Jump In

There are certain things that you just have to jump into.

With those things, there is no preparing for it. No warming up. No practice runs. Simply jump into it.

For example, take alligator wrestling. There is not a whole lot of practicing with that profession. Sure, one could practice on a 70 pound, 5 feet long, alligator-shaped basset hound, but that does not exactly count as a good warmup for an 800 pound, 13 feet long, alligator.

Take this guy…

How do you practice for something like this? You don’t. You simply jump in. (Please notice his gnarled, apparently chewed-up-by-an-alligator left hand.)

Alligator wrestling, base jumping, olympic highdiving, etc…

All these things you have to just jump into.

We can put “FOLLOWING JESUS” on the same list of things you just jump into. There is no halfway in/halfway out with following Jesus. There is no preparing, no warming up, no practice runs, and no figuring it out. You simply jump in.

In Luke 5, Jesus calls a group of men to follow him. In both instances, Scripture says that the men got up, left everything, and follow him. There was no warmup, no practice runs, and no taking care of some details. They left everything – their money, jobs, families, stability, hobbies, possessions, status, etc – to follow Jesus. They jumped right in to following Jesus.

In the same way, Jesus is calling you and I to follow him.

Are you ready and willing to JUMP in?

Its time...

Its time for the dodgers management to go all hiroshima on this team. Time to trade valuable pieces(which arent many). My plan to fix this mess and get maximum value for the tradable pieces...

Trade Andre Ethier- You dont think he has value to a team like detroit, new york, philly, or boston? boston is the most likely landing place, a team that is using a right field of drew, cameron and whoever else they find needs a steady person in right field.

Trade Hiroki Kuroda- one of the most valuable dodgers we have in a trade option. With Bartolo Colon going down the yankees could be in the market for him.

trade or release barajas and navarro- aj ellis and hector jiminez could definantly do much, much better.

trade loney for a living breathing person, whoever they might be able to find.

get rid of thames, gwynn, lilly(hard to do with that 3 year contract), uribe, and everyone in our bullpen.

the team would look like this under my scenario.

c- ellis
1b- blake
2b- carroll
ss- gordon
3b- miles
Lf- sands
CF- kemp
RF- Oeltjen

SP1- kershaw
sp2- bills
sp3- garland
sp4- dela rosa
sp5- ely/someone from AAA

it could work. this would give us a young team with good upside and alot of good farm kids.

Bethany University

My heart is heavy as I write this because the place I spent 4 years of my life is gone. Bethany University was closed yesterday. Bethany U means a lot of things to a lot of people but for me it was a place where I grew, was stretched, learned life lessons and many other things. Bethany is a place where I met people I'll be freinds with for the rest of my life. I fell in love there, fell out of love, had my greatest struggles, had my greatest victories, but most of all got closer to my creator.

my memories of Bethany:

- monday night worship chapels that lasted till midnight.
- flushing my cell down the toilet then leaving for the weekend.
- video game nights in moon and matts room
- the awkward moment asking mack if I could be his roommate.
- seeing Nate Moon wear some dodgers closes after he lost a bet with me.
- "get legit", "build the kingdom brothers"- all dennis patton
- midnight buffet with panda express
- cheetah chase
- all the times at the beach.
- the thousands of life lessons I learned in class
- Dr. Powell calling us all dirt bags
- Dr. Smiths jokes that werent that funny
- CLC santa cruz
- handing out food to the homeless in santa cruz
- Taco bell 5 nights a week
- midnight safeway runs
- the tons of cups of coffee
- Sue telling me I cant move in yet only to have dennis tell me its ok to move in.
- staying in the cafe well after meals were over talking and laughing
- coffee in the rain with matt
- all the torture we gave to matt johnson
- 5 guys in 1 bed... (its not what you think)
- feb fundies
- all the roommates I had -jesse huro, jones andre, peter osuna, aaron pippen, dan, titus, wyatt, justin parrish, Mack Harrold, stephen dela cruz, farris tyab, chris douglas.
- bribing the RA to pass my room on room checks with monsters.
- the craziness of the baseball team
- the great mentorship I recieved
- getting licensed with the A/G
- getting paid to watch sports while talking sports with nate moon
- NSO
- staying up all night cause you procrastinated and now a paper is due by 8am
- going crazy at the sporting games
- all the laughs of working in the library
- mexican food every night in the cafe
- monday is vegetarian chili, tuesday is meat chili.
- guitar pick plates with no ridges so you spill everything
- cheeps? crunchy? yellow?
- monday night live
- prayer in someone room for hours
- redwood bowl adventures
- santa cruz diner
- farrells donuts
- OC night in the lobby
- halo tournaments
- first class revolution

I know im missing so many more memories but this is a good start...

The local church

The local church is the hope of the world.

There is nothing like the local church when it’s working right. Its beauty is indescribable. Its power is breathtaking. Its potential is unlimited. It comforts the grieving and heals the broken in the context of community. It builds bridges to seekers and offers truth to the confused. It provides resources for those in need and opens its arms to the forgotten, the downtrodden, the disillusioned. It breaks the chains of addictions, frees the oppressed, and offers belonging to the marginalized of this world. Whatever the capacity for human suffering, the church has a greater capacity for healing and wholeness.

Still to this day, the potential of the local church is almost more than I can grasp. No other organization on earth is like the church. Nothing even comes close.

~ from Bill Hybels’ Courageous Leadership