I am going to come right out and say it...no clever introduction, no joke, not even an illustration to try and prove my point.........I am an awkward guy.
For some reason, the word "awkward" has always been associated with me. I really haven't thought about it very much, but it is true. Awkward and Charlie go together like Cookies and Cream, like Doug Funny and Patty Mayonnaise, like Kansas City professional sport teams and losing. There is no escaping that I'm awkward. I just got a sermon back from my expository preaching class and what do you know...the letters "A-W-K-W-A-R-D" written out on the front page about one of my main points. I really don't like being an awkward guy, but i guess i can't escape it!
Ever since I can remember, awkwardness has followed me wherever I went. I'm sure there are many stories from my early childhood about me being awkward, but I have a terrible memory.
In middle school I was dating a girl named Amy Cortez. She was in the 8th grade; I was in the 7th grade....enough said. I would probably consider Amy my first "real" girlfriend, not that I had a bunch of imaginary girlfriends running around, but she was the first girl I liked. My 5th grade girlfriend, Candace Pahmamie, was more like a friend. I think the reason I asked her to be my girlfriend was because my best friend liked her, so I did what was noble....I asked her to by my lady via a note with a "check-yes-or-no-box." Back to Amy, I had not previously had a "real" girlfriend, so that means I have never hugged a girlfriend...simple logic. One day when school had just let out, I was standing by her locker and we were planning what we were going to do that Friday night, so we finally agreed to go to the cornmaze with some of her friends. As she was leaving, she leaned in the for the hug. We embraced, and I gave her three pats on her back. Quickly she moved away from me exclaiming, "Am I your grandpa or something? Do you not know how to hug a girl?!" Embarrassed I shrugged and told her I would see her that night.
When it was coming close to the time Amy was going to pick me up to go to the cornmaze, I decided to go down the hill to my friend Alex's house. Luckily, Jonathan was at his house too. You see, Jonathan was and still is a ladies man. Actually, he is A lady man...he is married to a Godly woman named Kylee. But the reason I went down to Alex's house was to learn how to hug before the cornmaze which would inevitably end up with a good-night-hug. As I was walking back up to my house, I finally worked up the nerve to ask Jonathan how to hug a girl. By this time it was dark outside, and we were standing in the middle of the street. He told me how to hug a girl (which is still a mystery to this day for me), and finally he told me practice with him. We embraced and right in the middle of our hug, a car pulls up the road with its lights shining right on us. We both sprinted in opposite directions embarrassed that it might have been someone we knew. Unfortunately, I don't remember if I ever hugged Amy that night, but I do know that it was awkward learning how to hug in the middle of the street.
Another awkward moment in my life was about a year ago...remember there are many awkward moments in my life. I dated a girl for a while. It started in my high school years and it bled into my college years. Well, we both thought it would probably be for the best if we were no longer together. I was sitting in her car, and we just got done talking about the break-up. We decided to have one last hug. As I went in the for the hug, I let the loudest and stinkiest fart rip right in the middle of our hug. That....was awkward!
Seeing how these two stories of my awkwardness are both related to hugging, I think it is necessary to bring up my philosophy on the awkwardness of all hugging. Did you know that there are 5 different possible options when hugging a person. Your arms can be either on top, on the bottom, diagonal (2 ways), or a side hug. Besides this, you both have to decide what position each of your arms are going to be in. And you can't ask this question..you both have to basically read the other person's mind in order to execute a perfect hug. I don't know...this might not make sense to anybody else. Hugging is just an awkward process.
Well I don't know if i will ever be able to escape the awkwardness that is Charlie Landis. I really hope I do because I don't know many ladies out there looking for an awkward guy.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Redemp(adop)tion
I really haven't been writing much in my blog this semester...I'm not sure if it's because I don't have enough time to or if I don't really have anything to write about. Either way, my blog has been practically non-existent so I apologize!
This past weekend I went home for my church's annual golf tournament. My team consisted of a 70-year-old man (my step-grandfather), and two other 20-something-year-olds. When we finished our round of golf, our team was sitting at (-4). Basically, we were four strokes better than the average score of that golf course, and I was almost positive we were going win. Well, it ended up that the minister's team "won." He always seems to end up with the best players on his team......coincidence? I think not.
Besides play golf, I also had a chance to watch my little brother win his first football game of the season. For those of you who don't know me, I am always bragging about my brother, Sam. I practically live through him, but he is a really good guy and I love him to death! He is the starting middle linebacker for the school and is a beast on defense. He ended up with like 15 tackles, a forced fumble, and a sack! My parents and I watched the game together, and it was just great to spend time with my family. I love my family!!!
