Category: Texas Rangers (Page 29 of 33)

God's Saints

August 31, 2010 / Allan / 0 Comments

I am truly blessed by the fellowship meals we share together on the Fifth Sunday evenings here at Legacy. I very much enjoy looking at the faces of my brothers and sisters instead of the backs of their heads. I believe I can see the risen Lord in those faces, don’t you?

I think around those tables in the gym is where we uniquely experience the mercy and grace of God. We share that mercy and grace and acceptance and love in getting somebody a refill on their iced tea, in helping someone clean up a spill, even in saving seats for somebody we particularly want to sit by. We experience mercy and grace and acceptance when we eat together.

This past Sunday night I asked our church family to look closely at the people around all those tables.

“Look at them.” (audible groans)

“These are your brothers and sisters.” (playful rolling of eyes)

“This is your family.” (louder groans)

Look at them. You’re responsible for them. Now take care of them. Love them. Accept them. Nurture them. Encourage them. Be careful with them. Get involved with them. Minister to them. Know them. Tolerate them. Share with them. Laugh and cry with them. Sacrifice for them.

Love them.

“God gave you these people,” I said. “Now love them.”

We don’t choose the saints. God chooses the saints. God gathers together these men and women. He chooses and blesses and predestines and makes known and lavishes and loves and gathers these people we sit with at church. I like the way Eugene Peterson puts it in his latest book — I’m in the middle of it right now — Practice Resurrection:

These people embarrass us with their haphazardness, exhilarate us with their joy, offend us by their inconsistent lives, comfort us with their compassion, bully and criticize us, encourage and bring out the best in us, bore us with their blandness, stimulate us with their enthusiasm.

But we don’t choose them. God chooses them. We are a family with the people God chooses. His saints.

So, this coming Sunday, look around. These are your people. God gave them to you.

Now love them!

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A two-hit shutout last night by Ceej and Feliz. Depending on how Lee does tonight, I’m of the mind now that Wilson might ought to be the starter in Game One against the Twins or the Yankees or the Rays in October. He’s the rock. He’s the stabilizer. He’s the constant. Wow. Cruz picked up right where he left off, too. The magic number is 24…

Peace,

Allan

Can Anything Good Come Out of Pleasant Grove?

August 30, 2010 / Allan / 32 Comments

It was never really cool to be from P-Grove.

Until now.

As a kid growing up in Pleasant Grove, a once proud community in the southeast corner of Dallas — I’ve always assumed it was proud at one time, long before I was on the scene —I always knew we weren’t as well off as most everybody else in Dallas. I don’t think I ever lacked for a thing. But it was obvious, especially since my siblings and I went to private Dallas Christian about 15-minutes north, that the cool people lived somewhere else.

I distinctly remember a school-sponsored overnight trip to Camp Deer Run when we were kids. It was pouring down rain and blowing really hard and lightning and thundering and our teachers and counselors gathered us in the dining hall. They told us that a tornado had been reported in Dallas but “it’s OK, there’s no need to worry, the tornado was reported in Pleasant Grove.”

Pleasant Grove has been the butt of the Dallas jokes for at least 35-40 years now, maybe longer. People who live in P-Grove are called Grove Rats. It seems that 90-percent of the shootings reported on the evening news occur in Pleasant Grove. When I’ve driven my kids through the Grove to see my boyhood home, they’ve always reacted with horror. Carrie-Anne clicks the car doors locked as soon as we take the Scyene Road exit.

Can anything good come out of Pleasant Grove?

The Bruton IV theater just west of Bruton Road and Prarie Creek is where I experienced Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Pleasant Grove branch of the Dallas public library, on South Buckner Boulevard, is where I checked out all of Beverly Cleary’s books about Henry Huggins and Ralph, the motorcycle-riding mouse. The Pleasant Oaks recreation center, just about two miles down Jennie Lee Lane, is where we played ping-pong and basketball. That’s where dad pushed us so fast around the merry-go-round we thought we would either die laughing or choking on puke. It’s where I played three sets of tennis in that record 113-degree heat of a summer day in 1980. In my blue jeans. The 7-11 at the corner of Prarie Creek and Bruton is where I spent hours playing Asteroids and slurping Slurpees. The Pleasant Grove Church of Christ, on Conner Drive, is where I was baptized into Christ. Our three-bedroom house on Terra Alta Circle is where I learned how to be a family. The old Gibson’s store where I made my first major purchase: an $89 ten-speed bike, with lawnmowing money. Craving the ninety-nine cent hamburgers at Griff’s. Pulling the levers on the cigarette machines at Dairy Queen where my grandmother worked. The Circle Grill at Buckner and I-30. Doorknocking the apartments off Lake June Road. Learning to drive on Military Parkway. Twilight Time skating rink. (Oops. Sorry. I was only going to list positive memories in this paragraph.)

