Merry Christmas!

Well, it’s almost Christmas Day. I’m at my parent’s and we’re going to celebrate Christmas tonight. Due to work and being out of town, I’m not going to be able to post in the next couple of days, so I wanted to go ahead and wish all of you a very merry Christmas from me. I hope it is an uplifting season. I don’t really have much to say, so I decided to post a video of my favorite Christmas song being sung by one of the best vocalists there is, David Phelps. Enjoy!

The Neily Awards – 2009 College Football

While all the other awards for the college football season have been handed out, it is time for the most important. That’s right, I’m talking about the 2nd annual edition of the highly coveted college football Neily Awards. So without further ado, here are my picks for this season.

Player of the Year – Toby Gerhart, RB, Stanford – Gerhart was an absolute beast this year and was robbed of the Heisman. Played 6 rushing defenses in the top 40 and still led the nation in rushing, as well as scoring 26 touchdowns.

Offensive Player of the Year – Golden Tate, WR, Notre Dame – I thought Tate was an absolute electrifying player. In my mind, should have been a top 3 Heisman guy, but was hurt by the inability of Notre Dame’s defense to stop anyone.

Defensive Player of the Year – Ndamukong Suh, DT, Nebraska – While Eric Berry tried valaintly to win his 2nd consecutive Neily, Suh was just too dominate this year. People will always point to his performance against Texas, but Suh played like that all season, including single-handedly destroying my beloved Sooners.

Offensive Freshman of the Year – Dion Lewis, RB, Pitt – I wanted so bad to give this one to Stanford’s Andrew Luck, I had even typed in his name. But in the end, my head overcame my heart to go with Lewis. He was an absolute workhorse for Pitt and should go into next year with legitimate Heisman hopes.

Defensive Freshman of the Year - Aldon Smith, DE, Missouri – This was the toughest of all the choices. Too be honest, I ended up going with the guy I was most familiar with. Smith was a machine as a freshman, and there is already talk of him being a future top 10 pick in the NFL.

Coach of the Year – Gary Patterson, TCU – While the popular choice for this award is new Notre Dame coach and former Cincinnatti coach, Brian Kelly, I think Patterson is the most deserving. His defense is excellent every year, including the top ranked defensive squad this year. I felt like TCU was the one undefeated team that could hang with Alabama or Texas.

Stay Connected With Neil’s Diamonds

Hey everybody. I just thought I would stop by and let everybody know about a what I think is a cool new feature on the blog. In the upper part of my sidebar, there on the right, is an option to subscribe to get email from the blog. I know I tend to be a little bit of a streaky blogger. I might have four or five posts one week, then go a couple of weeks without one. But now, buy subscribing for emails, you can make sure you have always read the latest post. You never even have to come back to the site. As soon as I am finished writing it, the entire post is sent directly to your inbox. Just a little something I thought might make things a little easier for my readers.

Oh, and in celebration of the holiday season, I added a little snow to the blog. I have a couple of sports posts coming up. One about the Heisman Trophy finalists, my second annual College Football Neily Awards, plus some other stuff I have yet to think of. Love you, bye.

Heaven & Earth – Phil Wickham

I must say that I am real excited Phil Wickham has some new music out. In my opinion, Phil’s first two CDs put him firmly as one of the best, and most unique, artists in Christian music. And his new album is no different. Where in the past, Phil kept it pretty simple, a lot of acoustic guitar to match up with his distinctive voice, on this album he seems to be testing waters a little. While the last three songs on the album “Because of Your Love,” “Cielo,” and “Heaven Song,” seem to round it out with the classic Phil sound, the rest of the album hits pretty hard with a lot of piano, electric guitar, and a whole lot of synthesizers. But it works. Phil calls himself a worship artist, so I give it to him. Even with the change in sound, this is a very worshipful CD. (I’m not sure worshipful is a word, but I used it anyway.) He has a way of keeping lyrics very simple, but not falling into the same old ordinary sounding worship songs you hear all the time. To me, this is the best album of the year. I loved it. Every single song made me hit the repeat button at some time or another. Phil is getting better and better with every album.

Rating: 9.5/10

The Camping Trip (Part 2)

The Camping Trip (Part 1)

Until just recently, I always drove with the windows up. However, in an effort to save gas, and consequently, money, I decided to cut the A/C and roll down the windows. And I must say I don’t think I can ever go back. (Except when it is really cold. Or really hot for that matter. Actually, the more I think about it, it still has to be pretty perfect weather for me to keep the windows down.)

