Songs I Have to Hear Every Year

Confession:  I started this blog back in January of this year and have been looking forward to writing about my favorite Christmas music since then.  

At the time I was under the impression that I absolutely loved most Christmas music and looked forward to sharing some of it with my faithful readers (all five of them).

But I realized something this year.  I don't love much Christmas music at all.  In fact, I have narrowed it down to a few albums and songs that I find myself listening to repeatedly.  So when I was thinking about what my favorite Christmas songs are, it was a much easier job than I thought it would be.  I just thought about the songs I HAVE to hear each year, and the list ended up being about 25 songs.  Appropriate - I know.

So here they are - from least to greatest.  Enjoy them - discover them - play them again and again.  But most of all have a Merry Christmas.  Because that is what I am about to be doin' right now.

25. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Relient K

24. Joseph's Lullaby - Mercy Me

23. I Saw Three Ships - Robert Shaw

22. Drummer Boy - Mercy Me

21. White Christmas Makes Me Blue - Randy Travis

20. Merry Christmas, Here's to Many More - Relient K

19. Ludacrismas - Ludacris

18. Meet Me Under the Mistletoe - Randy Travis

17. Santa Claus is Thumbin' to Town - Relient K

16. The Night Before Christmas - Amy Grant

15. Christmas in Killarney - Bing Crosby

14. We Wish You a Merry Christmas - Relient K

13. Here Comes Santa Claus - The Mills Brothers

12. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays - N Sync

11. Please Daddy Don't Get Drunk This Christmas - Alan Jackson

10. In Like a Lion (Always Winter) - Relient K

9. Jingle Bells - Bing Crosby

8. Silent Night - Mercy Me

7. This Christmas - Chris Brown

6. Pretty Paper - Randy Travis

5. If You Don't Wanna See Santa Claus Cry - Alan Jackson

4. In the Bleak Midwinter - Robert Shaw

3. White Christmas - Bing Crosby

2. I Celebrate the Day - Relient K

1. I Heard the Bells - Mercy Me

Christmas at the Pub

I love beer.  My friends and I get together every other Monday at a pub called Rare Olde Times to talk about our lives and the directions they are heading in, and that is always accompanied by a Smithwicks or two.  I love fall and winter because Sam Adams releases their seasonal brews, and nothing beats drinking an Old Fezziwig while watching a Muppet Christmas Carol.  I love bitter beer and I love coffee beer.  I love pretty much anything but light beer.

Because light beer pretty much sucks.

I also love choral Christmas music.  Few things are more satisfying than popping in a CD of four-part carols and trying to hear and sing along with the bass part.  Gimme that.

The reason I mention both of these loves is that in my mind they intersect in a very wonderful place.  I find many of the carols that I listen to have a very lively rhythm to them - and that is to be expected as so many of them are proclaiming good news or chronicling stories of Christmas feasts enjoyed in the past.  I find myself swinging my arm while I am driving - because in my mind that is not only enjoyable but required.

And I realized last year that my incessant arm swinging is with good reason - these are pubs tunes.  Every time I hear them I imagine myself sitting in a pub somewhere in Surrey, England singing along and swinging my mug in the air.  So when I say these are some of favorite carols, it is solely based on their "beer-swingability". 

Now grab a mug, click the link and swing away as each song beckons you do so in a way only the Robert Shaw arrangements can do.  What else are you doin' right now?

 

Pub Tunes

1. I Saw Three Ships

2. The Boar's Head Carol

3. Wassail Song

4. Masters in this Hall

5. Fum Fum Fum

The World Can't Have Me

I listen to Christian hip-hop all the time.  Even during the Christmas season - much to the annoyance of my wife.  I am still amazed that everyday it seems like I am hearing a song for the first time - even if I have heard it a hundred.  Lines will pop out at me that for some reason I would rap (because yes, I rap along to every song I know the words to) but not actually think about.  It makes me happy.  

That deep down just got twenty two nuggets in your twenty piece happy.  Don't play like that isn't amazing.

So because I have a blog I feel like I wanted to share a song that did that today.  Even Surrey was noddin' her head when we were listening to it.

