Currently and Recently

Currently listening to:
Counting Crows, August and Everything After
Chevelle, Vena Sera
Ben Harper, Fight for Your Mind

Recently read:
Velvet Elvis, by Rob Bell
The Pearl, by John Steinbeck

Currently reading:
The Gospel of Mark
Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

Recently watched:
Monk, Season 5
Shooter
Amazing Race, Season 10

Currently watching:
24, Season 1

My fantasy baseball team is now officially terrible and in last place (but not without hope)

Yes, that’s right. Last place. The Hudson’s got hurt (Tim Hudson and Orlando Hudson). The Mark’s went to the American League (Mark Teixeira and Mark Kotsay). I traded guys like Hanley Ramirez, Brian Giles and Roy Oswalt.

But hopefully the Makoko Redbirds are not like the Kansas City Royals. I’d like to think that we’re at the start of being more like the Minnesota Twins or Oakland A’s. I feel like I’ve torn apart the original team, and made some good trades to get young players for upcoming years. So, here’s the players in on the Redbirds’ youth movement:

Stephen Drew, Hunter Pence, Chris Young, Nyjer Morgan, Ryan Spilborghs, Dan Haren, Chris Volstad, Adam Wainwright, Clayton Kershaw, Johnny Cueto, Colby Rasmus, Carlos Carrasco

Redbirds in 2009!

-T.M.

Camping in the Serengeti

This past week I had the privilege of camping in the Serengeti with my good friend Nate Chisholm. We hired a guide, used my truck, and borrowed some camping supplies from some friends. We spent only one day and one night in the park, but were able to see quite a bit. Here's a glimpse:

This gives you an idea (if you didn't already have one) of the general landscape of the Serengeti. And by the way, it was very dusty (it's the dry season).

The Serengeti is much busier than Ruaha, and you can always tell when a fairly unique animal(s) been found because there's 43,000 trucks circling around it.

This is what we were circling around to see--a female lion. However, moments before this shot was taken, she was feeding on a large carcass.

The closest I've ever been to a hippo in the wild. They're incredibly huge.

A pretty neat close-up shot of a giraffe with some freeloading birds.

The men. The truck. The dust. Enough said.

Cheers.

-T.M.

Why does my fantasy baseball team stink?*

So, possible answers to this question:

A. Something is very wrong with math and statistics.
B. My team got off to a really slow start.
C. Baseball doesn't make sense after all.
D. The Makoko Redbirds are waiting to make their push until after the All-Star break.
E. All of the above

I would like to think (B) and (D). Hopefully some of the roster moves I've made will help in the long run. If you're interested (the main new guys are in bold):

C Bengie Molina
1B Mark Teixeira
2B Orlando Hudson
SS Hanley Ramirez
MI Stephen Drew
3B Garret Atkins
OF Ryan Spilborghs
OF Brian Giles
OF Aaron Rowand
OF Rick Ankiel

P Roy Oswalt
P Dan Haren
P Todd Wellemeyer
P Adam Wainwright
P Tim Hudson

CL: Chad Qualls

*The Makoko Redbirds are in 6th place (out of 8) so it could be worse.

-T.M.

My Dawning Conviction

Currently reading:

How Long, O Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil, 2^nd Edition
by D.A. Carson

Currently listening to:

Jeremy Enigk, Return of the Frog Queen (1996)

I have to say that reading the above book by D.A. Carson has been a real breath of fresh air. An Australian missionary friend let me borrow it, after raving about it for weeks. Again and again, Carson says things in this book that I don’t really hear many other people saying (perhaps being willing to say?). For example, in his chapter on death he says:

There is a cultural factor at work in the Western world that must be squarely faced. Death has become the last taboo. I can write about sex and breasts, discuss homosexuality in public, and debate the ethics of abortion, but I must not mention death in civilized company. (103)

How about that. I really like an author’s willingness to point out inconsistencies in a belief system, and bring the authority of the Word to bear on it. That element of hard-hitting truth has been very welcome.

So (as you may have gathered from previous blog articles perhaps) lately I’ve been feeling a little worn down by many of the very issues he talks about in the book: social evils, poverty, war, illness, death, etc. He even brings this up in the first chapter of the book, using the example of a Christian who goes to the Third World for a time, and he says the problem really for many people struggling like that is “the dawning conviction that there is something wrong with one’s belief system somewhere.” And I think that’s exactly it. I haven’t really been able to put it into words before.

I think from reading the book so far (I’m still only halfway through, but I’m sure it won’t take longJ) one of the major problems in my belief system has been my consistent underestimation of the vileness of sin. I underestimate it in my own life, in the lives of others, the world as a whole; and that pain and suffering in a very real sense show us how wicked our sin really is.

Fresh air.

I'll keep you posted (there's even a whole chapter on the mystery of God's providence!)

And oh, by the way, the Jeremy Enigk (Sunny Day Real Estate) album is amazing. I couldn’t believe it’s been out for over 10 years. Where have I been! It’s really quite mellow, somewhat depressing, but he makes good use of instrumentation and they’re quality songs. So there you go.

-T.M.