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I have a flair for the dramatic. Most people like me do... not saying that I like it or even plan it, but I can make something out of nothing very quickly.
The past month or so has been a real down time for me. Not depression, but true joy and contentment has escaped me. I have had my up and down days. My eyes have not been on the prize and I have allowed the Enemy to creep back into some of the places he has worked his magic in the past. Of course I have felt like a failure, thinking, "Here we go again."
The New Year always brings with it an examination of the past year and a look forward to the upcoming year. Maybe this year I will learn to play guitar or speak Gaelic. Those are fun to think about. Dreaming about what you might be able to accomplish in 2006 and beyond.
Where things get messy for me is thinking about what needs to be fixed. I can fall down a pit of despair rather quickly when I think of all my faults. The word I used this evening was, "hopeless." As I write it I cringe. As I said though, a flair for the dramatic.
To add insult to injury, I am very stubborn. I dig in even when I know I am wrong. So you add the dramatics and the stubborness and a terrible mixture takes place.
You see, my ever-loving wife, Cheryl, does her best to help me through these times of illogical thought by being logical. Even as I hear and agree with her logical thoughts in my head, I dig in with my stubborness and stay in my pit of despair knowing I am wrong. What is wrong with me?!?
Cheryl stands alongside me and tries to "love" me out of the pit. She never gives up. No matter how much I dig in, she looks at me and sees the man she loves, not this dufus who whips himself into a frenzy.
I read something in Cheryl's favorite book, Captivating, tonight that helped me understand something amazing about her. I always wonder what allows her to stick with me through these "episodes," and I think that the book sheds some light on it.
In Genesis 2:18, it says, "It is not good for the man to be alone, I shall make him a [ezer kenegdo]." The Hebrew scholar, Robert Alter translates ezer kenegdo "sustainer beside him."
The author of Captivating goes on to explain:
The word ezer is used only twenty other places in the Old Testament. And in every other instance the person being described is God Himself, when you need Him to come through for you desperately...
Most of the contexts are life and death, by the way, and God is your only hope. Your ezer. If He is not there beside you... you are dead. A better translation therefore of ezer would be "lifesaver." Kenegdo menas alongside, or opposite to, a counterpart.
You need an ezer when your life is in constant danger...
...He (God) does not want to be an option in our lives. He does not want to be an appendage, a tagalong. Neither does any woman. God is essential. He wants us to need him - desperately. Eve is essential. She has an irreplacable role to play. And so you'll see that women are endowed with fierce devotion, an ability to suffer great hardships, a vision to make the world a better place.
Fierce devotion. Ability to suffer great hardships. Vision to make the world a better place. That is my darling wife. She really is my lifesaver. She'll never leave my side.
The amazing thing is that I learned to love God more tonight. God showed Himself to me through my ezer kenegdo, "lifesaver alongside me," Cheryl.
I need Him desperately. Forgetting that is what leads to the drama.
A couple of weeks ago I spouted my ire over the downfall of SNL... well it's time to print a retraction - - at least for this past week. Jack Black hosted and there was actually some pretty funny stuff, but the best part of the night was the SNL Short of "Lazy Sunday."
Chris Parnell (right) and Adam Samberg (left) are really growing on me. Parnell has done some funny stuff, but you know how funny people can get lost on some of those sketches that run on forever. Samberg is brand new this year and this was his shining moment.
I am not going to give it away, because you need to see it and laugh your butt off a few times.
iTunes is giving the video short away free this week, so bust a move and nab it. If you don't have iTunes, what is wrong with you? Download it!
If you just hate all things Apple, you can watch it here too. Just click on the video and tell me how hard you laughed.
There is one bleeped out word on it, so if that offends you - don't let it offend you... sorry I had to say it.
When I was a kid, I hated visiting relatives. There were exceptions, but when it came to traveling to or spending time with the adult relatives, you could count on me being bored out of my mind.
In 5th grade, we went to Scotland to visit my Uncle Matthew & Aunt Ellen. I have no real memories of that trip and it really bugs me. The main thing I remember is being bored and driving around the country in my Uncles mini-van complaining about how long we had to drive. That is sad. If I only knew then what I know now. If I could transport the 33 year old Scott back into the mind of 5th grader, I would get to enjoy all the breath-taking scenery. But alas that is impossible.
My dad is a bit of a home-body and is very content to just be in his surroundings and I think a bit of that obviously rubbed off on me. There is nothing wrong with that, but we have never been the type of people to take off and visit relatives on a real consistent basis. Cheryl's dad and her brother, Jim, both live about 45 minutes to an hour away from us and even that seems like too far sometimes. How ridiculous is that? For my family everything was close... School about 5 minutes away. Dad's job 5 minutes away. Church, maybe 7 - 10 minutes, tops. Even now, my brother and his wife are literally a mile away and mom & dad are maybe 2 miles.
The thing is, the older I get, the more I love seeing family. My Uncle Gary, Aunt Jeanne and my cousin, Wendy were all here last night and we had a great time. It's just fun to be around them. I used to dread it sometimes as a kid, but now I wish we saw them more often. I always think about visiting them, but I get that feeling like my family that lives far away might think, "Oh, now he wants to visit." That of course is stupid, but it really goes through your head.
