It was one of the few times in life when being a liar is more moral than the alternative. And for her sake, I hope she was.

One of the fun parts about being in a public place is you never really know who you'll run into. Sometimes you get cut off in traffic; sometimes you end up in line at Wal-Mart behind someone who smells like goat cheese and feet; sometimes you end up with a waitress who ignores you for an hour before wondering why the tip you left wasn't up to their expectations. And sometimes everything goes well. It's all just blind luck.

This past week, I won the baseball game version of the lottery. My prize? Sitting behind the most aggravating family in the history of all baseball games. They spent more than half the game standing and waving in an attempt to get on the Jumbotron; they switched seats with one another every 90 seconds, as oblivious to the people behind them (us) as they were to the fact there was a baseball game on; and every single time music was played over the loudspeakers, they danced. As a family. It was like they had stepped out of the ABC Family channel into real life, and while it may sound cute or quaint, believe me -when you have to watch them for three hours while your favorite team is losing its third straight game in horrifying fashion, it makes you want to put a crowbar where a crowbar has never gone before.

But what got my attention the most was a conversation between the mother and one of the fans next to me. Apparently, the fan next to me was eating peanuts and dropping the shells on the ground, when some of the shell fragments landed on the seat in front of him. It was a scenario that has happened at literally every baseball game I've ever been to during my entire life. At baseball games, people eat peanuts - it's simply a fact of nature.

The mother, however, took it upon herself to berate the man behind her. She not so lovingly explained that if her daughter came into contact with peanuts, peanut shells, or even the dust from inside the peanut bag, she would go into anaphylactic shock and potentially die. Therefore, she asked (or, more accurately, demanded) that the man stop eating peanuts, and spent the next inning frantically searching her daughter's seat for any peanut remnants.

Since the game before me was going rather poorly, I took some time to think of this conversation, and I came to two conclusions. The mother in question was either,

a.) A liar who greatly exaggerated her daughter's condition in order to badger a man she had never met; or

b.) A horrible mother who was risking her daughter's life in order to re-enact a G movie montage at the ballpark with her family.

I'd like to think the answer is a.). After all, if your daughter was so allergic to something that this happened every time they came into contact with it, why would you take her to a place you know with 100% certainty that something would be literally everywhere? I mean, trying to avoid peanuts or peanut shells at a baseball game is like trying to avoid hormones in a seventh grade girl's PE class; it's simply not going to happen. It would be a risk that simply wasn't worth taking to attend a baseball game. The truth is, when reasonable people know something is going to kill them, they avoid that thing.

With that said, it's clear that Jesus was anything but a reasonable person. See, despite the message we send when we say that Jesus was betrayed by Judas and arrested by the Jews and executed by the Romans, the truth is that when Jesus died, He did so of His own free will. He wasn't forced or coerced or trapped; He wasn't caught like a common criminal or snared like an animal. When He died, He did so because that's precisely why He was born in the first place. He gave Himself for you, and He had planned on doing so from eternity.

On this Good Friday, remember that everything that happened to Jesus was entirely because He wanted it to happen for your benefit. And that means if you're planning on spending eternity with Him, you're planning that because He loves you and was willing to do just about anything to make it possible for you to do so. That love and grace is, after all, what makes this day so 'good.'

I guess, then, maybe the mother did knowingly bring her daughter to the baseball game knowing she faced certain death. I suppose that would make her the worst mother ever, but still. If it's possible that God sent His son to knowingly die on your behalf two thousand years ago, anything is.

And for your sake, I hope you know that.

 

I guess I spoke too soon.

To be fair, however, I was right to that point. It HAD been a perfect day. After church on Sunday, Stephanie and I loaded up the car and headed to Indiana for a couple days away. We had planned on meeting my dad and doing the one thing on earth that makes me happier than anything else: going to see the Cincinnati Reds play. Everything was going swimmingly: we had made it safely, we had eaten four days' worth of cholesterol at the amazing Skyline Chili, and we were at the ballpark seats that we had purchased from Stub Hub for $45 instead of $120. It was perfect. And I decided to share that perfection with the rest of the world via Facebook. My status, at roughly 6:00 PM last night was this:

Five rows from the field at Great American Ballpark with my wife and dad. Life could not be more perfect. 

