Bobcat Athletics

So after years of wanting to be a journalist, I made the decision that I wanted to stick around San Marcos and work in the Texas State Athletic Department. I've made it very well known that I want to work there, but so far the opportunities just havent popped up. A couple of 12K jobs have opened up, but seriously I could make more money working at McDonalds. Yes it isn't all about the money, but 12K is seriously a slap in the face.

So now, my options are still graduate school which involves more school, and probably more debt, or finding a job around San Marcos hoping that a decent opportunity comes up sometime.

Right now I joke around a lot that I am really not doing much of anything, but thats not the case. I am still interning in the athletic department (even though it looks like i wont get any kind of good job there yet), and I am still working with BobcatFans and in some capacity ASG.

So there are a lot of things still up in the air which is scary, but I know that somehow the Lord will provide for me a plan.

So prayers are needed for direction and guidance that I keep on track with what he wants for me, instead of what I want for me. Easier said than done.

Hamilton and the Job Hunt

I missed out yesterday, dang it!

Anyways, I hope at least one person read yesterdays post, because not many people outside the baseball fan community know about Josh Hamilton. Right now, he is on top of the baseball and sports world and is shouting Jesus's name from the rooftops in every interview that I have ever seen him do.

It's absolutely amazing to think the journey Christ takes us on to put us where we are.

I am still on the job hunt. I have my application in a few places on campus, hopefully I land one of them!

Josh Hamilton

Christian Athletes are a hard thing to come by. I am sure that there are a lot of athletes who believe, or even go to church, but athletes with real relationships with Christ are I think a rarity.

Josh Hamilton has an amazing story, and he has without a doubt become my favorite athlete in all of professional sports.

I don't know how to go into everything without just throwing an article at you that tells you his entire story. I will comment on it tomorrow, but in the mean time here you go.

Faith brings Texas Rangers' Hamilton back from the brink
By EVAN GRANT / The Dallas Morning News
• • • 

SMITHFIELD, N.C. – Just past 8 a.m. on a gray Eastern Carolina Friday, Josh Hamilton's silver GMC truck, grinding gravel into grit, rumbles into the alley directly across Market Street from the Ava Gardner Museum. 

His ash-colored sweatpants are streaked with grease, the residue of eating a chicken biscuit while driving 40 miles from his home in Cary at the crack of dawn. As he enters a hollowed out jewelry store turned batting cage, Hamilton yanks a Rangers royal blue fleece shirt over his head. 

"I like this color," he says from under the shirt. "It really brings out the blue in my eyes." 

Just then, his sturdy, heavily tattooed forearms emerge and his head breaks free. He is 6-4, 240 pounds and has a smile that would have made one of the sirens Gardner portrayed on the screen swoon. 

Now, it's time to go to work, another full day of preparing for his future as the Rangers' center fielder. 

He spends 45 minutes in the cage working with Johnny Narron, friend and mentor and new Rangers special assignment coach. Hamilton swings one-handed with an easy but powerful grace. He hits a handful of line drives off tees and soft-tosses and then another 25-30 in full-scale batting practice. It's a breeze compared to last winter, when he would hit 300-400 balls a day while trying to cram the 3 ½ seasons that he lost to drug addiction into two months. 

The rest of the day includes 2 ½ hours with a merciless personal trainer. On alternate days, he visits a similarly sadistic pilates instructor. 

When he finally gets home and takes off his size 16 shoes, the doorbell rings. A lab technician is waiting. Three times a week, Hamilton's past and future intersect when he urinates into a cup and waits for confirmation that tells the baseball world what he has known for 27 months: He is clean, sober and drug-free. 

"I think he looks forward to the tests," Narron says. "He knows he's an addict. He knows he has to be accountable. He looks at those tests as a way to reassure people around him who had faith." 

Expression of faith 

Faith. It comes up often in the story of 26-year-old Joshua Holt Hamilton. It's virtually impossible to tell his story without mentioning his Christian faith. He'd prefer you not even try. 
 
Washington Post 
New Rangers center fielder Josh Hamilton, here with his daugher, Sierra, lost 3 1/2 seasons to drug addiction before being signed in 2006 by Cincinnati. 

Faith, he regularly testifies, has put him back in baseball after four years of addiction problems so ugly you can't blame his family for not wanting to relive them. But because of faith, they do – to churches, youth groups and halfway houses. 