 But there we were. Kid’s taking on the great wilderness. Like birds flapping their wings to learn for the first time they can fly. But we were driving down the road with the windows up, and let me just say the car was getting a bit stuffy. I was definitely ready to get to the cabin, if for no other reason than to just get a breath of fresh air.

 As we pulled up to the office for the cabins, my mind quickly moved from fresh air to whether or not I would survive the night. There was a lone streetlight in the parking lot, which was just bright enough to give light to nothing. It felt like we were driving into a scene from a horror movie. We decided that someone needed to go check and see if the door was unlocked. I volunteered Jeff, mainly because I was afraid I would pee on myself if I moved.

 The cabin was pretty small. Not something you would stay in for vacation, but definitely better than sleeping on the ground. It even had a TV. But every time we turned it on, a breaker was thrown and the electricity would go out. (It was at this time I expected someone to jump out of the closet with a hatchet.)

We spent a little time chatting, eating brats, and what not. I mentioned to Jeff that I had never owned anything camouflage before. He was nice enough to give me a camo hat that he had. And I figured that since I had a camo hat, I was a real outdoorsman. So I spent the rest of the weekend talking about hunting and Muck boots in a strange accent.

 Mason was having to write part of a movie script for one of his classes, so Jeff and I thought we would help him out. You know, make sure he has a real vision of the entire movie, as well as making sure his ideas didn’t suck. We had this real awesome idea for the movie. One where a little girl comes from the future to tell a man that he must save her life. I say “we” had a good idea. It was mainly Jeff and Mason’s idea. For some reason, they thought all my ideas for the movie were real dumb.

 I had just thrown out an idea about how the girl could have been a former student in her hero’s karate class, which Mason welcomed with, “Maybe you should just be quiet,” when my life changed forever.

 At this point, I was getting a little tired, as well as being frustrated because my awesome ideas weren’t being taken seriously. I felt like Tom Green on The Celebrity Apprentice. So I hugged onto a pillow and rolled over on my back. And if not for Jeff, I would be dead right now. Because I am very trusting, I sat still as Jeff killed a spider which was ready to pounce. For sake of the story, it turned out to be the most poisonous spider in the world!

I had trouble sleeping because my mind was going a million miles per hour. I searched every inch of the cabin for spiders, which I suddenly had an extreme fear of. I also couldn’t get over the fact that I would never be a real man until I had me a pair of Muck boots. Plus the bed pretty much sucked. I think I might have preferred the ground.

 As we got ready to go the next morning, it was bittersweet. We had survived (Although just barely). But as we left, it felt good to know that what started as a trip with two men and one scared little boy taking on the great outdoors, three men were returning. That’s right, Jeff had become a man.

Sports Ranting

It’s been a while since I wrote to all of you fine readers about how things are going for me in the sports world. So, if you don’t mind, that is what I am going to do for the rest of this post. If you do mind, sorry. Just stop reading and click on one of the links over there on my blogroll.

Dallas Cowboys

Well, the Boys are heading into December at 8-3. At this point they are almost a lock for the playoffs. But December has always been their achilles heel. As for this December, I am hopeful, yet worried. I am hopeful because it appears that this team is good. The biggest reason has been a very mature Tony Romo. He is simply taking what the defense is giving him, and letting the Cowboy’s defense carry the load. And the result has been wins. I am a little hesitant, however, because the schedule the rest of the way is tough. Giants, Redskins, Eagles, Chargers, and Saints. I’m just hoping everything doesn’t fall apart.

College Football

Does it mean that I’m not really a sports fan if the conference championships are tomorrow, and I’m not really interested. The Sooners and Razorbacks both went 7-5 this year, which means whatever happens tomorrow, really has no impact on either of the teams I root for. The only thing that could make this season worse and less exciting is if Tim Tebow wins the Heisman, at which point I would vow to never care about the Heisman trophy again. Or even college football, for that matter. Toby Gerhart all the way!

That’s about it for now. I’ve got a new computer on the way, so be looking forward to the possibility of more frequent blogs. I’m just so streaky. Stay thirsty my friends.

Find Your Way – Acappella

Well, I’ve just been sitting here, waiting on my night class to get started so I figured I met as well get my other review for the week put up.

Acappella will always have a special place in my heart. There were a couple of years where, literally, all I would listen to was Acappella. I would take out one awesome CD of theirs, just to pop another one right in. You may hear me mention few other musical artists as “favorites” here on my blog, but no one can ever replace Acappella as my all time favorite. They have just made too much good music for too long. And with that being said, this post is about their newest CD, Find Your Way.

