Doing (fill in the blank) for Christ

Currently I am reading the letters of Paul, specifically my favorite letter, Philippians. There is so much in Philippians, but one verse that struck me from the beginning was 1: 13, “…I am in chains for Christ”. For some background info, Paul is essentially under arrest for being a Christian, and instead of being sour he demonstrates extreme joy throughout his letter. But the thing that gets me is that he is in chains for Christ, something that is so depressing and sad can become an act of worship! One thing that has been evident about Paul is that he fully dedicates his life to the Gospel, nothing matters more. Despite his beginnings as a Pharisee who publicly killed Christians, Paul had a change of heart and became one of the most active missionaries in the early church. In everything Paul does he tried to do it for the Lord, even being arrested and kept under Roman guard. That (like I wrote earlier) is a great demonstration of faith and example for our lives. How much change would take place if we woke up deciding to live for God and dedicate every moment as an act of worship. How different would I be if I said I am “cooking for Christ”, or “playing baseball for Christ”, or even “studying for Christ”? It would be a HUGE change. It would dramatically change me inside and out, and overall make my life much, much better. While not easy, and it definitely won’t take one day, it is a journey in which God takes us, breaks us, and makes us whole.

Thoughts on Psalm 119

I’ve noticed that I don’t blog much about the Psalms, so here I’ll write about my favorite one. The Psalm I am speaking of is Psalm 119, in my opinion one of the best descriptions of what a life close to God looks like. It is clear throughout all 176 verses (I know, it’s long), that the Psalmist doesn’t just know and believe in God, he’s completely in love with Him! David writes that time after time how much he loves God and His law, he writes that he “will hasten and not delay to obey [God’s] commands” vs. 60, and that “streams of tears flow from [his] eyes for [God’s] law is not obeyed” vs. 136. Imagine that, being so consumed with the love of God that you actually weep at the sight of the injustice in the world! And to those who dismiss David as someone who cries easily, well he was no wimp, serving as a shepherd fending off bears and wolves before ruling as king of Israel. Among the emotions that I feel after reading this Psalm, one of them is envy; I am envious of David’s closeness to God and his love for His law. I’ll admit there are many time when I fall short of God’s standard, but the thing is David did too. During his reign David had an affair with a neighboring woman, killed one of his soldiers, and led a dysfunctional family. How did he go from “there” to “here” one might ask? It is through God’s abounding love and grace alone that we can be fully healed and brought close to Him. David along with the rest of us, was far from perfect, but it was through the love of a perfect God that he repented of His sins and became one of the greatest symbols of faith.

The Other Hot Stove

Well I said I would make fresh pasta, so last Saturday I did. I made fresh fettuccine with homemade pesto sauce. I’ll tell you, you can buy dried pasta and store-bought sauce and have a nice meal, but after making this I just can’t go back. It’s like comparing playing whiffle ball to playing the majors. Every bite was fantastic. The pasta was more filling and hearty. The pesto had great flavor, which I attribute the fresh lemon juice in the sauce. And the color! When I use store-bought pesto it’s this brown-green glob, this was a thin bright green sauce that just blew me away. To be honest though, it took a lot of work considering that I made the dough, rolled it out, and cut it by hand, but it was well worth it; but unfortunately will be a rare treat. Anyway, I recommend looking a recipe up and trying to make pasta yourself, it takes time but the results are great. I’ll post the recipes later.

Good Italian Recipe

Here’s a great Italian recipe I just made for dinner. I found it in one of my cookbooks it’s one of those “old world” pasta dishes called “Paglio e Fieno” which translates to straw and hay. It’s very easy to make and also really tasty.

Ingredients: 1 lb. Egg noodles, 1 cup of light cream, 1 cup of frozen peas thawed, ¼ of pancetta or bacon, Parmigiano cheese, salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons of butter.

How to make it: Fill a pot with water, some oil, and salt and heat to a boil. While waiting for it to boil warm cream (don’t boil) in a saucepan – this shouldn’t take all that long. After the cream is warmed melt the butter in a large frying pan, add pancetta and cook until crisp. (Here the recipe says to drain the fat but that’s where the flavor comes so don’t). When the pancetta is done add the cream and peas and heat on medium, add a few generous spoonfuls of cheese and a good amount of cracked pepper. Heats the sauces on medium until it thickens slightly and then keeps warm. When the water boils add the egg noodles and cook, drain and add to sauce stirring them in until covered. Serve and enjoy. Buon Appetito.

