Well written, pastor

I came home this morning from working the night shift and I thought I might scan the blogs I regularly read before bed. My pastor, Dr Jason Pettus, posted a great piece about the complexities of forgiveness, and I could not help but pass on some of his wisdom.

He wrote...

...forgiveness does not always remove natural and practical consequences. When we sin, we show a lack of faith and trust in God. God will discipline us to learn to love and trust him. (Hebrews 12:5-6 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”) The discipline is at times a consequence. When someone sins, that person also shows a lack of restraint, character, honesty, commitment, and honor. Those characteristics make it hard for other people to trust that person. Common sense tells people that the person who sinned has flaws that need to be transformed by the Spirit before that person can be trusted with the hearts and lives of others....


...People that are dishonest and hurtful to others, will be forgiven, but the consequences to those actions may remain. They may lose a place of influence in others' lives. They may lose a position or a personal relationship. Sin has a price. Thankfully, Jesus has paid that price to give us a permanent position in God's family and to give us a permanent relationship with God Himself. The consequence of sin may impact other relationships and the circumstances of life.

Brilliantly articulated. Forgiveness does not equal an open arms acceptance of continually unacceptable behavior. A deeply appreciated and well written post by my pastor.

5.14.09

-- NASCAR: I went to Talladega a few weeks ago and had one hell of a good time. Great race, great price, free camping, and very reasonable concession prices.
Good show, and I'll be back for another race.

-- NASCAR: What a shock to hear that Jeremy Mayfield was suspended on Monday for a violation of the substance abuse policy. It should be interesting to watch how it all plays out, but if it is indeed proven that he did not take any preformance enhancing or recreational drugs, there will be some explaining to do.

-- TV: Another rumor has surfaced that Jon and Kate Gosslin are going splitsville. If that is anywhere near the truth they need to ditch this monstrosity they have created. The idea that Kate floated in the last episode of season 3, that they are already famous and they can't go back, is dead wrong. The American public has an attention span of about 1.23 seconds. They can certainly go back to their semi-normal selves for a few years, then come back in a few years to even more money and bigger ratings. Jon and Kate: The Next Generation... good segway.

-- Star Trek: I have heard some negative reviews about this gem, and it makes me nervous. JJ Abrams made it obvious in interviews that he was never a Star Trek fan, and was going to go his own direction in making this movie. It reminds me of Mitt Romney talking about Jesus. Anyway, I will hold out faith that this savage did not mangle my franchise too seriously.

-- Hubble: How cool is it to, in the course of my adulthood, literally watch the life and death and life and death and life of one the greatest scientific instruments in the history of mankind? I watched a good documentary last night on the Science Channel about this mission that is literally going on as I write this. This space mission is the most complex mission in the history of mankind. Parts of the Hubble will be removed and replaced in space that were never ment to be removed in space. The largely unseen and unreported acts of our heros in space are a testiment to the greatness of our country.

4.3.09

-- News flash for me. They tore down Shea Stadium! I was in the midst of a post about how great Shea Stadium would be as a 1/2 mile progressive banking NASCAR track once the Mets move to their new stadium. It was a great idea until I just read that Shea was knocked down last year. I guess that won't happen now. Poo! It was a good idea too.

-- Recession, schmession. I don't know what I am doing right, but my business has been BOOMING the last month. I literally can not serve my customers fast enough right from the jump each night. That, along with renewing my seasonal agreements with Lost River Cave, the Bowling Green Farmers Market and the Downtown Redevelopment Association have me feeling pretty good about hot dog season number three.

-- Last night I delivered piazza for about 5 hours during the rainstorm and most of the orders were to the West End of town. I noticed for the first time just how many brand new section 8 apartments there are in that part of town. I find that interesting, as these seem to be pretty nice places. I wonder it these new apartments are private ventures or publicly financed? If my tax money is funding indigents to live better than I do I will find that highly offensive. Public housing should be sub-standard, as a subtle incentive to get a job and upgrade to a better place to live.

-- 19 days and I have not shopped at IGA. To quote the lead character in Falling Down, "I'm exercising my rights, as a consumer"

-- 23 days until I go to Talladega.

-- 35 days until Star Trek.

Lots on my mind! 3.23.09

-- Cheap mongrol mens get away next month. A buddy of mine and I are doing a low budget/cooler of beer and Walmart sandwich cuisine /tent vacation to the beautiful hills of Northern Alabama for the spring Talladega race. I am pretty sure the sleeping accommodations will pretty much suck in the tent, but we are going to watch NASCAR for 40 bucks a seat. Green, green, green.

-- Tonight I played in the first game of the Warren County adult Dodgeball league. I feel like a ran a 10K. I am sore and tired as hell. My team name, The Wii NOT FITis appropriate.

I think, and in fact I know, that compared to the rest of the world I am in pretty decent shape. The fact that decent shape has been dumbed down to my level is the whole problem. I have been working hard at knocking out my regular winter spare tire, but I'll be working doubly hard at the gym tomorrow.

For those of you keeping score out there, we went 1-1. Took both matches to 5 games. See you in the Championships.

-- Speaking of championships, what a heartbreaker Western played against the Zags on Saturday. We dropped the ball a few times, but overall it was the kind of heart, class and spirit that you can usually expect out of WKU. Kudos to the Toppers.

With that said, If I were McDonald I still would make those guys each shoot 1,000 free trows a day for the next nine months.

-- In spite of my silly post last week, I have read that Jon and Kate Plus 8 are headed for divorce. That would be a sad thing if it were true. I think both of these people are fine Christian folks and really work very hard to do what is right for their children. I hope they make it.