If Hamilton could shake his habit – it included downing a bottle of Crown Royal almost daily and cocaine and crack cravings so strong he burned through a $3.96 million signing bonus – and finally get to the big leagues last season, there had to be a reason. 

The reason came to his wife, Katie, more than two years ago in a dream while Hamilton was serving a year-long suspension ordered by Major League Baseball for multiple failed drug tests. 

"God told me he was going to give Josh baseball back, but it wasn't going to be for baseball," Katie says. "It was going to be for something much bigger. He was going to give Josh a platform to help others. He is the most beautiful choreographer. It's not by accident that all the things that have happened in our lives have happened." 

On this particular January weekend, Hamilton tells the story three times: To a reporter, to an audience of 500 at Apex Baptist Church and to a rescue mission. The talks usually last about an hour. When Katie is involved, they almost always involve tears. And the crowd, whether it's one or 500, sits engrossed. 

The full story can't be captured in an hour. To really understand how far Hamilton has come, it's important to understand just how far he fell. 

When he was barely 15, Hamilton was already a North Carolina sports legend. He was that rarest of finds, a true five-tool player. Left-handed, he was so gifted that he occasionally played shortstop and even hoped to be a catcher. But coaches were too protective of his arm because when he pitched, he hit 95-96 mph. When he played the outfield, nobody ran on him. When he hit, everybody gasped at the power. 

"I've seen some really special amateur players – Kirk Gibson and Bo Jackson – but Josh is the most talented kid I've ever seen," says Jax Robertson, special assistant to the Pittsburgh Pirates' general manager – and whose son was a teammate of Hamilton's at Athens Drive High School in Raleigh, N.C. "Every skill was above average; some were off the charts. He had instincts, athleticism, passion and compassion." 

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays made Hamilton the first overall choice in the 1999 draft. He was the first high school player to be No. 1 since Alex Rodriguez in 1993. 

Hamilton signed two days later. His parents left their home to be his chaperone. Together, they packed up and headed to Princeton, W.Va., in the rookie-level Appalachian League. Almost immediately, Hamilton was launching talk-of-the-town homers. Within two years, he was named the top prospect in all of the minors. 

Then it crumbled. 

In February 2001, Hamilton and his parents were involved in a car accident in Bradenton, Fla., after one of his spring workouts when a dump truck sideswiped their pickup truck. His parents, Tony and Linda, had to return to North Carolina because of their injuries. For the first time in his life, Josh Hamilton was alone. 

He eventually ended up on the disabled list that May because of lingering back issues, probably from the accident. Someone used to constant activity and who had been somewhat sheltered from teammates suddenly had nothing but time and money on his hands. He started hanging out at a tattoo shop, where he had earlier had Hammer inked on his right arm. 

One tattoo led to another. He has himself inked with flames, tribal signs and blank-eyed demons, 26 images in all. He started hanging out with the guys from the place, too. He joined them one night at a strip joint. That, Hamilton says, is when he took his first drink and snorted his first line of cocaine. 
 
Getty Images 
Josh Hamilton, selected by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays with the top pick in the 1999 draft, has 26 tattoos on his body. 

"It was just a familiar place to go," Hamilton says. "They weren't bad people. They just did bad things. But I chose to do it." 

The initial cocaine high, brought on by the drug's stimulant properties, is one of euphoria and a rush of energy. In some ways, it's like the rush from hitting a homer or throwing out a runner. Hamilton couldn't play, but he found a substitute for the feeling. 

A couple of weeks later, Rays officials sent him to see a sports psychologist because it seemed his lingering back problem was affecting his outlook. The psychologist also asked Hamilton if there was more he wanted to discuss. Hamilton mentioned experimenting with drugs. 

"I was on a plane to Betty Ford the next day," he says. "They told me it was about my parents; I wasn't having any of that. It didn't have anything to do with my parents or anybody else. It was my decision." 

He lasted eight days at the Ford Clinic. It began a cycle: There were failed drug tests, suspensions, short rehab trips, stretches of sobriety, reinstatement and, inevitably, relapse. 

After Hamilton was reinstated in May 2003, his first workout included a homer over the 30-foot batter's eye in center field. Afterwards, some teammates invited him out. He declined. Instead, Hamilton went out alone and got trashed. 

