And The Winner Is...

I could say a lot of cliche things right now. My pick could be the city of Cincinnati for having such competitive rivalries. Or I could say the Forrest Hills School District because either way their district will produce a state semifinalist. I could even say football itself is the winner. What other rivalry could produce back to back days featuring a huge High School Rivalry and then the next day the biggest College Football Rivalry (Go Bucks)? Yet I said I would pick a team and I will pick a team.

I think that the game will be close. Without a doubt each team will come out trying their hardest and leaving nothing in their tanks. There will either be a ton of touchdowns or a lot of turnovers, because neither team will be consertaive and both teams will go for broke. When it comes down to it though Turpin will win. I just have to say that I think this is their year. Anderson has played bigger teams, but I think destiny is on Turpin's side. Anderson fans please don't hate me, because I might have just done the best thing possible for you. I'm not known for picking winners. In fact every year in Fantasy Football I start out in first, but by week 16 I am in the middle of the pack. Maybe I jinxed 'em by picking 'em. I picked the Rockies and look what happened. Either way this week has been an absolute blast talking some great football. We should make this an every year game.

The Game: Anderson vs. Turpin

The impossible has happened and the very fabric of Anderson Township is being torn apart. Family is turning against family and brother is fighting against brother. Anderson and Turpin are going to battle for bragging rights this Friday night. Facebook already has over 1000 confirmed people going to this game from the schools. Rumor has it their are expecting 10,000 total at the game.

I am not making my prediction until Thursday, but I thought we should have something to talk about in the meantime. So here are both sides of the arguement. Both of these guys are seniors who have gone to Parkside Christian Church and been part of our Student Ministry for a long time. For both of them this is the first Anderson vs. Turpin football game they have experienced. Here are their thoughts. Disagree with them? Post a response and let them now.

Aaron Adams, Senior-Anderson High School

Ok first of all this is what I have to say about the Anderson football game Friday. For about the past 5 years we have't played because well basically Turpin sucked. Now they have had a decent team for the past 2 years and they think they are all that. All I've been hearing are Andy Cruse and Ryan Martin are they next best thing to sliced bread. Now we get to play in the third round of the playoffs! This is why Anderson is going to run all over Turpin. Well we have Elijah Storey he has rushed for over 1300 yards this season! plus he is Shawn Alexander's cousin that counts for something right? Turpin has a 5-7 skinny kid named Wayne Dunam granted he is quick, he is just to scared to run in the middle and take a hit. Im tired of hearing about Andy Cruse. Have any of you heard about Nick Truesdell he is 6-7 and will catch anything. Turpin doesn't have a defensive back to match up with him. plus I just have a feeling the Lord is on our side cause face we have three of our offensive players attending Parkside. our fullback/tight end Josh Jeffrey is first team all conference, Bryan Sallee one of our offensive lineman will block you all day and Tyler White will just beat you up if you get in his way. I also feel that when Andy Sims walked into church wearing his Turpin hat that he actually thought Turpin was going to win! What a joke! Plus Turpin has that annoying little mascot, why not get something more realistic. Im going to end on this note just remember it's Anderson Township not Turpin Township, thats why we are going to win!!!! GO SKINS

Clay Seal, Senior-Turpin High School

Hey this is Clay Seal, and I'm a senior at Turpin High School. At first I was planning on having a little fun with this blog. At Turpin we rip on Anderson a lot, I assume that they probably do the same to us, especially this week. I think, though, I'm going to keep it somewhat serious.
Frankly, I was looking forward to a Turpin-Anderson Regional Final matchup, but wasn't expecting it. Good thing for Anderson, they had a freshly paved road to the storied matchup, while we had some terrain to scale. Even though I wasn't expecting it to happen, I'm glad it did. The rivalry in this sport is long overdue, and everyone and their grandparents are looking forward to it.
So why is Turpin going to win? Quite simply, the class of 2008.
When this class has control over a team, they have a winning record. 2004 (freshman schedule) 10-0. After that, every good player moved to the varsity team and inherited a struggling program which was on the rise due to Coach Rob Stoll. Not that the past few years mattered really: the reign would begin no matter what. 2005: 7-3, 2006: 12-2, 2007: 12-0. That comes to a record of 41-5, so far. It's not just for football. Freshman year this same class comes in and goes 19-1 in basketball. I could go on and on and on about numbers, and how the largest defeat these guys have suffered in high school was a 19-0 loss to a tight Kings team in 2005, but I won't.
I’m the mascot at all of the football games. Sparty. To be honest, I haven’t been in the stands once this season to watch them play. I’ve got a big mask on, and my sight in that thing is kind of like when your friends pull your hoodie over your face and tie the strings together. If I can overcome that, I’ve got 40 something bubble butts of opposing teams’ players (usually) to try to look through for a glimpse of the game. All I’ve seen of game play is the occasional out of bounds collision, or one of Ryan Martin’s signature hail marys to Andy Cruse.
I don’t need any of this, though. All I usually see during a game is about 20 kids painted up with recycling bins around their necks, and a few hundred more students with them, in 40 degree weather. 4 years ago, these kids were there, but by the end of the first quarter, they were already hanging out behind the bleachers. We’re a tight knit group at Turpin, but we can also be brats. We’re not going to watch a game to make you feel better. You have to play good football, and that’s all I’ve heard about this season. I hear the dads after the game. The guys who you wonder if they even have jobs because they know so much about the team, and their kids have already graduated from college.
Aside from their game play, these guys have the single most important ingredient to success: confidence. It’s easy to spot a Turpin football player at school, because they’ve usually got a t-shirt on that says so, a locker sign, or something like that. But minus all these things, you can sense it from a mile away. You know there is something more to these guys than meets the eye. They’re winners. Are they cocky? Sometimes. Does it make me extremely jealous that they made it to the 3rd round of their tournament and my Turpin Soccer team got knocked out first round? Yeah. But they’ve still got me.
The past few weeks, kids have been talking about the football team non stop. “Dude I’m nervous about the Trotwood game, those kids are pretty tight,” one student will say to another. A football player will listen in a few rows over, but won’t say anything. It won’t be too long before another student chimes in and says, “Don’t worry. Come on, think about it!” After a few seconds, the kid will say, “Yeah you’re right. They’ll win.” These guys not only have put it together on the field, but off as well. They got the school behind them. With the athletic ability of these guys, their attitude, and all the X-factor you could ask for, I don’t see Turpin losing.

