It's All About Love

What is my job as a Christian? One that lives in a world where things are not easy or as the church dictates? This land where people scream at the top of their lungs to respect their rights, yet laws and mores have begun to persecute Christians because we are commanded to be gentle, meek, and peaceful. This country where a celebrities that party to excess, taking part in immorality are glorified and anyone in the public eye that claims and lives as a Christian is mocked - and if they happen to misspeak or act human at all instead of the perfect standards they are held to, then that same  Christian is vilified in social media , the news, and in the media.

I have heard so much hate spewing out about the past and the present, from the public at large and from individuals who hold themselves up as leaders of the church. I have been thinking long and hard, praying for as much wisdom as can fit in this little brain, and have held off commenting on all the stuff in the news over the last few weeks, because I hope I have a light to share.

Jesus told his followers, "Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate to hell is wide and the road that leads to it is easy, and there are many who travel it.  But the gate to life is narrow and the way that leads to it is hard, and there are few people who find it." Jesus' teachings were revolutionary. The Jewish leaders in the Roman era, generally speaking, were pious, politically connected men who had become more concerned with appearance than the spiritual soul. There were many other religious choices as well.

In the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter's fifth book, Professor Dumbledore is very direct in advising Harry when he says, "Dark and difficult times lie ahead. Soon we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy." In the Princess Bride, The man in black tells Buttercup, "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something." So, whether it's God's Word to us in Scripture, or literature, or the movies, they all agree that tough times are for heroes. The major difference is that eternal paradise is only promised in the Bible by Jesus. He died, was buried and rose from the dead to conquer death and be the living Promise for us. I cant do that, but I can live like I believe and follow His example.

Jesus was all about love. He spoke to people on the street, or His closest followers, the twelve disciples with love and mercy. In John chapter 4 His conversation with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well is a stunning example of love in action. Never does Jesus give the woman a pass on her life's choices of the past. He spoke in the now, and held to the Living Water, the promise of paradise and not her past.

Encounter after encounter shows Jesus in a loving and gentle conversation talking about motivations and teaching lessons by giving us glimpses of what God's heart is all about. This all leads me back to what is my Christian duty in all this LGBT stuff, whether the marriage law or transgender lifestyles? Jesus was asked by Jewish leaders about the most important laws - Love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength and all your mind, Love your neighbor as yourself. They asked, about the identity of the neighbor. Such a human thing. Be specific - find the loophole, the flaw and then minimize the lesson.

In Luke chapter 10 the lesson that follows tells of a man traveling when he was accosted by robbers. He was badly beaten and left for dead, a passing Priest, and a scholar who was a devout Jew both passed him by and did nothing. A Samaritan (a man from a despised and socially inferior race) passed by and went to the victim's aid, bandaging his wounds and even taking him into the town and paying for his hotel. In the 40's it would have been a German, in the 50's a Communist, a hippie in the 60's, etc.

If I'm allowed to mix my religion with politics, Jesus was never PC. He calls us to follow Him, to make a difference. That flies in the face of politician's, who try so hard to keep their job they don't do their job. Jesus many times out philosophized the religious and political leaders in His day. That doesn't give Christians a license to be the countries morality police. The flags people fly, the pride in America is not a Christian rite. Christians need to gain some perspective. Be fisher's of men and not political saviors.

Legacies, and Who is Greatest of All Time

    While I have had to endure radio sports shows over this last two month stretch talking about legacies of Robert Kraft, Bill Billacheat, and Tom Brady --- also Commissioner Roger Goodell, and more recently, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James. I love sports. I can talk sports all day, but I now know I can never have a job as a "pundit" or a sports writer or a sports talk show host because I just CAN'T MAKE STUFF UP!

    I will be using I a lot in this post, because I can't understand who made up the rules and what the actual rules are --- so lets begin with legacy, what will be Tom Brady's legacy? He plays a team sport, but somehow he gets all the credit for making it to 5 Super Bowls. I can remember just two years ago when a certain Manning brother was ready to play the Seahawks and his legacy was he had to win to make a great legacy. Now these same "experts" make up new rules to suit their warped wants and fuzzy spots.

   It is chic to love Tommy the super model with the second wife he had an affair with the super model while married to a pregnant woman carrying his baby. But those kind of morals the NFL doesn't care about. You have to pummel a woman and have the tape seen by everyone, have a dog fighting ring and be photo'd with the dead clients, or spank your kid with a switch multiple times leaving bleeding welts and bruises for everyone to see on social media.