Find Your Way is one of those CDs that is solid, but isn’t going to blow you away. There are a couple of what will be Acappella classics, but for the most part, you don’t really feel bad about skipping to the next song.

The opening song, “Calling Forth”, is one of those classics I was talking about. It is a real high energy song that I can see Acappella opening concerts with for a long time. To me, the other two classics are “Something to Hold On To” and “Find Your Way.” Too be perfectly honest, other than those three, I don’t see any other songs on the CD worth singing in concert once the newness of the CD wears off. “Something to Hold On To” is my favorite song on the album. Zac George is one of the most soulful white guys I’ve ever heard. And if you’ve ever heard him sing his version of the Acappella classic “Rescue” live, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The lyrics are generic, the melody is a little better, but the vocals are awesome. “Find Your Way” features Zach Wilson, the high tenor, as the lead, and he does an awesome job. He is definitely the best high tenor Acappella has had since Kevin Schaffer, and maybe the best they’ve ever had.

Other than that though, nothing about the CD really stands out. I think the biggest problem with the current lineup in Acappella is they don’t have that powerful lead voice. Sure, Wilson and George are both incredibly talented vocalists, but neither has the type of voice that takes charge of a room. Still, I enjoyed my week listening to the CD. If you are a hardcore Acappella fan, then you must buy it, but if you are just a casual listener, you’re best served just downloading the three songs I was talking about.

Okay, class starts in fifteen minutes so I must be off. Until next time, be good.

Lord, Teach Us to Pray – Your Prayer

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Matthew 6:9-13 (ESV)

The Lord’s Prayer. I was in band in high school. I wasn’t in a band, I was in the band. I played the trombone. As a marching band, we had this tradition. Every time, before we went to march, we gathered in a circle to hold hands and say this prayer. That was my introduction to the Lord’s Prayer. I had never heard it before. Before long I had it memorized, but it wasn’t until I was in college that I learned it was actually in the Bible.

Suddenly, the prayer had new meaning in my life. In high school it was just something I quoted out of tradition. I never really thought much about the meaning. But as a Christian, when you learn that Jesus actually said something, it tends to become more important. So I began to study it. Spending time really trying to figure out how what Jesus said related to me. It has become, in my eyes, the single most impacting verse on how I live my life.

What I’m not going to do is break down every little section. All you have to do is go over to Google and you can find all you want when it comes to that. But what I do want to do is take this prayer that is so simple, and try to explore what it means for us to pray this same prayer today.

I think we misunderstand prayer sometimes. Usually, we pray asking God to give us things. And I’m not against that. God tells us to ask him for our wants. But the problem with that is, once the prayer is over, you don’t do anything else. You ask God for something and then just leave it. But in the Lord’s prayer, we see Jesus telling us something revolutionary. Prayer is not just something done in private, but is something that affects the way we live all the time.

If you read it, you realize the prayer is completely communal. He begins speaking about God, then starts talking about us, but never really gets around to himself. I think that is sort of beautiful. Take for example, when Jesus prays, “give us this day our daily bread.” He could have easily just asked for his daily bread, but he didn’t, he asked for everyone. You see, praying communally spurs us into action. Praying communally means we must be willing to be the answer of our own prayer.

If we pray to God to give us our daily bread, but we aren’t willing to go feed the hungry, we have missed the point of the prayer.

When we pray to God to protect us from the evil one, but we are not willing to go rescue a brother or sister struggling with sin, we have missed the point of the prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer is less about asking God for answers and more about being willing to be a part of God’s answer to a broken world. Being the hands and feet of Jesus today.

The Lord’s prayer is not about doing the right things to get to Heaven, but instead, it is enlisting in the cause to bring Heaven to everyone right where they are.

I’ve read and listened to a lot of real good stuff about the Lord’s Prayer over the past couple years. But the most influential was a lesson I heard at a conference by a guy named Wade Hodges. His lesson entitled “The Perfect Prayer” helped form the foundation for how I currently understand the prayer.

Jesus Wants to Save Christians – Rob Bell

Rob Bell seems to have a knack for provocative titles. You know, the kind of titles that offend certain people without even knowing what the book is about. I will start by saying I’ve never been a huge fan of Rob’s writing. I feel like he can be a little over the top at times. But with all that said, Jesus Wants to Save Christians is definitely my favorite of his books.

