Vanderbilt's Cutler could be the number 1 quarterback picked??

Before you think I'm nuts, read this article: CUTLER

I'm not sure what I think on this yet. I see points made on all different sides. Leinart is an awesome quarterback, but he's had some pretty good athletes to support him. The same with Vince Young. Jay Cutler passed for over 3000 yards at VANDERBILT!

I like the point this article makes on the fact that Leinart could possibly come to Tennessee. I'm still at a toss up between him and Young leading the squad the next few years. Vince Young scored terrible on his Wonderlic score, and Chris Mortensen of ESPN said he would probably be the sixth quarterback taken.

I think both men would do well at Tennessee, but ultimately, a reunion between Norm Chow and Leinart sounds really appealing to me.

Jay Cutler is being heralded now as the next Brett Favre. He benched 225 pounds I believe 28 times at the combine. He is a man on a mission to prove he is worthy to be an NFL star.

Regardless of whether or not he goes...who ever thought a Vanderbilt quarterback would be going to the NFL at all? Much less the top few rounds?

Go to God for comfort

This morning has not been a good morning. Our little pug, Chloe, ate something outside that made her rather sick. She was coming out both ends, and she just looked pathetic. I called the vet, and he assured us it had nothing to do with the surgery last week, but that she got hold of something outside that was not too good for her. He gave us some medicine to give her, and we're crossing our fingers that she's okay.

The thing about it is this: She was so confused. She didn't feel well, and didn't know what to do. She just stood there. She wouldn't come, sit, lay down, drink any water, go outside...she was just confused. She's never been sick before, and didn't really know how to cope with it.

As I helped her through the morning, I wonder sometimes why we do the same thing. We become confused with our sickness of sin. It finally gets to us, and we don't know what to do. And just as I beckoned for Chloe to lay down and rest, God beckons for us to stop and come to Him. Chloe didn't know she needed to rest, and was therefore confused.

We don't know that we need to go to God when sin overtakes us, and we become confused. We look for help in every area, except God. Maybe we don't want to burden Him, or bother Him. Maybe we think we're not imortant enough, or that He won't care.

Matthew 11:28 says it best: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." These words, read so often, yet very rarely used, are just what we need everyday in our life.

After a while, I sat down with Chloe on the floor. She came to me and sat on my lap and let me rub her back to feel better. She laid there, still, knowing that I was going to take care of her. I need to realize that there are times when I just need to crawl into my Father's lap, and let him take care of me as well.

**This blog is dedicated to the memory of Gary Bess. Gary was a father of one of my youth group members at Ashland City church of Christ. He passed away this morning after a routine check up at the hospital. Several years ago Gary had a tumor removed from his brain. This morning they said he had a heart attack, slipped into a coma, and slowly passed from this life to be with our Father. He had two daughters, Emily and Halie. God bless their family.

Our little pug, Chloe

Our little girl is going into surgery to be spayed today. She's a bundle of excitement and joy every morning. We have a routine we go through with her. Kristen gets up before I do and gets ready, and then she goes and feeds Chloe and lets her out. But the thing Chloe just can never wait for is to be put on the bed with me to wake me up. She makes a mad dash as soon as the door is open to our bedroom right to my face.

Usually, she has one of her chew bones with her. She promptly brings that up to my face to "share" the bone with me. Needless to say, a slobbery chew bone does not taste all that great.

Later on when Kristen leaves, Chloe will jump up in my lap and rest while once again chewing on her bone. Then she'll go to her crate where she naps all day while we're at work.

When we get home, she just runs around, looking as if she is saying "Who wants to pet me? Who wants to play with me? Let's go run around town! Let's chew everything up in sight!" Its really great to know someone is that excited to see you when you come home.

At night, she likes to cuddle up with Kristen on the couch and once again....chew on her bone (we go through about 1 every two weeks). Then she goes off to bed again, to begin the whole process over!

She loves to meet new people, and if you ever come to see us, she'll lick you silly. She likes to wrestle with your feet if you're sitting and not paying attention to her. And she'll always bring you a toy to play with.

I know it sounds silly, but Kristen and I are praying that everything is successful with our little girl this morning. She means so much to us and we can't imagine life without her.

Nooma

As a youth minister, its sometimes hard to find a resource that is truly wonderful. I have searched high and low, looking for something that will grab the attention of the teens, and have some depth to it, while not being too deep.