The song is called "In His Image" and the chorus goes something like this:

Oh, the world can't have me

Say I'm actin' different - I'm just lookin' like my Daddy

I'm made in His image, made in His image, made in His image

Made in His image - I'm livin' like that

It was written by Andy Mineo and PRo - two of the rappers I listen to.  The line that really hit me today was one that PRo said:

"Used to hustle to be on top 'til I finally realized Someone died for that spot"

Pretty simple.  But I find myself wondering - have I actually stopped hustlin' for that spot?  I mean really stopped and said to Christ - it's Yours.  It was to begin with - it is even more so considering the measures You took - and I am done trying to occupy a spot that I am not even close to reaching anyway.  

I'm such a pathetic dude.  I mean scum of the Earth pathetic.  But Christ is good.  Good by true definition - no need for the word better.  And through my pathetic and feeble attempts to occupy that number one spot, Christ has consistently and gracefully and justly reminded me it was never mine to occupy.

I'm made in His image - not cloned.  

So yes I shine His light as much as I can and yes I hustle hard - but that hustlin' I do is to show Christ to a world that can only be changed by one thing - Christ.

So please watch this.  Watch it twice if you aren't used to listening to hip-hop because the words are what makes this song amazing.  I promise you won't regret it.  I mean really - what else are you doin' right now?

The Son Came Out at Night

I write poetry - and it sounds like rap.  I started doing this while I was at Penn State, and for a couple of years now I have been doing it off and on in different ways and with different people - but I have finally come to that conclusion.  

I write poetry and it sounds like rap.

But it's not rap - not in the sense that most people (especially people who do not consistently listen to rap) would characterize it.  It does have a rhythm and a rhyme scheme, but it is not normally a 16 bar, hook, 16 bar, hook, bridge, shout out to the homies type of thing.

It's more like slam poetry.  And I am COMPLETELY okay with that.

So I thought I would blog one of my poems that I recently wrote and performed at our church for a couple of reasons.  First, it is about Christmas and Christmas is like three days away.  Second, I feel like this blog is where I spell out "ME" and so it makes sense that I would post something that is what I have now come to believe is very much that.  

The Son Came Out at Night

For my eyes have seen your salvation

Which you have prepared in the sight of all nations

Light for revelation

That's Luke 2: 30-32 homie go check the citation

In the sight of all the nations He came to rule us

The sickly patients

And heal the broken situation in which we existed

But don't get it twisted

Even before this entrance He still held us up

You could say He was double fistin'

But this - this is

Where He made us like no ohms

Because He eliminated the resistance

Caused by our sin sickness

In the form of an infant

I don't believe in coincidence

So when I think of how He showed up it's no surprise the setting was intimate

And yet the world seemed disinterested

In the form of an inn with no emptiness

No vacancy

But amazingly - so unexpectedly

His arrival was almost missed in an otherwise hectic scene

Expected a King - but this interpretation seems loose

Because the Savior Israel wanted to come on a horse came in the form of somethin' more like a papoose

Redefinition

If they only knew

That the sun (Son) that came out that night would shine a light so bright and so true

That death couldn't hold Him captive

He obliterated that vice

So we waste time idolizing people who only live once because Jesus Christ is livin' twice

So as we stand amongst the darkness

And stare at the stars in the sky

Let the Son of the Most High

Be the one upon which we fix our eyes

Where I Have Been

Trying to take care of this amazing little girl.  Pretty much no time to do anything else.

Surrey Gray Link

 I mean really, what else would I want to be doin' right now?

Got My Unashamed Tatt and My Cross on My Back

In the morning I set two alarms on my phone - both the same ringtone.  Brianna has commented a few times about how abrasive it is but for me it is necessary.  It's the beginning of a song from Lecrae's album Rehab called "New Shalom".  

"I wake up - before I throw a beater on - fall to my knees, thank the Lord for that new shalom"

Maybe I'm a mediocre Christian because I don't always fall to my knees, but that song is amazing to wake up to because of the way it reminds me to think on and about God.  I get a shower and I pray about my day.  I think about how I can do God's work that day at school and how I can honor and care for my very pregnant wife.  

