Category: Whitney (Page 10 of 13)

Farewell, Texas Stadium

December 22, 2008 / Allan / 2 Comments

Whitney was released from the hospital at 1:00 Saturday afternoon. Wheelchair. Walker. Pain meds. Lots of cards and balloons. By 5:30 I had her in a luxury suite at Texas Stadium, getting ready for the last Cowboys game ever at their historic football home. Thanks to Doug Deere, a good friend here at Legacy, Whitney and I were able to take in the excitement of the game, the history of the evening, and the time spent together doing something we both love: watching the Cowboys.

As most of you know, Whitney’s a huge Cowboys fan. She doesn’t remember any of the Super Bowls of the ’90s — she was born 18 days after Super Bowl XXVII — but she knows enough to be huge fans of Troy, Emmitt, and Michael. Of course, she adores all the current crew (I keep telling her she’ll grow out of it) and knows everything about every one of them. She ate up every moment of our night together. And she made her usual lame excuses for Romo and Terrell Owens and Jerry Wayne throughout.

Glen and Karen and Crystal and Lexi, Doug’s great friends who actually own the suite, were outstanding hosts. What a great family. They pampered Whitney and catered to her every need. Plenty of Ruffles and Dr Pepper. A corner seat down front. And somehow Glen even arranged to have two Cowboys cheerleaders come up to the suite during the third quarter and take pictures with Whitney and sign her cast. (She would have been more impressed had it been Brady James or Anthony Henry. I didn’t notice them doing anything on the field that would have kept them from coming up for a quick visit.) With all of that PLUS!!! Dallas getting to within two points twice in the final four minutes and those huge gut-wrenching, record-breaking runs that sealed it at the end, I don’t think Whitney blinked for five hours.

Thank you, Doug! Thank you Glen! Thank you, everybody in the suite.

My interest in the event was in recalling my childhood and early adult memories made at Texas Stadium. My first ever Cowboys game with my Aunt LouAnn against the Saints when I was eleven. Paul Baron taking me there to see Steve Grogan and the Patriots, the man sitting in front of us asking Paul to tell me to stop cheering so loudly. A Sunday night game against the Raiders with my high school friends. A high-profile Thanksgiving Day duel between Glenn Carano and Chicago’s Vince Evans with my whole family. A freezing, sleeting, Saturday afternoon playoff loss to the Rams with Todd Johnson two months after I got my drivers license. A loss to the Dolphins in 1989 with my college buddies, but a free dinner from Mike Osburn because Aikman threw for over 300 yards (the last time I bet on anything).

I’m blessed to have had a mediocre broadcasting career that allowed me for almost five years to be at Texas Stadium for another 30-or-so games. Roaming the sidelines before kickoff. Watching the stadium fill. Visiting with assistant coaches. Hanging out in the locker room before and after games. Being overly rude and sarcastic with other reporters and hosts. Watching up close the drama of what’s said and not said during postgame news conferences. What a privilege to be there the day Emmitt passed Payton. Only time I’ve ever seen a pressbox give anybody a standing ovation. What a blessing to be there for all those games, to make all those memories, from the endzone nosebleeds in 1977 to the sidelines and up and down the players’ tunnel in 2004.

I wanted Whitney to remember this night as much as I will. I kept pointing to all the names in the Ring of Honor and telling her about each player. I talked to her about the differences between Tom Landry and every other coach the Cowboys have ever employed. I explained the significance of the hole in the roof. We talked about the championship banners and those Super Bowl teams from the ’70s and ’90s. The white stars that rim the field. The big blue star in the middle. The pressbox where I sat as the Sports Director at KRLD.

She looked up at me at the two-minute warning and said, “Dad, even if they lose, I still had a good time.”

Yes!

So they’re tearing it down. After 37 years, Texas Stadium’s not big enough, not fancy enough, not new enough. In about four months, the only ties the current Cowboys will have to the Clint Murchison-Tex Schramm-Tom Landry beginnings will be at their office headquarters and practice facilities at Valley Ranch. But nobody ever sees that. The offices are being moved to Jerry’s new place in Arlington. So is the little museum and the five Super Bowl trophies. The championship banners are being moved. And it’s only a matter of time, maybe just three or four years, until Valley Ranch is abandoned, too.

That new stadium in Arlington is amazing, no doubt. And for at least two or three generations of Cowboys fans, it’ll become a great place of lifelong memories. For me, though, that new stadium is one more reason not to like the Cowboys.