Bell tells the reader immediately what the purpose of the book is. He says it is a book about New Exodus theology. I must say that from Bell’s book, which is my only introduction to New Exodus theology, I found nothing particularly exciting about this lane of thought. He basically took you through the entire Old Testament and then talked about the parallels in the life of Jesus. Some of them seemed like good thoughts, while others seemed to be stretching it a bit. One of Bell’s parallels is the fact that Jesus’ transfiguration and the delivery of the ten commandments both occurred on mountains. Right…

Bell, on a couple of occasions, seems to pull off one of my biggest pet peeves of preachers. In analyzing a part of Scripture, he ventures so far into the background and culture that he possibly loses sight of what the verse actually says. Don’t get me wrong, I feel like these things are important. Without knowing the context, we can make a verse mean anything. And I applaud Bell for wanting to know the way of the culture in Jesus’ day and how that affects his teachings. But I feel the greatest problem in our study of the Bible is we have a tendency to over analyze things a little. Let me suggest to you that when Jesus said we should love one another, what he really meant by that is we should love one another.

Of course, with all of that said, the book was entertaining. Bell is humorous at times, writes very clearly, and is easy to understand. The way the text is set up you can almost hear Rob reading it to you. If you have ever seen any of the Nooma teaching videos, and you know how he pauses between words and emphasizes certain phrases you will know what I mean. The format of the text does the exact same thing.

By the end of the book, somewhere along the way, Bell has turned it into a book about social activism. The transition is rather beautiful, in that I didn’t even realize it had happened until I was reading about war, poverty, and things like that. These couple of chapters were easily my favorite of the book, as Bell makes some very relevant points.

All in all, it was just a so-so book for me. Nothing terrible about it, but nothing spectacular either. I would compare it to a Max Lucado book, but not as well written. Bell makes some good points and you will come away enjoying the read, but he isn’t going to blow you away with some new thought. Of course, I’m sure there are many who will disagree with me. I don’t mind.

The Camping Trip (Part 1)

The Camping Trip (Part 2)

I have a real good friend named Jeff. I first met Jeff singing karaoke at a little shindig at a Christian house on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas. Looking back I don’t remember what he sang, or even if he sang, but I bet if he did it was really good because his voice is a mixture between Josh Groban and Enrique Iglesias. But what I do remember is that I wasn’t too sure Jeff and I was ever going to be friends. You see Jeff had facial hair. So naturally I assumed he was at least twenty-five. Turns out he wasn’t. We were both nineteen. It also turns out that we did become friends.

Fast forward a couple years, Jeff and I were thinking about going on a camping trip. I’m talking all out roughing it. Real men.

I had gone camping a few times growing up with my family. I always enjoyed it. There’s something about a terrible night’s sleep, waking up barely able to move, and needing to use the bathroom but remembering you had to dig a hole first, that always invigorated me. I loved the outdoors. Even today, I still love the outdoors; I’m just too lazy to actually go out there. Plus the sun hurts my eyes.

I began to recall those moments growing up, camping with my family, with great fondness, and the excitement for this new trip seemed to grow by the second. I even started working on a grunt. I figured if I was going to prove to everyone I was a real man, I needed to have a really good grunt. So I would sit in my room and practice my best grunt while listening to Jimmy Needham or Needtobreathe really loud so my roommate couldn’t hear me make a fool of myself with my pre-pubescent sounding attempts at grunting. I was ready to go.

Just a couple of days before we were supposed to leave, it became evident there would only be three of us taking the trip. It was just going to be Jeff, my roommate Mason, and myself. Mason and I have been friends for about as long as I can remember. We both moved into houses down the road from each other at about the same time when we were little. Whatever sport was in season is what we played in my front yard. It was in my front yard I took what were supposed to be my first steps to the NFL. We would talk about how we did in peewee, and I usually lied and said I was one of the best players on the team, when in reality I pretty much sucked. But despite my lies, he kept coming back over, and there we were, fifteen years later, getting ready for a camping trip.

In an attempt to show my manliness, I had thrown out the idea to the others, about not even using a tent. You know, just sleeping under the stars. Of course, much to my pleasure, that idea was shot down, and we decided on using a tent. But as it came time to go, there was one problem. It kept raining. And it wasn’t supposed to stop either. If this trip was going to happen, we were going to have to make a change in plans. Jeff brought up the idea of staying in a cabin. It was then my heart leapt for joy, because even though I was trying to be manly, in the end, I like beds, heaters, and toilets much more than dirt, rain, and holes in the ground.

So the next night, after I got off work, we loaded up in Jeff’s car to head to some cabins out in Dover, Arkansas. And under my breath, where the other guys couldn’t hear me, I let out a very manly grunt.