I love how well it was put - "before I throw a beater on".  He didn't say t-shirt or polo.  He said beater - a part of his outfit that no one would ever see.  So he is saying that even before he puts on the basics that no one would even know about he takes time to thank God for the peace that He has blessed him with.

I love waking up that way.  I love listening to gospel hip-hop on my way to school.  I find myself being blown away day after day by some of the biblical truths interwoven into this music.  I reference what I hear all the time - to Christians and non-Christians.  I listen to it in my trailer during my planning period and before and after school.  

It makes me want to read scripture.  It makes my heart leap when I read something in scripture that I heard in a song and just never realized was biblical.  

And yet I still don't read my Bible consistently.  I do pray for my wife, but my attempts to be a good husband fall short in so many cases.  I often fail to share the gospel at key opportunities because I am scared or nervous about how a student or teacher will react.  I am so worried about whether or not I will be able to be a good father, and I have such a weak character when it comes to enduring difficult situations.

But this summer, after going to the Dominican and seeing God's beauty and majesty in a different part of the world, I was reminded of all that He has done in my life despite the epic failures I have been a part of and responsible for.  I don't have a hope without the grace of the Lord, and as I was listening to the music of the 116 Clique it became clearer than ever that God has a completely wonderful plan for my life - one that is meant to honor Him and all He has done.   

So I made a decision to get a tattoo.  I had at that point been considering getting one for a while, but the final push came from reading Romans 1:16.  I had read it before, but for some reason it struck me in a deeper way.  

 ¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

I feel so much shame for so many of the things I have done in my life but the reality is that God in His infinite grace forgave all my misdoings - past, present and future.  And so when I think on who He is and what He has done despite who I am I find myself completely overcome by His love.  


I should be ashamed of the things I have done to dishonor God, but this verse reminds me that there is something I can be unashamed of - who God is and what He has done.  


So I got the 116 Clique's logo tattooed on my left bicep for a couple of reasons.  I got it because my body is a temple - and the temple is where the Jews went to praise God and be close to Him - to honor Him.  I believe my tattoo is a way that my "temple" is made more honoring to God and will be that until they throw me in a box and bury me.  I got it because of the verse it represents (Romans 1:16), and I got it because of the opportunities it will present for me to talk about the God who hung the moon and the stars up.  


I have already had the opportunity to tell people about what I believe and why I believe it.  I can't wait to continue doing that.  I mean really, what else am I doin' right now?

Why I Hate The Pittsburgh Steelers

If you know me even a little and we have talked even a moment about sports, then I think it is a safe bet that you have heard me reference how much I hate the Pittsburgh Steelers.  But for those of you that have not had the pleasure of uttering Pittsburgh in my presence...this post should hopefully enlighten you to some of the reasons I loathe and despise everything that has to do with black and gold.

(Note: Each Pittsburgh Steelers reference will contain a link to something I think is better than the Pittsburgh Steelers - because that is how much I hate them.  Enjoy.)

I loved book fairs in elementary school.  I always bought posters at the book fair - because I hated reading - and I remember the year that I bought a Marshall Faulk poster.  It was 1994 - his rookie year.  I had until that point been a Redskins fan - by default I would say - but I decided with the purchase of this poster that I would be a Colts fan. 

Steps for Becoming a Fan of a Team:

1. Have a reason.  (check: Marshall Faulk)

2. Figure out who else is on the team.  Start with the quarterback if he wasn't the initial reason.

Enter Jim Harbaugh. 

1994 was nothing to brag about for Harbaugh.  He only started 9 of the 16 games, and threw 9 touchdowns and 6 interceptions in that time.

And then the 1995 season came along. 

If you look at the Colts record that year (9-7), it would be a fair assumption that if they did in fact make the playoffs they were a Wild Card team and probably had no chance at even winning the first game.

In actuality, they were the 5th seed.  The 4th, 5th AND 6th seeds were 9-7 that year. 

In addition the Colts' losses were, with the exception of one, all by six points or less.  They were riding the legs of Marshall Faulk and the determination and fourth quarter performances of the eventual Comeback Player of the Year winner Jim Harbaugh.  It was the most exciting season of football I have ever watched.