There have been many times where I thought about visiting my uncles in Texas and Indiana, but I feel like I would be imposing on them. Like, "Where have you been for the last 15 years?" I guess it is just another one of those things that Satan puts in your head to stop you from enjoying something special that God gave you.
The first visit may be weird, but they will get better and better. Sometimes you just have to take a chance. My trip with Aaron across the country this fall taught me that. I did things and met people that normally I wouldn't have.
So before everyone starts making New Years Resolutions, take a moment and think about some of those lies that have stopped you from experiencing something great that God has put in your life.
I just wanted to ask for prayer for a guy named Ed Horn.
A friend from our old church put me on an email list that told me about Ed. I checked out his webiste and started reading about what he was going through and God consumed my thoughts with him. So I started praying for Ed whenever God reminded me of him.
It just so happens that Ed went to the same school that Cheryl and I attended. He was a few years younger than us, but when I looked at the pictures on his site I thought, "I know this guy from somewhere." I had just clicked on the link from the email and not looked at his last name up to that point. I finally realized it was him and was just amazed.
Ed was disgnosed with Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma on October 6, 2005. Since that point, things have gone up and down for he and his family. Just last week the family prepared to say goodbye to Ed and take him off of a ventilator. The good news is that God had other plans!
I don't want to spoil the story for you, so I will just tell you this... Ed is doing better. God is working miracles, but I am asking you all now to pray for Ed. Pray for his family. Pray that Ed will be CANCER FREE and enjoying his wife and children again soon. God is not finished with Ed yet and his testimony will bring glory to our Father in Heaven, so again, keep Ed in your thoughts and prayers.
Check out Ed's site and sign his guestbook. He and his family love to read your encouraging thoughts.
Thanks.
What happened?
When did SNL become so bad? I mean, honestly, I can't remember the last time that the show made me laugh with any regularity.
I honestly had given up on the show years ago, but the past two weeks (one of them a rerun) the guests intrigued me. Last week they re-aired the episode with Steve Carrell and this week Dane Cook hosted (by the way, both funny men auditioned for SNL and didn't get on). While I find both hosts funny in most everything else I have seen them do, somehow SNL sucked the funny right out of them.
To me that comes down to the writing and deciding what sketches make it to air that week. There are so many poorly written sketches on the show these days that I find it hard to understand why NBC has not canceled this show. While I was at Second City in Detroit, I was able to see sketches written by my colleagues that were so superior to this stuff it's unbelievable. SNL sketches, to me, seem like a bunch of inside jokes. Somehow when these guys are pitching sketches enough people giggle or think that the concept is strange so it gets on the show.
On this past Saturday's show, one entire sketch was all about an itchy sweater. When I write that I think of plenty of possibilities for some funny to happen, but where the amazing writers of SNL take it is not to Funnyville, USA. They just had Dane Cook act like a crazed maniac and eventually do a few pratfalls before crashing through a table. Don't get me wrong, a good table crashing or someone falling down does have laugh possibilities, but is that the best they can do?
The next big problem is the cast itself. With the exception of Amy Poehler, who on this show is funny. Tina Fey has her moments and Horatio Sanz gets my sympathy giggles because he is the "big guy" like me, but other than that, this cast is pretty bad. It's not like this just happened either. It has been bad with a few bright spots for a while now. Will Ferrell, Cheri Oteri, Molly Shannon and Chris Kattan (you love him or hate him) were the last group of funny people on that show. They were all together the last time in 2000. Again, there have been funny people for stretches over the years, but when was the last time a truly great cast was on that show, writing and performing great sketches?
I think you have to go back to the 1990-1991 cast to really see a cast that held up the standard set by the first cast back in 1975. Listen to the group of people on during the 1990-1991 season:
Dana Carvey, Chris Farley, Al Franken, Phil Hartman, Victoria Jackson, Tim Meadows, Dennis Miller, Mike Myers, Kevin Nealon, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, David Spade and Julia Sweeney.
It's hard to believe now that that much talent was all on the same show at the same time. I know that some of it is nostalga for me. That was when I was growing up and hitting adulthood, so I'm sure that I'm biased, but come on, those were some very funny people. There may be some people in there that you detest, but how does a guy like Jimmy Fallon compare to them? He to me has to be one of the worst ever on SNL. His only song and dance was to break character and have giggle fits during sketches, which can be funny when it happens every once in a while, just not every sketch!!
The long and the short of it, is SNL needs to get back to the things that make comedy, comedy. The everyday with a twist. You know what? Itchy sweater sketch could have worked, we've all had an itchy sweater. That being said, an itchy sweater is only funny for a certain amount of time. Learn when and how to end a sketch SNL. That may never happen...
Maybe - just as the Lions did this past week with the firing of the Mooch - it's time to say goodbye to Lorne Michaels. He is the coach and it all falls on him in the end, doesn't it?
Whatever happens, somebody be sure to let me know when SNL gets good again...
The Detroit Lions Football Orginization is a total disaster!
Let me just say the only guy showing any class in this whole franchise right now, is Joey Harrington. He keeps taking everything his former coach (Mooch), his lame brained GM (Millen), his loving team mates (Dre Bly, Jeff Garcia, etc.) and the press has dumped on him.
Good thing we have the Red Wings.
