Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Catch of the Day

Catch of the Day

Good King Wenceslas
by John Fischer

Neil is an executive for a national financial institution located in Pennsylvania. He is a reader and regular supporter of the Catch of the Day. Just yesterday he told me a story of his own giving experience that resulted in a deeper understanding of what it means to give and receive.

It seems that he and a buddy got wind of a single woman in their church who was having trouble keeping her house warm for her and her children. With the help of his friend, Neil determined to help this woman by driving a load of firewood to her house. Hearing him talk about the snowstorm that complicated their delivery made me immediately think about images from the English carol "Good King Wenceslas," about a king who braves a winter storm to bring wood to a poor peasant (see below).

In the process, she asked which one of the services this week they were going to attend. (They are all part of a large church that puts on eight Christmas programs over the holidays mainly as an outreach to the community.) When they told her and asked her the same question, she said she was going to all of them. "I have 17 of my friends coming and 13 of them don't know Jesus."

Suddenly Neil realized he was in the presence of a fellow believer who was herself in the process of giving, just like he was. This often happens in our giving. We think we are bettering someone's life only to discover that we are the ones who have the most to learn. That's why we must keep an open mind at all times. Look out: You never know what you're going to receive when you give. And like the good king Wenceslas, you always get blessed when you bless.

Good King Wenceslas

Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gath'ring winter fuel

"Hither, page, and stand by me
If thou know'st it, telling
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence
Underneath the mountain
Right against the forest fence
By Saint Agnes' fountain."

"Bring me flesh and bring me wine
Bring me pine logs hither
Thou and I will see him dine
When we bear him thither."
Page and monarch forth they went
Forth they went together
Through the rude wind's wild lament
And the bitter weather

"Sire, the night is darker now
And the wind blows stronger
Fails my heart, I know not how,
I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, my good page
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly."

In his master's steps he trod
Where the snow lay dinted
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing .

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Copyright © 2009 by John Fischer

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Friday, December 11, 2009

Tim Tebow REALLY is that Nice

Check this video story out!!!

I hope my kids can learn from him!!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Inside Lacrosse Magazine: The Right Direction | IL Blog Central

Inside Lacrosse Magazine: The Right Direction | IL Blog Central

Very inspiring story. I can't wait for the movie!!

Growing multitudes need a helping hand -- latimes.com

Growing multitudes need a helping hand -- latimes.com

A great story about feeding the homeless and the types of people who need help.

Best section was the end.

"Where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy," they said, quoting St. Francis. "For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."

Monday, November 23, 2009

What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff?

What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff?

Cool article by Shane Claiborne on how to be a real Christian

Thursday, September 17, 2009

The man who hated hunger - The Boston Globe

The man who hated hunger - The Boston Globe

Norman Borlaug

I never heard of this person until this article.

He sounds amazingly smart and committed to humanity and his faith.

The sight of Americans suffering from hunger “left an indelible imprint on me,’’ he later said, and instilled in him a smoldering “hatred against hunger and misery and human poverty.’’

But Borlaug had seen too much of hunger ever to be cowed by such censure. The complaints of his well-fed Western detractors would vanish, he said, were they to spend just one month among the world’s poorest and hungriest people. Man may not live by bread alone, but he must surely die without it. Because Norman Borlaug lived, hundreds of millions of human beings were spared that terrible fate.

Love Your Political Enemies: A Response to Jimmy Carter’s Comments on Racism - Valerie Elverton Dixon - God’s Politics Blog

Love Your Political Enemies: A Response to Jimmy Carter’s Comments on Racism - Valerie Elverton Dixon - God’s Politics Blog

My favorite part is this

Christianity is a hard religion to live. We do not tell people this when we open the doors to the church and invite them into salvation. It is easy to talk the talk of being saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost. But it is difficult to walk the walk, to turn the other cheek, to walk the extra mile, to give up coat and cloak, to pray God’s blessing upon people whose actions are hateful. It is difficult to pray that God will walk with them and demonstrate God’s love and presence in their lives. I cannot do this in my own power. I can only do this through the power of God’s own Holy Spirit.

Grace and Peace!!

How Many Uninsured?