"I did it on purpose," he says. "I just couldn't come to grips with how to deal with the life. I remember a couple days after that – I showed up for early hitting knowing I had failed a test. I sat in the dugout with [hitting coach] Steve Henderson. I looked at the pitcher's mound and the field, and I just said, 'This might be it for me.' I started to cry." 

Downward spiral 

Over the next two years, there were more tears and more self-destructive behavior. 

In September 2003, Hamilton ended an aimless drive at the back door of Raleigh homebuilder Michael Dean Chadwick at 11 p.m. Chadwick had battled drug addiction for 15 years before becoming a faith-based motivational speaker. Hamilton briefly dated his daughter, Katie, in 2002. 

"I've thought about why he ended up here numerous times, but the truth is I don't know; I just think it was destiny," says Chadwick, now Hamilton's father-in-law. "I took one look at him, and I might not have known who he was but I knew what he was. It wasn't very long into our conversation I realized the only chance, and it was a slim chance, for him to get back was that he had to come to it on his terms." 

Others reached out to Hamilton, but he couldn't find the power to take their hands. 

He married Katie during a sober stretch in 2004, but within six months the marriage was strained. On the day that Katie returned from the hospital following the birth of their daughter, Sierra, she sent Hamilton to pick up prescriptions. A 10-minute errand stretched into something much longer. Katie called a local bar. Josh was there. 

"That's when I knew we had the battle of our lives on our hands," Katie says. 

Everyone around Hamilton has a similar story. His father, Tony, remembers leaving Josh in a hospital one night, seeing his son's heart beat so hard "the shirt jumped off his chest," and not knowing if he'd see his son alive again. 
 
Washington Post 
Josh Hamilton's wife, Katie, shown here with their daughter, Sierra, listens to her husband talk about getting a second chance to get to the major leagues. 

Chadwick once paid a $2,000 debt to stop a drug dealer from harassing Hamilton. He remembers Hamilton's 24th birthday, May 21, 2005, as the "night from hell." 

Hamilton dug ditches and swept model homes for Chadwick's company during his baseball exile. He showed up at an employees party and quickly grabbed a drink. Before the night was over, he ripped the rearview mirror off his truck, punched out the windshield and was twice stopped by police. Following the second incident, he was taken to jail. When he was released, Hamilton says he ran eight miles to an acquaintance's home. 

Hamilton cites a day in the summer of 2005 as his lowest moment. He awoke from a crack binge in a stiflingly hot trailer surrounded by a half-dozen unfamiliar stoned faces. His reaction: He loaned his truck to a dealer to get more crack. When the dealer didn't return, Hamilton took off on foot, found a pay phone and called his temporarily estranged wife. She picked him up. 

He showed up shortly afterwards at his grandmother's home, gaunt and disheveled. Mary Holt couldn't turn him away. But it wasn't until after he used in his grandmother's home and she confronted him about it that something changed. 

"I'm tired of you killing yourself," she told him in October 2005. "I'm tired of watching you hurt all of these people who care about you." 

"It was different when she said it," Hamilton says. "That was the moment my heart opened up, and I could actually hear what I was doing. I had lost my family and everybody close to me. That's when I surrendered." 

Reds take a chance 

The road back from those depths would appear to be long, considering Hamilton went three years without playing a game. Really, though, it wasn't. 

MLB lifted the suspension in June 2006 after Hamilton was sober for eight months. He played 15 games at the lowest rung on the minor league ladder. Eight months later, he was in the majors. Of course, another unexplainable twist of fate – or faith – was involved. 
 
Getty Images 
Cincinnati acquired Hamilton through the Rule 5 draft in 2006 after his suspension was lifted by MLB. He hit 292 with 19 HRs in 90 games. 

Tampa Bay didn't protect Hamilton on its 40-man roster after the 2006 season. Rays general manager Andrew Friedman doesn't look back at a wasted draft pick. 

"You want all of your decisions to work out in this game. Some don't, and you accept them," Friedman said. "Josh, he's fought through such adversity to turn his life around, and no matter what uniform he wears we will always be pleased about that." 

Cincinnati maneuvered to get him through the Rule 5 draft. The one caveat: The Reds had to keep him in the majors all season. It was a gamble. But in Reds manager Jerry Narron, who once fought to keep an unproven Michael Young on his Rangers team six years ago, Hamilton found an advocate. 

