Weird Christmas

This was one of the weirdest Christmases (how do you make "Christmas" plural?) I can remember. I spent all of 48 hours with my family, and not a lot of that was actually spent at home in Walkerton. Then, it was back to Terre Haute to prepare for and play in the Wabash Valley Classic, a 16-team tournament Sullivan is a part of. Now, I love Indiana high school basketball, so what better way to spend your break than getting inundated with games? Plus, it's given me my first opportunity at scouting--it's a lot easier to get to games early (or stay late) when you live 5 minutes from the tournament site (it's at TH South) than the 30 minutes those who live in Sullivan are. Still, it has a very different, weird feel to the break. Now, I love having a few days of not doing lesson plans, but that will end really soon (school starts on Wednesday), but the break is just....well, weird. Oh, and this is only my second Christmas with a girlfriend. So how do we celebrate? Well, we didn't see each other really at all. We saw each other at Jazz Kitchen on the 26th with a big group of people, and that's been it. Between basketball, Liz returning from France, and Carolyn getting ready for Florida (she's there right now), things just didn't work out. Again, very weird Christmas.

Oh yeah, and we're in the consolation bracket championship game, so if you happen to be in Terre Haute at 3pm today, stop by!

The follow-up

I had my varsity scrimmage time on Tuesday. It went...alright, I think. Coach had me play point guard, and I'm not a point guard. I never had great ball-handling skills, and it's been 8 years or so since I played against really aggressive defense. So, that was a little rough, but I think it wasn't too bad. I tried to force a few things, mainly to try to make sure the defense was doing what they should, but hopefully it wasn't too many turnovers for Coach. I had one really nice drive, and a nice shot that almost went in (oh, if I could have willed that in, it would have gone). Plus, when you play point guard on offense against a zone, you really shouldn't crash the boards, because you're supposed to be back on defense. Unfortunately, that's a huge part of my game. Ah well... But, all in all, it was fun. I got decent feedback from a few players--I was a little rough, but didn't embarass myself. I guess that's a positive.

Coach brought a few more guys in to play today, and didn't have me play at all. So, do I read anything into that? :)

Intimidating

Tomorrow I get to play offense. Against the varsity. Hence the title.

Actually, it's probably not going to be that bad. I'll be playing against a zone, which I like doing--I'm usually pretty good at finding holes and working my way around in them. But, it also means I'll probably have to shoot and/or dribble. I haven't done either of those against my intensity or with anyone in my grill in a long time, so this could get real interesting. More than anything, I will get so much grief if I airball a shot at any point. Of course, being tentative with your shot only makes it worse... So, we'll see how much fun I think this is tomorrow night.

On a really creepy note, I am hit #44 for "f-o-r-c-e-d v-i-r-g-i-n s-e-x" according to blog search. I hyphonate it because, well, I don't really want to move up that list.

Long weekend

Nothing makes for a long weekend like two losses. Well, 3 if you count the JV. Both JV games this weekend were really exciting, with shots to win both games, while Friday's varsity game was pretty exciting. Last night we went up against the #3 ranked 3A team in the state, and just couldn't score enough points. 1 point in the first ten minutes will not win you very many games.

So, to add excitement of the weekend, I got a pretty bad headache today. It means I stayed home from church today (4 hours of driving with a throbbing head didn't sound fun), but gave me time to write some finals and prepare for the week of class work. Now all I have to do is do my Christmas shopping (not likely, since I don't feel like leaving the house) and make a power point presentation on my trip to Romania for my home church in case I give a talk over the break. Since I've never used power point before, at least not for very long or very seriously, we'll see how successful I am with a throbbing head.

On a potentially exciting note, there's a JV tourney next week. Which means, in particular, that only the varsity will be practicing. There's not 10 people on the varsity. The punchline being, of course, that I better get my playing shoes on, because I might have to practice some this week. Is there any way to get in shape in the next 48 hours?

Trinity

So, I was talking with a good friend who I consider to be fairly advanced in the faith. She is attending a small group in which she feels very connected and edified, and considers her groupmates (better word?) to be solid Christians as well. Anyway, she came to find out a few days ago (well, weeks at this point...I'm a little slow) that many of the people in the group do not believe in the Trinity. In particular, Jesus was not God. Rather, the term Son of God somehow denotes son in a non-begotten sense.

Which got me to thinking--how does one translate certain passages to make this an intellectually plausible view? For instance, Isaiah 9:6 refers to the Messiah as "Mighty God." In particular, the same Hebrew word is used here as in Isaiah 10:21, which is refering to God Himself (thank you Jews for Jesus pamphlet). In Genesis 1:26, it talks about God making man in "our" image, not "His" or "my" image. In John 1:1, it talks about the Word being with God and actually being God. These are just a few that came to mind...

So seriously, I want audience participation here. I realize the concept of the Trinity is very difficult to understand, and on face may even be distasteful, but I feel like you sacrifice too much in terms of Scripture to make that view acceptable. Just because something is difficult to understand doesn't make it false. In one sense, Christianity isn't "easy." Understanding God isn't "easy."

How would someone holding this view deal with passages like what I mentioned?

It don't mean a thing

I had a fun time stopping by a surprise party for Avery, a founding father (or is it founding mother, since she's a girl?) of the Carmel swing club. I miss them, and it was good to see/birthday dance with them. If only basketball didn't interfere with swing dancing so completely.... Of course, her first reaction to seeing me was "what are you doing here?" That was nice.

The one advantage of potentially taking the potential job I possibly would have been offered at Carmel would have been to continue on with the club. Well, that and being less than two hours from church would be really nice. :)

I know this is going to get me in trouble (KTB hit me 5 times in the arm after the party for supporting this stance), you Carmel kids need to keep working on her to get club going every week. There's nothing like dancing every week to really get people excited and addicted to swing dancing. You don't even need lessons every week, just dancing is good. Anyway, be sure to get me in lots of trouble by continually harassing her...

Addendum: For the sake of our friendship, please don't actually harass KTB. This may be a touchy subject, and I want her to dance with me again at some point in the future.

Sex take two

Same class, different student (apparently has not been a part of any of the conversations had in that class so far).

"What, you're a virgin?!?"

"Yes..."

"Why?!?"

*Shawn thinking to himself: cha-ching!*

Yeah for 15 second blurbs about God! And, let's face it, we're talking about sex--the whole class was paying attention. So, for a few brief seconds, I got to talk about God, marriage, sex, and how I feel they all fit together. Blatant, uncensored, and completely not forced.

The person seemed to think it was "sweet" and "cute," but what about the other 19 people in the class? May God use me in that classroom, and let me not overstep my authority in Christ and as a teacher in these coming days, months, (years?)...