Greatest Choke? Or Greatest Comeback?
I haven't decided yet whether the Red Sox' comeback from down 3-0 in the best of seven series to win, without home field advantage, is the greatest comeback in baseball history or the greatest choke (by the Yankees). On the one hand, the Sox were able to gut it out and get clutch performances from Schilling and Ortiz. On the other, the Yankees had two chances to close out the series, with leads in the late innings and the greatest postseason closer of all time on the mound. Right now I'm leaning towards greatest choke.
Anyway, good job Sox! Way to take down the Evil Empire. Now to root for the Cardinals in the World Series. I was kinda rooting for the Astros though... the Cards are relatively young and will be contending for years to come, while Beltran may leave Houston and Biggo and Bagwell are coming up on the end of their careers without a title.
Moving
My company will be moving to a new building in Sunnyvale this weekend, right behind Fry's. Hm, a bunch of geeks spending most of their waking hours walking distance from Fry's... sounds like a recipe for disaster. I'll now have to drive Lawrence every day to work, which means that while my commute distance has been almost halved, the commute time will be about the same. It was kind of nice driving 680-280 every morning for a year and a half... cruising at 70 mph for 20 miles each way gave me plenty of time to think and enjoy music. Now I'll have to deal with Lawrence. Ah well. Even though I spent a fair amount of time around that area when the Avalon Boyz were living at their complex, let me know if anyone knows any good hole-in-the-wall places that I can suggest when my coworkers and I are looking for new places to eat.
"I would have been a murderer"
Quote of the week, from a sermon by Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Church in Manhattan, that we listened to in men's group this week (somewhat paraphrased):
"You, and I, are evil. I am evil. Under different circumstances, I would have been a murderer. It is only by God's grace that I am anything otherwise."
The prideful part of me wants to protest otherwise - "No, never! I'm much too good and moral of a person. Even if I hadn't grown up in an upper-middle-class family with a multitude of opportunities, even if I hadn't gone to good schools and gotten a good job, there's no way I'd stoop so low as to become the worst of criminals, someone who robs another of their life... right?" However, without the teaching of right and wrong, or of taking personal responsibility, who's to say that I wouldn't murder someone? Rape someone? Even the most despicable of people that we can think of in human history began life as innocent infants. What if my place and theirs were reversed? Would I really have done any different?
The more that I think about it, it is both a sobering and a joyful thing to know that I can generate no good on my own. Sobering in the sense that the dark side of the human soul could in fact be so destructive and hopeless without proper boundaries and focus. Joyful in the sense that while man's pride described in Genesis 2 (wanting to "be like God") gave us the ability to discern right from wrong, it is God's apportioned grace that enables us to choose right and to delight in it. Taking it a step further, since we can't control our circumstances, those of us that God has blessed with the environment to experience His grace have that much more of a duty to share this grace with those under different circumstances. And, the amazing thing is that this duty is not a burden when it is performed - it is a pleasure.
God, forgive me for I am evil. I desire to experience Your grace daily. May You be magnified as you transform me and those around me through the work that You've done, are doing, and will continue to do. Amen.
I haven't decided yet whether the Red Sox' comeback from down 3-0 in the best of seven series to win, without home field advantage, is the greatest comeback in baseball history or the greatest choke (by the Yankees). On the one hand, the Sox were able to gut it out and get clutch performances from Schilling and Ortiz. On the other, the Yankees had two chances to close out the series, with leads in the late innings and the greatest postseason closer of all time on the mound. Right now I'm leaning towards greatest choke.
Anyway, good job Sox! Way to take down the Evil Empire. Now to root for the Cardinals in the World Series. I was kinda rooting for the Astros though... the Cards are relatively young and will be contending for years to come, while Beltran may leave Houston and Biggo and Bagwell are coming up on the end of their careers without a title.
Moving
My company will be moving to a new building in Sunnyvale this weekend, right behind Fry's. Hm, a bunch of geeks spending most of their waking hours walking distance from Fry's... sounds like a recipe for disaster. I'll now have to drive Lawrence every day to work, which means that while my commute distance has been almost halved, the commute time will be about the same. It was kind of nice driving 680-280 every morning for a year and a half... cruising at 70 mph for 20 miles each way gave me plenty of time to think and enjoy music. Now I'll have to deal with Lawrence. Ah well. Even though I spent a fair amount of time around that area when the Avalon Boyz were living at their complex, let me know if anyone knows any good hole-in-the-wall places that I can suggest when my coworkers and I are looking for new places to eat.
"I would have been a murderer"
Quote of the week, from a sermon by Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Church in Manhattan, that we listened to in men's group this week (somewhat paraphrased):
"You, and I, are evil. I am evil. Under different circumstances, I would have been a murderer. It is only by God's grace that I am anything otherwise."
The prideful part of me wants to protest otherwise - "No, never! I'm much too good and moral of a person. Even if I hadn't grown up in an upper-middle-class family with a multitude of opportunities, even if I hadn't gone to good schools and gotten a good job, there's no way I'd stoop so low as to become the worst of criminals, someone who robs another of their life... right?" However, without the teaching of right and wrong, or of taking personal responsibility, who's to say that I wouldn't murder someone? Rape someone? Even the most despicable of people that we can think of in human history began life as innocent infants. What if my place and theirs were reversed? Would I really have done any different?
The more that I think about it, it is both a sobering and a joyful thing to know that I can generate no good on my own. Sobering in the sense that the dark side of the human soul could in fact be so destructive and hopeless without proper boundaries and focus. Joyful in the sense that while man's pride described in Genesis 2 (wanting to "be like God") gave us the ability to discern right from wrong, it is God's apportioned grace that enables us to choose right and to delight in it. Taking it a step further, since we can't control our circumstances, those of us that God has blessed with the environment to experience His grace have that much more of a duty to share this grace with those under different circumstances. And, the amazing thing is that this duty is not a burden when it is performed - it is a pleasure.
God, forgive me for I am evil. I desire to experience Your grace daily. May You be magnified as you transform me and those around me through the work that You've done, are doing, and will continue to do. Amen.
posted by Bob at
1:25 AM
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