They had to win the last game of the season to make the playoffs.  They did - by three.  Then, they had to face a team they had already lost to that season.  And proceeded to win by 15.  Being the fifth seed meant they would next have to face the team with the best record in football that year - the Kansas City Chiefs.

So you know this was a long time ago.

The Colts won that game on a late field goal and so were headed to the AFC Championship Game to face none other than the Pittsburgh Steelers.

It was the fourth quarter.  The Colts were down 20-16, and they were driving down the field to win the game.  It came down to the last play of the game - a Hail Mary into the endzone.  Harbaugh threw the ball in the air - like he had done so many times before that season - and I saw Aaron Bailey catch it.

The Worst Moment in My Sports Life

And then I saw him drop it.

And then I couldn't see much more through the tears in my eyes.  I sobbed because we had lost a game I knew we should have won.  I was angry because it was CLEARLY pass interference and he had STILL almost made the catch, but couldn't hold on.  I cried because they didn't call it, and I cried because I was a 9 year old kid who had loved a team and it's quarterback more than I had loved almost everything else up until that point in my life.

So my hatred of Pittsburgh began.  The Colts lost to the Steelers by 28 points in the playoffs the next year, and eventually drafted some punk out of Tennessee to replace Harbaugh.  Guy by the name of Peyton Manning.

And so my love for the Colts dwindled as the true reason I had loved them left, and my hatred for the Steelers was born as they stole our season on a bad call and proceeded to blindfold Neil McDonnell for the Super Bowl - wasting that stolen opportunity.  The Colts would have won it all - there is no doubt in my mind.  Harbaugh finished second in the MVP voting that year, and I have never enjoyed watching someone play the game of football as much as I enjoyed him.

Fast forward to Penn State.  I had gone on to follow the Eagles for a bit - because I enjoyed watching Donovan McNabb for some clearly unknown reason - and Penn State seemed to be a wonderful place to continue that.  The Eagles had no rivalry with the Steelers  so I didn't see any problem coexisting with those fans and cheering for my team.  Until I became friends with some Steelers fans.  And lived with one.  

Because I realized how incredibly obnoxious those stupid towels are.  And how incredibly frustrating it is to hear someone reference 4 Super Bowl wins that happened AT LEAST 20 YEARS before they were born.  I don't care what happened in the 1970's.  It has no bearing on your team now.  And our teams don't have a rivalry - so please stop asking me the ridiculous question, "Wait, how many Super Bowl wins does YOUR team have?"

BECAUSE IT DOESN'T MATTER!  When I make the comment that my team will be good this year, the response that I am looking for is, "Yeah?  We probably will be good too.  Maybe we will play in the Super Bowl."  Then you can ask me the question about Super Bowl wins.  Because if you beat us in that game, it matters.  Otherwise it has NO BEARING ON ANYTHING because there is no bad blood between our teams in any other location but the middle of an otherwise deserted area of Pennsylvania - State College.

So why do I hate Pittsburgh?  Because for four years I was convinced that I SHOULD hate Pittsburgh.  Well now I do - and I don't feel bad about it.  Nothing would please me more than to watch that stadium burn to the ground.  I would rather PAY to watch a WNBA game than BE PAID to watch the Steelers play.  I would rather stick my hand in a working piston and listen to each one of my fingers break than wrap my hand around one of those insidious towels.  Because this hatred has grown to such an extreme, I have found only three reasons why the city of Pittsburgh is worth keeping.  And trust me, one bad experience would certainly shift my feelings in the wrong direction.  They are as follows:

1.  Primanti Brothers

2.  PNC Park

3.  Brett Kiesel's beard

The third of those reasons is clearly conditional, as I believe he is currently regrowing said beard.  So there are really only two reasons that make me have even a speck of respect for anything the city of Pittsburgh does.  My brother in law Cameron said it best:  The state of Pennsylvania should do what Virginia did and cut off the crappy part of it - leaving Pennsylvania and West Pennsylvania.

I could not agree more.  I hate Pittsburgh, and I will until they bury me six feet under the ground.  What else am I doin' right now?

The World Series, Game 1

So a couple of things are going to happen right now.  I am going to reveal another one of my favorite things, and I am going to do so by addressing a question that caused a LOT of controversy during my recent family vacation.