    I need to get back to the subject, making up rules for a player's legacy. Michael Jordan is considered the greatest basketball player ever - Not Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, or even Larry Bird or Earvin Magic Johnson. How do "experts" come up with these names and criteria? One will say 'Rings' - His Airness had six finals appearances and six championships. But an argument immediately pops up Russell has 11 rings ... The rest of the reasons digress from this point.

    Why can't we use our eyes and our minds to decide. I saw George Gervin, David Thompson, Geoff Paddock, and Dominique Wilkins play in their primes as well as Magic and Larry, who resuscitated the NBA almost by themselves, and I saw greatness many days, but I have yet to see any better than the best ever,  an amazing 7'1" dude who could run and jump like a man twelve inches smaller and one hundred pounds lighter, who was told all he could do was score, so he intentionally went on the floor and led in assists. Wilt was the greatest - period!  Please argue that he only has one ring, on a team sport even. Let me just ask, for arguments sake, how many rings Air Jordan won without Phil as coach or Scottie as teammate? As a two sport athlete Michael sucked at baseball, and Wilt went on in his older years to dominate at volleyball.

    Okay, I am done. Let's talk about the greatest of all time - at quarterback in the NFL. Montana is undefeated in five Super Bowls, while playing on arguably the greatest franchise of an era from every position. Some Tommy Terrific Ugglickers have created the five Super Bowl appearances with no special supporting cast - The number of All Pros Brady played with is Gulliverian compared to the number John Elway had as teammates.

    The Coaches Elway played for also makes his accomplishments even more Herculean, as his first Head Coach and he fought for years, with an Offense that was run the ball, control the clock, strong Defense to neutralize the opponent and then TWO MINUTE WARNING - Go for it John! Reeves was never able to get O-Linemen who were worth anything. Running backs were either broken old dudes or young guys who Reeves reportedly couldn't deal with. Wade Phillips was a Defensive genius, and the offense was a lot like playing in the back lot with the guys --- you go long, you do a 'button hook', and you run to the patch of leaves and then cut hard right --- finally after ten seasons where the world saw greatness get massacred in three Super Bowls, Shanahan was hired as his Head Coach. So John has been to five and won two, his numbers were not spectacular, since his contemporary Dan Marino was breaking every passing record for the Dolphins.

    He now runs those same Broncos, whom I admittedly have been fanatic about for close to 50 years. I believe the quarterback of the 2015 Broncos, goes by the name of Peyton, is right on the heels of G.O.A.T. (that's a shortcut for greatest of all time) - yet, the game has changed so much. Staubach was a brilliant leader and so incredibly athletic. Bradshaw had to throw to two HOF receivers or give it two a HOF back, with an O-Line of superior talent. Namath was amazing until his knees just didn't work anymore. These are men I saw play, and the game has changed so much in rule, and in innovation.  Brees, Wilson, or Luck could all be names argued years from now as G.O.A.T. ---

The Concept of Regret

When I was but a wee little lad, my parents taught me to walk, talk, obey, respect, laugh, and most importantly love. Their example and diligent instruction were the best foundation that my life could have been given. The love for God, each other, and their family is to this day the lighthouse beacon my ship of life follows when I have trouble finding the way. Now the puzzle isn't simple, as I have a totally unique personality and traits that neither parent could relate to, let alone understand. Which again proves that unconditional love, the Godly example of my parents love for me is honkin' awesome!

I sit at this computer, just a few weeks removed from a terrible dilemma and yet God has proven yet again His faithfulness and desire for my wife, myself, and my family to be okay is important. I'm not talking Joel Osteen successful, where we tell God we want prosperity and if we are faithful then we get it rom God, I'm talking about having a family, pleasing God by living in accordance with laws and statutes (even if, as a major example, your HOA is a thieving, money grubbing, location of Gehenna on earth, but that's a rabbit trail for another day!). There are definitely days when I don't measure up to any standards of right, but God is faithful, forgiving, and forever able to teach me and allow me to grow and learn to be more like Jesus every day of my life.

This is where I humbly tell you again how great my parents were, are, and will be as they live and  love us as examples of Christ. Ladies and Germs, I was an unbelievable pain in the posterior and yet these meek, shy, circumspect people raised me to be the best me I could be. I am both grateful and awed at their lives. How can I not give my all with a foundation as great as that? This life we have been given is a blink compared to eternity, so, giving 100% is what we are called to give.

 So what does this have to do with regret? Truthfully, everything - or absolutely nothing. In these moments of reflection I could write about World issues, Current Event topics, and give you my opinions based on either some factoid I've pulled out of the sky or a feeling I have toward something or someone in the news. Actually, I have written both of those ways recently --- I have also found a voice giving an ear to my past and the many things I wish I could change, people I would treat differently, etc., but today I am just thankful and so proud to be the son of Kaloma and Charles -

No regrets

Educated, or not ...