A side note, I made this for my uncle and he said that his dad (my grandfather) would make this with fettuccine, and use half spinach and half plain it sounded good so next time I make this I’ll do that and tell you what I think. Also I’m thinking about making my own fresh pasta so I’ll blog about that.

Thoughts on Pascal and Faith

Well I said I would write about Pascal so here are my thoughts after reading. First off I have to say that it’s funny that I would read Pascal considering my age and that the books he wrote were written in the 1600’s. But little did I know when I picked the book up that God was giving me exactly what I asked of Him in the spring, except now I am more ready for it. The interesting thing is that Pascal writes in little journal entries, some are bullet points others are paragraphs so I will do the same.
· Pascal writes about how a life without God is terrifying and, well, stinks. Throughout my spring and summer I wrestled with tough questions and woke up terrified at the fact that I didn’t know whether or not I believed. I would attempt to force myself to believe stronger but it never worked. God took His time on me to make me where I am today.
· Next Pascal writes that while faith is not 100% guaranteed, it is a reasonable bet. Like what I wrote about the Red Sox in 2004. Also by looking at the simple facts, my life while fully trusting and believing in God was way better and more satisfactory than not, so there must be something to it.
· Lastly we need faith and can’t live alone on reason. Knowledge might sound great but to really know God we need faith. Pascal also writes that faith is a gift; I really liked that because as I wrote earlier I tried to get more faith. It doesn’t work that way as I found out; God took time helping me grow and building up my faith bringing me closer to Him.
Well that’s it for now, unfortunately I have a limited time to read Pascal so I won’t have super-developed thoughts or quotes. One more thing, I am hesitant to say I am “out of” my previous problem or even call it a “faith crisis”. Really, looking back at it, the past six months while painful have been a great blessing, and I now see them as, instead of a problem another step in the journey.

Hot Stove

So, now that the season is over it is time to fire up the hot stove. I know every single prediction I have made on this blog (if anyone can point one out that was right, please make my day) here are my predictions.

Number 1: Last year was a HUGE disappointment, we did nothing to seriously better the team, this year will be different and I expect a lot of BIG names to be thrown around.

Number 2: The first/third/DH position has been a weak point in the sense that it wasn’t defined. I don’t want it to happen but I think Mike Lowell’s name will be thrown around in trades in the hope of getting a big impact bat at first (which leaves Youk to play third). Either that or Mike Lowell will play when he’s up to it and DH.

Number 3: I expect to see a new pitcher, the pitching staff this year was a major disappointment; for the better part of the season the Sox relied on two “maybe come-backs” which really hurt them down the stretch. Thus a new pitcher may be the answer while you could also argue that the rotation is already set: Beckett, Lester, Dice-K, Buchholz, and Wakefield.

Number 4: Here’s a good one, what starts with an s and ends with hortstop? The shortstop position has been up in the air for way too long, the Sox basically had a invitee as the starter for the first half of the season, how many games has Green thrown away (pun intended)? And Lowrie who was hurt all year, and even when he played he was hurt. I think Gonzalez is the answer, he is above average defensively and gave way more than expected at the plate, if Theo is smart he’ll make a deal.

Number 5: Next on the list is leftfield, Jason Bay has been great for the Sox ever since he came to Boston, after the first week he had me cheering “Manny who?” I think it’s worthwhile to sign him for at least a few more years. The only problem is consistency, while hitting a ton of homeruns in the first half of the season Bay fell into a terrible slump and never fully recovered. Then there’s getting over his potential suitors (like the Yankees).

My Thoughts on "The Thoughts"

An interesting thing happened a week ago. I was sitting in my school library near a certain book shelf. Later that day I was sitting by the same books shelf, almost as if I were drawn to it. I happened to look at the books and saw many of the “classics” meaning old books that nobody really reads anymore (mainly on early science and philosophy). Anyway I saw the book written by Blaise Pascal, a Christian theologian from the 1600’s. The interesting thing though is that Pascal wrote a lot about faith, which is particularly relative to my current situation, I guess this is one of those funny ways God works in our lives. Anyway I’ll be posting my thoughts on Pascal’s writings, it’s actually pretty interesting once you get used to his style.