There is a new video series out called Nooma. I believe they have 10 videos out not. Basically, they are about 12 minutes long, and hit some of the toughest issues to deal with. They are done by a guy named Rob Bell. Check out their website NOOMA to see some clips from some of the videos. Tonight, in class we'll be watching the Nooma video number 003, entitled Trees.

Post Winterfest Tuesday

Winterfest was this past weekend. I've been going to Winterfest since 1991. There have been years where I did not particularly care for the sessions. There have been years where I have not really been fond of some of the worship time. Some years, the worship leaders have been very self centered in appearance (not to judge their hearts), and in return, hard to really get into worship due to the distraction.

Winterfest is not the best thing in the world. Don't get me wrong, I think its awesome. They do a great job of incorporating media and excitement into the sessions so the teenagers won't get too distracted. Let's face it, teenagers (and most adults) have about a seven minute attention span, and they do a great job of mixing things up so the interest level stays high.

I always come back from Winterfest and examine it from a distance, once I'm past the spiritual high and emotion that stems from it. Some years, I think that things could have been done better. Some years, I think they could have done without lots of things. However, this year, as I do my post Winterfest examination, I have nothing but praise.

Watershed did a good job of leading our worship. Many of the songs, they would start them off, and then really back off of their microphones so that all you could hear were the 6500 + voices singing to our God.

The drama part of the sessions this year was excellent. There was a group from Oklahoma Christian University that did a continuous running drama that mirrored the lessons. Top notch job they did.

Walling, well, in past years I've come home and said "He didn't give me anything new, he used a bunch of the same things he's used in the past". Not this year. The whole structure of the lessons was based on Believing in Jesus. He pointed out many things, such as Why to believe in Jesus, when to believe, 5 solid things to base our faith on, and most importantly talked about how important Baptism is in your walk and faith in God.

All in all, I could find no scriptural fault with anything done at Winterfest. It bothers me still that so many say that Winterfest is crazy and that they are doing things that are not scriptural. I say to these people: I will respect your opinion once you have gone to experience it, but until then all you are doing is basing your beliefs on something someone read somewhere or told you.

I had a good friend of mine, Kevin, who said he wanted to go with us. Kevin is 27 years old, and became a Christian at around 18. He attended more conservative churches, and went to Freed Hardeman with me. All he ever heard about Winterfest were negative things. So he decided to go for himself this year with us.

His opinion: Overall, he had a good experience. The clapping during the songs, and the VBS attitude during some of the songs got to him, but he admitted that was just a comfort zone thing to him. He thought the sessions were good, and was pleasantly surprised to hear Walling push baptism like he did. He walked away from the weekend very satisfied.

It was great to see everyone, like Jason, Johnny, Nathan Reeves, Terry Reeves, many old friends from Freed, and my old youth group from Ashland City. Terry Reeves -- Way to go! Fight the fight brother! That cancer got scared of your faith and ran away!

Toilet Water is Cleaner than Ice

Before you read this blog, you might want to pull up a trash can, and read the following article: TOILET WATER CLEANER THAN ICE!!!

I have been looking for a way to tell myself to stop eating fast food. Maybe this is the story I've been waiting for. Apparently, the girl tested ice from 5 different fast food restaurants and compared it to the toilet water from the same restaurants. The results: Toilet water wins. What do you think of that?

I think this definitely tells us that Fast Food is now the most disgusting thing you can eat.

A Confession of the Heart

I have to admit something, right here, right now in front of you all. I am addicted to two new television shows. And its all thanks to Jason Bybee for one of them, and Kevin Westmoreland for the other.

I used to be addicted to the show Friends. I liked it because it was easy to watch, simple, and somewhat comedic. But alas, it has gone off the air. For a while, I pretty much went only watching CSI, Survivor, and Amazing Race. However, I have found two new shows that I can't live without.

First of all is The Office on NBC. It has Steve Carell as an office manager of the Dunder Mifflin paper supply company. It was based on the show by the same name in England. Steve's character, Michael, thinks he's the best boss and mentor in the world, but his employees think otherwise. Its a knock on reality shows, as the whole episode is done like a reality show. Pure genious in my opinion.

