Panic, Anxiety, Sugar and Salt

I'm reading a really fascinating book right now.

It's called The End of Overeating, by David Kessler, M.D.

Needless to say, I've got some real interest in this topic. I've been "big boned" my whole life. I've had a 35 year wrestling match with the scale, sometimes getting the upper hand, but only for a while.

I'm committed again to a new program. Only this time it does seem a little different. It's long term, it's common sense. It's about being healthy, forever.

But that's not really the point of this blog.

The point is that Kessler says the American food industry (he was head of the Food and Drug Administration in the past) is built on sugar, salt and fat.

Surprise, surprise, right?

What's interesting about his book is that he spends a lot of time looking at brain chemistry. He asks a basic question: why are we so addicted to foods that we absolutely know are bad for us?

Why this battle between the "will" and the stomach?

Kessler's answer is biological. "Highly palatable" foods, laden with sugar, salt and fat help release dopamine in the brain. They make us feel good, on a hormonal level.

But the good news is this: we can learn to become turned off by things that are bad for us.

Our culture no longer thinks that smoking is cool in the way that we did 50 years ago. In fact, we tend to see it as gross and harmful.

Maybe, Kessler wagers, the same can happen with nachos and cheeseburgers. We'll see.

But I think there are some even bigger addictions out there we need to be wary of. There are mental and spiritual "dopamine" triggers that can be even more dangerous.

The current swine flu reporting and news cycles are unlike anything I can remember. I'm just not sure I've ever seen each and every news outlet work harder at pushing stress, anxiety and panic into the collective American bloodstream.

And we respond.

If we allow ourselves to be swept up by the culture...we will become addicted to anxiety. We will thrive on the highs and lows of the latest panic.

What nobody seems to mention is that 36,000 Americans die of influenza every single year. I'm not in favor of sticking our heads in the sand, but the current media feeding frenzies of all-you-can-eat panic-and-anxiety buffet lines is simply nothing short of disgusting.

There's got to be a better way.

And there is.

If you're a person of faith...if you follow in the way of Jesus...remember some important truths:

"Be still and know that I am God" Psalm 46:10

"God will fight the battle for you.
And you? You keep your mouths shut!" Exodus 14:14

"Give in to God, come to terms with him
and everything will turn out just fine.
Let him tell you what to do;
take his words to heart.
Come back to God Almighty
and he'll rebuild your life. Job 22


Why is everyone hungry for more? "More, more," they say.
"More, more."
I have God's more-than-enough,
More joy in one ordinary day
Than they get in all their shopping sprees.
At day's end I'm ready for sound sleep,
For you, God, have put my life back together. Psalm 4

Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, "Quiet! Settle down!" The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass. Jesus reprimanded the disciples: "Why are you such cowards? Don't you have any faith at all?" Mark 4

Don't buy what they're selling. There is a better way. Let's take that path, together.

Now relax. Turn off the TV. All will be well.

Grace & Peace,
Adam

Shared Faith and Shared Ministry...It's What Makes a Chuch Family

Happy Friday, SOTH Family --

I wanted to share with you a wonderful testimony from one of our members. Every Thursday, Jamie Blankenship writes an encouraging email to our community visitation team. We go out together into the community every Thursday night to meet our neighbors around the church and begin to build relationships.

What she had to say this week was truly encouraging and real picture of ministry at SOTH --- Thanks for letting me share Jamie!

Grace, Peace and see you all on Sunday!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello, All!

I missed everyone last week (Spring Break)! A lot more than I thought I would. (no offense J ) And whenever I have a “surprise” feeling, I sit around and analyze it. So here are my thoughts from last week on “why do I feel so odd, home on a Thursday”

From my perspective, the relationships between our LRE ministry team members has surpassed “people I serve with in ministry once a week”. I feel like we are family. I look forward to seeing you all each week. I enjoy our similarities. I enjoy our differences. Everyone has such a great sense of humor. What a family!

Wait, this sounds too good to be true…No “black sheep” to deal with? Don’t all families have at least one someone that doesn’t “play nice with others”? How do we all get along so well?