Jim Martin came out of P-Grove. That’s pretty cool. When he and I get together for our monthly meetings in Waco or run into one another in Austin or Abilene, our conversation inevitably turns to something only Rats like us could appreciate. And when Jim told me a couple of months ago that Stanley Hauerwas, the great American theologian and one of my favorite authors, was born and raised in the Grove, I was skeptical.

But here’s the proof. Today’s Dallas Morning News carries a front-page story (below the fold) about Hauerwas’ roots in Pleasant Grove. He’s just released a memoir, Hannah’s Child, that details a lot of his childhood experiences as the only son of a Pleasant Grove bricklayer, faithful members of the Pleasant Mound Methodist Church. From there, Hauerwas has gone on to lecture and write and teach and preach. Yale Divinity School. Notre Dame. Duke Divinity School. He’s one of the great theological thinkers of our time.

My favorite work of his is Resident Aliens. Living as Christians in a pagan land. The Church as a colony of outsiders in the middle of hostile territory. Read it. It’s challenging. Convicting. You won’t be the same after you’ve digested Resident Aliens. You won’t view God’s Church or God’s mission for his Church the same way. His writings have certainly had a profound impact on shaping my theology. Hauerwas is a genius.

And he’s from the Grove.

The Dallas Morning News article mentions that Hauerwas graduated from Samuell High School in 1958. My dad was a Samuell Spartan, class of 1960! Is there any chance? Could they have known each other? Is it even possible? I took my driver’s education at Samuell. But does my dad know Hauerwas?

He doesn’t. I just called. My dad doesn’t even have a 1958 Samuell year book, only a ’59 and ’60.

That’s allright. Today, it’s a little bit cooler to be from the Grove.

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The magic number is 26. Any combination of 26 wins by the Rangers and losses by the A’s gives our baseball team their first division title since 1999. Do you realize that there are only 32 games remaining? If the Rangers go 16-16 the rest of the way — no chance since Cruz comes back tonight and Kinsler’s scheduled to be in the lineup by this weekend — Oakland would have to go 25-8 to win the A.L.West.

I remember well those Red Octobers from the late ’90s. Whitney doesn’t. This is fun.

Peace,

Allan

Hump Day Diversions

July 14, 2010 / Allan / 1 Comment

It figures, huh? The year the Rangers go to the World Series they’re not going to have home field advantage.

New Ranger Cliff Lee. One inning of work in last night’s All-Star Game. Three up, three down. Six total pitches. One strikeout. I’m just sayin’…

The second half begins tomorrow night in Boston. Now we really start paying attention. Kipi, are you with me?

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A quality I find most attractive in people is the willingness — even the joy — to laugh at oneself. George Steinbrenner was, by all accounts, an impossibly difficult man to work with and/or for. A narcissistic ego-maniac, for sure. Impulsive. Explosive. Irrational. Driven. Evil. There are plenty of words out there to describe him. But it’s hard to hate a man who seems to take such pleasure in laughing at himself and in watching others poke fun at him.

Steinbrenner’s old Miller Lite commercial with Billy Martin is hilarious. He reportedly took great delight in Larry David’s numerous parodies on Seinfeld (asking Costanza if it’s pronounced “Feb-U-ary” or “Feb-RU-ary” and calling Babe Ruth a “fat old man with little girl legs”; did you know he wasn’t really a Sultan?”). But the funniest thing to me is Steinbrenner himself playing a convenience store owner on Saturday Night Live. His character spent the entire skit trying to persuade his store manager that firing people all the time is a horrible way to run a business. “How can your employees perform at their best when you’re constantly looking over their shoulders?” It’s a great skit. A classic. And I can’t find it anywhere. I’ve looked everywhere today. Help! Somebody please find that old SNL skit and pass along the link.