Education...

Whether formal, with classrooms, theses, and degrees, or life lessons given by numerous random happenings and folks - education is a daily, even hourly process. From birth, the human is absorbing information, at individual amounts - each one grasping new concepts depending on their own circumstances and genetic makeup. Some humans learn to talk first, some walk first, some learn to trust and be friendly to all, and some learn to build psychological walls to keep friends to a minimum.

The term, "uneducated" is, or should not be a useable term on it's own, for we all learn from day one to our final day, education happens for everyone. The term holds merit if you say, "That Person is uneducated in nuclear science." Or, "That Person seems uneducated in the nuances of sarcasm." No one ever should use the phrase "That Person is an uneducated jerk!" There are as many ways to learn as there are people on earth. A teacher is not always the possessor of knowledge, but the tool or instrument, if you will, to direct the human to unearthing the knowledge for themselves. The most interesting and useful parcel of information I have gleaned in my experiences and schooling is that even the dullest of formally educated  human beings possess vast knowledge in something - whether I am interested or able to understand their certain avenue of intelligence is irrelevant to their abilities.

One thing I have found is that change can not be mandated in people. Change can be introduced, but a bully must choose to think and act differently, they can not be made to stop. It has been proven over and over the prejudice is a learned behavior. For learning, the teacher is not a magician, mystically imparting knowledge into the cortex of those who sit and listen. Teacher's are conduits, giving life and energy to a subject, or concept, and presenting it in a way that the optimum amount of material can be gleaned and retained.

Let Me Be The Last . . .

   These days, massive amounts of ink, bytes, and energy are being used to tell us what is happening in our world. The problem is, as my little brain with it's tiny little frame-of-reference to world or local politics sees it is, ever since Woodward and Bernstein all journalists are trying to make news instead of reporting it. Can you imagine a world where 'spin' is not a political noun and ones leanings (Republican or Democrat) weren't the filters used to disseminate a story. Or, that filters of any kind would be unnecessary to read the news.

   No, this isn't about Mr. Williams , formerly of NBC, and his version of historical fiction, nor is it about our President and his fictional depiction of Christians and Muslims. The celebrity TV personality in my crosshairs today is Charles "That's tearabull" Barkley.

   Yes, you played basketball at the highest level. You overachieved being an undersized power forward that landed in the HOF. While you never stood atop Olympus like your buds Air Jordan, Magic, and Larry, you never fail to give your opinion on ANYTHING! Your diction and pronunciation are unique and generally 'tearabull', but you have a wit and an overachieving sense of humor. I won't make fun of your collegiate institution, because as a scholarshipped athlete the odds are that you didn't go to class anyway. Thank you for validating the analytics of basketball by denying their validity.
   The Rockets GM Daryl Morey tweeted out pure brilliance in less than 140 characters after Charles' opinion of analytics went out to millions on the TNT broadcast. Morey tweeted, "Best part of being at a TNT game live is it is easy to avoid Charles spewing misinformed biased vitriol disguised as entertainment" ---

   This man, this former NBA superstar is rich, popular, and not really as smart as he thinks he is. He can't beat the nerd with words, so he stoops to name calling, and bullying tactics - on national TV. Sadly, while many media participants are making news instead of reporting it, Americans are left in the dark. The public hears and believes. The majority will be lead and that isn't good for society.

Grace

I miss the days of my youth. Okay, some of the days - I can do without the whisper of memories - being stuffed in trash cans, crammed into school lockers, and openly mocked because I was tiny, unattractive, and good natured.

The theme is funny - looking, ha ha speaking, mostly - the conversation is about an embarrassment of blessings even though I am vastly ineligible. Let's discuss. Have you ever had something in your head that was exploding to get out, and yet was as absent as the Sun at midnight? The person who knows what is best for you, for everyone, in fact, and just purports opinions. I used to be that guy!

Experience has taught me that I know less than the next person - well maybe not less, but not any more. So the elephant in the room (on this paper) is screaming, "Why are you writing then, if you don't have superior intelligence, or an overwhelming experience?" The answer is simple. I need to express myself.

Expression comes to some in oratory, others in music, and many other facets of life. I can talk until your ears bleed, but I rarely get to a point. In my writing I can edit, rewrite, erase, and even use visual aids to get a point across. Am I assuming that I am a better writer than speaker? The answer is no - resoundingly! I just have the ability to be better, but that doesn't make it so.