I believe we share this special bond because of our deep love for Christ and our desire to serve Him. This is the common thread that creates our “family ties”.

And this ministry doesn’t feel like work to me. I mean, what we do on Thursdays does not fit in my mental image of “church work”.

All you have to do is love someone. I think this scripture really sums it up.

I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. John 15:15

It is really a blessing to serve with all of you, fellow friends of Christ, each week. Your love for Christ is truly inspiring.

Jamie

Dragonball: Evolution

Okay, so I was a huge Dragonball fan when I was younger. Ive seen every episode of the show, Ive seen all of the animated movies, and now I can say that I have seen both live action renditions, as well (Little known fact: Dragonball has already made the jump to the big screen).

Anywho, do yourself a favor, fan or not, and avoid this movie at all costs. I was suckered into going by a roommate of mine who loved the show as well. We both knew it was going to be terrible. We knew we were going to be the only two people in the theater. And I knew that if the cute ticket girl was working last night, I was going to make Swanson buy the tickets on his own; you know, so she didnt know I was going to see Dragonball.

The movie is based off of the characters of the show, but by no means has any loyalty to the plot. In fact, if you went in expecting it to reflect the show well, you would be majorly disappointed within the first few minutes of the movie. And, in my opinion, it should have stuck to the plot of the show because it didnt completely bomb like that of the movie. Plot aside, the special effects were laughable, at best. Get this: the best effect of the whole film is actually a transformer-esque construction of a motor bike from something the size of a cell-phone. The fight scenes were atrocious excepting maybe that of the encounter Goku has outside of a party - his artful dodging made for a semi-appealing, semi-action scene - and the time when Piccolo crushes a house.

The acting was terrible, too, on almost all fronts. Chow Yun-Fat always looks like he is trying so hard to not look directly at the camera, and his role as the "master" in this film is laughable. Unimpressive. The guy they got to play Goku, Justin Chatwin, was also unimpressive. There was not a single instance when I thought he is doing a better job than I could have. Newcomer Jamie Chung as Chi Chi did the best job in the film, in my opinion. She shares a birthday with me, which makes her instantly great. Emmy Rossum who played Bulma has easily one of the most annoying voices of all time - right there next to the creepy old lady from the Poltergeist movies.

There is no positive to be gleaned from this movie, honestly; besides, maybe, its ease of poke-funedness. Dont waste your dollars going to see this film, renting it, or purchasing the DVD. I would go so far as to say that you should even pass this one up in Netflix, even if its an instant queue option. It hurts my DBZ heart to say it, but, dang, this movie was bad from credit to credit.

Now What?

Check this out:

From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in—we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands.

The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen!

And now we're telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this:

The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us.

We saw it, we heard it, and now we're telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ.

Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!

Those are the opening words of First John. They are the words of a witness...someone who saw and experienced an event that changed them forever.

What was the big event?

Easter. Resurrection. An empty tomb.

If these words were indeed written by John the "beloved" disciple...then he ran ahead of Peter to the place of the resurrection. He was with those gathered in fear when Jesus suddenly appeared and made himself known to them. He was in the boat on the Sea of Galilee when they spotted a familiar friend on the shoreline...and helped haul in that miraculous catch.

He saw, and was changed.

What about us?

What do we do when Easter is over?

A great friend in ministry said something profound to me yesterday:

Why do our churches slow down every year after Easter? Why do we have such full houses on Easter Sunday, only to begin the "inevitable" decline into summer?

It doesn't have to be that way.

John says that what we witness changes us, forever. If "the infinite life of God took shape before us," that's not something that goes on summer vacation.

John goes on to say that the "now what" is love. That Jesus' people will love each other because God is love.

Love that person who visited with you this last Sunday. Pick up the phone and call them. Invite them to come back again this week. But most of all...look for the "infinite life of God" at work all around us.

And be love.

Grace & Peace,

Adam

The Easter Video

Man, I am telling you: If you have not yet seen the video Kim Rahn made of the photos taken at our Easter Egg Hunt a couple of weeks ago, you need to remedy that, and fast!