The second is 24. I started watching 24 after a phone call with Jason about an upcoming event. He told me to just watch it, and I would like it. Well, now i'm sitting at my desk with the first 2 seasons that just arrived for me from Walmart.com, waiting to be watched.

So how about it, what are you die hard have to watch shows? All of you who have been reading my blog, but not posting comments (its free and harmless to post comments), please post a comment with shows you just have to watch!

28

Yesterday, I turned 28. Based on the fact that I'm another year older (supposedly wiser also), I must admit that I'm feeling older. Even though i've been bald since I was 18, I am starting to see gray hairs in my beard.

In honor of turning 28, I hereby present to you 28 of my favorite things.

1. Kristen, my wife, my best friend, my confidant and spiritual accountability partner. A little over two years ago, I married this wonderful woman. 28 years from now, we'll celebrate 30 years together.

2. Mexican Food: When I was younger, I hated it. Now, there's nothing better than chips and cheese dip/salsa with a great plate of fajitas.

3. Chloe: No, not a mistress or girlfriend on the side. Chloe is our 9 month old black pug. She is a joy and a delight. She wakes me up every morning by slapping me in the face with her favorite bone.

4. Our New House: Nothing is more exciting than owning your first home.

5. My new job: Working at the Ross Road church is wonderful. I am blessed and honored to work with a great staff, elders, and the teenagers are the absolute greatest!

6. Eating Pizza for breakfast: Is there anything better than having leftover pizza for breakfast?

7. My parents: As I work alongside teenagers, I often run into teens who have parents who are divorced, deceased, or disinterested. I praise God that I have parents who still care, and who always were there for me.

8. The movie Cinderella Man: Wimpy title, powerful movie. Still upset that it got shafted in the Oscars.

9. The wonderful nation we live in and the fact it could never elect Hilary Clinton as President: It reminds me that we live in land with some morals and values still in place. I mean, come on, do we really want her to be the leader of our wonderful country? That's just scary looking!

10. The Nooma Nooma Song: Its a song by a group called O-Zone actually called Dragostea Din Tei. Its the catchiest song ever. For something ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS follow this link to see Napoleon Dynamite dance to the Nooma Nooma Song NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE DANCES TO NOOMA NOOMA

11. Napoleon Dynamite: Speaking of Napoleon Dynamite, even though this is a really dumb movie, I love it because its funny, clean, and has no sex in it. Its a perfect youth group movie.

12. My wife's chicken chilli nachos: Gee, its a wonder why I'm overweight. These are the greatest!

13. The Amazing Race: CBS's great reality show. I've watched every season. The new season begins February 28.

14. Survivor: Okay, I admit -- I hated the idea of Survivor when it began, but now I can't get enough. The new season begins tonight!

15. Cottenelle Toilet Tissue: Let's face it. The cheap stuff is, well, cheap.

16. My new gas grill: Insert grunting sounds here. And it was on sale!

17. Home Improvements: Not the television show. Two years ago, I couldn't have done anything to make a home better. Now, due to the fact that I have a gracious minister who loves to teach and show how to do things, I'm well on my way to being a regular Bob Villa.

18. Shaving my head: Sounds weird, I know...but did you know the average man gets a haircut once every four weeks, and pays around $12 for it. Since I'm bald and shave my head, from the age of 21 (when I started shaving my head) to age 70, I'll save $7056 in haircuts!

19. MP3 players: I knew one day that albums would become obsolete. Paying for a single song instead of a whole album is awesome!

20. Having a paid off car: Neither my wife nor I have a car payment. Sweetness.

21. The game of Golf: I used to think golf was for sissies. I have gotten into the game recently, and its no sissy game. Its a great way to get away for about 4 hours with some friends, and struggle together!

22. The fact that we have no mayonaise in our house: I mean, come on...Mayonaise is just pure junk. My wife has agreed not to have mayonaise in the house.

23. Singing in church: Not everyone likes to, but I love to sing at church.

24. My television: a year ago, my wife and I bought a 42 inch LCD Projection tv. It has made viewing more fun.

25. TIVO: I waited and waited, and finally got TIVO. I have come to the realization that life before was unfulfilled.

26. Forgiveness: Its awesome to know that forgiveness really does work with God.

27. Grace: God allows us to live on this earth He made. He allows us to screw up. He still loves us, regardless.

28. Our God: come on, you knew I'd mention Him, right?