The exact number of Americans who lack health insurance has been in dispute. But debates about this miss the bigger point that, even for many who have insurance, the system doesn’t work. Steve Doocy of Fox & Friends makes this mistake:

Currently, 90 percent of all Americans have got some sort of health-care coverage, which means they are effectively blowing up the system for 5 percent. [1]

Never mind Doocy's fuzzy math. (100 - 90 = 5?) Even if it were true that 90 percent of Americans had "some sort of health-care coverage," that wouldn't mean that their insurance was adequate, affordable, or good enough quality to keep them in good health.

Tell Steve Doocy to check his math and check the facts—Americans don't have the health coverage they need.

Here's Amy's story, which shows why having "some sort of coverage" leaves many people feeling trapped and needing to fight for the coverage they've paid so much money for:

As a person with an "uninsurable" chronic illness (multiple sclerosis), I am very invested in how the health-care system impacts on my life. I live in fear that someday I will lose my very good—and very expensive—coverage and become unable to pay for my very good—and very, very expensive—medication. I currently pay a $4000 deductible to receive medication which costs $4000 a month.

I feel fortunate to be able to pay what I have to in order to be able to get this treatment. It means that I can continue to work full time and continue to pay taxes rather than being on disability and being a burden to other taxpayers.

Right now I am poised to have a successful private practice. I hope to provide quality mental health services to children (an underserved population). However, I am unable to leave my current job because I cannot buy insurance and I cannot go without health-care coverage.

I become very frustrated when I hear some of the arguments against health-care reform, such as, "I don't want government in my business." In the meantime, your insurance company is very much in your business, and not always with your best interest in mind.

My insurance company refused to pay for my prescribed medication because I had not filled out a survey which basically asked if I had any other insurance (I do not). This particular refusal to pay went on for several months, was rectified, and then started again in the new fiscal year.

As a mental health provider, I have also done battle on the other side, working many extra hours to get insurance to pay me for services the client is entitled to under their policy.

I know that, for me, the current system is fraught with fear and headaches. Why does this expensive, elitist, and discriminatory system garner such loyalty? Please look into facts, versus rumors, and overcome fear of change. Take it from the uninsurable. Reform needs to happen.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Doctor has common-sense fixes to healthcare crisis -- latimes.com

Doctor has common-sense fixes to healthcare crisis -- latimes.com

Posted using ShareThis

Watch the video first then read the article.

This final statement got me, "I've even had breast cancer survivors in here today," Collins said, telling me that despite the risk of recurrence, the women hadn't been able to manage regular checkups."

We should all be ashamed.

Looking for common ground in Glenn Beck country -- latimes.com

Looking for common ground in Glenn Beck country -- latimes.com

Posted using ShareThis

This article is very funny from the person who brought us the Soloist

Monday, May 18, 2009

President Obama's Words of Wisdom at ASU

President Obama's quote as reported from ASU Commencement Address

"Building a body of work is all about . . . the daily labor, the many individual acts, the choices large and small that add up over time, over a lifetime, to a lasting legacy. That's what you want on your tombstone. It's about not being satisfied with the latest achievement, the latest gold star -- because the one thing I know about a body of work is that it's never finished."


Prepared Text of Speech:

In all seriousness, I come here not to dispute the suggestion that I haven't yet achieved enough in my life. I come to embrace it; to heartily concur; to affirm that one's title, even a title like President, says very little about how well one's life has been led - and that no matter how much you've done, or how successful you've been, there's always more to do, more to learn, more to achieve.

But here's the thing, graduates: it works the other way around too. Acts of sacrifice and decency without regard to what's in it for you - those also create ripple effects - ones that lift up families and communities; that spread opportunity and boost our economy; that reach folks in the forgotten corners of the world who, in committed young people like you, see the true face of America: our strength, our goodness, the enduring power of our ideals.

What a great way to look at life?

I can't wait to share with my children this important point.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Rick Reilly Does it Again

Check this article out:

Life of Reilly
No ticket, no problem. Some lucky D-backs fans got a free pass.
by Rick Reilly

Kaylea Hunt
The Diamondbacks honored Eric Robles (second from left) with season tickets.

The following column appears in the April 20 issue of ESPN The Magazine.

