Books to have on your shelf

I enjoy reading. This was not always the case, for as a young boy I was highly uninterested in reading anything that was not sports related. But when God started working in my life, I became interested in reading the Bible. For a kid who grew up in church, I was shocked how little I knew about the content of scripture and once i started reading it I became fascinated with it. About the same time I began reading the Bible, I also began to like books that dealt with God and faith. I will not lie, my interest in reading books was gradual and was assisted by men like John Piper who serve as a bridge to the great minds of the past. I still remember reading Piper's "Legacy of Sovereign Joy," that was assigned to me my freshmen year at Grove City. The book was a brief biography of the lives and works of Augustine, Luther and Calvin. The common thread that Piper saw in all of their lives was a deep rooted joy in the goodness and sovereignty of God. I was actually interested in this book. I was shocked. The book was not written merely intellectually but had an interesting and pastoral feel to it. It rocked my world.

        My first book recommendation on the Man-Cave was John MacCarthur's 12 ordinary men and my second will be Piper's the Swan's are not Silent Series. There are 4 separate books (I think) Which deal with the life and times of 3 different Christians throughout history who were united by some common theme. The aforementioned "Legacy of sovereign joy," was about finding joy in a sovereign God and other books deal on topics such as suffering and fighting for doctrinal truth. I am so grateful for books like these cause they were the first ones that guided my steps as a Christian and taught me to be a discerning yet grateful believer. If you are a bored church-goer, check out these books. Piper highlights the theology and beliefs of the greatest and most influential christians in history. I guarantee if you read them your eyes will be opened to unchangeable truths that have been blurred out in our age and your heart will be strengthened to fight for those truths. It was books like these that took me from a box-score reading champ  and turned me into someone who was banned by his family from reading anything "theology" related on vacation. (P.S.- I still snuck a copy of Augustine's Confessions onto the beach! Thank you John Piper.)

The best last hole of golf ever

2 weekends ago, I went home to Pittsburgh to visit our family and our friends. During my time home I had the opportunity to play golf with two of my favorite people; my bro Andrew and my bro-in-law Dave. While we had grand plans of going to play 18 somewhere new, we ended up going to Frosty Valley which is our local go-to. Dave is a good golfer, Andrew is not, and I am somewhere in between the two of them. This day I was closer to Andrew than Dave. Andrew has one of the worst slices I have ever seen. He used to have to point himself almost 90 degrees away to get his ball to land in the fairway.
        Despite Andrew's golfing inadequacies it has always been one of his goals to beat me in golf. You must understand that Andrew and I are quite competitive when it comes to sports. He is my best friend but that does not stop us from getting unnecessarily heated over small and insignificant competitions. Games for nintendo 64, home-run derby at the batting cage at cool springs, checkers, wiffle ball, one on one basketball games, and corn-hole have all been taken far too seriously by us.

The most notable and shame producing event has been 2 on 2 beach football. We always guard each other and in these matches I have been driven to spiking a football, storming off the field, and elbowing Andrew in the face after he had his wisdom teeth out.

So while I usually beat Andrew in Golf with ease, this day was much different. I was shanking the ball all over the place and bro was actually hitting the ball pretty good. Entering the last two holes, Andrew had a 5 shot lead. Insurmountable right? We both got 4's on the last hole, which left us with the 9th hole to determine the winner. I was already conceding in my mind that this would be the day when bro finally beat me and I was prepared mentally to accept this. But the 9th hole at Frosty presents problems to people who have a bad slice....
      I stepped up to the tee box first and I was beginning my swing Dave cracked some joke and i duffed one off to the left. Because of poor etiquette I got a mulligan. I sliced one to the right where there is a set of train tracks then a vast abyss of rocks and wilderness which has stolen many of my golf balls. Surely this shot was to seal my fate. But by some stroke of Divine Providence my ball hit the side of the train track and shot back toward the fairway, bounced off the cart path, and landed right next to the fairway. A sign of things to come?
Bro was up next. He stepped up to his ball and said, "Bro, I am aiming way to left, I have to get this one into play." Aiming at the 1st hole green, bro proceeded to rip a huge slice over the track. It must have sliced at least 150 yards. "Frick," Bro blurted out. This was bad, but I still thought my deficit was too big to erase. Bro dropped and sliced another one over the tracks, "Frick!" Bro marches forward, drops again, and unbelievably rockets one over the tracks again. "Frick!!!" Now he is shooting 8 from the top of the hill. I had my opening.
       I shoot a 3 iron 60 yards from the green. Easy pitch and put and I have it. Bro, from the mountain-tops of frosty chips well over the green. This time there is no "Frick," but a nervous pace towards the ball. All I have to do is chip on and 2-put and I will have done it. But I chunk my shot into the sand trap, and have to pitch out. Bro chips on but leaves himself a 50 foot put. After two putting bro finishes with an 11. I have a 7 footer to tie it all up. All I could think about as I stood over that put was, "I do not want to have to listen to Andrew talking about how he beat me," and "If I make this, this will be the funniest hole of golf I have ever played." So with an "Arnold Palmer," like confidence I sink the put. I did it. 5 strokes in one hole. Andrew will have to wait yet another day. It was the worst round of golf i have ever played with the most hilarious finish. One of the many reasons I love competing and golfing with friends is stories like these. Thanks bro for the best last hole of Golf ever, may we have many more (With me winning of course!)