You know, we should all learn to laugh at ourselves. We should all relax and be able to poke fun at our own idiosyncrasies and shortcomings. God’s Church would be a better place, more people would be encouraged, and more good for the Kingdom would be done if we’d stop taking ourselves so seriously all the time.

Please find that SNL clip!!!

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Dan Gilbert reminds me of George Steinbrenner. The Cleveland Cavaliers’ owner released an open letter to all Cavs fans on the team’s website Thursday evening in the aftermath of LeBron James’ defection to Miami. I certainly don’t condone the attitude or the name-calling in this letter. But you absolutely have to read it! If you’ve already read it, read it again (The Cavs pulled the letter off their team website sometime last night. Click here dangilbertletter.doc to read it today). It’s fascinating. It’s incredible. Team owners don’t say things like this. Not in public. Not even Jerry Wayne. Nobody does this. I’ve read it four times and I still don’t believe it.

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One of our shepherds here at Legacy, Russ Garrison, sent me this photo of his son, Kent. The band is Forever the Sickest Kids (yeah, I have no idea). Kent’s on keyboards and vocals. They’re signed to Universal Motown Records, they’ve got a #34 single with “Whoa-Oh,” they’ve been on Conan O’Brien, played halftime at the Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day game last year, and done a couple of world tours. This picture was taken at the Meadowlands during a show last month. Check out the Empty Tomb sticker in the foreground there. Cool.

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David Byrnes recently sent me an email with a whole bunch of “look-alikes.” A couple of them were striking, such as this coupling of Yassar Arafat and Ringo Starr.

A few of them were really funny, like Dalai Lama and Happy Llama.

But the reason David forwarded the email to me is because he knows my love of all things Van Halen and Simpsons. And this pairing of Eddie Van Halen and the crazy cat lady from The Simpsons was too much for him to resist.

It’s a very, very unfortunate picture of Edward. Taken at a really bad time in his life. Shame on you, David. Double shame.

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Finally, this, forwarded to me from an unnamed Legacy shepherd:

Peace,

Allan

No Mo

June 29, 2010 / Allan / 2 Comments

We’ve been sort of preparing for this for over a year now. But it’s still really strange when it happens. The Dallas Stars today have announced that they are parting ways with All-Everything Center Mike Modano.

Modano is arguably the greatest American-born hockey player in history. An eight-time NHL All-Star. An eight-time team MVP. He holds 15 franchise records and eleven postseason records. It was Modano who assisted on all four of the Stars’ last goals in their ’99 Stanley Cup series win over the Sabres.

I have a theory about good guys in sports. There are many, many different kinds of characters and personalities in professional sports. There are guys who could pull up a chair with you and your buddies at Whataburger or Chili’s and join in the conversation and you’d never know they were famous. There are some who feel they are far superior to everybody else in the room and openly treat others as if they are less than human. Most are somewhere in between. It’s been my experience in 19-years of sports radio — 14 of that covering professional sports — that hockey players are, by far, the best of the bunch. Down-to-earth. Humble. Regular guys. And Modano was among the best of the best.

He is to the Stars what Staubach was / is to the Cowboys.

I remember a short conversation with Tom Hicks on a January night in 2003, inside the Stars’ dressing room underneath American Airlines Center. The team had just honored Modano with a custom Harley and several other trophies in recognition of his 1,000th point and becoming the Stars’ all-time leader in games played. Hicks told me that Modano was always going to be a Dallas Star. I reminded the team owner that he had once said the same thing about Pudge Rodriguez always going to be a member of the Rangers. Pudge had just signed with the Florida Marlins a few weeks earlier after ten years in Arlington. Hicks looked at me and said, “Modano doesn’t have an idiot for an agent.”

Modano may test the free agency waters later this week. Or he may be finished as an NHL hockey player. We don’t know yet. He’s supposed to address all this with the media tomorrow morning.

Either way, much like Emmitt Smith will always be a Cowboy, Mike Modano will always be a Dallas Star. But I’m betting on Modano retiring. He won’t chase money or immortality with a desperate team in a lousy city. He won’t go play for the Cardinals. Or the Predators. He doesn’t have a chip on his shoulder. He doesn’t have anything to prove.

