Category: Dallas Mavericks (Page 7 of 8)

Seeking Peace

April 23, 2010 / Allan / 3 Comments

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” ~1 Corinthians 10:31

We’re studying conflict management and peace-making in a Wednesday night class here at Legacy. I’m not teaching it. Kipi is. And, man, I’m learning a lot.

I’m learning that the way we handle conflict is greatly influenced by all kinds of different factors such as personality, age, gender, upbringing, and even socio-economic status. I’m learning that until I understand my own conflict management style, I’ll never adequately understand yours enough to resolve our issues. I’m being reminded that I can only change myself, I’ll never change you. And it’s being reaffirmed in here that, yes, there is a big difference between peace-keeping and peace-making.

I’ve learned that my “conflict style” is to try to build relationship and consensus by getting everyone’s thoughts out on the table for open and honest discussion and evaluation. But it seems I’m just as likely to “give and take” as I am to “compete” in a conflict situation. Oops. That’s not good. I’ve also had it confirmed in interviews with co-workers here in the church offices that Carrie-Anne’s been absolutely right about me in a lot of ways for many years. That’s not all good either.

I’m learning. At least I’m more aware of my strengths and shortcomings now and am working to be a better communicator and conflict resolver. Mostly, though, I think we could all benefit from what Kipi shared with us this week:

Conflict is NEVER an opportunity to force my will on others.
Conflict is NEVER an inconvenience.
Conflict is ALWAYS an opportunity to demonstrate God’s love and power.

I believe our God uses our conflicts with each other to shape us more into the image of his Son. The ways we treat others, especially in times of stress or disagreement, reveal exactly what kind of a person we are. Our motivations in those conflicts say a lot about our continuing transformation by the Spirit. It’s not easy when you ask a hundred people — or a thousand — to get intimately involved in each other’s lives. It’s messy. We’re all different. We’re all fearfully and wonderfully made to be different. Our great diversity is intentional. It’s God-ordained. Getting along with each other is the goal. It’s what molds us into the image of our Creator.

Conflict is ALWAYS an opportunity.

Thanks, Kipi. I like that. And I’m trying to see it that way now.

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When the Soviet Union collapsed 20-years ago, we flooded Russia with Christian missionaries. In that time, several churches have been established and Christianity is flourishing there. Slowly but surely, I suppose. One of the great works and proof of our God’s activity in Russia is the Institute of Theology and Christian Ministry in St. Petersburg. Several of our Church of Christ University Bible professors, including my brother, Keith, at Harding, volunteer to teach there for a quick semester on their own dime. Igor Egirev, President of ITCM will be speaking at the Prestoncrest Church of Christ in Dallas Tuesday evening May 18th. The Psalom Quartet, also from St. Petersburg, will be singing at the event. They’ve edified us before at an Austin Grad Sermon Seminar. It’s beautiful. It should be a wonderful evening. I recommend it.

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I’m hearing today that Cowboys’ number-one pick Dez Bryant is going to wear #88 in Dallas. I’m wondering if it’s because of Jerry Wayne’s outrageous debt and that mortgage on the Dome. You know, he still had a bunch of Antonio Bryant’s old #88s in a closet downstairs and figured, yeah, let’s do it. You think there’s any six-or-seven-year-old Bryant souvenirs in a Cowboys warehouse somewhere that they’re digging out today? I’m concerned that this Bryant is going to remind us more of Michael Irvin than Drew Pearson. You know, there are reasons he slipped down to 24th overall. His best friend and unofficial agent, Deion Sanders, is probably somewhere on that list.

Go Mavs,

Allan

Done.

May 11, 2009 / Allan / 0 Comments

Watching Mark Cuban and Josh Howard in the aftermath of the Mavericks’ heart breaking Game Three loss Saturday evening, I was reminded why I don’t root for that team. It was nauseating. It was amateur. Juvenile. Bush League. Sickening. Disgusting.

It was embarrassing.

Cuban running onto the floor to curse out the referees, shoving cameramen, spewing profanity at game officials and reporters and Denver Nuggets’ players’ moms. Howard having to be restrained as he angrily went after referees.

Are you kidding me? Cuban acts like a three-year-old girl throwing a tantrum in a grocery store or on a daycare playground. It’s embarrassing. It’s humiliating. And it happens all the time.