Peace,

Allan

The Whitster's Coming Home!

December 19, 2008 / Allan / 3 Comments

Whitney came through her surgery yesterday with flying colors! Dr. Herring beeped us an hour-and-a-half in and declared everything a major success. He almost sounded surprised himself at how well it went! They took some bone from Whitney’s hip and grafted it into her left foot to straighten out some irregularities she’s dealt with for over ten years. “That bone,” Dr. Herring, the chief of staff told us, “did exactly what we wanted it to. It brought that foot right in where it needs to be.” She was back in her room by 10:30 am. And by 2:00 pm she was back to her normal self, talking a million miles an hour about sports and games and food.

There’s a pin sticking out from her heel underneath the cast. She’ll be in the cast that runs from just below her knee down to her toes for six weeks. And she can’t put any weight on it whatsoever. So she’ll spend most of these six weeks in a wheelchair. We’ve done it once before, when she had both feet operated on seven years ago. But we were in a one-story house then. I think the downstairs study is about to be converted into Whitney’s temporary quarters.

About three weeks ago, Doug Deere, one of our friends here at Legacy, gave me two tickets to his company’s suite at Texas Stadium for tomorrow night’s last Cowboys game ever at the historic football shrine. And my heart melted, knowing that I had no choice but to take Whitney, but realizing it would be a close call with her Thursday surgery. We got the news yesterday that they weren’t planning to take the epidural out until Saturday and that she wouldn’t be released until Sunday or Monday. They’re much more concerned with the pain in her hip than in her foot. I was devastated. Whitney’s been begging us to take her to a game in this final season at Texas Stadium since last year. It’ll make her decade to get to go. But it wasn’t looking good.

Until this morning. Carrie-Anne told Dr. Herring all the details of what had been planned. Knowing Whitney like he does—he’s been seeing her for seven years and operated on her now four times—he concluded there’s no way she can miss the game. So he conferred with a couple of other doctors and got everything moved up 24 hours. The epidural’s coming out this afternoon and she’s going home tomorrow at noon. And we’re going to the Cowboys game together tomorrow night! Dr. Herring said even if it sets her back a couple of days in recovery, she can’t miss that game.

So, they’re working out her pain meds and getting all of that regulated today. I’m picking up Valerie and Carley from school in about an hour and heading back over to Scottish Rite. And I can’t wait to tell Whitney about the game. She doesn’t know yet. We haven’t told her because we weren’t sure she was going to get to go. She’s going to flip. I can’t wait.

The experience has been marvelous, as it always is at Scottish Rite. We love that place. They take such great care of their patients and their families. Whitney won’t even need a Christmas after all the gifts and goodies she’s received from the hospital this week. And your prayers and calls and cards and visits have done wonders for us and our family. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Our church family at Legacy is so wonderful. Our friends and family spread out all over the southwest are wonderful. And our God is so great. Once again, he shows us his love and concern, his provision and protection, through his people. And once again he delivers us. He walks with us through the valleys. He rescues us. What an amazing Father!

Go Ravens.

Allan

Lex Orandi Lex Credendi

December 16, 2008 / Allan / 3 Comments

The Latin phrase “lex orandi lex credendi” means, loosely I suppose, “we worship as we believe” and / or “we believe as we worship.” There is a strong, unbreakable relationship between what we believe about our God and the Gospel of Jesus and the manner in which we worship. Christ’s Church has for centuries used this formula in shaping worship liturgies and assembly practices. But the fact is, the formula stands as true whether the Church and its various and scattered congregations recognize it or not.

Think about it.

Is our understanding of the Gospel reflected in the ways we worship? Do the ways we worship communicate to the church family and to non-members our understanding of God’s plan to redeem the world?

Most theologians and all church historians would say our Christian assemblies are intended to “rehearse the Gospel.” When we come together we re-tell the story, we re-enact the history of our God and his people. And how we worship is a fairly accurate indicator of how clearly we get it.

If we understand the Gospel as an all-inclusive effort by God to reach out to the entire world in all its diversity to forgive and redeem—all cultures, all peoples, all nations, all languages, all social classes, all ages, all backgrounds—does our worship assembly reflect that? If we see God’s plan as calling his people to live together in communities of faith and to be transformed more into the image of Jesus in the ways we sacrifice and serve each other, does our time together on Sundays communicate that? If we sing praises to God with great joy and enthusiasm, what does that say about our understanding of God’s grace? Do multiple cups and pre-broken bread at communion time say more than we want it to about our comprehension of community at the Lord’s table? Do our attitudes toward others—in an opposite corner of the worship center or in the pew directly in front of me—reflect our grasp of what Jesus has done for us? If we understand that to be like Christ is to die to ourselves and serve others, is that our practice and mindset when it comes to the assembly?