Plus, he’s such a really good guy.

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The Rangers and Angels open up a three-game series tonight at the Big A. And, even though it’s still June, I’m really, really looking forward to this.

The Rangers have the best 75-game record in team history. They’ve won 13 of their past 14. They have the second-best record in the American League. And they own a 4-1/2 game lead on the Halos in the West. But the Angels have won seven of ten. And they’ve captured the AL West five of the past six seasons.

I know. We haven’t even reached the All Star Game break yet. I know. We’re not supposed to care very much about these games. It’s not time yet.

But this is pretty big, isn’t it?

So far, the Rangers have put up huge numbers and tons of wins against losing teams. But they’ve not beat the good teams. Their record this year against the Yankees and Red Sox and other teams of like calibar does not inspire confidence. Not in me. So I think this series means a lot. Late Thursday night when this little three game set is over, the Rangers can be up 7-1/2 games in the division riding a wave of confidence or the Angels can have grabbed the momentum, having closed the gap to 1-1/2 games. Either the Angels realize that this Rangers team is different or they realize nothing’s changed at all. The results of this series can force the Halos to tighten up. Or to relax. The outcome can push Texas to greater heights or bring them back down to earth. The next three nights can launch the Rangers on a dramatic push to the pennant. Or it can be the beginning of their burial.

Or it might not mean anything much at all.

Peace,

Allan

The Lord Is With You

May 12, 2010 / Allan / 0 Comments

“Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you!” ~Luke 1:28

The angel isn’t telling Mary, hey, the Lord is in the next room or the Lord is watching you from heaven. Gabriel’s not even telling the future mother of the Messiah that God is living in her heart. “The Lord is with you” is a biblical formula that means so much more.

“The Lord is with you” is what the angel told Gideon in Judges 6. Gideon balks at the divine instructions to fight so God himself jumps in to say, “Go in the strength you have! Am I not sending you?” The Lord is with Gideon and a great victory is won for God’s people and Yahweh is glorified.

“The Lord is with you” is a statement of promise. It’s a guarantee of God’s help in the assignment he’s about to give you. “The Lord is with you” means God is intervening in your life in a special way to fulfill his promises to you and his holy purposes through you.

In Genesis 39, the writer makes it clear that the Lord was with Joseph. The Lord was with Joseph in Potiphar’s house and blessed Potiphar because of Joseph. The Lord was with Joseph in prison and blessed the warden and the cupbearer. The Lord was with Joseph in Pharaoh’s palace and blessed all of Egypt and the rest of the known world because of Joseph.

The angel tells Mary, “The Lord is with you,” and God works with her and through her to bring the prophesied Messiah to save the world.

Our problem is that we never get to hear the whole story today. The truth is that “the Lord is with you” today at work. And he’s blessing all the people around you, because of you. “The Lord is with you” today in your home. And he’s blessing your spouse and your kids because of you. You must understand that “the Lord is with you” when you preach on Sundays and he’s blessing all the people in your church because of you. “The Lord is with you” today at the grocery store and the post office and the soccer game. And he’s blessing everybody you contact.

Our God is calling you to live for him in everything you do and say and think. And he’s promising to use you to fulfill his salvation will for the world.

“The Lord is with you” is a personal guarantee you can take to the bank.

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Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have donated $870 in bail money in advance of my arrest and imprisonment at noon tomorrow. It’s all part of a fundraising event for MDA. I need to raise a total of $1,480 in order to get out of jail. We’re almost there. You have been hilarious in your comments via email and blog. And you’ve been overly generous in your contributions to the cause. Click here for more information, a clever little video, and to donate. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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If nothing else, the Rangers are fun to watch. Last night was another one of those games that dripped with drama on every pitch. Four lead changes and men on base in almost every inning. Twice the Rangers got down to their final strike and delivered the key hit to re-tie the game. There was a bullpen meltdown and some shaky defense in a couple of critical moments but, man, they just keep coming back. With guys we’ve never heard of before.

My regret is that, with a one-run lead heading into the 9th, Ron Washington decided to leave his well-rested ace closer in the bullpen for Darren Oliver. Big mistake. He admitted as much after the game. I’m still not sure Wash is a qualified good-decision maker. Period.