The great reality show experiment

I have a great idea. This is, of course, silly and not serious, but the entertainment value of this grand television experiment would be a ratings blockbuster.

I am admittedly a big fan of some reality television. I really like most of the History Channel and Discovery Channel shows along with a more limited number of the smutty VH1 style shows, and of course Jon, Kate and the precocious 8.

With that said, a new and interesting twist on reality television has crossed my already crossed mind, reality combination TV. Combining two totally unrelated TV shows would be an experiment in and of itself. Being that there are an already about a zillion reality shows, the combinations are endless. Here a few of my reality shows combo ideas that I have:

Jon and Kate Plus 8 + Man vs Wild

I'm not suggesting we drop the 10 of them in the Arctic, rather lets drop Bear Grillis into the Gosselin household for a week with no food and see which child he eats first.

The Dog Whisperer + The Deadliest Catch

Lets see how Ceasers calm and assertive skinny ass works when having to haul crab pots for about 60 hours straight. I don't think the crabs, or the crewmates, will be impressed.

Hells Kitchen + The Biggest Loser

Again, lets turn the tables. Put these tubbies in Chef Ramsey's kitchen, and evaluate both their cooking skills and their weight. Let Gordon get rid of them based on how much weight they have lost. He probably won't be too diplomatic.

Ax Men + Celebrity Rehab

If these people want to learn responsibility and accountability, try chopping down trees all day for a job. All the drugs in your system would be sweated out in about 6 hours. These skinny rich pansies might damn well die having to actually work for a living, but that would only help the ratings even more.

Everest: Beyond the Limit + ManTracker

Not only do you have to scale the highest mountain in the world, you have to do it while being stalked by some sneaky Canadian sunofabitch on a horse. And you only have two days!

The possibilities are endless!

My IGA embargo

Last year, at around this time, the corner lot up the road was cleared and graded for new construction. I learned soon after that an IGA was going in. I had mixed news about the development, being that I was friends with all of the employees at the smaller Jr Foods store located in the neighborhood that certainly would, and did, go out of business. Despite that fact,I figured it would be nice to have a large selection of groceries so close to home.

Once the IGA opened, right out of the gate, the service was really amazingly bad, but I can really understand why that would be in a new place. Over the course of the fall and winter I have continued to visit there several times a day, getting almost all of my gas, beer, Subway sandwiches, Cokes and occasionally dinner there. I probably have spent between 75-125 dollars a week there since they opened last fall, but I don't see them getting much of my money anytime soon, for a number of reasons.

First, the mere existence of this place has totally screwed up traffic flow in my neighborhood. My very serene neighborhood filled with retirees, quaint older homes, and a country church now resembles the back stretch at Talladega Speedway. Further, those of us that live on Old Lovers Lane have to wait, usually two lights just to get onto Lovers Lane, and then two more to get to Cemetery Road. It is routinely a 10-minute wait just to get to the damn main road.

Second, the service seems to actually be getting worse instead of better. The employees that actually work at the store are amazingly nice and very friendly, it just doesn't seem like they have much experience in the service part of customer service. Every time I visit the place it seems like a new adventure in disaster preparedness. The coke is always out. The ice is always empty. The iced coffee machine is ALWAYS empty. Something is empty or not there at least 1 in 3 times I go there.

There doesn't seem to be any managerial procedures to ever check these things. I have come across too many empty things for me to think they actually check it themselves until someone bothers them to do so. If that indeed is the case, that is really inconvenient of a convenience store to do.

I already wait too damn long outside the store, in my car, burning up my gas,in an IGA created traffic jam to have to wait some more for someone to refill something that should usually be full in the first place.

Anyway, after watching the NASCAR race on Sunday I went down there and for the 3rd time that week, the iced coffee was empty. I decided at that moment I have had enough with IGA. I literally dropped my cup along with its few drops of empty iced coffee on the floor, got a diet coke with ice cream and left. I won't be back there for a very long time. I'll get gas elsewhere, and eat Jimmy Johns for a while.

Again, the kids that work there are nice folks, but there seems to be no one running the show there and it is really just a traffic nightmare. I wish IGA would go set up in Rivergreen and we'd see some community leaders get their panties up in a wad.

Overwhelmed by the forces of the Facebookists

OK, OK, OK, PLEASE ENOUGH with the recent assault of people of have solicited me to join Facebook. I will do so soon.

First, it started a few weeks ago with my very good friend Dan, who called me on a Friday afternoon.

"Hey Malek Man, have you ever messed around with this internet thing, Facebook? I've hooked up with a bunch of old friends on here and think its pretty cool."

Of course I said no, as I already have MySpace. How much social networking does one anti-social hot dog pimp need? More, I guess.

Then, early this week my pastor blogged on his regular site about how he has joined Facebook and really enjoyed the experiences of hooking up with old friends from all around the world.

I usually take Pastor Jason's words and advice to heart,and etched his blog post in my mind as something that I need to do soon.

Then, yesterday, my regular afternoon radio host, the Godfather of Motorsports Dave Moody (heard on Sirius Radio 128 from 2-6 CST) admitted that HE had
also given in to all of the worlds nonstop Facebook solicitations. Moody, of all people. Moody now has a Facebook account!

Finally, tonight, I open my e-mail and get a solicitation from an old friend from college to join Facebook.

Enough already. People. Please. I render. A Facebook account is coming shortly.

Leave me alone and leave a message on my "wall".