BernardShuford.com

For those friends of mine who like chess and would like their kids to learn to play, www.chess.com has now introduced www.chesskid.com, which is a kid friendly chess site with a lot of good safety features.  No chat, no username choices, and things of that nature. 

The eight year old seems to like it.  He loves chess. 

RamblingProphet, you're gonna need an account.  Just saying. 

Hat turned backward, pulled down really low over his eyes.  A stubborn refusal to make eye contact or acknowledge another human being.  Muscle definition that comes only from good genes and a fanatical devotion to the weight room. 

Stuck in a job that it seems only Hispanics will perform these days. 

I've never seen a busboy work so efficiently.  Customers weren't gone from their table for more than thirty seconds before this sharp eyed hawk of a young man swooped in for the kill, eliminating all the dirtied items and preparing for the next diners.  No wasted motion, no wasted time. 

This dude earned his money and probably a good bit more.  He never appeared to be looking at anything or anybody, but nothing escaped his vision. 

I told Karma that he looked like a UFC fighter in training, or something of that nature.  He looked a bit like a thug, and he definitely didn't appear friendly. 

Yet, he was an inspiration to me.  It always encourages me to see people who do whatever they do with everything they have, because I usually come so short of that goal myself.  It's very possible that he hates his job, or that he only works there to legitimize his presence in the US and actually makes money in some other fashion, but that young man was sold out to cleaning tables yesterday. 

I was literally quite awed.

There are a lot of lessons here, but one big one is that we never know who is watching and being inspired by us. 

Do everything you do as though your kids are watching, because God is.  And someone else just might be.

Back last fall, when I went through one of my many spells of being fired up about physical fitness, I began reading Vic Magary's blog over at Gym Junkies.  Vic is a trainer, ex-military, a martial artist, and a guy who just puts it out there like it is.  He was also the owner of a "gym", as they are called in the trade, but now has apparently filed for bankruptcy.  Vic's a roughshod kind of guy, but he's apparently a good trainer, knows a lot about fitness, and has a lot of friends. 

But his business is bankrupt.  It has ripped his life to shreds to try to run the business of his gym, and there are so many "church" parallels here that it's not funny.

Lots of pastors are really good Christians.  Lots of Christians are really good Christians.  They love God, they love Jesus, they love people, they love Scripture, and they love following Christ.

Yet, somehow, there's a brick wall that they run into on Sunday morning when they pass through the church doors, and they find themselves struggling in the context of that ministry.

They have no idea of how to teach a Sunday School class.  They don't know how to sing.  They don't play a musical instrument.  They don't know how to run an evangelism effort.  They don't know how to counsel.  They're not outgoing, so just HAVING friends is a stretch for them.  Or perhaps their kids don't behave the way everyone wants them to.  Or they disagree with some minor teachings of the church. 

Being a good Christian doesn't mean that we are automatically qualified to lead a church.  Being a good Christian doesn't automatically make us "successful" inside the church environment.

Yet, all too often, judgments are made about our spirituality based on how we function in the church environment. 

And that's unfortunate. 

And I am also baffled at how to interpret Matthew 16:18 based on the fact that so many churches, mine included, are continually suffering in a way that sure makes it look like Satan is prevailing.  Hard to resolve.  Maybe that's another post.