First of all, I love the Phillies.  If baseball was the only sport that happened during the year and all of the other sports fell off the map I would feel no remorse.  That's how much I love the Phillies - enough that it overrides the need for any other sports to exist.  My classroom is not decorated with student work - it's decorated with Phillies photos and memorabilia.  That's how much I love the Phillies - enough to warrant displaying it in my classroom INSTEAD OF anything related to the subject I teach.

So if you understand how much I love the Phillies, then you now have an idea of how much my brother loves the Braves.

Let's just say that the love we have for our respective teams has polarized my family.  Except it's really more like a Phillie massacre.  Because everyone but my wife and I loves the Braves.  So whenever we get together the topic of whose team is better comes up.

This particular vacation was no different.  It came up, but I feel like both parties handled it very well.  Until my brother and I were talking on the beach with our cousin Sumter.  I don't remember how the question came up, but we were talking about how the Braves have good pitching this year.  So someone asked - probably me - who the Braves should start in game one of the World Series.

So obviously this was hypothetical and highly imaginary.  Because there is no way they make it there this year.

But if the situation were to come to fruition, both my brother AND Sumter said they would start Derek Lowe.  No question.  Because of his experience in the playoffs.  So I immediately asked - because it is a logical question - why they wouldn't start Tim Hudson.  Or Jair Jurrjens.  Or ANYONE BETTER than Derek Lowe.

Their response - experience matters more in the playoffs.  Cut and dry.

Their argument is that in a situation where you must win a game you would start someone who has more experience in the playoffs over someone who has more talent.  So I then asked them what I thought was a great example of a counter to his argument.

You are the Giants and you have a choice between Barry Zito and Tim Lincecum.  Barry Zito is 4-3 in the playoffs with a 3.25 era.  His starts came in the same time frame as Derek Lowe's starts, so it is a fair comparison.  Tim Lincecum is 15 years old - he just started shaving - so he has no playoff experience.  Do you start Barry Zito because of his experience?

Their answer was no - as was the Giants answer last year when Tim Lincecum was amazing in the World Series.  I felt like this was a pretty solid counter argument, and I explained that I feel like you should start your best pitcher in the toughest situations - therefore I would start Hudson over Lowe and Lincecum over Zito.

To me, experience is certainly important, but when you compare Lowe's numbers to Hudson's numbers in the playoffs, I don't feel like Lowe's numbers "wow" me enough to start him over someone who has very similar numbers yet has an ERA that is 0.40 lower over his career and a win percentage that is ten points higher.  Neither has a winning record in the playoffs.  So when I look at the fact that Hudson has a winning record this season and an ERA that is almost 1.00 below Derek Lowe, I go with the person who is performing.  And that's Hudson. 

While I thought I presented a pretty good counter argument and explanation for my choice, they both still refused to acknowledge my reasoning as legitimate.  This led to a few other conversations about the topic and just a general disagreement about everything baseball for the rest of the trip.  But as we were disagreeing, I thought about who we (the Phillies) should start in Game 1 of the World Series. 

If I take the stance of experience in the playoffs the pitcher that should start is Cole Hamels.  He has more playoff experience than both Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay AND has won a World Series. 

If I take the stance of overall experience including post season, we should pitch Cliff Lee who is 7-2 in the playoffs, has pitched in the last two World Series and has much more experience pitching during the regular season than Cole Hamels.

But as I said, I put my best pitcher on the mound.  So without a doubt I start Roy Halladay - arguably the best pitcher in baseball right now.  His first time in the playoffs was last year.  He threw a no-hitter in his first game.  

A no-hitter.

Like, he only walked one person on a questionable call (in my opinion) and faced 28 batters in his first game EVER in the playoffs.

Roy Halladay starts because Roy Halladay is our best pitcher.  Call me crazy, but the Phillies (and every other team in professional sports) pay these players too much money to worry about who is going to need a tissue in tough situations.  Pitch according to your ability when I need you to or have a seat.

Now I am going to go enjoy the rest of our season with Hunter Pence on our team.  And when we get to the World Series I am going to giggle like a school girl when Halladay starts Game 1 and Game 2 because he is that good.  If you need to find me, that's what I will be doin' right now.