What if every single thing we did together as a community of faith were viewed through the lens of what Jesus’ birth, life, teachings, ministry, suffering, death, burial, resurrection, and eternal reign means for the child of God.

Jeff Childers and Frederick Aquino, in their great book Unveiling Glory, claim this is the only way to make decisions and form policies regarding our congregational worship.

“What if a community of believers paid such close attention to the meaning of Jesus’ coming into the world that they were gripped by the mission of God? They would have a guiding vision, a driving purpose that helps them make decisions fitting their sense of destiny. What if a preacher helped his church meditate on the deeper mysteries about Jesus, such as the significance of his being both human and divine? That church might develop some new attitudes about such things as diversity in the church or the place of tradition. What if a church’s leaders regularly talked together about the Apostles’ teachings on Christ? They might get excited about the Apostles’ basic aim of transformation into Christlikeness. This is a clear agenda, a Christ-centered ideal they could use to measure ministry decisions. They would look for worship policies that helped form a church environment that nurtures spiritual growth and maturity.

When we reflect carefully on a subject — like worship — in light of the meaning of Christ, we can come to see it in Christ-centered ways, to talk about it in Christ-focused language, and to keep our conclusions about it grounded in the central matters of the gospel.

Ultimately then, the aim is the same as that of our salvation: transformation. Done well, it forms us into the image of Jesus.”

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No new “KK&C Top 20” college football poll today. The next and final poll will be released on January 9 following the BCS national championship game.

While vacationing in Branson recently, pollster David Byrnes noticed and commented on the striking similarity between fellow pollster Mark Hooper and Moe Bandy. After reviewing the photos, I must agree. Hooper’s out of town a lot. He’s emailed his weekly poll from all over the world. I’m going to have to go back through all the old records to see if we ever received a poll from Missouri. Nice wig, Hooper. We’re on to you.

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If anyone ever — EVER — throws anything at me while I’m preaching, I hope I exhibit the same calm presence as President Bush. I’ve watched the video a hundred times. And I can’t get enough. He stared the guy down like Nolan Ryan facing Robin Ventura. It was like he was daring him to throw his camera or his hat. He dodged and then popped back up for another. Incredible. Hilarious. Bring it on!

I can’t see anyone in the pulpit really acting that way, though, except maybe John Bailey. The man throwing anything at John would be terrified if he actually hit him.

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The blogging may be sporadic, if not entirely shut down, for the rest of the week. Whitney, our oldest, goes into Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas tomorrow morning for Thursday’s surgery. She’s having reconstructive surgery on her left foot to fix a couple of issues she’s been dealing with for a little over ten years. They’re actually taking some bone out of her hip and grafting it into her foot to straighten it out and give it a little more regular shape. She’ll be in the hospital until at least Saturday. And she’ll wear a cast and be on crutches and in a wheelchair for six weeks.

She finally admitted Sunday that she’s “a little nervous.” But she’s also looking very forward to getting everything fixed. Her parents are a little anxious, too. Please keep our precious angel in your prayers to our gracious Father this week.

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

Whitney's Bouncing Back

March 10, 2008 / Allan / 1 Comment

Thursday and Friday were awful beyond description with Whit. But she’s on track now and doing wonderfully.

Whitney had gum reduction surgery on Thursday. She had so much gum tissue in her mouth and around her teeth that it was obstructing her bite and even preventing her braces from doing what they need to do. So this three hour surgery on Thursday was to go in and slice and peel and scrape and cut and stitch her gums—all the way around, top and bottom—to make the inside of her mouth more like everybody else’s. Of course, this three hour surgery turned into a four surgery. And Whitney’s mouth continued to bleed all through the night. After a very long night—mainly for Carrie-Anne and Whitney–her mouth was still bleeding Friday. And she didn’t look good. She was pale and groggy, maybe from the pain medication. But she was absolutely miserable because of all the blood. I’m serious, it was everywhere. And it wasn’t stopping.