Narron's brother, Johnny, had coached Hamilton as a teen. Jerry had seen Hamilton's talent up close. After doctors suggested what support Hamilton might need to make the against-the-odds transition to the majors, one thought stuck with Jerry: Get Johnny back together with him.. 

"Doctors told us he'd need somebody to talk to, somebody who he could trust, who he could depend on," Jerry says. "The guy that fit that to a 'T' was Johnny." 

Within a week, Hamilton and Johnny were working together in Smithfield. Johnny joined Cincinnati's staff. In addition to scouting video and assisting with hitting instruction, Hamilton's welfare fell under Johnny's duties. 

They were rarely apart. When Hamilton got antsy in the clubhouse, Johnny would play patsy on NCAA Football '07. When Hamilton went on the disabled list, Narron accompanied him on daily movie expeditions, even if meant sitting through "Transformers" for three consecutive days. They talked daily about baseball, life and faith. 

"He is a unique talent who has some unique needs," Johnny says. "I'm there for him and all 25 players. Whatever I do for Josh, I'd do for anybody in the clubhouse." 

The Reds could have returned Hamilton to Tampa Bay last spring, but he won a roster spot and received a standing ovation from 42,000 fans in Cincinnati on Opening Day. He was among the leading contenders for NL Rookie of the Year for a few months, but problems with a wrist and hamstring limited him to 90 games, hitting .292 with 19 homers. 

When the Rangers started pursuing a trade for Hamilton this winter, the Narrons were among the first calls that general manager Jon Daniels made. The due diligence didn't stop there. 

The Rangers consulted with MLB about potential penalties if Hamilton relapses. For the record, there is no precedent regarding further penalties; it would be handled at commissioner Bud Selig's discretion. 

The Rangers spoke to doctors about dealing with addiction. They did some basic research on athletes and addiction. They found, at least on an anecdotal level, athletes who had strong faith-based beliefs were better positioned to stay clean. 

UT-Southwestern addiction specialist Dr. Bryon Adinoff concurs. 

"If you replace addiction with religion, it's not an addiction' it's something meaningful, socially appropriate and rewarding," Adinoff says. "It's typically very healthy behavior." 

To that end, the Rangers wanted first-hand knowledge of how Hamilton expressed his faith. They sent scouts to some of his talks. 

"He seemed to be presenting a very consistent message," Daniels says. "Before he got involved with drugs, everybody who dealt with him thought he was a very high-quality guy. We saw that. I think there are two things that have played a part in why this attempt at fighting addiction has been successful: Family and faith." 

"I haven't gotten tired of telling this story yet," Hamilton says. "It's my obligation – no, it's my privilege – to tell it to whoever wants to hear it. I realize how fortunate I am. If people can see that I'm not that different than them, maybe it can help them, too." 

Because for all the amazing physical tools Josh Hamilton has displayed, the one that has made him a major leaguer is one everybody is capable of developing. 

It's faith.

Space Jam

The past.... those two words conjure up so many different memories. Some good and some not so good.

Tonight I watched Space Jam. It was a big time blast from the past, and made me think about a lot where I have been.

It reminded me of Waco, and everything that went on there. I had lots of good times, but lots of bad times also happened. I thought about

-the principals office visits
-the fights
-the bullying (both ways)
-the good grades
-the bad grades
-the baseball
-the basketball
-the girlfriends
-choir
-journalism
-science fair
-video games
-the TV shows
-Disney movies
-skating
-karate

I could go on and on, but whats the point? Most of that stuff is gone, and is being replaced with new memories. I will never forget these things. It got me thinking as to how God has shaped my life. Everything that has ever happened in my life was not me doing it, it was God orchestrating his amazing plan for me to bring me where I am today, and to lead me tomorrow. It's absolutely crazy to think that God brought me here. God brought me through all that, and then some. God brought me to Texas State, where I met certain people and got involved in christian ministries on campus.

It's crazy to think that God used Space Jam to bring all these memories back, but thats exactly what happened.

Jesus Camp

I just got done watching "Jesus Camp" and I am pretty shocked. I guess I shouldn't be, but I am.

If you don't know what "Jesus Camp" is about here is a description:
Jesus Camp directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady directors of the critically acclaimed The Boys Of Baraka follows Levi Rachael and Tory to Pastor Becky Fischer's "Kids On Fire" summer camp in Devil's Lake North Dakota where kids as young as 6 years-old are taught to become dedicated Christian soldiers in "God's army". The film follows these children at camp as they hone their "prophetic gifts" and are schooled in how to "take back America for Christ." The film is a first-ever look into an intense training ground that recruits born-again Christian children to become an active part of America's political future.