The Dominican

First of all, I feel like that would be - and has probably already been used as - a great movie title.  Secondly, I must apologize to my readers for not updating the blog sooner about one of the best experiences I have ever had.  I went down to the Dominican Republic with our church to do some missions work in the town of Hato Mayor.  Our goal was to accomplish two things: build a church in one of the communities that Shalom (my church's partner church) has been working to help and witness to the many children running around the community while we were building.

My hope with this post is to just share a little bit of what was amazing about my trip through pictures of some of the people and stories about what I experienced.  The best way I can think to do that is by talking about three things:  the people I worked with, the things that I witnessed and the lessons I learned.

The People I Worked With

I was on the trip with 19 other people.  There were people who ranged in age from 14 to 44.  At first I thought that might create some awkward cliques as the trip went on, but I could not have been more wrong.  It became clear that each one of the people on the trip had gone to the Dominican with the purpose of growing closer to God, and as He often does I feel like God displayed His glory through the relationships we formed with each other during the week.  I got the opportunity to talk with some of the high school boys about struggles they have had living a Christian life in such a secular school environment.  I had the opportunity to form friendships with people my own age, and to learn from those who have had children and have lived more life than I have.  It was amazing.

The people I spent the week with.

We also met and worked with some of the most dedicated people I have ever known.  We had two "translators", Lionel and Mario.  The reason I put translators in quotes is because when I think translator I think someone who speaks both their native language and the translated language fluently.  Let's just say communicating didn't go as smoothly this week as I would have hoped.  But aside from that, these two men were such amazing brothers in Christ.  When we met them initially they both seemed shy, but as the week went on I saw them worship and praise God so passionately both during church services and through the work they helped us do that my view of who they were was totally changed.  It filled me with such joy to know that we were spending time with brothers of the faith who worship the same God that we do even if they don't really speak the same language that we do.

Lionel on the left, Mario on the right.

We also met one of the most intimidating men I have ever seen.  Not intimidating in the usual sense, but moreso intimidating based on things he did throughout the week.  Like hammer a 3 inch nail into the structure with one swing.  His name was Woscar, and in case you are wondering that translates into English as: Woscar.  He was the right-hand man of Pastor Carlos, and pretty much didn't talk to anyone.  But if he did talk to you, you listened.  And immediately asked someone to translate in case he asked you to do something.  

Woscar guarding the bus.

We also had the opportunity to work with a couple of pastors from the churches associated with Shalom.  Pastor Cruz and Pastor Rudolfo would probably have been considered our project managers when it came to the church.  Rudolfo spoke through the work that he did, and Cruz spoke through a loud and joking demeanor.  Rudolfo would point and often speak in one word commands whereas Cruz would joke with the people around him, laugh at us and then tell us what to do.  Neither of them spoke English - but neither of them really had to.  Their work and personalities spoke for themselves.

Carlos on the left, Cruz in the middle and Rudolfo on the right.

Last but not least, pictured on the left, was the head pastor of Shalom, Pastor Carlos.  I cannot say enough about the work he is doing down in the Dominican.  He has such an outstanding relationship with the community - given what he does for a living - and has such a heart for the people of Hato Mayor and the communities surrounding it.  He took us to see so many different areas that Shalom has been able to reach out to and explained why certain things were handled the way that they were.  He is a big man - he is tall and has a very strong presence.  He was driving us home one night on the bus and someone on the street hit the bus as it went by.  He immediately stopped it, got out, and walked up to the person to see what the problem was.  He didn't lose his temper, but I am sure if he had the person would have soiled themselves.  

The Things that I Witnessed

When I wasn't helping to build the church, I spent my time with the kids who were all around us.  I got to give some of them piggyback rides.  I got to twirl some of them around and around and then just let go.  I got to play baseball in the Dominican.  

In a field.

With cows right beside me.

And their feces right beside that.

Playing baseball with people that don't speak English.  Making a catch in the outfield.  Beside a cow.  Whaaaat?

We also played a little soccer, as you can see.  Soccer and baseball - two sports the rest of the world plays.  AWESOME!

