What if?

As I'm sitting here watching the Yankee's(The Evil Empire) vs. the Phils, it reminds me of a story I read the other day. In the story that happened 10 years ago, Keith Olbermann was telling a story about how Vin Scully almost became the voice of the Yankee's in the mid 60's. Yes you read correctly, Vin Scully almost became the voice of the New York Yankee's. Think about that, Mr. Dodger would have been known now as Mr. Yankee! Well anyway, that's not the reason I'm writing this. The reason is a line that Keith used in the story. Here is the line:

"He excused himself to go back to preparing for his broadcast, and, as usual, made it seem like I had done him a great favor by introducing Michael to him."


Here is a man that is a legend in broadcasting, and acted like you did a favor for him by Keith introducing Michael to him. Michael Kay, who is now the voice of the Yankee's was still making his way at that time. What if everyone, no matter what their stature was like that?

Was it worth it?

Over the past few years there have been highlighted cases of people who have taken short cuts whether it be in their business, personal life, ministry, or else where. This opens up the possibilities of so many things when short cuts or even lies take place. Potentially you have the opportunity to destroy years and years of work.

I witnessed something first hand this past weekend. I had heard about some possible goings on but I was able to confirm it for myself over the weekend. When my suspicions were confirmed my thoughts went directly to what could possibly happen if everyone knew what was going on? So first off, any thing this person was saying had no direct effect on me. I knew they had taken the low road, passed something off as their own and pulled the wool over many eyes. And then secondly, I knew this person was a fraud.

So knowing what I knew, I wanted to know just a little bit more. Who else knew? So I found out. My findings were shocking. I found out that a person that is pretty high up you could say, knew about the issue at hand. His solution? Sweep it under the rug and hope no one ever finds out.

So what's at risk? In my eyes everything, absolutely everything. When you are in a very prominent position you have a responsibility. This man is a leader, well you are suppose to call him a leader. People have trusted you with that responsibility and all this person has done is take advantage of those people. If others are to find out it would discredit this man and pretty much anything he has said over the past 10 years while he has held this position.

So what we can learn from this? No matter what you think, a decision to lie or cut corners does not just hurt you, it affects many. It can make people question you and the role you serve. It can make one question his/her beliefs. Be honest, if you need help or are in trouble just ask for help. I know it sounds easy, but it's the truth.

Now I See..

Well I was planning on doing this blog post on another topic, but after this past weekend I changed my direction and will now put it off until my next post. So, you might be thinking, why did I change my mind? Well, I learned something and grew up a little more this past weekend. No, not in physical height, but I guess you could say mentally.

I had the opportunity to attend a mens retreat through my church. In total there we close to 100 men that attended the retreat, including my father and Trey Schaefer(@magnetsfast). It was a great weekend I must say. I really had no expectations.

Tom Davis, President of Children's Hope Chest was our speaker. I had heard of Tom but I had never taken the time to read any of his books(Red Letter Men, Fields of the Fatherless, and Confessions of A Good Christian Guy), so I really did not know much about Tom. Over the weekend I learned who Tom is and Tom's passion. If you have not read it yet, you need to check out Trey's blog and this well also speak on Tom's passion.  http://magnetsfast.blogspot.com/2009/05/what-is-your-passion.html

To check out Tom's foundation please check out www.5for50.com and also you can follow Tom on Twitter @cthomasdavis

So during the first night I was thinking, "what are we talking about?" Over the next 24 hours I would learn. I always thought that the AIDS epidemic in Africa was their problem. I learned that the problem is everyone's. There are demonic things going on over there and a lot of witch-doctors thinking that they can cure AIDS. The fact of the matter is, young kids are being taken advantage of and their way is not the correct way and there needs to be a generational change.

So, over the weekend it made me think a lot. Not just in ways that I may be able to help, but just my life in general. It made me think of things I need to change and things I need to do better to grow in Christ. So overall it was an amazing weekend and helped change my outlook on things and look at things deeper and not just scan over the top of things.