I just finished writing a sermon for my preaching class over a passage in Ephesians. In this passage, the Apostle Paul is talking about our Spiritual family. Ephesians 1:5 says, "In love He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will." A lot of people get all tangled up on the word predestined, but for this blog posts sake, I won't even begin a discussion on that. But the word that really jumped out at me was the term "adoption." When I was younger, I was never big on the whole adoption idea for a family. I told myself that I would have a family of all boys that had the same DNA as me cause thats how I roll. However, I totally realize how ignorant and stupid that sounds.
In light of Ephesians 1:5, Paul is writing to several churches in Asia Minor. In this area, and especially Ephesus, there was a custom among the people for families who did not want to keep their children. If a child was born to a family that was either unwanted or disabled or defected in someway, the parents could take the children outside of the city gates and leave them there to die. In Ephesus, the people would walk up the mountain right outside of the city and place these "defected" children in a certain spot (can be called the "Circle of Infants") where all these kinds of kids were to be left. The Ephesians knew where this spot was, and very often, people would go up to that spot on the mountain and "adopt" or take one of the children for themselves. Under Roman law, these adults were given full custody of the child. Unfortunately, more times than not, people would go up to pick up a girl to raise up so they could fill the brothels in Ephesus. Other times, infant boys were taken to be raised as slaves. Heck, why not? It was cheaper than paying for a slave. But there were those times, when a Godly person would choose a little kid who had been left and abandoned. These kids were "adopted" into their new loving family.
This is the exact same kind of adoption we find in Ephesians 1:5, "In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ." In the previous verse, Paul says that God, "chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless." The Greek word for "blameless" means to be without defect. God has chosen us who were defected to become blameless and holy! God has redeemed us from the so-called "circle of infants." Redemption is ours. We are God's adopted family. Because in the middle of redemption, you will find adoption.
This past weekend I went home for my church's annual golf tournament. My team consisted of a 70-year-old man (my step-grandfather), and two other 20-something-year-olds. When we finished our round of golf, our team was sitting at (-4). Basically, we were four strokes better than the average score of that golf course, and I was almost positive we were going win. Well, it ended up that the minister's team "won." He always seems to end up with the best players on his team......coincidence? I think not.
Besides play golf, I also had a chance to watch my little brother win his first football game of the season. For those of you who don't know me, I am always bragging about my brother, Sam. I practically live through him, but he is a really good guy and I love him to death! He is the starting middle linebacker for the school and is a beast on defense. He ended up with like 15 tackles, a forced fumble, and a sack! My parents and I watched the game together, and it was just great to spend time with my family. I love my family!!!
I just finished writing a sermon for my preaching class over a passage in Ephesians. In this passage, the Apostle Paul is talking about our Spiritual family. Ephesians 1:5 says, "In love He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will." A lot of people get all tangled up on the word predestined, but for this blog posts sake, I won't even begin a discussion on that. But the word that really jumped out at me was the term "adoption." When I was younger, I was never big on the whole adoption idea for a family. I told myself that I would have a family of all boys that had the same DNA as me cause thats how I roll. However, I totally realize how ignorant and stupid that sounds.
In light of Ephesians 1:5, Paul is writing to several churches in Asia Minor. In this area, and especially Ephesus, there was a custom among the people for families who did not want to keep their children. If a child was born to a family that was either unwanted or disabled or defected in someway, the parents could take the children outside of the city gates and leave them there to die. In Ephesus, the people would walk up the mountain right outside of the city and place these "defected" children in a certain spot (can be called the "Circle of Infants") where all these kinds of kids were to be left. The Ephesians knew where this spot was, and very often, people would go up to that spot on the mountain and "adopt" or take one of the children for themselves. Under Roman law, these adults were given full custody of the child. Unfortunately, more times than not, people would go up to pick up a girl to raise up so they could fill the brothels in Ephesus. Other times, infant boys were taken to be raised as slaves. Heck, why not? It was cheaper than paying for a slave. But there were those times, when a Godly person would choose a little kid who had been left and abandoned. These kids were "adopted" into their new loving family.
This is the exact same kind of adoption we find in Ephesians 1:5, "In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ." In the previous verse, Paul says that God, "chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless." The Greek word for "blameless" means to be without defect. God has chosen us who were defected to become blameless and holy! God has redeemed us from the so-called "circle of infants." Redemption is ours. We are God's adopted family. Because in the middle of redemption, you will find adoption.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Caked-up in Make-up
Does anyone else think its interesting that we usually don't do any "labor" on Labor Day? I guess I did labor a little bit when i put coals in the grill, so my family could have our annual Labor Day cookout, but for the most part....I was Labor-free. My mom on the other hand didn't have to go into work today because it was Labor day, but she still labored over my laundry (I love my momma!)
