Re-Sign Holliday? Probably Not.

I stole this from Jayson Stark from espn.com, but it is something I've been saying to all my Cardinal fan friends about the possibility of signing Matt Holliday. Look at the part about the payroll after paying Holliday and then Pujols a few years from now.

Much as he clearly loves St. Louis, Matt Holliday continues to give the Cardinals no indication he's amenable to signing any discounted deals to stick around beyond this year. And if the Cardinals have to pay him free-agent-market dollars to hang onto him, let's sound the alarm right here: They might be putting the franchise in economic peril.

"The worst thing they could do is re-sign him," one American League exec said. "If you start thinking about their long-term payroll, what's the biggest payroll a city like St. Louis could absorb? Let's say it's $100 million. Now you have to give Holliday $15-16 million a year. Then you have to give Albert [Pujols] $25-30 million, and probably $30 million. So now you're paying two guys $45-50 million? That's a lot of money in that market.

"In 2010, it might not matter. In 2011, it might not matter. But when you get to 2014 and you've got half your payroll wrapped up in two 34-year-old guys, that's not a good place to be. … Those are the kinds of contracts you can't get out of."

Tying up Holliday at market dollars, and then re-signing Pujols, would almost assure the Cardinals of not being able to keep Chris Carpenter and/or Adam Wainwright when their next big paydays roll around. While it seemed so logical, at the time they traded for Holliday, to forecast that they'd swoop in and sign him, it's not so logical when you start punching in all those dollar signs.

Don't Like It? Buy It!

I've often seen people protest development on private land. I understand their concern and sympathize, but how can you tell someone else what they should do with their land? Can or even should you prevent the sale of private land to developers? What is an alternative solution? A group in southwest Columbia is facing this problem, and they are dealing with it by...buying the land themselves. I think this is what everybody should do if they don't like what a proposed sale of land is going to be used for.
See the details here: Columbia Tribune

Bible and Star Wars Nerds...Enjoy!

Saw this on a couple of Biblical Studies blogs today. If you love the Bible and you love Star Wars, you will love this. I promise.

Penultimate Posting on Tribes

Criticizing Hope Is Easy
Leadership comes when your hope and your optimism are matched with a concrete vision of the future and a way to get there. People won’t follow you if they don’t believe you can get to where you say you’re going.

Your tribe communicates. They probably don’t do it the way you would; they don’t do it as efficiently as you might like, but they communicate. The challenge for the leader is to help your tribe sing, whatever form that song takes.

Caring is the key emotion at the center of the tribe. Tribe members care what happens, to their goals and to one another.

The largest enemy of change and leadership isn’t a “no.” It’s a “not yet.” “Not yet” is the safest, easiest way to forestall change.

Change almost never fails because it’s too early. It almost always fails because it’s too late.

Simply Christian - Thoughts on the Holy Spirit (part 1)

God’s Breath of Life

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…

God doesn’t give people the Holy Spirit in order to let them enjoy the spiritual equivalent of a day at Disneyland.

God’s Spirit and God’s Future

One key element of living as a Christian is learning to live with the life, and by the rules, of God’s future world, even as we are continuing to live within the present one (which Paul calls “the present evil age” and Jesus calls “this corrupt and sinful generation”).

When Paul speaks of the Spirit as the “guarantee of our inheritance,’ he is evoking this whole exodus tradition, the story which began with Passover and ended with the Promised Land. He is saying, in effect, You are now the people of the true exodus. You are now on your way to your inheritance. That “inheritance” isn’t a disembodied heaven. The whole world is now God’s holy land.

What does it mean to say that this future has begun to arrive in the present? What Paul means is that those who follow Jesus…these people are given the Spirit as a foretasted of what the new world will be like.

God’s Spirit between Heaven and Earth

Those in whom the Spirit comes to live are God’s new Temple. They are, individually and corporately, places where heaven and earth meet.

Tribes on Evangelism?

This next excerpt from Tribes seems to run contrary to what we believe is our Great Commission Mandate to spread the gospel to everyone.

Convincing people to switch tribes rarely works. To switch sides is to admit we made a mistake. You’ll find more fertile ground among seekers, among people who desire the feeling they get when they’re part of a vibrant, growing tribe, but who are still looking for that feeling.
If you’re trying to persuade the tribe at work to switch from one strategy to the other, don’t start with the leader of the opposition. Begin instead with the passionate individuals who haven’t been embraced by other tribes yet. As you add more and more people like these, your option becomes safer and more powerful – then you’ll see the others join you.

I learned some of this truth in a recent trip to a heavily Muslim area. I got into a really good conversation about the difference between Christianity and Islam. I've had conversations with cultural Muslims (Muslim in name but not in practice) and there was some interest in listening to talk of Christ without blindly defending Islam. But in this latest trip, I was talking to some staunch defenders of Islam and there was no amount of argumentation or propositional truth that was going to sway them. They had been trained to debate Christians. They raised all kinds of debate to the veracity of the Christian Scriptures. (They were doing this while they were making arrangements to sell pot in a local park!)
I was told by a missionary to an Islamic nation that he had never seen a Muslim converted based on any kind of Islamic evangelism techniques. That shows that it is hard to convince people to switch tribes. Not to say that it is impossible, but revealing the love of Christ and being consistent in your lifestyle in front of those you wish to join your "movement" is much more effective than convincing people to switch to your tribe.