I grew up catholic, so the word "evangelical" was like a foreign language to me. Then I came to college, got involved in Chi Alpha and things changed. I saw this "movement" firsthand and experienced it for two years weekly and on a larger scale at conferences.

Then I got involved in CRU and things were different, in a good way.

This "camp" is one of the craziest radical things I have ever seen. It follows the story of three kids who are about as evangelical as they come, and have a twisted view of what Christianity is all about. From global warming to speaking in tongues over a cardboard cut out of George Bush, this movie is pretty disturbing.

At the beginning of this documentary, Pastor Becky Fischer tells an audience of children it is their duty to change the world because there are too many fat and lazy Christians out there that are not helping. Crazy thing is she weighs 250-300 pounds. She also states that she wants her children to be as radical as Muslim Jihadists.

The only voice of reason in this entire thing is Mike Papantonio, an attorney and talk show host who is absolutely astonished at what Fischer is teaching these kids.

These people mean well, and they really do believe everything they are preaching. There were some good parts to this movie, but for the most part it was scary.

Watch this video on Youtube, let me know what you think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caX9g6uHciU

Spurs and "21"

I missed posting yesterday, my bad. I actually thought about it at about 12:15 but it would have counted for today, so I waited until now.

And I still don't have a whole lot to talk about.

The spurs let me down tonight, I can't quit thinking about the game.

I just realized how caught up in sports we get. If I knew half the stuff about the bible as I did about sports, I would be in pretty good shape. 

I mean really does it matter in the grand scheme of things that I can list you the starting lineups, or even benches of some professional sports teams? It's absolutely absurd once you really think about it.

I saw the movie "21" today. I was hoping for better, but not bad for $1.50. There was a line in there, that you might have heard before, but that I thought was kind of interesting:

"Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery." 

Isn't that the truth? I mean I can't help what happened yesterday, or last week, last month,last year, but what I can change is tomorrow. I can change the way I live my life and hope that daily I get closer and closer to living the life Jesus Christ has laid out for me and figuring out this mystery called Christianity.

Water

When I think of San Marcos, one of the first things I think about is the river. Sewell/Rio Vista/5 mile, whatever the case, San Marcos and this area has a lot of water. Growing up in Waco I had Lake Waco, but it isn't even on par with what this area has.

I started thinking about Water in the bible.

The first mention of water in scripture is found in  the very first chapter of Genesis  and the last mention is found in Revelation 22 In between those two books water flows through the pages of scripture, about 722 times This should teach is that there is a great spiritual significance to it.

In Genesis 1:20, we read of the first mention of life, and this life comes from water, "...Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life...". This just blows my mind. Water is so simple, yet so amazing. John 3 verse 5 says, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."  

Water speaks to us of the word of God 

San Marcos is amazing for so many reasons, but the water is one of the best

Homeless Ministry

Jason Pierce, a very good friend of mine, got me thinking today about Homeless Ministry.

Living in Waco, I saw a pretty good deal of homeless people. Mission Waco does a great job helping homeless people, and Waco in general. In fact one of my favorite churches in Waco is "Church Under The Bridge," which is exactly what it sounds like. It is a haven for those who are not as fortunate as I am for whatever reason. 

Here is an interesting stat and comment by Jimmy Dorrell, who is with Mission Waco:

Waco ranked 19 in the nation for cities containing people below the poverty line in 1990. "That means 20 percent of the kids are below the poverty line," Dorrell said. "Many people can only work 29 hours a week because the company doesn't want to pay for benefits. That means they're making $10,080 per year, which is $7,000 below the poverty level."

Wow. Mission Waco has this program called "Poverty Simulation," it's pretty simple and I attended it in high school. It is exactly what it sounds like, a poverty simulation. I would love to go back and do it again if possible because I really didn't get the full scope of things last time.

http://www.missionwaco.org/povsimhtml.html

Theres the link if anyone wants to check it out...

We have probably all heard this story before, but it's still a good one to hear over and over. In Luke 16, there is a story about a rich man. On his doorstep there was a beggar named Lazarus. The rich man and Lazarus both died,the rich man was sent to hell and Lazarus to heaven. There is no indication the rich man ever did anything wrong to Lazarus. He was simply indifferent to someone the Lord had literally laid on his doorstep.