There are people with which I wish I could hang out, or sit and talk to, or just follow around for laughs. I saw this story on Pinterest - click the link now, then come back and finish - I'll wait.
The story of Shane is a humorous reality - an example of how people love life.

My God made me to live and commune with Him here on earth. He gave me this twisted sense of humor. He has also shaped my growth as a man who truly loves to worship and celebrate being His follower. I have weaknesses, or failings, and miraculously through my booboos He can be glorified, exalted, and seen for the Great and Awesome God He is.

When Paul says he put childish things away when he became a man in I Corinthians 13, I see what he means now more clearly. We learn, grow, and thrive as children - and then we learn that things like blurting out conversations in private are not wise, or that if we don't pick up our toys they get lost or broken. We learn to fix our meals to keep hunger at bay, and we gravitate to people that make us feel love and comfort.

Paul told the Roman church to build up the weaker and Praise God  - and the Bible is to teach us -  Rom 15. 1-4. It is this example of building up my friends and family that I write to you - be glad, be active, and be involved. God loves you and wants you to talk with Him

Thankfulness

Humanity - what a cop out, an easy excuse. This is very hard, to see perfection all around and know that I fall as short as Eddie Gaedel (shortest ballplayer ever) in EVERY category. I see suffering and so much bleakness all around me - just to watch the TV commercials and see cancer, crime, the economy, and all other forms of evil resolutely ingrained into our thoughts - I am thankful that the Light in my Life shines regardless of my understanding or commitment at the time.

I can take the time to write, but never fully encompass all that I am thankful for in this blog, and it will take me a few days. This is my list, with a small explanation in accompaniment.

I am most thankful for Jesus, God's only Son, who gave me the supreme example of love by dying for me. Only because of Him can I have the hope of Heaven for eternity. I rejoice today and every day for the gift of Faith, Hope, and Love from the Lord. When I screw it all up, I am thankful for His promise to never stop loving me.

I daily Thank God for my best friend, my help-mate, my wife Pam. Her exploits of patience and Love are legendary at the Huntley Home. The short response is to say she is amazing, and I am so blessed to be with her. It is a fact that many have written me off, given me the gate, yet she still loves me and most days I can't see why.

My seven children - Jessica, Andrew, Laura, Bradley, Charles J., Douglas, and Karyl - every day I grow more proud of the adults they are, their feats and failures. and their growth as humans. They teach me almost every day and are always helping mew shape who I am.

   Jessica, how you have grown and made a beautiful family. I thank God for you often.
   Andrew, for your wisdom and strong character I thank God - you make me extremely proud to know you and your sweet family.
   Laura, God truly blessed my life with your family and the joy of watching you grow to be such a stable and beautiful woman, mom, and wife.
   Bradley, I thank God for your gentle servant-spirit --- you are an amazingly successful man and I am proud of you.
   C.J., I am sorry I screwed you up with a broken home, but am so thankful God has saved you from your heart problems for great things.
   Douglas, you are still young and I praise God for your attitude and strength of character. What a fantastic young man you are.
   Karyl, my baby, my miracle - in you I see so much of your mother, but the DNA attached to me often overwhelms us - you are a beautiful young lady who continues to grow in love and knowledge of your parents and your older siblings, carving a path of greatness.

I am so thankful for parents who have shown me that learning, growing, and trying to be better people is a lifetime responsibility. They raised me to be the Christian man I am. Still today as an older man I am vastly dependent on their wisdom, experience, and God-following character. When I grow up I do want to be like them, as they labor to be like Christ.

As parents go, I am also thankful for Pam's parents. They love completely and unconditionally, even though I am grafted into their family through marriage, they truly show love in that they did not choose me - they were stuck with me.

I thank God every day for the gifts He has given me - for beautiful sunshiny days I can be out umpiring baseball or even when I was coaching. Thank You Lord for the ability to talk to folks, any folks and make friends.

I am thankful for a family; aunts, uncles, cousins too numerous to name individually yet as a collective they have taught me, supported me, and even rebuked me to make me the man I am.

For friends who tolerate my silliness, my immaturity, and all my goofiness and yet still want to hang out and talk with me.

I am so very thankful for the mistakes I've made, the lessons I've learned. I need only think of the 'what ifs' to know that resentment and bitterness are not helpful. Things could be much, much worse, shining a beacon as evidence of God's providence in my steps even though I traveled the wrong path often.

The thankfulness in my heart is also extends to the opportunity for multiple chances. As I said in the beginning, I feel like I fail so often and see others walk through life without consequence. That is how I feel, even though my brain knows that is false. Maybe my next choice will succeed. I look back and see God's success in many of my choices.