Rightly Handling the Word

We claim to be people of the book (conservative Southern Baptists that is). Yet, I don't feel that we put the necessary work in when it comes to teaching and preaching that book. I recently read two messages that failed to refer to the context in which the passage was written. There was no grammatical-historical work done on the text at all. I fear that it is all too common in my denomination. When we fail to take into account the context and purpose for which a text was written, then we can make the text mean whatever we want to make it mean. That, to me, was one of the biggest reasons for Forum 121. My hope is that it shows a generation of younger leaders (and older ones as well) that we Baptists in Missouri can be vigorous handlers of the Scriptures and that we can bring first century meaning to bear here in the 21st century.
If you want more information on the conference, go to this link: www.121forum.com

Sounds Like a Bit

But I don't think it is...
I am thankful that a young boy got adopted, but the circumstances surrounding the adoption seem unstable. An actor named Willie Garson (whoever that is), adopted an eight year old boy. Listen to his description of the adoption:

The actor has nearly finalised his official adoption of Nathan, who moved in with the star in February after they met at an adoption fair in Los Angeles.

Garson was determined to adopt a toddler but changed his mind after meeting young Nathan.

He recalls, "(The fairs are) held in secret locations. It's like a pet fair - as horrifying as you can imagine. It was really hard. The 16-year-old fat ugly kid, who has probably been to thirty of these, knows he's not going to get adopted. Like everything else, cute wins. I couldn't believe my kid was actually available for adoption. He's so cute and sweet. "

Mixed Emotions

A story was just leaked about MLB slugger and "I Am Second" poster boy Josh Hamilton. Photos of a night in January of drinking and other assorted activities leaked yesterday. He address the issue today here.
One, I can't imagine the temptation he feels while trying to stay clean in the circles that he works (professional athletics). It seems like he confessed this issue to the primary people in his life at the time (although his accountability partner initially said the pictures were doctored, see here). I can't imagine slipping up in my life and having my picture pasted all over the internet after (supposedly) one slip up.
But, it should make us pause before we lap up all of the celebrity "testimonies" that we as Christians can't wait to use in our various media campaigns and on the revival circuit.
Josh said it, he is human, he confessed his mistake. If his confession is genuine (and not the result of a media firestorm), then he should move forward and tighten up his accountability circle.
Even more interesting to me was Josh's description of how his addiction still grips him and how vigilant he must remain to stay clean. Also, I can't imagine how hurt his wife was when he originally called to tell her that he slipped up (in light of all of their history).

Is That Right?

I've have seen this several places recently, by people I respect, but I don't know if I agree. The statement is that idolatry is the root of all sin. Now I get nervous whenever anyone chooses to create such absolute statements like this. I don't know if I agree that idolatry is the root of all sin. I would think that selfishness is the root of all sin. To me, selfishness often leads to idolatry. I guess it really depends on how you define idolatry. I'm just not sure that idolatry is the root of all sin, but it sure seems like selfishness fits the description more. I don't know why we have to make such statements in the first place. Thoughts?

Why Walk Off?

I'd gotten so tired of every baseball game that ends with the home team taking the lead in the bottom of the ninth being referred to as a "walk off." I started thinking, "Why walk off"? Isn't every game a walk off? Either the home team wins by getting the away team out in the bottom of the ninth (and walk off the field), the home team wins by a home run or any run scored and the away team walks off the field (while the home team's player may actually be running to the plate to score the run), or the home team fails to win game in bottom of ninth and again the away team walks off the field (to hand shakes and high fives).
So I looked it up (thank you wikipedia. Seriously, who takes the time to post an entry to "Walk Off Home Run"?) It looks like the phrase came from Dennis Eckersley who called game ending home runs, "Walk off pieces", because the pitcher would "walk off" the mound with his head hung in shame. Now that makes sense.

I Think I Like This Guy

This is from Peter King's site. It is a record of Ed Reed of the Baltimore Ravens dealing with autograph seekers. I think I like him now. Ed's responses are in italics:
"Ed! Ed! Mr. Reed!"

"I'll get there. Don't worry. I'll get there."

"Thank you. Thank you."

"You're my favorite player on the team."

"Thank you."

"Ed, how's it feel to be a great player?"

"Pretty good! Thank you."

"Can I have one of your gloves?"

"No. I need them for the afternoon practice."

"How about your shirt? Can I have your shirt?"

"If I gave you my shirt what would I practice in?"

"Can I have one of your gloves? Please! Please!"

"No, I need 'em."

"Can I have anything?"

"You can have an autograph."

"Please keep signing, please please."

"Don't worry, I will. Just don't push."

"Can I have one of your gloves?"

"Don't ask him that! It's my question!''

"Eighty people have asked me for my gloves. I can't.''

"Take one to the house this year.''

"I'll try."

"My brother can't be here today. Can you sign his helmet?"

"Sure. You got one too? Give it to me, little man."

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

"Do you need your glove? Could I have a glove please?"

"Nope."

"Can I have your shirt then?"

"Can't have that either, but I'll sign for you."

"Can you sign my shirt?"

"Yes, sir. How's that?"

"Bet you get 12 interceptions this year."

"Nope. 13. I'll get 13."

"Mr. Reed you're my favorite player!"

"Thank you."

"How's the neck this year? Are you okay?"

"It's a little sore I'll be okay."

"You da man!"

"Thank you."

"Hey, can I have one of your gloves?"

"I can't give you my gloves. I need 'em today."

"Best safety ever! Better than Lott!"

"I guess I'll take that."

"Ed! Ed! Ed! Mr. Reed!"

"Don't worry, I'll get to you. Don't push."

"How'd you get so good?"

"Practice. Like doing math in school. You like math?"

"Hate math. I like science."

"Okay, science. The more you practice it, the more you study it, the better you get. That's like football."

"You're never going to leave us are you?"

"Never!"

"Good, we need you."

"I like those gloves. Can I have one of your gloves?"

"No."

"Mr. Reed! Mr. Reed! Can I touch your beard?"

"No. How do I know where your hands have been?"

"Ed! Ed! Right here! One more!"