“And his soul went to the place of the dead. There, in torment, he saw Lazarus in the far distance with Abraham. The rich man shouted, `Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish in these flames.' But Abraham said to him, `Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish. And besides, there is a great chasm separating us. Anyone who wanted to cross over to you from here is stopped at its edge, and no one there can cross over to us' ” (Luke 16:23-26). 

The important thing that is so hard for us to accomplish on a daily basis is that we recognize whom God has put on our doorstep, and minister to them. So whether that is simply giving a homeless person a meal, or money or a warm shower, the fact is that they were put into out lives for the same reason that you were put into my life, because thats the way God planned it.

More Like Month By Month

When I started this, I really did mean for it to be a daily thing, and I am going to honestly try harder to make it a daily thing even though I think the people that read it could probably be counted on a single hand.

A lot has changed in the past month, for the good and bad. You can try and figure out which is which.

1. Relationships have changed. The summer is always rough whether it is going back home where I don't have a good group of Christian friends, or in San Marcos when people do their things at camps. There is still a good group here in San Marcos, and I am growing with them. The crazy thing is that they are moving on with their lives soon and I am not. It's a scary thought.
2. I have spent a lot of time in some excellent Podcasts. Podcasts really are excellent because you can "almost" attend church around the world. Over the years, and especially this past year I have listened to the Austin Stone podcast weekly. There are other ones that I listen to including Mosaic in LA, The Village in Dallas, John Bevere's church, Joshua Harris's church, and other various podcasts like "The Boundless" show which is amazing.
3. GRADUATION. Wow it is a scary thought. I graduated, and a few days later attended my mom's graduation. It was a whole gamut full of emotions. It was bitter-sweet.
4. I still have no direction regarding a job or school. Right now my life is up in the air. It's pretty crazy.
5. I couldn't go without saying that American Idol is over for now. Another bitter-sweet moment. At least this one will come again next year.

You might have noticed that I really enjoy podcasting, and The Boundless Show has become without a doubt one of my favorite ones to listen to. It is basically people sitting around talking about relationships for the most part, but there are other things thrown in there. They talk about singles groups in the church, and Christian online dating and everything that goes along with that. They also talk about movies like "Juno" and video game addiction. Overall this is just a really great podcast that I suggest checking out.

The Boundless Show got me thinking about podcasting and college. I have had so many interesting conversations with so many different people over the past few years that it may be easy to me to recall them right now, or even in the near future, but man it would be nice to have some of that on audio that I can save forever. I am thinking of hosting, or maybe just participating in a podcast with my Christian friends. I really don't know how to do any of this, or even what kind of equipment would be needed but I really think this is something that I want to do. 

My friend Javier Garcia really had been on me lately about how my day by day wasn't really living up to it's name. I am glad that I have a friend like him that cares enough about me to want to read this and really push me to post more.

Rubber,Metal and Glass

Here is something I read that makes a lot of sense to me, wondering if it makes sense to anyone else.

Tim Sanders—former chief solutions officer at Yahoo! and author of Love Is the Killer App—shares the following thought about establishing priorities:

Take your life and all the things that you think are important, and put them in one of three categories. These three categories are represented by three items: glass, metal, and rubber.

The things that are made of rubber, when you drop them, will bounce back. Nothing really happens when these kinds of things get dropped. So, for instance (and I enjoy sporting events, so don't take me wrong here), if I miss a Seahawks' game, my life will bounce along real fine. It doesn't change anything and nothing is lost—my missing a game or a season of football will not alter my marriage or my spiritual life. I can take 'em or leave 'em.

Things that are made of metal, when they get dropped, create a lot of noise. But you can recover from the drop. You miss a meeting at work, you can get the cliff notes. Or if you forget to balance your checkbook and lose track of how much you have in your account, and the bank notifies you that you have been spending more than you have—that's going to create a little bit of noise in your life, but you can recover from it.

Then there are things made of glass. And when you drop one of these, it will shatter into pieces and never be the same. Even though you can piece it back together, it will still be missing some pieces. It certainly won't look the same, and I doubt that you could actually fill it up with water, because the consequences of it be being broken will forever affect how it's used.

The thing is, you're the only person who knows what those things are that you can't afford to drop. More than likely, they have a lot to do with your faith,friends,family and school-work.