I got to see people worshipping the same God that I do in a completely different language and in a very different way than I normally would.  We went to church on Sunday and heard Pastor Carlos preach, and on Tuesday I went to a church in Guayabal.  I also got to share my testimony on Tuesday.

Me with my ridiculous beard sharing my testimony.

The church we went to on Sunday.

Something else I witnessed: some of the best fried chicken I have ever had.  From a place that also sold Chinese food.  In the Dominican Republic.  You serious Clark?

Chinese in the Dominican.

I saw kids chasing our bus.  Like in a movie.  Because they genuinely enjoyed us.  So cool.

Seriously the coolest thing ever.

The Lessons I Learned

1. Kids are kids everywhere.  Just look at some of these pictures.  I loved getting to know some of them even in the short time we spent together.  These kids were so excited to see us everyday.  It made me so much MORE excited to be having a daughter.  It's gonna be awesome.

2. My beard was so ridiculous that I could fit 78 toothpicks into it without any of them falling out.  And look tribal while doing it.  Weird.

78 toothpicks. Say whaaat?

3. When you get people together and they get on a plane to the Dominican Republic with the intention of doing God's work, His work is done quickly and beautifully.  Look at this church!!  

4. People all over the world worship the same God that we do.  It was so amazing to SEE that - to spend time with those people and worship Him at the same time.  What a glorious God! 

I know I have been long winded and have included a ridiculous amount of pictures, but this trip was amazing and I feel like you need to see what I saw in order to appreciate what I say all the more.  There is still work to be done though, so you should go too.  I would go with you!  Seriously, what else are you doin' right now?

Movies, The Final Installment: Amazing Cinema

As these posts come to a close, I find myself having less to say about the movies I am recommending to the general public.  It would seem logical that this post would be the most involved as it will reference some of the most amazing cinema I have ever witnessed, but I am at a loss for words.  I feel like these movies speak for themselves.

So technically they should have already told you about themselves? 

Anyway, I have cited in other posts that I don't expose myself to that which will make me feel the need to take a shower later.  If taken too far, that argument could be used to justify forgoing movies like Finding Nemo or The Lion King because of the topics those movies touch on.  People have different levels of tolerance for movies and what they will and won't expose themselves to.  I feel with some cinema there comes a point when there is not enough positive take away to overcome the negativity being sprayed in my grill.  But I acknowledge that I am a conservative dude, so to each their own.

So as I reveal these amazing movies, I will split them into three lists:  movies that don't cross the line and are amazing, movies that are too much for me but are really freakin' good, and movies that I love but are probably not that good.

Amazing Movies That Don't Cross the Line:

1.  The Dark Knight - I saw this movie FOUR TIMES in theatres.  FOUR TIMES!!  I probably gave a solid $80 to $100 dollars to the benefit of this film via ticket and concession expenses.  Someone had to help pay Heath Ledger's child support...

2.  Invincible - I love Philadelphia, but I know that not everyone else does.  I can't for the life of me figure out why, but I promise after watching this movie it will be a struggle to continue hating on the best city in the state of PA.

3.  Inception - Two reasons to watch this movie:  Leonardo DiCaprio.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

4.  The Prestige - This is the third movie I have mentioned that is directed by Christopher Nolan.  Perhaps he is the reason they are so phenomenal.  Either way, bring your thinking caps and your David Bowie wigs to this one.

5.  The Bourne Ultimatum - The Bourne series is amazing, so watch the first two movies and then watch this one.  And marvel at the amazing things Matt Damon does time and time again.

Amazing Movies That Fly Over the Line Like a Bat Out of Hell:

1.  The Departed - I distinctly remember being so shocked by what I was witnessing that I crawled up the back of my seat in the theatre hollering in disbelief.

2.  V for Vendetta - Who knew someone could make wearing a mask so cool...

3.  Gladiator - Russell Crowe beats people up off set.  Probably why he was so successful in this role.

4.  Good Will Hunting - Matt Damon and Ben Affleck WROTE it. 

Amazing Movies That Probably Aren't Actually That Good:

1.  Blue Streak

2.  You Got Served

3.  Fool's Gold

4.  Angels in the Outfield

Yeah right...they are freakin' amazing.

Watch these movies!  What ELSE are you doin' right now?