I reluctantly left for Tyler at about noon for our annual Four Horsemen Advance (more on that below) and Carrie-Anne wound up taking Whitney back to the surgeon at 1:00. After four more hours in the chair, this time without anesthesia, they finally got the bleeding stopped.

When I got home at about 5:00 Saturday afternoon, Whitney looked and sounded so much better. She’s finally on track now with what they had told us would happen and how long it would take. It’s just that they did so much cutting and there was so much gum tissue there with all the attached blood vessels that it took more than they anticipated to control that aspect of the procedure. But I was able to get a good look at her mouth yesterday and I can actually see all of her teeth! They were always there. We just couldn’t see them. She’s not in pain anymore. She’s still uncomfortable. But not nearly as much as she was two days ago. She still hasn’t had anything to eat since Kipi’s meatloaf last Wednesday night. But she’s drinking tons of water and juice, strawberry milkshakes, and Dr Pepper floats.

We’re very grateful to all of you who’ve sent her cards and well wishes. Thanks to Mary Glover and Lance and Taylor, Whitney has me continually running up to Sonic to get her a Blast or a float. And you four sweet girls and your moms who came to visit yesterday afternoon, you know you’re an answer to our prayers for great friends for our oldest daughter. Thank you.

She’s going to try some soup this afternoon. Maybe mashed potatoes by Wednesday. She won’t be ready for chips and salsa or popcorn by NCAA Tournament time. But I don’t think the Sonic cards will be out of credits by then either.

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The Four Horsemen rode into Tyler Friday afternoon and nearly froze to death at Tyler State Park. The same thing happened last year in Cleburne. It seems that everytime we schedule our yearly Advance, the weather freezes up and shatters records. If we set next year’s event for June, be prepared for a catastrophic shift in the earth’s atmosphere.

I’ve written at length over the past several months about Jason and Kevin and Dan. I don’t have any closer friends. And I don’t know any men who are more dedicated to our Father and to his Kingdom than these brothers. My time with them—during our monthly lunches together and, especially, on our annual weekend camping trips—is always uplifting and encouraging. We pray together. We talk about our families and our kids. We study Scripture. We talk about God’s Church. We help each other with advice and insights. Jason and I talk about preaching. Dan talks about ministering to the margins and planting churches. Kevin keeps all of us grounded and connected by talking about the big-picture of the Kingdom. And we all four come away stronger and better and closer to God and each other.

Kevin, I’m not sure how you’re going to explain the burn marks on your hand. Dan, I hope you’ve recaptured your breath following our hike to the lake. And Jason, I don’t care what you think, we could all three take you. It would take all three of us. But we could take you.

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I’ve shared my snow and snowman pictures with you. Here are two more I have to pass on. Darryn “Everything’s A Skit” Pope built this first snowman in the middle of his street. Aaron Green stuck 20-month old Parker on the top of their snowman Thursday before it was finished. As always, click on the pic to get the full size.

And then, one final note. I missed last Tuesday’s Screwtape study due to my trip to Waco (more on that tomorrow). When I returned to the office/study Tuesday evening, I found our little church office mascot, our lamb that reminds us to “think of the flock,” upside down in front of my door. I blame Byrnes and Pope who think the flock refers only to them.

Peace,

Allan

Three-And-A-Quarter Inches

March 7, 2008 / Allan / 0 Comments

Friday morning following the Blizzard of ’08. I’m running late for the Annual Four Horsemen Advance with Jason, Kevin, and Dan. We’re going to Tyler this year. I’m supposed to be at Dan’s house in Forney in less than 90-minutes and I’m nowhere close to ready yet. Whitney’s mouth looks like Helter Skelter right now with all the blood and saliva and stitches and swelling. Bless her heart. It’s really horrible. But the doctors say everything went perfectly well, they were able to do everything they needed to do with her gums, and she should be just fine in about a week. Carrie-Anne’s taking her back to the doctors at 1:00 this afternoon for a checkup. Thank you so much for your prayers and your cards and your well-wishes for the Whitster this week.

I’ll be able to get everybody caught up on everything Monday. But I did want to post a few pics this morning of our snow. I measured 3-1/4 inches in our front yard at about 4:00 yesterday afternoon. As always, click on the pics for the full size. Everybody have a great weekend.

Peace,

Allan

Category: Whitney (Page 10 of 13)

Farewell, Texas Stadium

The Whitster's Coming Home!

Lex Orandi Lex Credendi

Josh Howard's Killing Me

Whitney's Bouncing Back

Three-And-A-Quarter Inches

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