It’s beyond the owner to see that his team missed four free-throws in the fourth quarter, two in the final 2:12. He doesn’t understand that his star player, Dirk Nowitzki, missed 6 of his last seven shots and didn’t hit a bucket in the final seven minutes. Dirk’s missed three-point attempt with a two point lead and nobody under the basket to rebound with eight seconds to play was typical. And it killed them. Not to mention giving up that dunk to Carmelo Anthony on the play before. Typical. Killer. And it has nothing to do with Antoine Wright’s pitiful foul attempt at the end.

I hope the Mavs get blown out by 40 tonight. I hope Cuban’s suspended for the first ten games next year.

It’s embarrassing.

Peace,

Allan

Josh Howard's Killing Me

April 29, 2008 / Allan / 2 Comments

“I am not a role model.” ~Charles Barkley

So, I’m driving home Friday afternoon from our monthly Four Horsemen lunch in Dallas. I had intended to spend the time listening to a couple of lectureship sermons on CD. But the CDs were blank; probably a glitch in the reproduction process. So I was stuck listening to Michael Irvin’s daily show on ESPN Radio.

Dallas Mavericks forward Josh Howard was a guest on the show, there to talk about his team’s 0-2 deficit to New Orleans and to promote his summer kids basketball camp. And to their credit Irvin and his co-host, Kevin Kiley, went straight to a Dallas Morning News article by Brad Townsend that reported Howard’s admission of recreational use of marijuana. In that article, Howard is quoted as saying, “What can I say? If you can do it and it’s not affecting your everyday life, why stop?”

And I’m stunned as I listen to Howard talk about his marijuana use. You can read a transcript of the radio interview here. About his regular off-season marijuana use, Howard says, “That’s my personal choice, that’s my personal opinion.” He calls himself a mature adult and claims that Mavs owner Mark Cuban and coach Avery Johnson haven’t talked to him about it because they recognize him as an adult and able to handle his own business without hurting the team. “That’s me,” he says. “That’s what I’m going to do when I’m by myself and my personal time.”

According to Josh, the only thing he needs to worry about is getting suspended by the NBA for failing a drug test. So as long as he only smokes during the offseason, when the league doesn’t test its players, it’s OK. He repeatedly answers Irvin’s and Kiley’s questions with variations on this theme of “I’m not going to put myself in no kind of position to fail.”

The real question though, the one that matters, isn’t about how it affects his basketball skills or whether or not he’ll be caught by an NBA drug test. The real question centers on Josh Howard’s willfully and unashamedly breaking state and federal laws. That’s the one I kept waiting to be asked.

And they finally did.

Kiley finally asked Howard toward the end of the interview, “Does it not bother you that this is against the law?”

And Howard didn’t understand the question. His “What???” response revealed that he was unclear of the concept of law outside his NBA world and professional athlete and superstar entertainer environment. Kiley explained the illegalities of “the purchase and use of marijuana in the United States of America.” And Howard responded, again, with, “I’m not going to put myself in the kind of position to fail.”

He has no idea he’s held to any kind of standards or laws outside his own realm of basketball and the Mavericks. And if he is, he doesn’t care.

One more thing from the interview: Howard’s comments regarding his summer camp. Irvin asked him about the parents of these 7-18-year-old boys and girls who are being asked to send their children to Howard’s camp. Isn’t he concerned about what they think about his open use of marijuana?

“You know, if parents trust me enough to know that I’m out here telling the truth and not sitting up here lying, like everybody else is, I think they’ll give me the opportunity to help their kids out, you know what I mean?…I want these kids to see there’s an athlete out there that really cares about them, no matter what his situation is. He really cares about the community and the kids.”

And then Irvin asks the natural follow-up, “What do you tell a kid when he comes up to you and asks you is it OK to smoke marijuana?”

“I’m going to let him know, you know, personally it’s not for you to do it. But I can’t hold your hand, all I can do is tell you right and wrong. At the end of the day, the kid’s going to make a decision off what he wants to do. That’s what I had to do. That’s what my brother had to do and all my friends had to do. Like they say, you can lead the horse to the lake, but you’re not going to make them drink. I can tell them everything they need to know.”

Now, I’ve written all that to say this: we got Whitney a Josh Howard jersey for Christmas. She loves it and she wears it all the time.

What am I supposed to do?

If you’re angry at Josh Howard’s comments or you’re upset or disappointed or if you think it would be crazy for any parent in his right mind to allow his own child to attend this summer camp so Howard could “tell you right and wrong,” be careful. If you drive faster than the posted speed limits, as Nathan said to David, “Thou art the man.” If you fudge a tad on your tax return or if you lie about your child’s age to circumvent the MySpace rules to set up your kid’s account, “Thou art the man.” You are Josh Howard. But I’d rather talk about that tomorrow.