Then the game started. By the end of the first inning, the Reds were behind 3-0 to the Pittsburgh Pirates, who literally haven't had a winning season since George Bush Sr. was in office. By the end of the fourth inning, it was 9-1 Pirates, which was more amazing than aggravating, considering I had specifically chosen this game so that I didn't drive nine hours to watch a Reds loss. It was miserable. It was horrible. It was mind-numbing. And truthfully, I blame my Facebook status for cursing our luck.

But you know what? I was still right. It couldn't have gotten more perfect. After all, the world around us ISN'T perfect, and that means that even on our best days, something horrible will probably happen. But that's okay, if you approach it the right way.

In the New Testament book of Philippians, we read a letter from the Apostle Paul to the ancient church at Philippi. In it, we read that according to Paul,

Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy... - Philippians 1:3-4

Nothing surprising there, right? Paul was happy and thankful, as all Christians should be. Of course, what you may or may not know is that Paul was writing from prison. And prison 2,000 years ago wasn't like prison today; it was infinitely worse. In other words, Paul was joyful and thankful despite being in a situation that would have made Andy Dufresne from The Shawshank Redemption give up and hang himself instead of tunneling to freedom.

The point is this: life, even at its best, is hard. And whether or not you're content has less to do with your circumstances and more to do with your attitude. You can complain and moan and whine all the time about how unfair life is. Or, you can, as Paul did, decide to see God at work even in the rough and rugged times of life, and find something to have joy and thanks about in every circumstance. That's up to you.

As for me, I'll be back in Cincinnati tonight watching my beloved Reds play yet another last place team. It will probably be raining, they very well might lose, and chances are solid, I'll curse them with another ill-timed Facebook status. But just as I did last night, I'll have a blast no matter what.

And that is not speaking too soon.  

Needless to say, they should have known better.

A few years ago, as I noticed my musical tastes were, largely, failing to grow up with me, I made the conscious decision to stop attending concerts. It's not that I dislike people younger than me; it's just that there's something undeniably irritating about being the old guy in a crowd of kids. You feel kind of creepy to begin with, and on top of that, you stick out like a sore thumb, what with wearing normal clothing and having showered in the past 48 hours. So, there are some bands I love that I haven't gotten a chance to see live for fear of a teenage infested audience.

Explosions in the Sky is not one of those bands. In fact, they may have introduced me to a whole new problem.

While attending their phenomenal show last night at the Blue Note in Columbia, the wife and I were surrounded, by and large, by college students. And there were even some older folks around, including one pair of women who drew my attention. One was clearly middle aged, while the other was born during Prohibition. Curiously, they both looked like Laurie Piper from Carrie, as well. But their fabulous hair and sense of style isn't what caught my eye; it was their bad behavior.

In the balcony at the Blue Note, all the seating is assigned. I understand that this can be a confusing concept to some people, particularly those who haven't looked at their tickets. But for the full-bodied perm sisters, this shouldn't have been a novel concept; after all, they were undoubtedly at the first night baseball game during the Great Depression, and the seats were assigned then as well. And yet, stunningly, there they were camped out in someone else's front row seats as Explosions were about to begin. Even stranger, when presented with the fact of their error, they steadfastly refused to budge from their stolen seats, instead, forcing the 20 year old couple who had rightful claim to the seats to spend ten minutes tracking down security to eject the probable Women's Suffragists so they could enjoy the show. By this time, unfortunately, the headliners had begun to play, which means the asinine behavior of the oldest patrons in the building had ruined the beginning of the experience of the concert for someone else.

