I continue to have my comfortable “bad” Christian apple cart overturned by a group of troublemakers from Phoenix. I have mentioned several times that my faith world is being rocked by the book TrueFaced and the TrueFaced Romans Bible study. A recent romp through the high definition television channels triggered today’s grace episode. I stumbled on a concert by an artist named Lee Ann Womack. She was beginning a new tune so I lingered. The song made me laugh and then made me think. A bit of set up for the lyrics. Apparently Lee Ann’s ex-boyfriend has met another and the upcoming wedding announcement is in the paper. A picture of the new love triggers a wave of jealous, immature and childish behavior. She thinks the new woman doesn’t take a very good picture and blacks out a couple of teeth for good measure. Yep, she responds like most of us have at one time or another. Here is the chorus. It may be my
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Everyone at Casa Burchett has been ill recently. Joni brought home the first cold bug. Then dog friend Hannah had a little stomach virus and that was not pretty. I will spare you the details. Now it is my turn to be sick. I thought of how really crappy I have felt this week. And then I realized how much I take for granted the fifty weeks or so out of every year when I feel good or even great. Sure I have the usual little aches and pains that a 50 year old plus body will accumulate. But for five decades I have been blessed with the ability to run slowly, jump barely, dance awkwardly and laugh often. I am so blessed. I thought about how I never got sick once during Joni’s chemotherapy when her immune system was so fragile. Praise God for that. I thought about people who feel far worse than I have felt this week every single day
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This writin’ bidness can be dangerous. My greeting from an old buddy in Nashville this week went something like this. “Thanks a lot for your blog about the SI swimsuit issue. You didn’t leave me with too many options.” I smiled tentatively and hoped he was kidding. Thankfully he was graceful in his objections. But the reality is that my friend did have options. He could choose to sin. I have made that choice in the past regarding the SI swimsuit issue. Christians often choose to be a bit more nuanced when we describe our own personal sin. We prefer words like shortcomings and mistakes. I have decided to quit playing word games with a God who is not fooled. I am a saint because of Jesus. But I still sin because the old nature still craves attention like a spoiled child at the supermarket. I am definitely getting better as I understand my identity in Christ. But my sin nature is
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 Because the presidential nominees are still in doubt we Texans get a rare “treat” this primary season. We get political commercials from now until March 4th.  Whoopee. And we get political rallies as a part of our new status as a key state in the delegate process. This week a packed arena in Dallas hosted Barak Obama. The atmosphere was more like a revival than a rally. A lot of people are into the Obama “Hope and Change” tour. I always hesitate when I write about politics because nothing brings out the thin-skinned loonies quicker than a perceived slight of their man or woman. So please understand that this post is not about critiquing a candidate. These thoughts are about our culture in America and, in particular, the Christian demographic. The electric atmosphere at the Dallas Barak Obama rally and hearing his recurrent message got me to thinking and that is always a dangerous thing. I was thinking that God must have a real
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Being a celebrity in this culture is brutal. Great coaches will often say they will break down an athlete to build them back up. The idea is to make them better. Our culture has a little twist on how we treat the famous. We build them up in order to break them and tear them down. The idea is to make us feel better. Celebrity is hard on families and the children of the famous. I have often told my kids that I love them so much that I took the burden of mediocrity on my career just for them. They didn’t believe it either. Yesterday Barak Obama saw the cycle of celebrity run over him, hit the brakes and back over him again. Obama got caught repeating almost verbatim the language of an earlier speech delivered by a friend of his, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. His response yesterday was a bit defensive and suggested that his opponent also “borrowed” phrases from him.
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The morning stroll with dog friend Hannah was delightful. The sun was shining and the air was brisk. Hannah found hundreds of p-mail messages to sniff in her version of the world wide web. On the iPod I dialed up the series I am currently devouring on the book of Romans. The series is called the TrueFaced Grace Series and it is by the same knuckleheads that have been rocking my world with the book TrueFaced. I wrote about the book in a recent post called the Santa Clause is Comin’ to Town Theology. Today’s passage was from Romans 5. I am placing my marginal reputation on the recommendation that you check out this book and/or CD series. What hit me on the stroll today was how I seem to ration grace in my life as if it is in short supply. I picture myself like those old movies where the guys are stuck in the desert with one canteen of water
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This week marked a couple of rites of spring. The reporting of pitchers and catchers to spring training and the arrival of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. For me one is a “right” of spring and the other is becoming a “wrong”. I was on the road when the swimsuit issue arrived at my home. The lovely Mrs.Burchett led me into a marital minefield with this simple statement. “Your swimsuit issue arrived today.” She waited. Work brain, work! Must step carefully. Following the lead of Nehemiah I “prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered”.  My response was simple. “Throw it away.” Joni thought she had (to quote Roger Clemens) “misheard”. “What?” “Throw it away. I don’t need to see that.” I think I surprised the Missus. This has been a process for me. I have gone over the years from eagerly anticipating the SI issue to guiltily perusing it to quickly flipping through the magazine and then tossing it. This year I never even saw
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