Today, I need to know what to do about Whitney’s jersey.

My inclination is to buy her a Dirk jersey and make the trade with her, telling her that Josh is breaking the law and he thinks it’s OK to break the law and he thinks he doesn’t need to obey the law and so it’s not a good idea to wear his jersey as a symbol of your respect for him. Of course, some will say that Dirk’s no role-model either with his drunken off-season escapades in Europe and Greenville Avenue. But, while what Dirk does is wrong and not what I want Whitney to admire or emulate, he’s not breaking the law. And if he is, he’s not flaunting it or openly saying that he’s above it.

I’ve tried to be careful about the jerseys and posters Whitney hangs up and wears. I’ve tried to steer her toward the “good guys” in sports. I thought Josh Howard was safe. Maybe 90% of the professional athletes out there do think they’re above the law. Maybe 90% of them live their lives that way. Maybe we should burn Whitney’s Tony Romo jersey and tear down her Mike Modano poster and trash her Michael Young bobblehead. I don’t think so. Her role models are her mom and me and her grandparents and her church family and her teachers at school. We tell her all the time that we enjoy watching sports for the skills of the athletes and the drama of the games and nothing more. She knows that most of them are not worth imitating.

But I can’t let her wear the Howard jersey anymore, can I?

What would you do? How are you handling this story and this situation with your own kids who are Mavs fans?

Unless somebody can come up with a better plan, I’m trading jerseys with her. But I don’t think I’ll have time to do it before the Mavs are eliminated and she turns her full attention to the Stars. And that gives me a little bit of a cushion.

Peace,

Allan

Now Where Was I?

April 28, 2008 / Allan / 1 Comment

I know. I know. It’s been a while. A full week now as I look back. Thank you for your emails and your phone calls. All four of you. Since Virgil Fry was scheduled to preach yesterday and present the vision for Lifeline Chaplaincy’s Tarrant County mission to our Legacy family, I seized the opportunity to take one of my vacation weeks. And, no, I wasn’t on the beach somewhere in South Texas or in the mountains of Colorado as some of you have suggested. I spent the week painting the exterior of our house. Six days of hanging off a ladder, 24 feet up, with a paintbrush in my hand. I couldn’t be happier to be back in the study today.

Today’s been filled with a ton of catching up. So allow me to just post a bunch of pictures, give you a couple of quick-hit updates, and resume the full-time blogging tomorrow. As always, click on the pic for the full size. Except the one of all the tongues near the bottom. Gross.

Since last we blogged, I’ve performed my first ever wedding ceremony, joining Jim & Elvera (Long) McKillip in holy matrimony. And it was so low-stress for me. They have 120 years of marriage experience between them. And they couldn’t have cared less about the ceremony itself. It was absolutely a piece of cake for me. They told me to write the whole thing and just show up and do it. No rehearsel dinner. No pre-marital counseling. I asked them if they wanted to at least write the vows and Jim said, “Why don’t you write them and email them to me.” Great wedding. We ate barbecue and peach cobbler at the reception. Whitney, Valerie, and Carley: I hope you’re taking notes.

We were also duped and deceived into attending a PTA meeting. You know how these schools do it. They say your fifth grader is performing in a concert or a play at 7:00 Thursday night when, in actuality, the PTA meeting starts at 7:00 and your fifth grader performs at 8:00. But you don’t realize it until the gavel bangs at 7:01. After they elected next year’s Green Valley Elementary PTA Officers (I almost nominated Whitney for Third Vice-President of Recruiting) Valerie and her class wowed us with their rendition of “We Go Together” from Grease. I hate it when movies I watched as a kid are presented as “classics.” Carrie-Anne’s mom made the poodle skirt. Way to go, Gram!

Now, about those Stars! I keep having flashbacks to ’99. The Stars keep winning and they keep advancing and we’re so surprised. How do they keep winning? Nobody was really expecting this. They’re playing so well right now. Modano looks like he’s 27 instead of 37. And they’re dominating the 3rd periods. If you’re playing the Stars and you’re not up by two or three goals heading to the third period, you’re going to get beat. Last night’s whipping of San Jose puts the Stars up two games to none in the second round, the second time now Dallas has taken the first two games of a series on the road. That’s only happened four other times in NHL history. And all four times, the team that’s started 2-0 twice on the road has made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals.