Here's a scoop for you. The Diamondbacks are flagrantly violating MLB rules. They're a pro team, and yet they're giving out full-ride scholarships. Been doing it for two years now!

Not to their players. To their fans.

It's an idea D-backs CEO Derrick Hall came up with at one game when a season-ticket holder who'd lost everything, even her car, introduced herself. She told him a fan in her section had bought her two season tickets for the rest of the year, even picked her up every game and took her home. And Hall thought, "Why don't we do this for our fans?" So he asked fans to send in applications for scholarships. Soon, his e-mail in-box was swamped.

My 13-year-old nephew is a huge fan. He is a really good kid but gets bullied for his need of dental work and lack of "designer" clothes. Baseball is his outlet. No one can see him underneath that catcher mask. His family has always struggled, and recently his father got laid off. He'd love to go to a game. -- Michelle

Michelle's nephew, who preferred not to be named, didn't get a ticket to just a single game. He's going to all 81, along with his parents, brother and sister.

Arizona put 18 families on scholarship.

"He went crazy," says his dad, an unemployed electrician. "He kept yelling, 'Are you kidding me!?!' And he put the letter from the D-backs up on his wall. He's such a good kid."

Next question: Anybody know a big­hearted orthodontist?

I'm a single mom of two amazing little boys. For the past two years [we've] been struggling to pick up the pieces after my [husband and I split abruptly]. We lost our house, our car and had to sell mostly everything we owned. I do not make enough to make ends meet, and my ex-husband is behind in child support by $20,000. [Editor's note: Daniel Lombardi's wages are now being used to pay down that debt.] I would really love to take my boys to the games and give them some enjoyment. -- Tami Lombardi

Derrick Hall called to tell Ms. Lombardi that she was getting not only three season tickets but free parking, $400 in food vouchers and spots for her boys in a Diamondbacks players' clinic. Will that do?

"It was so awesome," she gushes. "We never miss a game on TV. Now we get to go!"

Even better: Her ex is a huge D-backs fan. Choke on it, dude.

All told, the D-backs put 18 families on scholarship -- 41 season tickets worth nearly $100,000 -- and every one of their stories would make your knees give. There was the daughter whose softball-playing mom broke her leg sliding into second, couldn't work and is now losing her house. There was Beth Godfrey, who was fighting leukemia. She won tickets but died soon afterward. Now those tickets are being donated in her name to charity.

One mom nominated her firefighter son, Breezy Morago, who broke his leg playing football, then rebroke it when a Jeep hit him while he was riding his bike, then burned it fighting a fire. Oh, and he lost everything when his own house burned. He gets a pair of tickets. Maybe he'll be safe at the ballpark.

My favorite, though, might be this one:

I couldn't raise my three children without my young brother. He drives my son to all of his baseball games, picks up my sick kids, takes them to movies, helps with homework, always lends a hand. What 20-year-old single guy does this and is still a full-time student and holds down two jobs? My brother Eric! Ever since he was little, he has had season tickets on his Christmas list. Year after year it goes unanswered. This year I ask you to consider my sweet brother Eric, the Greatest Uncle. -- Carol Stuart

Like nearly every winner, the Greatest Uncle, Eric Robles, didn't know what his sister had done. When he found out he won, "It was five minutes before it hit me: I have season tickets!" Robles says.

And in a what-should-I-Twitter-about-myself-now? world, why would a young guy be so selfless? "Well, I know what it's like when your parents divorce. It can be hard. Moving. Splitting up from their dad. I wanted to make sure nothing happened to the kids."

He spends most days three feet off the ground now. In fact, on the season schedule, he has circled in red the games he's going to.

A co-worker was looking at it and finally said, "Eric, every game is circled."

Exactly.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Hey, pro, don't want to be a role model? It's not your choice.

I took this from the web, but it should be required reading for every professional athlete prior to their first game!!!

by Rick Reilly

Courtesy Christopher Hamlet
Jake meets John Elway.

This is a story I want to tell ALL athletes who think that what they do, how they act, the little kindnesses they give or withhold from fans don't matter.

It'll take only a minute.

My wife, Cynthia, was adopted. At 36, she found half her biological family on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana. Turns out she had four half brothers, one named Lil Bob, who was as big as a tree.

