Talent/No Talent Night 2

Hi all you MCA registrants. And those who are coming but didn't register yet. We have not provided any way for your to register your acts for the upcoming MCA talent / no talent night. Because of that we are going on faith that you are practicing your acts faithfully and are coming fully prepared to share them with us. But in case you still need some incentive let me offer the following ideas to get your brain working on ideas.

Some things you may want to consider doing...

• answer your cell phone using only your feet
• crash derby with chair racks (you must provide your own racks - you may not use ours)
• open a freshly shook soda can without any spillage
• build and break through a wall (5 minute max length)
• build a tower chair height from uncooked spaghetti (max length 5 minutes)
• sit on a recently built tower of spaghetti and see if it holds you
• perform a skit
• juggle
• juggle pieces of the wall (see idea 4)
• juggle pieces of uncooked spaghetti (see idea 6)
• stand on your head and frown

and if you need some incentive to have acts ready - the back up plan is a concert by Fred. I realize this doesn't mean much to most of you so let me just encourage you to ask Luz staff if you should be concerned about this.

We are looking forward to a great event!

Blessings,

Jericho

Hero

It's true. I haven't posted since Christmas. Have I been busy? Yes. But mostly I haven't made this a priority. And since this is a bit of a journal I'm okay with that. So the topic for today - self evaluation. It may be that I've watched too many movies recently. Or maybe they were the wrong kind of movies. Or maybe the reality is they were the right kind of movies. Maybe the question I'm asking is a good one.

I realize self evaluation is a good thing and I realize I could go a lot of ways with this. But rather than write all the things I don't like about myself or all the things I do I'm going to simply stick with one basic question or concept. I'll try to set it up for you.

All of my life I longed for something but I didn't really know what it was. I grew up like most kids wanting to be something big and grandiose. I wanted to be famous. For me - I wanted to go to the olympics. I just didn't know what sport. There was a drive in me to seek it but the reality is it wasn't enough. I don't know if I would have been good enough, even when I did find my sport, but to have any chance of being good enough I would have had to sacrifice more than I was willing to do.

I had a plan when I was in high school. It would have come to fruition this year. I planned to go to Law School, enter politics, and in 2008, run for president. After all, this is the first year I was old enough to do so.

But God has a funny way of turning our dreams around when we allow him access to our lives. God took my dreams and turned them and led me on a different path but one that still had the same basic draw or hope. I didn't really care about being president or an olympic athlete. It took reading some books by John Eldredge for me to realize that what I really long for is to be a hero. This doesn't mean I need to be famous. It doesn't mean I want the "hero worship" we might attribute to a crazed fan or a Jr. High girl when she sees her favorite rock star on stage.

I want my life to have stood for something. I want to have made a difference. I want to be a hero to a person or a few people. It doesn't have to be a lot. I value the respect and honor in "that glance, hug, handshake, or kiss". I'm not talking about any of those. I'm talking about the special ones that you may only know if you've experienced them.

So, I've watched some movies recently where the main characters were heros. They made a difference in people's lives. And as I watched the credits role and cried I asked myself why I was crying. And the answer was simple. It was a question. Have a really made a difference? Has my life counted or have I wasted 36 years?

And I know this is another way of my being lonely. I know I haven't wasted my life. I know I've made a difference but the how and where aren't always easy to know. But I think the reason I ask this question periodically is because I don't have anyone looking into my eyes in a way that tells me I'm their hero.

So, where do I go from here? I don't know. I go to work. I go home. I do my job. I live my life. And I wonder - does it count? What difference am I making? Will anyone ever look at me and see a hero?