St. Louis Cardinals

This week the St. Louis Cardinals won their 11th major league baseball championship. And they did it in a miracle season for the ages. Being back 10.5 games to Atlanta for the wild card on August 25th, it reminds me of the 1995 mariners when they were 11.5 back on August 24th and they came back to make the playoffs and beat the Yankees in the first round. The difference? These Cardinals WON the whole shebang.

This is another reason why I love sports. It’s the whole never give up (refuse to lose) philosophy. Yogi Berra used to say “it ain’t over till it’s over.” And how true is it for this team? In game 6 it was the bottom of the 9th and David Freese was down to his last strike. ONE more strike and Texas wins the World Series. But Freese, who grew up in St. Louis and was a Cardinals fan as a kid, ropes a 2-rbi triple that ties the game, and later in the bottom of the 11th he wins the game on a walk off homerun. David Freese never gave up. The Cardinals never gave up. They never gave up on themselves and they never gave up on each other. You couldn’t write a better story than this. This is why I love sports.

I'm going on Hillsong Live's US Tour

Thoughts on Occupy Wall Street

This whole Occupy Wall Street I find really fascinating. There has been a lot of criticism of "the message" being muddled or unclear, and it has taken a while for this movement to even get any press coverage (i.e. The Ron Paul syndrome). But I think something like this was inevitable. People are angry and frustrated. The political system has failed and this protest is their way of wanting things to change. But will it work? Can it work?

I'm afraid this will become a political debate. Although that's probably already happened. Is there a way for politics to not be corrupt by money?

Movie Recommendation

Soul Surfer (2011)

I think I'll try and give the occasional movie recommendation on films that aren't super mainstream. Though there's a faith aspect to this movie that may not be normal. But yea this movie I thought was pretty inspirational.

Based on a true story which though it took some dramatic liberties stayed pretty close to a lot of the facts. Bethany Hamilton who though lost an arm in a shark attack still pursues her dream of being a professional surfer. I can't imagine what I would do in a situation like that when you could just give up on your dreams and just try and survive. This is the type of powerful faith that I look to emulate.

Why I love Football

Now the only relevant clip is the first 42 seconds when Lou Holtz is giving his pregame chat to his players. As much as I loved Joe Montana (Notre Dame Alum) and the movie Rudy I am in no way a fan of Notre Dame. In fact I probably root against them most of the time. But Lou Holtz talks about one of the reasons I love sports, specifically for a physical sport like football. There’s a lot of team aspect to the game and strategy where you try to mis-direct and out-think your opponent but a lot of times you come to the situation where it is one-on-one, i.e. mono-e-mono. Your assignment is to block, hit or get past the guy in front of you.

This reminds me of high school football where we would do tackling drills where it would be basically you against the ball carrier. No cutbacks or other blockers to worry about, it’s just you going straight at the other person. In the Lou Holtz speech clip he says you should “go out there and say hey baby here I am now, let me see you run through me now. Let me see you show some disrespect for me when my nose is on your nose. Let me see what you think of me now that my face is to you.” He’s describing the idea of not backing down.

When you’re tackling someone there are many things that can go wrong. You can miss (I know the feeling), you can get run over (I also know how this feels), you can even get injured (and yes unfortunately I know what this feels as well). But you shouldn’t demean yourself by not giving 100%. Otherwise you’ll live a life of regret. You won’t get a chance to really shine. It’s the same with our faith in God. If we don’t give our whole selves then we won’t get a chance for God to shine.

So when I watch Football I don't see individuals mindlessly hitting each other. I see how a person can face their fears, look them straight into their eyes and say "here I am now, let me see you run through me now. Let me see you show some disrespect for me when my nose is on your nose. Let me see what you think of me now that my face is to you.”