both sides of the gun

the new ben harper record, "Both Sides of the Gun," is excellent. click here to go ben's myspace page and preview the album.

Ben Harper

barbaro

i was at churchhill downs a few years ago and watched a horse break his leg while he was charging to the finish line. they euthanized him right on the track. i was sitting just 100 feet or so from it. i'll never forget the chill that swept through the grandstand when he came up lame and the blanket of death that covered the track when they put him down.

today as i watched the preakness that same chill passed across the entire country when barbaro, the winner of the kentucky derby, broke his leg just before the first turn. two weeks ago barbaro blew away the field in the derby. he was a ferrari in a field of ford mustangs. today he didn't even get into second gear. the rest of the race was almost pointless. the best horse wasn't going to win. he's now in surgery and there is a possibility that he will have to be euthanized. although i'm sure the owner will exhaust all options before making that decision. he's worth too much in the breeding barn.

i know today's events are just part of the sport, but it doesn't make it any easier to watch. i hope barbaro makes it through surgery and goes on to live a happy life as a high paid stud.

balance

There is an interesting article on relevant.com (click here to read) titled "Silent Evangelism." It starts with this quote by Dieter Zander, “If Christians in the US would be quiet for a year and only do good works, that would be evangelism. Our actions are way behind our words.” I don't know who Zander is nor do I know anything about his theology, but his observation is interesting.

Certainly there are plenty of passages in the Bible that deal with words and deeds.

Matthew 28:19
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

and

Matthew 5:13-16
"¹³"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

¹⁴"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

and

James 2:26

"As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."

These are the three that I thought of off the top of my head. In each of these passages we are encouraged to take action. In Matthew 28, Jesus doesn't say "preaching to them ..." He says "teaching them to..." Teaching takes more than just words. The best teachers I've ever had were the ones who taught through their actions not the ones who lectured from the front of the classroom.

I'm not sure what Mr. Zander intended in his statement, but to me it is a reflection on the way the "world" perceives the "church." I can relate. I haven't been active in a church for a long time mostly because I have difficulty with this exact issue. I've watched men lecture the Gospel from the pulpit and not live it out. I've listened to my peers say all the right things in church and then live a different life at home. I began to perceive the church as a hollow social club, and I decided that I couldn't justify the duplicity I was living in my life or watch it in others. I realize that this might not be the best answer, but it was my answer at the time.

Our world values action over words. People are inundated with words. All the blogs (even mine), newspapers, TVs shows, radio, magazines pollute us. What the world wants to see are people who will back up their words with action. For example, we want a President who will stand behind his campaign promises regardless of the politics involved and move this nation to be better. We don't want a man who will say anything to get elected and then start playing games with our tax money to benefit his already wealthy friends. (I'm not picking on Bush specifically. Most politicians are guilty of this including our current leader.)

In the same way, I'm not so sure the world cares what Christians say. The world looks at the fruits of our labor. They see churches organizing book burnings for "The DaVinci Code." What good is a book burning any way? They see stupid bumper stickers and T-shirt theology. They hear their Christian neighbors, and sometimes Christian leaders, sling racial slurs at the Arabic community (and many other ethnicities). They see televangelists selling salvation for a "small donation." They see a close minded sect who chooses to isolate themselves from everyone else by sending their kids to Christian schools instead of the public schools. They see elitism when they visit our churches. They see greed. They wonder why we spend so much money on a building with a basketball court that is only open to members of the church when there are homeless in the community who could use a place to sleep. So, I can see where Zander's statement is coming from.

Deeds alone will not work either. We can't work our way to heaven. If we're not careful the deeds will become just as hollow as the words.

Isn't the answer that we should learn to balance faith with our words and our actions? To me that is one of life's great struggles. It’s something I will struggle with my entire life. For those of you who know me well, I can be quite the loose cannon with my words. As my friend, Lafe, puts it,”John likes to spout off at the mouth." Now that I've written all this stuff, I guess I have to put it into action. I have decided become involved in the church again. I figure that is a pretty good start.

barry bonds and the sports writers

honestly, i don't know what to think. on one hand, barry bonds is the greatest hitter in a generation and a jerk who may have taken performance enhancing drugs to aid his chase of the career home run record. on the other, the sports writers will not leave this thing alone. does anyone care about barry passing ruth except the guys at ESPN? we've got "barry watch" showing us every sinlge at bat in his grueling slump where he's batting .090 since the start of may. do you think the guilt is setting in? why else would this man who averages a home run every twelve at bats only have a handful of hits and no home runs in fifteen days. all i know is barry needs to either hit a home run soon or trip on his way out of the dugout and tear his knee up so badly that he will be forced to retire at 713. one way or the other it just needs to end. this is madness. when does training camp start? i need an nfl fix.

on another sports note, larry brown is a genius. he's going to get $40 million dollars for one year of coaching after the knicks buyout his contract and fire him. all he had to do was finish with the worst record in the nba. genius, i tell you! genius!

my final thought... let's just make mexico the 51st state instead of closing the border. this way we can exploit their oil fields and banana farms, and they can work and live wherever they want. i think its a good compromise. or we could go with the bush plan and waste a couple billion dollars to put our army and national guard to work to fight another losing cause. i find bush's speech interesting considering there were people volunteering a few months ago to do the exact same job for free and the government told them their services weren't needed.

http://www.myspace.com/jpelphrey

i can't believe i finally signed up for myspace. i never thought i would, but it's really pretty interesting. i found a bunch of friends and acquaintances from college, mostly still aspiring musicians. i'm going to post links to their pages so that you can hear their music. if i recommend them, they are worth listening to. if we’ve met before and you stumble onto my blog (highly unlikely) and your link isn't here, it probably means i haven't found you, yet. so, drop me a note sometime.

professional traveler

i'm a professional traveler. my official title at work is "Process Improvement Engineer," but the biggest part of my job involves airports, hotel rooms, rental cars, and expense reports. i have the security line at the airport down to a science. i have airport shoes (slip-ons are a necessity). i leave my belt in my bag and never carry anything in my pockets except for my drivers license and boarding pass to avoid having to dump it into a container and collect it on the other side of the metal detector. i can tell you the flight schedules for monday morning on almost any airline leaving the raleigh airport. in the past month alone i've been to chicago, il, columbia,sc, newport beach, ca, tampa, fl, and long island, ny. if you've never spent a significant part of your work week traveling, consider yourself lucky. my dad also travels for a living. we exchange tips on the best restaurants in airports and road construction information in major cities. i don't think i would have lasted this long if i couldn't share these mundane facts with him.

there are all kinds of professional travelers: truck drivers, business executives, young professionals, seasoned airport veterans, train engineers, airline pilots, musicians. i could go on but the point is although we are a diverse group, we share a common bond. we all leave our families on a regular basis to make money. its an incredible sacrifice for both the traveler and the family and it causes you to question your priorities every time you leave your driveway.

i have a very patient wife, but as we start to consider having a kid i'm sure her patience will wane. i don't know how other professional travelers cope with missing their children's first words or most of the games in a little league baseball season. i just can't justify it. i want to see my child grow up. i want to be there with my wife to see him/her discover the world instead of hearing about it over the phone.

i don't know how long i'll continue to travel professionally, but every time a sit in an airplane i hope that flight will be my last one for a long time... or at least a couple of weeks.