The truth is that the older we get, the better we should be at this life thing. It's understandable that younger people do stupid things; after all, they're stupid. But as we age, we should be maturing, learning from our own stupidity, and not doing things like stealing seats from college kids at a concert.

The same is true spiritually speaking as well. The longer we have a relationship with Jesus, the better we should be getting at this whole Christianity thing. Unfortunately, since the New Testament era, the unfortunate fact has been that age does not equal maturity. In the anonymous letter to the Hebrews, the older church members are ripped up one side and down another for their lack of spiritual development. Instead of teaching, they still need to learn the basics; instead of setting an example for others, they don't have the wherewithal to know right and wrong; instead of leading the church to new and better things, they're holding God's people back.

If you're a Christian and you're reading this, the message is simple: grow up. It's something we all have to do, and that includes 26 year olds who often likes music geared towards teenagers. We should be better Christians today than we were yesterday, and better Christians tomorrow than we are today. God has a plan for our lives, but until we take responsibility over our own paths and add some maturity to our spiritual tool belts, we're going to be stuck as spiritual infants, acting nothing like our age.

And if that's us, the truth is simple: we should know better.

I believe there are two types of people in the world: those who like Sucker Punch, and those who don't.

In case you aren't up to date with movies these days, Sucker Punch is the latest film from my favorite director in Hollywood, the tastefully named Zack Snyder. Like all of his films (which include Dawn of the Dead and that movie about the owls that everyone made fun of me for liking last year) Sucker Punch was filled with slow motion action, violence, loud music, and random explosions. As an added bonus, Snyder's latest includes attractive young girls, swords, guns, dragons, ninjas, and more attractive young girls. Needless to say, there's quite a lot to like.

Of course, that doesn't mean Sucker Punch is a good movie. Far from it - the plot is incoherent, and during the few times you're actually able to comprehend what's going on, you quickly realize it's pretty dumb. It's too long, is poorly acted, and there are a few moments when watching it that I literally laughed out loud at just how ridiculous it was that the film was made. It's no surprise, then, that the vast majority of critics have ripped it apart, despite the aforementioned elements of the movie that are undeniably awesome.

That's because there are two types of people in this world: those who can get past life's flaws to find contentment, and those who who get so hung up on what's wrong that they're paralyzed to what's right. This isn't just true for movies; it's true for the spiritual lives of people as well.

Ever wonder why there are literally tens of thousands of types of denominations and churches? It's because instead of focusing on what's good in the church, people keep trying to create a perfect place, despite the fact that since the first generation of Jesus' followers, the church has been pretty messed up.

Ever ask yourself why so many people constantly take shots at different theological perspectives, even if they agree on the most important issues of faith? It's because instead of uniting around what they share, many believers try to concoct a bubble wherein everyone agrees on all things, both important and irrelevant, despite the fact that Christians have always disagreed on issues of varying degrees of importance and relevance. And that's always been okay.

Ever wonder why Christians have their favorite, pet sins that they spend a lifetime screaming and shouting about, even when we all know that we all break God's rules? It's because instead of offering grace and mercy, far too many Christians expect the world around them to live up to a preset, artificial standard, despite the fact that our most beloved icons of the faith made mistakes even as they were doing the very things that we celebrate on a constant basis.

The truth is that the world is imperfect. So are people, and by extension, the church. There's nothing that anyone can do about that until Jesus comes back, and so in the meantime, we all have a choice: we can complain, struggle, and attempt to create a paradise on earth where every person in our lives thinks, looks, and lives like us. Or, we can simply accept that the world will never be what we want it to be, and offer love in spite of its imperfections.

I don't care if you ever like or even watch Sucker Punch. But if you can't enjoy something that's flawed and make the best of an imperfect situation, I've got news for you: you're going to spend your life grasping at something that doesn't exist. After all, if God didn't choose to love thing imperfect things in this world, there wouldn't be a church or a gospel at all.

And if that were true, there'd only be one type of people in the world: lost ones.