And all Rangers fans are concerned about the financial state of the team. It’s never been good. Ever. But it’s never been this bad. Not even close. By the end of the week, it looks like Bud Selig and MLB are going to take it over. It looks like there are going to be lots of lawsuits and hearings. And if Texas is still within a game or two of first place by the trading deadline, they still won’t be able to make a move. It’s frustrating. Again.

I can’t imagine they’d ever contract or re-locate the Rangers. That’ll never happen. This is a major media market. It’s impossible. MLB has to have a team here. But the last time Selig took over the day-to-day operations of a team, they moved the Expos to DC. I hope it’s just a coincidence that the Expos and Rangers logos look exactly the same.

Peace,

Allan

Truly Belonging

May 3, 2010 / Allan / 1 Comment

“In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” ~Romans 12:5

We belong to each other because we belong to Christ!

This was our theme here at Legacy last night. These are the words we said together during our call to worship. We repeated the words together a couple of times during our lesson from Romans 12. And we said the words to one another as we shared the communion meal of our risen Lord.

We belong to each other because we belong to Christ!

What if we really did belong to each other? What would that look like? What if we really functioned, not as a group of individual Christians with individual ministries but together as a whole? What if we thought in terms of the whole? Not what’s best for my age group or what’s going to benefit my kids or how this is going to meet my needs. What if we thought and acted like members of something bigger than ourselves? What if our thinking was community-oriented? What if the whole really were greater than the individual? What if we took the inspired apostle Paul seriously? What if we really belonged to each other? What would that look like?

We belong to each other because we belong to Christ!

What if we were truly community? Not just community like the people in your neighborhood or the guy across the street. Not like the people you see two or three times a week and say ‘hello’ to when you run into them at Wal-Mart. What if were community, a body, belonging to one another like, maybe, an army platoon?

Now that’s a community! An army platoon! United by a shared purpose and goal. Working together to achieve something great. A community formed under pressure, shaped by great difficulty. Not just church membership, but a sacred covenant with one another in order to serve the Kingdom for which Christ died. A community of faith inseparably bonded in order to do something together that eternally matters.

We belong to each other because we belong to Christ!

What would that look like?

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Two Saturdays ago we went to the Rangers game with 20 of our Legacy brothers and sisters and wound up in the big middle of 175 Austin Jackson fans in the left field bleachers. Austin Jackson is the Detroit Tigers’ rookie centerfielder who grew up and played his High School ball at Denton Ryan. And when Jim Knox did his man-in-the-stands interview on Fox Sports Southwest in the bottom of the fourth inning, Carrie-Anne, Valerie, Carley, and Carley’s friend, Victoria all got in the pictures. They actually helped this “A.J.” fan club hold up their big banner for the interview.

We had a great time at the Third Day concert before the game, hanging with the Ashlock boys who ate for the cycle during the game, and rooting the home team to an 8-4 loss. Base-running and fielding errors are killing this team, huh? Hopefully Kinsler’s return will spark some offense and shore up that middle part of the defense. And while the Rangers are technically in first place today, I’m worried about this team.

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I’ve been convinced for ten years now that the Mavericks will never win a title as long as Dirk is their best player. I hope he’s not finished as a Mav. I can’t stand the thought of our DFW sports scene losing Mike Modano and Nowitski, two wonderful human beings and pillars of the community, two Hall of Famers (and media friendly to boot!), in the same year. Cuban just needs to find a way to pair Dirk up with a transcendent LeBron-esque superstar to cover his weaknesses on both ends of the floor. Somebody the other 12 guys on the roster will respond to in a crisis. I love Dirk. But he’s never been enough.

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The Legacy Prime-Timers held their annual Hobo Stew this past Saturday night. Valerie and Sarah and Maddie (The Three Amigas) were on hand to entertain and inspire with their beautiful voices. Kent drew the catcalls and hoots everytime he drew his own number for door prizes. Vic did Elvis. And Mack and Shirley blew us all away with their costumes. What a great night. Carrie-Anne and I were honored to be a part of it.

Peace,

Allan

Category: Texas Rangers (Page 29 of 33)

God's Saints

Can Anything Good Come Out of Pleasant Grove?

Hump Day Diversions

No Mo

The Lord Is With You

Truly Belonging

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