The Big Diehl

I feel old. I saw American Gladiators on ESPN Classic. ESPN CLASSIC! ESPN Classic is for old sports shows, like Superbowl I or a basketball game in 1968. ESPN Classic isn’t supposed to show sports shows that I can actually remember. Oh well, this was bound to happen sooner or later.

I used to watch American Gladiators all the time when I was little. Nitro was my favorite. There was also Gemini, Storm, Ice, Lace, Turbo, and Viper. In the show, these American Gladiators dressed in spandex and competed against challengers in different events.

On the show, my favorite event was “The Assault.” In this event, the Gladiator was positioned high up on the end of a playing field with a tennis ball canon. The challenger had stations, the first was far away from the Gladiator, and the following stations were positioned closer and closer to the front where the Gladiator was shooting at them with the canon. At each station, the challenger had one opportunity to shoot a target near the Gladiator. If the Gladiator shot the challenger with a tennis ball — he won. If the challenger shot the Gladiator’s “target,” then the challenger won. It was a great event of strategy and suspense.

I’ll never forget this time my parents were in a meeting at our old church building. I was probably 8 years old. My brother would have been about 14 or 15. Our parents were in a meeting, so we set up an “assault court” in one of the classrooms. On one end of the room Nathan climbed on top of a high stack of chairs with a Nerf gun. We set up “stations” of chairs around the room. I started on the opposite side of the room and ran from station to station of chairs while my brother tried to shoot me with the Nerf gun. I remember diving, rolling, and sliding behind chairs. That was so exciting.

We got in trouble — but it was totally worth it.

A certain religious group’s mission statement states that “It encourages faith in God’s now-reigning King, Jesus Christ, whose shed blood opens the way for mankind to gain eternal life.”

Would you affirm this statement? Would you feel comfortable being a part of a religious group that had this sentence in their mission statement?

Stop for a second and think about the statement. Decide in your mind right now if you would agree or disagree, and why.

That statement came from the mission statement of the W.atcht.ower Magazine, a ministry of the cultish religious group, Jeh.ovah’s Witne.sses. This group is far from Christian doctrine, but they are masters at disguising themselves as just another Christian denomination — such as Baptist of Methodist (which are both great denominations). What makes the statement in question incorrect, if anything?

This particular post will be really boring unless people comment . . . so have at it! 

I just looked at my site statistics, and apparently someone searched the internet for “Prozac” and they linked into my website. What? (Prozac). I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about Prozac. Prozac is not something I need to (prozac) blog about because Prozac does not interest me one bit. Of course (prozac) now that I’ve typed “Prozac” so many times in this blog entry (PROZAC) a lot more people will link in to this website after searching for Prozac. To those newcomers, I say WELCOME TO MY WORLD.

And to my local readers in the DeKalb County area, couple things going on this weekend to help you celebrate the Holy Week.

Community Good Friday Service - The Waterloo Community Good Friday service will be held at the Waterloo United Methodist Church (From Wayne Street, Go west on Maple by the Library. The UMC is a few blocks down on Maple). I think Auburn has a community Good Friday service, but I’m not sure.

Easter - Artistic planning for this weekend began back in January. It will be awesome. Don’t miss church at New Hope this weekend. Three identical services to choose from - Saturday 6 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m., or Sunday 10:30 a.m.

I don’t mean to mock the old Charter Beacon commercials, but in all seriousness, “If you don’t go to New Hope on Easter weekend, please, go to to church somewhere.”

A few months ago my mom brought home two cats from the animal shelter. The first cat was grey, and my mom named that cat “Ashley,” although my Dad and I still call the cat “Grey.” The other cat was up to me to name.

The first day we had the cats I picked up the second cat (not Grey) to put it in a cat carrier so it could go to the vet for its immunizations. When I tried to put the newly arrived and not-yet-trusting cat into the carrier it decided to jump out of my arms - but not until it climbed over my face with its claws. One of the claws dug into my ear. The claw sorta sliced a small piece of my ear off. It hurt really bad and so I put my hand up to my ear to comfort myself and immediately felt a lot of blood all over the side of my face. All because that stupid cat “bit” my ear. (It actually clawed my ear - but I’ve always said it “bit” it).

I immediately gave the cat its new name. I yelled directly to the cat, “You bit my ear off - and I will never forget it you stupid cat! From this day forward your name will be Mike Tyson! End of story.” I didn’t really care that it was a female cat. I gave it a name to represent the cat’s first impression on me.
To this day the cat is registered at the Vet’s office as “Mike Tyson Diehl.”

But you know, I love that cat now. I just took my dog for a walk down the country road I live on, and the cat followed along. Every time I park in the driveway, that cat comes out to greet me at my car door. It is now the most loving cat I’ve ever seen. At the time of my pain, I wanted to give the cat a name that would never allow anyone to forget what it had done. But now the cat is loving and enjoys being held. I feel sorta guilty calling it Mike Tyson still.

A Double Whammy:
1) There’s never a second chance to make a first impression.
2) That cat’s reputation is ruined because of the label I put on it. I’ll let you do the “math” on that one.

Our perception is SO important. Take this image for example. Depending on your perception, this is either a man playing a saxophone or the face of a woman (or maybe something else). It depends on your perception. The perception of everything around us is extremely important in our lives - but let me talk about two perceptions.

Our Perception of Others
Do you truly see other people the way God does? Probably not - especially when they are in “the other car” on the road. lol. But do you care for others as much as God does? Are you concerned with their eternal destiny? Do you see the non-Christians around you the way that God sees them — lost? Do you see the Christians around you as God sees them — redeemed?

Our Perception of Ourselves
So often I perceive myself the way I see myself “sans-God”. That’s the easy and natural thing to do. Without God, I’m dirt — literally (Gen. 2:7). Without God, I’m nothing. Without God, low self-esteem would be well justified.

But I’m a Christian.

When God sees me, he doesn’t see me how I see me. God sees me through the Blood of Christ. God sees my Calling. God sees what I can do, and what I have yet to accomplish. I need to see myself the way God sees me –

saved.
set apart.
Called.

**

Consider this statement: “We will act according to our perceptions.”

I have come to realize that the little things matter in our communication. For example, the clothes we wear communicates information about ourselves without ever saying a word.

I think the same can be said for print. We need to be careful of the font that we use. Fonts must be uncommon and interesting for them to actually be an effective font — and when used properly fonts can make the world a better place. That’s why I am beginning the “Campaign for Better Font Usage.” The primary thrust of this campaign is to increase the usage of the Comic Sans font - which is now available on an Apple Computer. To help, immediately begin using the Comic Sans font on everything — except on your homework assignments.

Do you think a teacher or professor actually wants to read a 10 page report in “Times New Roman” or “Arial”? How boring. For research papers in college its best to use a script font - you know - one that’s in cursive. A cursive font will give your research paper that extra “bling” that would be sure to get you an A.