And then there are the Mavericks. Yuk. The Jason Kidd trade, made out of desperation almost two months ago, is killing them. He can’t score like Devin Harris. He can’t defend like Harris. And he can’t block shots like Diop. Man, they’re missing Harris and Diop. More than that, though, they’re missing Josh Howard. So far in the four games against New Orleans, Howard is averaging only 12.8 points per game on just 25% shooting and 6.5 rebounds. Yuk. And while Mavericks fans probably have huge issues right now with everything from the Kidd trade and Avery’s coaching to the ManiAACs shirts and Laura Green’s hair, my biggest issue—an insurmountable issue for me—is with Josh Howard. And I’m facing a serious dilemma right now in my own house over it. I’ll have to share all this tomorrow and maybe even solicit your opinions and advice.

They’re finally putting the steel roof on our new worship center here at Legacy. The north side was finished Saturday and they’re working on the south side today. By this time tomorrow, I think, everything will be dried in and they can start really working on the inside. The air-conditioners and duct work are in, the rock at the front of the worship center above and around the stage is set and a lot of the interior walls are taped and bedded. I’m still hopeful this can all be done and we can be in the new building by our next 5th Sunday on June 29.

I also want to share with you this picture of Matt and his daughter, Elizabeth, in our living room last night during our Small Groups Church meeting. She’s reading from Romans 15 and I can’t resist the picture. Passing on the faith in our homes. Our children singing with us and reading with us and watching their parents and other adults worship and study and pray. I love the picture and the way it symbolizes one of the key things Legacy Small Groups Church is about. Apply the Word, Connect as a Family, and Evangelize the Community. And do it together.

After last night’s Small Groups meetings I/we hosted a come-and-go ice cream deal to celebrate Carrie-Anne’s 40th birthday. It was a surprise right up until the moment I walked in the door with six half-gallons of Blue Bell. The jig was up. And she knew something was going on. But she wasn’t quite sure what. By the time it was over, we must have had close to a hundred people, mostly from Legacy, through the doors with well wishes and tacky birthday cards. It was a fantastic night with great family and friends. These pictures are of the friends we couldn’t quite run off.

No comment. Thank you, Tonia, for the pics.

And thank you to everyone who came last night. We are so blessed to have made such great friends in such a short amount of time. We love each of you very much. We especially love Jean for washing spoons, Beth for leading us in a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” in Portuguese, and Kevin for taking out the trash. And Jill for waiting until they got in the car to ask Kevin why he never does that at home.

Carrie-Anne, I love you. You are the perfect partner. I love you forever.

Allan

March Sadness

March 24, 2008 / Allan / 0 Comments

Thank you, Georgetown.

My champion didn’t even make it through the first weekend. I still have three of my Final Four alive. But the second-seeded Hoyas choking against Davidson cost me 20 points in the Stanglin family pool. Peeps and malted chocolate Whopper eggs are soothing me somewhat. Heading in to the Sweet 16, Carrie-Anne’s actually leading the house with 45 points. My reign as Bracket Champ continues. But the throne is teetering.

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What if Mark Cuban trades his entire kingdom for Jason Kidd and the Mavericks don’t even make the playoffs? The Mavs are 9-8 since trading for the troubled point guard. And they’re 0-8 against teams with a winning record. Since trading for Kidd, Dallas has slipped from 5th place in the Western Conference standings to 7th, just a half-game out of 8th and only two games out of 9th. That means they’re just two games away from missing the postseason.

And Dirk’s injury yesterday during their third consecutive loss doesn’t help. He’s gone for at least two to three weeks. And they have a couple of games against Golden State and Denver during that stretch. Wow.

I’m not celebrating the fact that Cuban’s Mavs have fallen apart since they acquired Kidd. OK, maybe I am just a little…

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Easter photos from Sunday afternoon at Vic and Kathryn Akers’. As always, click on the pic for the full size.

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And the stone is up around the stumple on the new worship center! We really don’t know what to call that short, stocky, outcropping on top of the new building. It’s certainly not a steeple. It’s too wide and stumpy. One of our elders suggested “stumple” a few weeks back. And it’s stuck. Here are pictures of our newly stoned stumple.

Peace,

Allan

Mine All Mine

February 20, 2008 / Allan / 6 Comments

Van Halen’s second Sammy Hagar-sung album, OU812, opens up with a song titled “Mine All Mine” that pokes critically at culture, politics, and religion. In ripping religion, rightly so in a couple of lines, the Red Rocker sings,

“Give me truth, give me something real. I just want to feel that it’s mine all mine. Stop looking up, start looking in. Be your own best friend. Stand up and say, ‘This is mine!'”