Lil Bob, a bar owner, could pick a man up with one hand and throw him out the front door. He was gregarious and funny and always seemed to have his son, Jake, hanging onto one of his huge legs. Unfortunately, he was also a full-blown alcoholic. Many were the days that started and ended with a quart of Jack Daniel's, although you could never tell.

In size and in heart, Lil Bob was one of Montana's biggest Broncos fans. His hero was John Elway. He joked that he wanted to be buried in an Elway jersey, with pallbearers in Elway jerseys, and an Elway football in his huge hand. His one regret was dropping out of school in eighth grade, ending his football career. His one dream was to take Jake to a Broncos game. Sometimes on the reservation, the dreams come small.

Last March, Lil Bob's liver failed. One awful hospital day, Jake, now 13, walked up to the bed, took his dad's head in his hands, put his mouth to his forehead and told him he couldn't go yet. Told him he needed him to stay and take him to a Broncos game. Stay and watch him grow up and play for the Broncos.

Lil Bob's death, a few days later, seemed to send Jake into that shapeless, black sinkhole where boys go when their best friend is gone for reasons they can't understand. "I tried to talk to him, but he was closed to it," says Jake's mom, Lona Burns. "He started doing bad in school. Kids picked on him. Every day I fought him just to go. His grades dropped. He didn't even care about going to football practice, didn't want to play."

Thirteen-year-olds don't meet gods.

Worse yet, since the day Lil Bob died, Jake hadn't cried.

And then, this past October, one of Lil Bob's best friends — a restaurant owner named Christopher Hamlet — decided to make good on an unfulfilled dream: He bought two plane tickets, packed up Jake and flew to Denver. Jake was finally going to a Broncos game.

As locals, Cynthia and I took them to lunch at one of Elway's restaurants so Jake could see all the jerseys and photos. The kid was so excited he hardly ate. And that was before a certain Hall of Fame QB walked in, all keg-chested and pigeon-toed. Immediately, Jake turned into an ice sculpture.

We introduced them, and it took a few seconds before Jake could even stick out his hand. Apparently, 13-year-olds are not used to meeting gods.

Elway took the time to sign Jake's football and pose for a picture. He even made us all go outside, where the light was better. Then, as we said goodbye — Jake's feet floating a foot off the ground — Elway turned and said, out of nowhere, "Hey, why don't you guys come by the box today?"

And the next thing Jake knew, he was in John Elway's luxury box at the game, asking him any question he wanted, all with a grin that threatened to split his happy head in half.

Then Elway said, "Comin' to dinner?"

And suddenly Jake was having his lettuce wedge cut for him by the legend, who tousled the kid's cowlick. Like a dad might.

Halfway through the night, a guy came out of the bathroom and said, "Are you guys with that kid? Because he's in there talking to his mom on the phone, crying. Is he OK?"

Yes, Jake would be OK.

"Jake came back a changed boy," his mom says. He started climbing out of that hole. He started making A's again. Started loving football again. He told his mom, "When I make it to the NFL, I'm going to buy you a big house in Denver so you can come to my games."

And I ask myself: Why did Elway do all that? Maybe because his late father, Jack, was his best friend, too? Maybe because his own son, Jack, went away to college last fall? Or maybe because that's how he is. In my 26 years of knowing Elway, I've never seen him turn down an autograph request, a picture request, a "Can I just tell you something?" request.

A lot of athletes don't want the burden that comes with being a role model. But what I want to tell them is: You don't get to choose. You don't get to tell 13-year-old boys with holes in their hearts who can help them heal.

I know it's a hassle, but it matters. Because you never know when you might just lead a kid out to where the light is better.

Love the column, hate the column, got a better idea? Go here.
Want more Life of Reilly? Then check out the archive.
Be sure to check out Rick's latest project "Go Fish."

Thursday, February 19, 2009

A Football Game Gives Hope-

The best five minutes you can spend.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Are You a Good Leader?

A must read Businessweek article on what being a leader means:

The five fundamental principles of ethics:
Do No Harm,
Make Things Better,
Respect Others,
Be Fair , and
Be Loving."

I would probably reorder, but the principles are sound.

The Outline is this: