Another week, another Talby Tuesday. Sorry to all of my loyal followers, that I did not get any other posts since last Tuesday. I guess it was just a busy week. For today's post I want to talk a little more about Talby and football. Specifically how Talby is the best team mate anyone could ask for. I say that because Talby always did what was best for the team and he honestly was so happy when his friends did well. Talby's natural position was Linebacker, but because of team needs, he switched to play offensive guard. This was a sacrifice, but Talby gladly accepted his new role. His selflessness resulted in reward for me because that meant that I got to be in the huddle with the neck roll.
Talby after a TD.... no homo.
Offensive linemen are supposed to be blocking people at the line of scrimmage, but somehow Talby was always the first person to help me up or celebrate with me after a touchdown no matter how far down field I was. If it was a 10 yard gain, Talby was there. If it was a 30 yard gain, Talby was still the first one I saw. It seemed like a magic trick. Either he didn't block anyone, or he just lumbered like a black bear down to the end zone before anyone else.
Talby celebrating again with Bro
But in all seriousness, that is one of the many things I love about Talby. He is always happy for his friends and is always there if you need him. While today's post might not be as ridiculous or funny, I felt that it was necessary in order to show all sides of Talby. A great man, teammate, and friend; Talby is a great example to all of us!
"The better part of one's life consists of his friendships." Abraham Lincoln
For Today's post, I am going to make a book recommendation for all the men who read my blog. I would like to think that my stamp of approval carries as much weight as Oprah's does for women, so listen up. A very helpful book that I read when I was in college was John MacArthur's book Twelve Ordinary Men. It was given to me by my very manly brother-in-law, Dave Didonato.
The book is very simply about the lives of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ. There is one chapter dedicated to each disciple and MacArthur gives interesting biographical information as well as practical applications for modern day readers. Perhaps the biggest reason why I love and recommend this book is because it was and is a reminder to me that God loves using plain and ordinary people for his purposes because that way he gets all the glory. Too many times the Church makes the disciples out to be other-worldy and relegates them to stained glass windows which causes us to think that we can find no common ground with them. But MacArthur reminds us that the disciples were common men: "Not one of them was renowned for scholarship or great erudition. They had no track record as orators or theologians. In fact, they were outsiders as far as the religious establishment of Jesus' day was concerned. They were not outstanding because of any natural talents or intellectual abilities. On the contrary they were all too prone to mistakes, misstatements, wrong attitudes, lapses of faith and bitter failure."
These were the men that Christ chose to spread his Gospel and He is still using people like them today to advance his Kingdom. I think that all Christian's are tempted to look back and glorify the lives of disciples and famous theologians and forget that what made them great was not their own strength but the power of their Savior dwelling in them by the Holy Spirit. MacArthur reminds us that the influence of the disciples was due to one thing and one thing only, "the power of the message that they preached," namely Christ crucified. I think that any Christian man will love the interesting way in which MacArthur writes and will actually be encouraged and not lead to despair by looking at the lives of the Disciples. This book will remind you that God has created you, He has saved you by His grace, and called you to a specific role in building his Kingdom. Your Christian calling does not mean that you must surrender your unique personality, rather God has shaped and molded you in such a way that you will be perfect for the ministry that He has called you to. Happy Reading!
After talking about Talby's amazing physical strength (thanks to Andrew for the great writing), today's post seems to have come at just the right time. I say this because I am slowly going through the Old Testament for my Bible readings and I just got done reading about another incredibly strong person named Goliath. This also seems to be perfect timing because the Bronco's just lost to the New England Patriots last Saturday. "What does this have to do with anything?" you say. Well, it was rumored that before the New England game Tim Tebow gave an impassioned speech to his fellow underdog teammates, calling them "David's" and challenging them to have faith, to rise up, and to slay the Goliath New England Patriots. Supposedly his speech inspired and drew a standing ovation. Then in all of their zeal and passion Tim and his teammates went out and got dismantled by the Patriots 45-10.
Whether or not the pre-game speech happened this way or not, I am not 100% sure. But we have probably all seen or heard the Biblical story of David and Goliath applied to modern day battles or contests. When March madness roles around there is a good chance you will hear the chaplain of a 16th seeded team, reading the story of David and Goliath as he prepares the team to go out and take on the #1 seed in the tournament. Whatever the situation may be, the story of David and Goliath has become associated with people facing the seemingly insurmountable difficulties of life. We are told to be like David by trusting in God and then to go out and slay the Giants in our lives. But the problem with making David and Goliath about us facing our difficulties is that the message of the Bible is not about us mustering up the strength and courage to conquer our enemies. No, the Bible is about us helplessly looking to and trusting in Christ who has already done what we, in our own power, could never dream of doing.
Great Movie. Great Scene. But wrong use of scripture
God has always promised that he would be the one to defeat the enemy for he said to Satan in the beginning: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall crush your head and you shall bruise his heel." The very first Gospel promise was that the seed of the woman would crush Satan and destroy all of his works even though Satan should cause Him to suffer greatly.
With this in mind, let's look again at David and Goliath. Who is David? David is described as being a young man, small in stature, handsome, and a shepherd of his father's flock. David is christ-ed (anointed) by Samuel to be King over Israel and therefore possesses the Spirit of God in a special way: "And the Spirit of God rushed upon him from that day forward." (I Samuel 16:13) Meanwhile, Saul (the functioning King) and Israel are cowering before the army of the Philistines and its warrior-leader Goliath. I remind you that the Philistines were at war with Israel because they were at war with Israel's God. For when Goliath mocks Israel, he is defying the armies of God and thus God himself. He is of supernatural size (9 feet tall) and strength (his armor weighed 125 pounds and he threw a spear with a shaft that weighed 15 pounds!) The story is clear, Israel has no one with the strength to face him and they are "dismayed and greatly afraid." Tim Keller says, "The story is telling us that the Israelites can not go up against Goliath. They can’t do it. They need a substitute." Israel needs someone to fight for them, and as their anointed King and representative, David is that man.
David willingly fights for his people, but look also at the manner in which he goes out to meet Goliath. He goes in weakness and frailty. While Goliath is covered in hundreds of pounds of armor, David goes out entirely unprotected for he was too young and weak to wear heavy armor. While Goliath has the finest weapons of war, David apparently comes unarmed with a slingshot and 5 stones hidden in his bag. Goliath sees David's apparent weakness and is insulted, "Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?" Goliath fights against God and his people but David, filled with the Spirit of the LORD fights for God and his people. I his seeming weakness, David rushed upon Goliath and, "struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground."
Remember the promise in Genesis that the seed of the woman would crush the seed of Satan? Well here is David, the anointed of God, and he has just crushed the head of God's enemy, Goliath. The people of God rejoice in David's victory because, as their leader, David's victory was theirs as well. Again Tim Keller says: "When David goes in on their behalf, he is not a full-grown man, but a vulnerable and weak figure, a mere boy. He goes virtually as a sacrificial lamb. But God uses his apparent weakness as the means to destroy the giant, and David becomes Israel’s champion-redeemer, so that his victory will be imputed to them. They get all the fruit of having fought the battle themselves."
So where does this story leave Christians under the new covenant, and what application is there for us today. First, with no King to fight for us we should see ourselves as Israel cowering in weakness when we think our great enemies (Our Sin, facing God's judgment, Satan, etc.) Second, we should see Jesus as David's greater Son and our representative warrior who came to destroy our greatest enemies that we have no power in ourselves to fight. Sin, Death, Satan and Hell were defeated when the Son of God came in apparent weakness and died on the cross. Just as Goliath scoffed at the weak and unarmed shepherd boy, so too Satan saw a crucified Christ as foolishness but the Bible tells us that it was, "Through death the he destroyed the one who has power over death, that is the devil." It was precisely through his humility and death that Jesus conquered Satan. Christ lived for us, he died for us, he rose victoriously from the grave for us. So finally, we should see ourselves as the victorious army of Israel after David slayed Goliath. For just as Israel rejoiced and worshipped as David stood victoriously over the defeated Goliath, so too can we worship Jesus as he sits enthroned victoriously over sin and death. By trusting in Christ, we get all the fruit of his victories and are freed from the burden of trying to save ourselves through our own works. We can stop trying to face Goliath on our own and trust that our David has already destroyed him! If my words have not been helpful check out what Matt Chandler has to say about David and Goliath.
Today is a special Talby Tuesday. I have decided to spread the wealth and let some of Talby's close friends get in on the blogging action. I have asked Talby's college roommate, Andrew Didonato, to recount some of his up close interactions with the big lumberjack. Andrew's post actually comes at a great time. My wife and I just joined a gym and I have started lifting weights for the first time in about a year. Yesterday I bench pressed 135 times 6 times. Those are my impressive numbers. As incredibly strong as I am, my strength pales in comparison to Hulk Talby. Listen to his numbers.....
Andrew's words:
Let me start out by saying it is an honor to contribute to a blog post about Talby. I had the privilege of living with him both our Junior and Senior years of college. It was the experience of a lifetime. During that time, I truly got to see the manliness of Aaron Talbott. The stories and memories are endless. Today, I would like to share one of those stories with all of you.
It has already been established in the previous posts about Talby that he is a manly man because he played football in college, wore a neck roll and cut-off flannel shirts, and had a scruffy man-beard. Knowing these three facts, you are probably wondering, "What kind of numbers does Talby put up in the weight room?" "Is he a beast in the weight room as well?" If you were thinking this, just listen to this story and you'll have your answer...
I can still envision Talby in his gray Grove City sweatshirt (with the hood up of course), knit hat, and blue Nike sweat pants fixing his wrist straps on the bar before performing Olympic style lifts. It was a sight to see. And Talby definitely held his own when it came to pumping iron. He was always in the top 10 of the football team when we did our annual lifting tests. Would you expect anything less from such a manly man?
Anyways, the way our football lifting tests were designed was that the players were given that whole week off from lifting and our only requirement was to come in once during the week to test. We could go any day of the week between the hours of three and six. Those tests only took about 15 minutes to perform, so people took advantage of the time off and usually waited till later in the week to do their lifts.
So on Monday of testing week, I was sitting in our dorm room listening to music and doing work on my computer. Next thing I know, Talby comes barging through the door, sweating profusely, completely out of breath, wearing his gray Grove City sweatshirt (with the hood up of course) and blue sweat pants. I had my head phones on so it was hard for me to hear anything. However, I could hear a faint voice in the background saying "Bro! Bro! Bro!". As that voice grew louder, I looked up and noticed Talby waving his arms back and forth in an attempt to get my attention. I took my head phones off and the following conversation transpired...
Me - "What's up Talby?"
Talby - "Bro, did you hear?"
Me - "Hear about what?"
Talby - "Did you hear about my numbers?"
I'll be honest, I had no idea what the heck Talby was referring to when he said this. After we talked a little longer, Talby told me that he had just gotten back from taking his lifting tests. I looked down at my computer and realized that the time was 3:15 ( On Monday). I remind you, we could go to test any day of the week between the hours of three and six. How I would be able to hear or talk to anyone about Talby's lifting numbers by 3:15 on Monday, I have no clue. But Talby expected everyone to know. (By the way Talby almost set a Grove City record on Bench. I think he did 275 like 12 times) Whether you find this story amusing or not, it has become a go to story for all of us when we talk about Talby.
So in conclusion here are some important weight lifting tips/facts to take away from this story....
1. People who wear neck rolls, probably pump a lot of iron in the weight room.
2. If you can lift a lot of weight, make sure you don't waste any time telling people about it.
3. If you can't lift a lot of weight, make sure you at least look the part by wearing a gray sweat shirt (with the hood up of course).
I hope you enjoyed this guest Talby Post and if you are a close friend of Talby and want to share a fond memory of story, just let me know!
Poor Kid. Talby was showing off to the kids and he ended up bench pressing the little guy 528 times.....
Ok, so this is going to be my first post about something fashion related, and I must admit I am quite nervous. If I write about clothes will I have to surrender my man card? Maybe. But I think I am safe if I start off by telling you about the best shirt I own and just how I came to possess it.
First, I have been watching a lot of shows recently that are centered around people digging through others people's junk and unwanted stuff and finding something of true value. It is amazing how much time I can waste watching Storage Wars and Pickers. On Storage Wars, people bid on abandoned storage lockers and then try and sell off what they find in the unit. Sometimes people can make profits of 40,000 dollars on one unit! The TV show Pickers is about people who go across the country and look for collectors and hoarders who might be willing to part with a unique collectible or other hidden gems. On both shows, the majority of the stuff that people find is worthless junk. But in almost every episode they find one or two valuable items that makes all of their effort worth it. Ok, so there is a reason why I am telling you this. It is setting the stage for how I got my favorite shirt. Growing up, my Dad would go through his closet once and a while and clean out all of the stuff that he didn't want anymore, or he grew out of. Naturally, he gave it to me to go through and see if there was anything that I wanted to keep. When I was younger, there wasn't much to get excited about. Some old suits that would take me 10 year to grow into, shrunken turtle-necks, and some t-shirts... no thanks (My Dad insisted that I needed them anyway). After years of disappointment, one day my Dad dropped off a bag of clothes in my room.... and that's when I found it. The shirt that made sorting through all the junk worth it. It was a salmon (not pink!) colored corduroy shirt made by Woolrich.
It fit me perfectly, had an awesome color, and was super comfortable. The shirt has been a staple in my wardrobe ever since I found it that historic day 8 years ago. And every time I wear it I get rave reviews (Either they really like it too or are making fun of me). It was the object of envy on my college hall, causing the shirt to go missing for days and often found in the closet of Zachary Fulmer.
The shirt is truly a diamond in the rough and is still going strong. Anyways, that is the story of my favorite shirt and also a valuable life lesson. Sometimes you have to dig through a lot of crap to find the things that are truly valuable. By the way, if you don't own a corduroy shirt, you should. They are super comfy and last forever!
I trust that I have given all of my followers enough time to digest all the goodness of last weeks Talby Tuesday and are finally hungry for another post! Well, this entry is going to be a complete 180 from the absurdity and will be a bit more serious and theological in character. Over the past couple months our church has been going through the book of Job and I have really enjoyed the sermons given by my Pastor. The sermons have made me think back to one of my favorite classes in Seminary. It was a class on the wisdom literature given by Professor CJ Williams. One of the reasons why I loved the class so much was because his teaching gave me a fresh perspective on the message of Job.
Photo: Simon Marsden
You see, for so long I had always viewed Job as a book which merely answered questions like, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" or "Where is God when tragedy strikes?" or the popular, "If God is good, sovereign, and powerful how does he allow evil to exist?" Don't get me wrong, the book of Job does address these questions. There were times in my life where I wrestled with the goodness of God in the midst of human suffering and tragedy and verses like, "Shall we accept good from the hand of the LORD and never anything evil?" and "The LORD gave and the LORD taketh away, blessed be the name of the LORD," were some of the only words that made sense and gave comfort. But I have come to see that while the book of Job touches on these subjects, there is a far greater point to the story. Because the story is centered around a great and honorable man who seemed to have everything, but was then stripped of it all by God. All of his wealth, all of his loved ones, and all of his health were taken out of his hands. His reputation and honor, which was once so lofty, was cast down and trampled upon by his friends as they derided him as an ungodly and faithless man. But while Job's friends falsely accuse him, he maintains his trust in God and his purity before God. Because he maintains his innocence, Job cries out to God to vindicate him and prove him to be in the right. Ultimately, this is what happens. God vindicates and restores Job, so that at the end of the book he has greater riches than when the story first began! What Professor Williams taught me (and what I am continually seeing) is that the life of Job and Jesus are incredibly similar. The book of Phillipians teaches us that Jesus, "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth." Do you see how both Job and Jesus are stripped of their glory, suffer, but are ultimately restored to a greater position than in the beginning? Therefore the great point of Job is not so much answering the question why "Bad things happen to good people," but its central theme is its rich Messianic character. It is alarming to me how similar the experiences and words of Job are to the sufferings of Jesus. Listen to some of the words from Chapter 16 which our Pastor preached on this morning, "They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me. God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked...." These are the words of Job, but they sound a lot like Jesus. And that's exactly the point. The point of Job and the point of the whole Bible is about revealing the suffering servant of God who bears God's righteous wrath in the place of deserving sinners but is vindicated and rewarded because of his innocence. The point of this entry is to share with you what God is teaching me and I hope that this will help you see the Gospel in the book of Job. I hope that you will read it again or for the first time with a fresh perspective. A perspective that has an eye fixed on Christ who freely gave himself for our sins and was condemned and cursed by God because he chose to identify himself with us and all of our sins but rose victoriously over the curse of sin because of his spotless and blameless life. All praise and honor to him, whose name is above all names!
So I am coming to realize that this blog is slowly going to become all about Talby if I do not start adding more posts about other topics. I promise that I will fight against all of my desires to write strictly about Talby. That's the funny thing about Talbot. Whenever Talby is not around, everyone always ends up talking about him. Talby dominates our discussions. I guess that is because Talby just dominates at whatever he does. (Most notably how he single handedly won an intra fraternity dodgeball game with his cannon of an arm.)
Well, I digress. Today, is a hurried post because my wife needs to take the computer to class tonight. I decided to post my top 10 favorite Talby pictures. Everybody knows that pictures speak so much louder than words and with Talby it is no different. Enjoy!
#10: Talby: "Oh I don't know why I have these stupid ropes on. Don't they know I could climb this whole mountain with my eyes closed? Oh P.S. My calves are soooooo huge."
#9 Is that the Marlboro Man or Talby?
#8 "My muscles are huge. My backpack is huge. My beard is huge. My cargo pant are huge. I feel so good, the only thing to make this better would be to climb this huge Mountain.
#7 "Oh I am so hungry. Maybe I can just punch this machine real hard and it will give me food."
#6- Talby kicking it with Jason Aldean, Dirt Road syle
#5- Plain and simple, the man belongs in a Field and Stream magazine.
#4- Talby: "Bro, did you see that? 400 yard par 4, just drove the Green." P.S. Talby loves Golf because it is a gentlemen's game and because he like to laugh at how bad others (Dido) are in comparison to him.
#3- Talby is unafraid to show his softer side. Kids love this Teddy bear of a man because they feel comfortable sitting against his belly and they like the music that he plays. This photo is from our Guatemala mission trips
#2 I have no idea what Talby is doing in this picture, but it makes me smile. He's looking super GQ and, as always, he looks like he knows exactly what he is talking about.
#1 There is really no reason that this one is at the top of my list, but it is a good one. In this picture you can see some of Talby's favorite things. 1.) Scruffy Beard 2.) Cut-off, red-neck flannel 3.) Christmas 4.) Huge Beefy arms 5.) Food 6.) Making food.
Hope you enjoyed these gems from Talby's Facebook page. If you have any other pictures of Talby that you think should have made the list. Please send me your favorite Talby pics.
This week is wild card weekend for the NFL. Today is the first Saturday that I have had off for almost 4 months, so I am currently sitting on my couch, drinking some coffee, and watching sports center. As I was thinking about this years playoffs, I was reminded of what a tremendous predictor of sports events I am. For example, the first year that Gonzaga was in the NCAA basketball tournament, I picked them to go to the sweet 16 and lose. It played out exactly the way I said it would. In a NCAA championship game between Memphis and Kansas, I predicted almost play for play how the last minute and a half would pan out. My friend Andrew just could not believe what was happening, and shouted that I was a prophet throughout the college dorm rooms. (I make no claim to prophetic gifts, by the way, see Deuteronomy 18:20) Also last year, I boldly said that if Green Bay made the playoffs, they would win the Super Bowl. They did. So I wanted to try my hand again at this years playoffs and see if my luck... err, i mean talent continues.
First matchup today: 4:05pm Cincinnati vs. Houston
I like Cincinnati because I like Andy Dalton more than TJ Yates. The Texans just seem to be limping into the playoffs and I think Cincinnati has more momentum.
8:05 New Orleans vs. Lions
I like New Orleans. They are just tops strong for the Lions. THe lions D is awful and Brees will expose them.
Sunday's games:
Giants vs. Atlanta Giants will win because Victor Cruz has a sweet touchdown dance.
Steelers vs. Broncos
Steelers will win because they are the Steelers and Brett Keisel has a sweet Yukon Cornelius Beard.
Looking ahead to the rest of the playoffs I will not predict every game, but will provide some more bold predictions.
Both top seed in the NFC will lose and New Orleans will advance to the Super Bowl.
While it pains me to say it the Ravens will win the Super Bowl.
Well, let's sit back and see what happens. Hope all of my loyal followers have a great weekend!
Yes, today is tuesday and you all know what that means..... The first actual Talby Tuesday. Well, if no one else is excited about Talby Tuesday (I doubt this is the case) I know one person for sure who is. Talby. Yesterday, as I was watching the Wisconsin/ Oregon game with my wife, my cell phone received a text message from Talbott reading, "Bro, do you know what tomorrow is?" Yes, Talbot was texting me about his own blog, making sure that I did not forget to write about him. Also, much to the dismay of many, this post is coming late in the day. It is now 5:15. I know that many of you have probably been checking in on the blog and checking Facebook to see if there is a new post up. But there was only one person who actually called me. Yep, you guessed it... Talby. I had one missed called from Aaron at 11:15am. Talby really likes his own blog.
Well, Talby, I will give you what you have been waiting so long for. Today is going to be a little more Talby history. First, why he is called Talby. Second, how we became so obsessed with Talby.
So why is Aaron called Talby? This is not much different from his last name, so it might not seem like a very witty nick name. But there is a story. Aaron is from a suburb outside of Pittsburgh. I happen to have grown up just miles from Aaron's house. Therefore, I know where Talby is from. However, despite being raised in a middle-class suburb, Talby is dead set on insisting that he is a red-neck, southerner, and a cowboy. He own many flannels, cowboy hats, and John Wayne memorabilia. Talby thinks that his life is so similar to the great country Western movie star that he named his new dog Duke (John Wayne's nickname). I picked up on Talbot's desire to be a country boy, right away at college. I would often joke him about it and remind him of his true identity. One time our football team had a road trip up to New York for a football game and we had a lot of time in the bus. I started calling Talbot, Talby the Cowby. I know it doesn't really rhyme or make sense, but it was funny at the time and it made him mad. I made up a song to go along with it and sang it with this obnoxious slow southern accent. Talby was so mad that he told severely people how "not funny" I was and vowed to punch me if I didn't stop. And, from those moments, on the nickname Talby stuck.
CO Gregg Studio
The other thing that I wanted to touch upon today is how huge Talby is. Talby is a mammoth of a man in plain dress and when he gets his football pads on he basically looks like Paul Bunyan playing football. This truth was confirmed by my sister one Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh. We had just lost a close football game and was riding home with my parents. After talking about the game my sister could not control herself any longer and excitedly asked Lissa, "Who is number 56? He's HUGE!" She didn't know so they asked me. I said, "Oh that is Talby." She replied, "He is seriously huge! I mean, he is just so thick!" Yep, all those arm bands and the ridiculous cowboy collar made Talby out to be a Giant. Talby, of course, loved this story. So, from that point on, whenever we talk about Talby, we always use this deep voice and say stuff like, "My name is Aaron and I am soooooo huge, nobody is as big as me. My cowboy collar is so sweet." These were the beginnings of Talby folklore. So, the big lesson to learn from Talby today is, even if you are a suburbian cake eater, you can still paint yourself as a gritty country boy. Just make sure that your crowd does not know where you are truly from. It makes it a harder sell and you might earn yourself a nickname that you will never lose.