Fighting against the Fading Glory of Youth

God spoke these words through the prophet Isaiah: "All flesh is grass, And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it; Surely the people are grass." (Isaiah 40:6) WARNING: This is a great verse and I will not be doing it justice today. 
This verse has been in my mind because I just turned 26 a couple of months ago and am fast approaching the big 3-0. As I grow older, I am working more at my job and working out less. I can feel my body deteriorating. My physical prime quite possible could be behind me. I am physically experiencing the truth of Isaiah's words.

I hope to regain my Hulk-like power

But before the glory of my youth fades like the flowers of the field, I am on a mission. Many people when they hear that I used to play sports in high-school and college, will often ask me questions like, "How fast were you? How much could you bench press? Can you Dunk?" These are often the questions that people lie the most about. It seems like almost any yinzer from the WPIAL can run a 4.5 or lower in the 40 if you ask them. But I don't want to lie about these things. I want to prove them before my body completely wilts. Just the other day my friend Paul asked me, "Jay can you touch the rim." I scoffed and I said, "Paul, I can Dunk." He then wanted to see it. At that moment I became afraid. I knew that if we went now, or any time in the near future that I would fail miserably. So my mission is this. To get in good shape, to accomplish my feats of strength and athleticism, and to have them video-taped. This way, when someone asks me about something I can not only tell them but show them. After I accomplish them, I can relax and let my body go forever because I will have proof. I will never have to go out to a basketball court to prove to someone I can dunk.
And so here are my feats that I want to accomplish this summer:
Bench Press: 275 pounds
To Dunk a Basketball
40 yard dash: 4.7

I will keep you in the loop as to how I am doing and hopefully by the end of the summer I will have achieved these goals. I will fight against the fading glory of youth one last time!

Back

After weeks of inaction, I am proud to say that I am back. I needed a break.  I was not feeling very inspired or motivated to write anything and the only things keeping my blog alive were the weekly guilt trips that I received from Talby. Surely guilt is no impetus for creative writing! (Shame on you Talby) Needless to say I was not providing my fans with the best and so I decided to stop for a while. But in my time off I found fresh inspiration due to two important observations. 

One: Writing in the man-cave is a good thing because it provides a connection with a lot of my friends. Distance and time has separated many of us but this is one way to share life with them even though they are not nearby. 

Two: Writing can positively influence others. It can make someone laugh and it can also be an encouragement. My wife has gotten so many comments on her blog about how it has been an encouragement to many of her friends. I also have read some of my friends blogs like the Kaye family and have been really blessed by them. And so I have come to learn that many times what God teaches us through our everyday life experiences will end up helping and blessing someone else. God has given us meaning and a message to tell and that is the reason we create, write, sing, and preach. Many people do not believe this and go on living un-inspired lives with no message to tell the world. I was reading a book by F. Scott Fitzgerald over the break and the main character Anthony Patch, in a moment of self-reflection, said, "I feel that it being a meaningless world, why write? The very attempt to give it purpose is purposeless." And so I saw, in contrast with this character, that I do have a purpose and therefore to write is not purposeless! And with this great revelation I vowed to make a triumphant return to the Man-Cave. So don't worry Talby Tuesdays will return.  My sole focus on Talby has creeped some people out and caused other people to ask me if my blog was a joke (I can't say I blame them) so I do want to focus a lot more on all of the wonderful stuff that God is teaching me in this life and hopefully share some of that with you. That's all I got for today! Look for more posts coming your way.