If that movie does not put a huge smile on your face or even conjure up a tear or two (or more!), then you need to see a doctor.

I get such great joy from seeing happy children and serving them. I mean, just seeing those happy kids on the video gave me great joy, and they arent even my kids! When I have kids, I am going to be an emotional wreck, I think.

Sunday, April 12

Yesterday was a super-busy day for me, but in all of the best possible ways. After the routine church stuff, I was invited to Easter dinner with the Vantrees', so I followed the lot of them over to their home. While their, Brittany, Aaron, Devin, Kevin and I all hung out with one another. Dinner was awesome, too, a la Andrea and Pat. I also had a great opportunity to meet some folks, which was cool, too.

I had to take Brittany away from the party for band practice at the church which was rushed due to time constraints, but went really well. We played "No One Like You" by David Crowder, "Marvelous Light" by Charlie Hall, and "Everlasting God" by Chris Tomlin. I wanted to play all up-beat songs last night to bring some life to the party. Before we began singing, I shared with the group what I have heard Crowder say at two of his concerts:

"Now that was pretty, but we arent going for pretty. We are going for loud."

Crowder would stop playing in the middle of a song and say this, and then after they began playing again, the crowd got uproariously loud, and the same happened at youth last night. I saw the kids really getting into worship and being excited about the words they were singing, which was a great thing to behold, truly.

After youth, I took Julian and Brittany home, and during the ride, we did karaoke! Brittany and I actually did some karaoke earlier in the day on our way to the church from the Vantrees', too. Add in Julian, and we had ourselves a trio! It was awesome.

When I got home, I had the chance to relax again. Sundays are always stressful, but in all of the good ways.

Hasta.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Okay, so I am a low life that takes advantage of unique viewing opportunities, and, as it turns out, an incomplete version of the new movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine was leaked onto the internet sometime late last week or early this week. I was unaware of it, but an internet scouring friend of mine was able to find it and download it. The version I watched last night was incomplete in the sense that a bunch of the effects were incomplete - which was kind of cool. It was like seeing the step before production; having an insight into the movie-making process.

Anywho:

I am pretty sure this will come with an R-rating; I could be wrong, but, in my opinion, the violence might be past the PG-13 guidelines.

On the whole, the movie was great, but I say this with-holding my own, informed opinion which I will go into here:

There is a character in the Marvel Universe by the name of Deadpool who is far-and-away my favorite Marvel character. Ive read everything he has ever been in. That being said, I know my Deadpool, and what the movie offered made me extremely mad on so many levels.

SPOILER ALERT! (IF YOU READ THE FOLLOWING ITALICIZED TEXT, THERE IS A SPOILER. SKIP DOWN TO THE REGULAR TEXT IF YOU WANT TO AVOID THIS)

I thought they nailed Deadpool in the beginning. He was awesome! I was even okay with him not wearing his trademarked mask. But then they kill him off, which is crazy. Deadpool doesnt die. His healing factor is even more advanced than Wolverine's and he is a tactical genius on top of his near-unrivalled physical combat skills.

THEN they bring him back, but, in standard Hollywood fashion, they COMPLETELY mess with his storyline by giving him adamantium plating, patching his mouth so he cant talk, he can shoot optic-beams like Cyclops, and inserting his trademarked katanas into his arms so they unsheath much like Wolverine's claws. They also gave him teleportation, which is not too far off of the comic path, so I leave that power of his alone. He is the "MERC WITH A MOUTH" for gosh sakes. How are you going to mute the man, let alone the other atrocious additions?! And, of course, they kill him again in the end which means they probably wont have a Deadpool movie which makes me doubley-upset.

Im extremely upset. Truly, I am.

Okay, apart from all of that insider information, you will think the movie is just fine. Its action packed and it has its fair share of emotional moments surrounding Wolverine and his lady-love.