This Labor Day weekend I went home to watch my little brother's high school football game and hang out with my parents. It was a great weekend! My little brother scored a touchdown, but he also separated his shoulder twice in the game so he will be out of football for a couple of weeks. Also, when I got home I found out that one of our neighbors had mysteriously left. A couple days before I got home, I guess a huge moving van and policemen were at her house making sure she left unharmed. My family was clueless as to what was happening, but we got a letter the next day in the mail detailing the situation.
Inside the letter contained 3 pictures of this lady. She had a cut underneath her eye running down to the corner of her mouth. Her bottom lip was swollen and was bruised black and purple. It appeared that her nose had been broken in several places, and blood was stained all over her white shirt. Besides the 3 pictures, a two-paged letter was included describing an incident that happened between her and her husband. The letter was addressed to her husband, and it was a "Good-Bye" letter. Strewn through the entire letter were four-letter-words, and her attempts at telling him how much she loved him. She was leaving him because he was a drunk. One night he came home drunk as usual and sat down in his recliner, and he began to get even more plastered. A fight broke out between them, and he ends up smashing her face with a vase.
As I read this letter, my heart broke. I couldn't put into words what my heart was feeling...I have had several days to think about the letter and the pictures and my neighbors. I still can't quite explain the feeling of brokenness I have for them. But to be perfectly honest, I didn't know them that well. I guess you could say my heart broke not just for my neighbors for all of those people in the world who are afflicted by the weight and crap of this world.
Going to school at Ozark Christian College, I am in a perfect-Christian-bubble. Everything is rainbows and butterflies. I'm getting ready to graduate in a year, and I think my view of the world has been distorted. Don't get me wrong...I know the world is messed up, but I haven't had something so disgusting and messed-up hit so close to me. My world is caked-up in make-up. Everything is so pretty, and there are no blemishes. But the world outside of my pretty little perfect bubble is not pretty. Its real. It is hurting.
This time next year I am not sure what I'll be doing, but I know that I will be in a world that isn't masked with Bible College Classes, small groups, youth groups, and 20 guys on a dorm floor that will do anything for me. I'll see the "real" world and what she really looks like. I just got a piece of it in a couple of pictures and a letter. I guess my purpose in writing this is just to ask you if your world is covered in make-up?
This Labor Day weekend I went home to watch my little brother's high school football game and hang out with my parents. It was a great weekend! My little brother scored a touchdown, but he also separated his shoulder twice in the game so he will be out of football for a couple of weeks. Also, when I got home I found out that one of our neighbors had mysteriously left. A couple days before I got home, I guess a huge moving van and policemen were at her house making sure she left unharmed. My family was clueless as to what was happening, but we got a letter the next day in the mail detailing the situation.
Inside the letter contained 3 pictures of this lady. She had a cut underneath her eye running down to the corner of her mouth. Her bottom lip was swollen and was bruised black and purple. It appeared that her nose had been broken in several places, and blood was stained all over her white shirt. Besides the 3 pictures, a two-paged letter was included describing an incident that happened between her and her husband. The letter was addressed to her husband, and it was a "Good-Bye" letter. Strewn through the entire letter were four-letter-words, and her attempts at telling him how much she loved him. She was leaving him because he was a drunk. One night he came home drunk as usual and sat down in his recliner, and he began to get even more plastered. A fight broke out between them, and he ends up smashing her face with a vase.
As I read this letter, my heart broke. I couldn't put into words what my heart was feeling...I have had several days to think about the letter and the pictures and my neighbors. I still can't quite explain the feeling of brokenness I have for them. But to be perfectly honest, I didn't know them that well. I guess you could say my heart broke not just for my neighbors for all of those people in the world who are afflicted by the weight and crap of this world.
Going to school at Ozark Christian College, I am in a perfect-Christian-bubble. Everything is rainbows and butterflies. I'm getting ready to graduate in a year, and I think my view of the world has been distorted. Don't get me wrong...I know the world is messed up, but I haven't had something so disgusting and messed-up hit so close to me. My world is caked-up in make-up. Everything is so pretty, and there are no blemishes. But the world outside of my pretty little perfect bubble is not pretty. Its real. It is hurting.
This time next year I am not sure what I'll be doing, but I know that I will be in a world that isn't masked with Bible College Classes, small groups, youth groups, and 20 guys on a dorm floor that will do anything for me. I'll see the "real" world and what she really looks like. I just got a piece of it in a couple of pictures and a letter. I guess my purpose in writing this is just to ask you if your world is covered in make-up?
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