Getting Back to Blogging

Well, with the new year upon us I should be able to get back to blogging now.  Thanks for those of you who responded to my last post.   I do want to answer Mwalimu's comment in the last post where he suggested I blog on the following in the future:

How about the obvious superiority of the sport of baseball over basketball or even football? Examples from the Bible abound...

I have seriously considered that (well, if you mean while seriously laughing) and have decided that I may consider it, as this suggestion fits into one of two genre's I could expand to.

First of all, I have never tried my hand at science fiction, but when I told my wife about Mwalimu's suggestion she thought it would fit in that category.  I don't know though, it will take a more creative mind that mine to create an imaginary world where baseball is superior to football.

On the other hand, I do enjoy writing comedy and this would certainly be a good topic for comedic writing - I just don't know if I have what it takes to write consistent comedy on this subject.  Although, now that I think of it, what with the steroid scandal and everything, major league baseball is doing it's best to offer up more and more comedic material.

True story - we're driving down the road and my son asks "dad, why would a baseball player ever need to take steroids?'  We cracked up at the question itself.   My son asked if I thought Babe Ruth took steroids.  I said yes, definitely, only they were called something different back then.  My other son chimed in - "they were called beer and hot dogs!"  We cracked up even more - we agreed that a steady diet of beer and hot dogs are all that is necessary to achieve the physical conditioning needed for baseball.  We actually came up with a theory that the Babe's beer/hot dog gut helped him extend his arms and swing more powerfully through the ball.  So in other words, today's players could save themselves a lot of trouble if they would give up HGH for beer and hot dogs.

Of course, none of this means that I am in any mood to talk football. Given the Gator debacle in the Capital One Bowl, 2008 is pretty much ruined for me - it's been a very bad year.  I'll try to salvage what little I can from the few remaining days in this year.  I think I'm going to look for an Arena Football League team to cheer for to help tide me over till happier days come back to Gator nation.  Does anyone have any suggestions for an Arena Team worth cheering for.

But seriously folks - I've got several subjects I do plan on blogging on in the near future - my buddy Glenn Lucke suggested I ought to focus on the subject of biblical interpretation. I have done some blogging on that and will try to dust off some material and press forward with some new material.  I have a backlog of book reviews I owe so I hope to get several of those posted soon. Also, my buddy Adrian has called me out here so I'll try to do some tag blogging with him.  Actually, I haven't had a good argument with him, and after all, we all know that arguing with Adrian is one of the finer pleasures of blogging.

I also have had some success over the last 7 months in losing weight and it is a subject that, of necessity, to keep my weight loss going, I have done a good deal of research on.  I understand that diet and health are not what my blog was built on, but I also understand that this is an area that many of us struggle with. In fact, at one time there was a blog out there called Fat Pastors - I do think there is evidence that Christians in general are over-represented in the overweight category.  Hence, the following:

According to some studies carried out in the USA, regular churchgoers tend to be fatter than others in the population. One such study was carried out by a Purdue University Sociologist, Kenneth Ferraro in 1998.

According to him, Southern Baptists were the fattest people. Jews, Muslims and Buddhists were the most likely to be of ideal weight.

Ferraro said 'In many respects, a lot of the Christian religions, especially the fundamentalists, just have not made the connection yet that you can dig a grave with a fork.'

Many religious leaders are slowly becoming aware of this. Secular parts of society are catching on to the dangers of gluttony more quickly and more effectively than the Christian churches.

I'm not out of the woods yet on the weight issue and realize I could relapse, but I do think I've gotten to a place where I can make some more comments on the issue and hopefully be an encouragement to others.
Another area of interest I have developed lately is the role of the mind and brain in our lives.  Christians are well versed in the fact that "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he" Proverbs 23:7, but I am not sure we realize the full import of that.  There is a reason that transformation begins in the mind - Romans 12:2.   I'm not arguing for a rationalistic Christianity, but our mind is our interface with the world around us and although I am not well-versed in Immanuel Kant, but I think he had some nuggets of truth in his theories of perception. 

My interest in the power of the mind has grown over the last few years as I have come to realize that a good many of my own problems derived from false belief systems.  And, on another less spiritual note, I have actually seen physiological changes in my life as a result of re-training my mind.  A few years ago I was experiencing severe back pain and was going to a chiro on a regular basis but was completely cured of my back pain simply by reading the book Healing Back Pain by John Sarno.  I blogged about it here. And there are at least three other men in our church who had long histories of back trouble, two scheduled for surgery, whose back pain was healed through reading Sarno's book.  That's just one illustration of the power of a changed mind. 

Another is my own reaction to sugar.  For probably 40 years of my life I have been a sugar-holic and have resisted any attempts to get off of it.  But, I read Gary Taubes book, learned what sugar can do to you and now, though I don't avoid it completely, I am developing a revulsion to sugar.

My point in all of that is that if the mind is that powerful when it comes to physiological sensations of the body, how much more important is it that we target the mind for spiritual transformation.  I'm fairly convinced that we are the people we have chosen to beSo, I may do some blogging on this subject also.

So, there's a taste of some things I hope to blog on in the near future - I hope you are having a happy new year since I'm not (Gators, Gators, Gators) and I hope you'll come back this year, and who knows, maybe I'll find a way to cheer up.