Super Heroes and Supervillians

The next series we will be doing is going to be called Origins. The whole thing is going to be about anger. One of the ways we are going to talk about it is by talking about different superheroes and villians. I know this doesn't necessarily connect, but let me explain. Both Batman and Joker experienced the tremendous loss of family members. Joker let the anger consume him, but Batman let his anger drive him to accomplish great things. Another example would be Luke Skywalker and Emperor Palpatine (yeah I went there). We all remember the Emperor telling Luke to give in to his anger.

Right now we are trying to pick our favorite Superheroes and Villians for the series. We will need one or two each week. Monday night in our planning meeting we threw out names like the Hulk and of course Spiderman. We had some good ideas, but I am sure we are missing some even better ones. My brother reads a lot of comics, but I don't so I definitely need some help on this one. Does anybody know of any characters that would be good for this series? Post a comment if you have something you think might be good and tell me why.

Oh and about that earlier Rocktober post? I think I jinxed the Rockies.

Making Room for Life: Final Week

We are wrapping up our series on Making Room for Life. This upcoming Sunday I will be finishing the series up for our Student Ministry Service. I think we have talked about a lot of good things since the series started in September. Each week has been really applicable to me. Over the course of the past few weeks I have horribly bombed a stress test. Talked with people about how all of us are simply too busy and then told those same people that I had to go because I had three research papers that were due in the next month. As a church we have talked about some really good ways to simplify our lives and focus on things that really matter. On a whole I think this entire series has been a great opportunity to take a step back and see how crowded life has become.

However as I start to finalize my notes and thoughts for this Sunday's Service I am wondering what the best way to sum everything up is. I on't have too much time to think about it though because I still have 3 research papers that are quickly approaching being due, I am going on a Middle School Retreat this weekend, and there is a pile of laundry in our laundry room that is quickly approaching the size of Mt. Fiji! What I am saying is that I personally have learned a lot about being too busy, but at the end of this message series I am still too busy.

Do we all really enjoy being this busy that even though we know we need to we never slow down? Or has our culture just convinced us that if we are going to succeed or be normal we have to live at this frantic pace? I really liked how Patrick this past week showed how Jesus was incredibly busy, but still took time to be alone with God. Maybe that is just what we will do this weekend. A little shorter of a message and more time to simply encounter God. We have spent a lot of time the past few weeks talking about experiencing abundant life. Let's take this week and actually take hold of it.

Rocktober

The Rockies have just accomplished something absolutely incredible. Not only are they going to the World Series for the first time in team history, but they have overcome all odds to get there. A Major League Baseball team has only won 20 out of 21 games 3 times in the history of baseball and it has never happened during the playoffs. It really is astounding. My favorite part is that none of these guys are taking the credit for it. They are all sticking to the team motto. Everybody does their part and they keep winning. Who knows if they will win the series. It doesn't matter because they have already practically accomplished the impossible. It all just serves as a reminder how much can be done when egos are set aside and people work as a unit.

Parenting Gone Wild

So in case you haven't heard Britney Spears will likely lose custody of her children. I read this yesterday and was not surprised at all. I'm sure all of us have kept tabs with the rise and fall of Britney to some degree. Her poor kids can not possibly realize the blender that they have been born into.

What shocked me in all of this was our ability to sit back and just watch. We have developed the movie viewer mentality here in the US. We have been given front row seats for the relationship meltdowns of Jessica and Nick and now Britney and Kevin. Now custody is being switched and these kids are getting tossed back and forth. We don't pretend to be concerned we go grab some popcorn and hope to not miss any of the action. Sometimes I feel like watching the news is like going to the circus. Each of the three rings is filled with someone's tragedy. As we watch our jaws drop and we 'oh' and 'ah'.

The saddest thing about all of this is we become apathetic. I know that there isn't anything we can do for Britney or Kevin (Not that I haven't tried, they just won't return my calls). Still we watch the local news and when its done we go eat dinner. Information should result in action not inaction. When you find out your neighbor's house is on fire, you don't grab another coke from the fridge you call 911 and then go outside. As a culture we have gotten into the habit of just grabbing a coke. I suck at this too. The couch is a lot more comfortable. It's their problem not mine.

I hope things get better for K-fed and Britney. I hope she checks into rehab and stops going to Vegas every weekend. Hopefully K-fed will be a good dad and stop trying to rap. When it comes to me I hope I won't be the "grab another coke" guy when my neighbor's life gets crazy. We shouldn't see other peoples' lives as movies to be watched. Maybe its time we stopped being the viewers and wrote ourselves into the script.