much more emotional experience than was really necessary.

Monday I went to the orthopedic where I was given a walking cast. I can't walk on it yet, still have to use the crutches, but it was such a relief not to have a permanent hard cast. This one I can take off to shower or get dressed. I do have to leave it on all the rest of the time. It is really tempting to take it off at night because it is so heavy and bulky and hard to get comfortable in bed, but I have followed the rules and left it on.

Getting a walking cast really lifted my spirits. I worked all four days we had of school this week which I don't think I would have felt up to doing if they'd put me in a hard cast. My co-workers are so nice to me, helping me to do anything I need. Still, every day I came home REALLY exhausted and basically crashed on the couch until bed time. Crutching around the school is a lot of distance and really really wears me out. My students are really sweet about everything and really want to help me when they can.

I am a little concerned because as of last night, my leg and foot are still freakishly swollen. I don't know if this is normal or not, but I really feel like it should have gone down by now. The people I've talked to about it have suggested that I have probably been doing too much, which I know to be true. After an event I had yesterday (Sat) morning at school, I have done nothing. I'm still sitting around in sweats today and I'm going to keep my leg up and just be lazy until I have to go to work tomorrow morning. Hopefully this will help things improve.

So generally I feel good although I do HATE my crutches. I know that my injury is minor compared to things others have had to deal with and that I really have no right to be a baby about it. So, I will try to keep my spirits up, and I do really hope to be walking in my "walking cast" by the end of the week.