Remember, as a teenager, how you used to justify to your parents the lyrics to your favorite songs? “But, mom, they’re married!” or “He’s talking about kissing!”

Part of me wants to say Van Halen’s song is intentionally pointing out the irony of searching for something that doesn’t truly exist. But most of me knows Sammy and Eddie and the boys really believe they own everything they have. And they’re spending most of their thoughts and energies chasing to own the things they don’t yet have.

And parts of us (me) fall into that trap all the time.

We own nothing. And the minute we realize that and embrace that, our lives will change dramatically.

Listen to Screwtape in letter #21: “Men are not angered by mere misfortune but by misfortune conceived as injury. And the sense of injury depends on the feeling that a legitimate claim has been denied. The more claims on life, therefore, that your patient can be induced to make, the more often he will feel injured and, as a result, ill-tempered…You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption ‘My time is my own.’ Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours. Let him feel as a grievous tax that portion of this property which he has to make over to his employers, and as a generous donation that further portion which he allows to religious duties. But what he must never be permitted to doubt is that the total from which these deductions have been made was, in some mysterious sense, his own personal birthright.”

Screwtape goes on to advise his young devil nephew that the man has this tendency to believe he owns everything around him—his time, his house, his boots, his dog, his wife, his country, his God—and that the longer he continues to think that, the better the chances of the man progressing to hell. Screwtape finds it hilarious that people believe they even own their own bodies, “those vast and perilous estates, pulsating with the energy that made the worlds, in which they find themselves without their consent and from which they are ejected at the pleasure of Another.”

Randy Harris says most people are born on third base and go through life believing they hit a triple.

Jesus says “apart from me you can do nothing.”

The last paragraph of this favorite letter is chilling. Chilling to the core.

“All the time the joke is that the word ‘mine’ in its fully possessive sense cannot be uttered by a human being about anything. In the long run either Our Father (Satan) or the Enemy (God) will say ‘mine’ of each thing that exists, and especially of each man. They will find out in the end, never fear, to whom their time, their souls, and their bodies belong—certainly not to them, whatever happens. At present, the Enemy says ‘mine’ of everything on the pedantic, legalistic ground that He made it. Our Father hopes in the end to say ‘mine’ of all things on the more realistic and dynamic ground of conquest.”

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I’ll be watching with great interest the Mavs-Hornets game tonight from New Orleans. The Jason Kidd trade looks a little better in this final form with Stackhouse staying. But I’m still not convinced this makes Dallas better suited for a run at the NBA title. Kidd is ten years older than Devin Harris. Harris plays much better perimeter defense. Kidd is prone to pouting and even sitting out games with a “headache” if things aren’t going his way. Losing Diop hurts the Mavs inside where he was always a threat to block or at least alter shots. Dampier can bang inside for a while. But he doesn’t scare anybody. Come playoff time, Dallas is going to need a second center to harrass Shaq and Duncan and Ming. So maybe that piece is still to come.

Cuban and Avery are sacrificing a lot for this little window to win it all. Nothing less than a championship will justify this crazy trade. It almost looks like desperation to me. There’s no look to the future here at all. Kidd’s gone at the end of next season. And the Mavs have given up their top picks in the next two drafts.

It’s an all or nothing deal. And making that deal right now is also strange. As tightly packed as the Western Conference is, a three game losing streak knocks you out of the playoffs. So immediate chemistry is crucial. Is Kidd that good? He starts tonight in New Orleans. How good can he be that fast?

Regardless, the move means Dirk never drives to the basket ever again. That leaves only Josh and Jet to take the ball aggressively to the basket. And if one of those guys goes down……..

I don’t like it. Hopefully I’ll be as wrong about this as I was about the Cowboys.

And the first full squad spring training practice for the Texas Rangers begins in a couple of hours in Surprise. That means that by lunchtime today they will be officially mathematically eliminated from the AL West race.

Ian Kinsler said yesterday that every player in the clubhouse is more excited about this upcoming season than they’ve ever been. (????) Scoring a ton of runs and losing 10-8 every night is not exciting.

Peace,

Allan

Category: Dallas Mavericks (Page 7 of 8)

Seeking Peace

Done.

Josh Howard's Killing Me

Now Where Was I?

March Sadness

Mine All Mine

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