As usual, Hugh Jackman does a good job with his role. There are a few moments when he slips a bit, but who knows? Maybe we will get lucky and they will edit those moments out. Plus, Leiv Schreiber makes a much better Sabretooth than that poor excuse for an actor they cast in the first X-Men movies. Although I am not 100% sure that I like Danny Huston as a better William Striker than Brian Cox; in fact, I am going to go ahead and vote for Mr. Cox on this one.

You also get to meet the Blob and Gambit just to name a couple of the more exciting mutant cameos. I thought they did a terrible job of explaining who was who and who could do what throughout most of the movie. If you dont read comics fairly often or, in the very least, read the wikipedia articles, then you will be completely lost when it comes to relating to and knowing who most of the mutants in the movie are. That is sad, too, because a large part of my enjoyment of the film came from recognizing the mutants they never named!

The movie does a great job of giving you a glimpse and a greater understanding of who Wolverine was, who he is, and how he came to be. They most certainly deliver on all of that.

All things being said, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a great action film that will please most anyone who sits down to it. Its slated to be a summer blockbuster, and rightfully so. In fact, I will probably pay to see the finished product when it hits theaters in early May. Its easily the best of the X-Men franchise movies, and there is more to come - including an origins story for Magneto, the magnetic baddy from the first three films.

Here's looking forward to that!

SOTH Kids this Easter

We have so much going on in the upcoming weeks at SOTH for kids:

• Easter Egg Hunt  - Sunday, April 5th (Palm Sunday), immediately following the 11:00am service, RAIN or SHINE!  All ages are invited...the younger kids will be hunting for hidden eggs, while 3rd-5th grade will be on a "scavenger hunt", for eggs, of course!
• EGGS NEEDED!  If your child plans to participate in the Egg Hunt on April 5th, please donate a dozen candy filled plastic eggs per child (no chocolate, please).
• During the Children's Moment of both services on Palm Sunday, April 5th, the kids will hear an explanation of "Palm Sunday" and the significance of the palms.  The children will receive real palm fronds.
• The kids of SOTH will be singing a song with the praise band on Easter Sunday, April 12th during the 11:00am service.   In order to prepare for this event, the children need to practice with the band, between services (10:40-10:55am) on Sunday, April 5th.  If your child plans on performing with the band on Easter Sunday, please have them attend these brief rehearsals.  
• For more information, contact Kim Rahn kim@sothumc.net

Sports

Today I had an awesome opportunity that I look forward to doing with greater frequency in the months to come; especially with a move to Douglasville pending in May.

I attended a youth sporting event.

It seems like such a trivial thing, right? I sit in the stands while the youth are out on the field playing whatever their sport of choice is.

But there is so much more to spectating a youth sporting event for me.

1) More often than not, where the youth is, the parents are. This gives me a great opportunity to sit down with parents and talk it up. I love those opportunities. It also shows the parents and the youth that I am interested in their lives outside of the church walls; that their lives are now part of mine. Its not just a job when you step outside of the "office space."

2) It provides me with more memories of the youth as well as conversation starters. I sent a personal text message to the students I saw play tonight (excepting one...I didnt have his number programmed into my phone; a problem I will remedy tonight) in which I cited a specific moment pertaining to them, individually. That meant the world to them all.

3) I get to meet some of the friends Ive never had the chance to meet during a youth event. This is especially true of high school sporting events - which is exactly what I attended tonight. Friends of the youth who are playing come to watch them just as I do.

4) Either before or after the games, in some cases, at least, the students are hanging out in the stands. This gives me the chance to just hang out with them. For me, that time is extremely valuable.

Anywho, tonight I watched Morgan Berry, Emily Lindall, Jessica Rudisill, and Ashton Phillips play soccer at Alexander High School. The girls let me know that they had a game tonight about a week or more ago. Ashton actually found me in the bleachers, and, when he told me he was playing in a game tonight, too, I made sure that I was there. This meant that I watched the girls play, ran to church for two meetings, then ran back to Alexander - just in time for the beginning of Ashton's game.

There wasnt a place in the world I would rather have been tonight than watching the youth play and spending some time with their parents.

PS: Ive announced this before, but if you let me know of games ahead of time, I will try my darndest to be there, my schedule permitting!