Christmas

No doubt we’ll hear more and more about the “war on Christmas” as the day approaches. I responded to this last year, and here’s a post by Diana Butler Bass over at God’s Politics blog about this year’s war on Christmas, although it’s from a different angle than usual.

Speaking of Christmas, Shaun Groves answers the age-old question of what to get the person who has everything. Good answer.

Also, Greg Taylor offers 10 tips for a simpler more meaningful Christmas.

Why God invented highlighters

I’m currently reading Shane Claiborne’s book The Irresistable Revolution. I hope to post about it soon, but I wanted to share a quote he included from Rich Mullins. I love Rich’s work and the example he left us. He came up with some great quotes from time to time and here’s one worth repeating:

You guys are all into that born again thing, which is great. We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, I can tell you that you just have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy too…[And he paused in the awkward silence.] But I guess that’s why God invented highlighters, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest.

I suspect that’s often true. I was reminded of a recent post by Scott Freeman in his series on non-violence, where he listed numerous passages from the gospels where Jesus speaks to non-violence. Some who commented (either on that post or others in the series) seemed to easily dismiss them, citing examples where violence was clearly (in their eyes) the only way to resolve the situation (i.e., the popular “intruder breaks into your home and attacks your family” argument.) Many others would feel the same way. I think we do this in many areas, non-violence and wealth being just two examples. “Yes, Jesus meant what he said…but only up to a point.” It makes for an easier Christianty if we can highlight the things that are easier to live out while ignoring the hard stuff. It’s easier to talk about the cross than to pick up our own. And I know because I want to use the highlighter, too.

Not-So-Wide World of Sports

Many things in the last week. First, obviously, was a disappointing loss by the Hogs to LSU. I thought they would pull that one out, but fell a little short. Too many big plays given up by the defense, and a lack of accurate passing seemed to be too much to overcome. Arkansas did score more points on LSU’s top-rated defense than anyone else has, plus they had 2 backs (McFadden and Jones, of course) with 100+ yards. No back this season had run for 100 yards on LSU. Now two have. In the end, the game was meaningless, except that it would’ve been great to be undefeated in the SEC. Next up is the game that really matters - Florida in the SEC championship. I think the Hogs are better than Florida. We’ll find out Saturday, though.

I watched the roundball Hogs three times during the holiday weekend. They had a shaky game with Southern Illinois, but pulled out an OT win and then a win over Marist, both in the Old Spice Classic in Orlando. Last night, they looked much better in the finals against West Virginia, eventually winning the game and the tournament. Sonny Weems appears to have the most potential on this team. I see him being a star in another month or so. Upcoming games with Missouri, Texas Tech and Texas should provide some good experience for a team that lost several key players from last season.

Duke lost it’s first game this season in the finals of the CBE Classic against Marquette last Tuesday. It was called an upset by ESPN, but that’s only due to the rankings at the time. Marquette is probably a better team right now than Duke. I complained about Notre Dame last week, but Duke is also gets the benefit of the doubt, too. They are not a top 10 team right now, but could very well be by season’s end. That remains to be seen. Nevertheless, it was a loss they’ll likely learn from, and with upcoming games against Indiana, Georgetown and Gonzaga, they too will be tested and get some good experience heading into conference play. And they’ll need it - the ACC will be very good this year.

Other stuff… USC hammered Notre Dame as expected. They’ll still end up in a BCS bowl despite not having beaten any decent teams this year. Best football games I saw this weekend (besides Arkansas-LSU, despite the loss) were Clemson-South Carolina and Georgia-Georgia Tech. Great games with a great finishes. Florida and Kansas played what apparently was a great game on Saturday night, although I didn’t see it. Last year, Florida played nobody until conference play, when they finally lost. They do have decent non-conference teams on their schedule this year, which could provide additional experience for an already great team. UNC also lost this week, to Gonzaga in the NIT in New York. Tyler Hansbrough was invisible during the game, which was highly unusual. I still believe they’ll be the best team when March rolls around, but sometimes having too much talent is a detriment, so I guess we’ll see.

Finally, a little humor from The Onion, focusing on Ohio State-Michigan, the Indianapolis Colts, and John Madden.