Can Wii Start Over?

Even new gaming systems, with their advanced graphics and global interactivity, still offer the one thing that everyone wants: a reset button. A chance to erase what just happened and do better.The first game system I had was the original Nintendo. My brother and I played Tecmo Bowl for hours and hours… then we’d go eat breakfast. There were other games but that one and Mario Brothers were our favorites. The Nintendo console only had 2 buttons: power and reset. The latter was used in 2 situations: when the game was frozen or when you were losing so bad and wanted to start over. The underlying idea here is that people love having another chance to do better and sometimes in real life, I find myself searching for the reset button. Like I’ve reached level 3 but continue making the same mistakes I made on level 1. Idiot! Now I’ve only got a little bit of strength left. I’ll never save the princess, so boop, hit reset and start again. Erasing the memory. Starting over. I wish it was that easy.

I’m about to get all spiritual now because the more I think about it, the more I believe Jesus can be the reset button. Look at the woman caught in adultery. Jesus basically hit the reset button for her. Same with guys that cheated in their jobs, people that had diseases or blindness, or even people that had it all together. Jesus offered them a chance to start over. And what’s just as cool as this, he also offers a way to regain strength when it’s low. It’s by having hope in him. He says we can soar on wings like eagles (kind of like Mario with the star that let you run through anything or jump really high, only cooler).

Isaiah 40:31 “…but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Oh, another cool game was Excite Bike. Heck yes, I’d like to create my own race track! So when we feel like we just blew a big interview, a promising first date, or a chance to do whatever it is we wanted to do, just like an old Nintendo game, sometimes blowing it is exactly how to get things working again. We can learn from these mistakes. But the renewal, the second chance, the getting stronger part, that truly comes from Jesus. Then, like the skinny little boxer in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out, we can keep going. Keep battling. Face our challenges, however big they are, and deliver the knockout punch. 

Hiding in Plain Sight

Practically hiding in plain sight, I approached to discover it was exactly what I was hoping for. It’s something that millions of people have, yet they’re extremely valuable. So valuable in fact, that you could be jailed for having a fake. I found it in my neighbor’s yard one evening.

My friend Millie and I made it down to Franklin, Tennessee to watch ESPN3 for the first football game of my alma mater, Florida State University. Quickly turning into a route in Tallahassee, she and I decided to take advantage of an available pool table. She’s no good, so it’s possible to know how good I am by how many times she beat me. After an hour of big time trash talk and small time skills, we gathered our things to leave. I returned the set of pool balls and we headed north. It wasn’t till a few days later that I realized I didn’t have my driver’s license! Didn’t take too long to retrace my steps and remember I left it at the bar when we rented the balls. Darn. Now I gotta go back to Franklin? I called to first make sure they had it, then ask if they could mail it to me. And this is why I don’t trust the Post Office. A week later I ordered a replacement license. A few days later it arrived. Walking from the mailbox into the house to find my wallet, inserting the new license, setting my wallet on the table then going in the kitchen to heat up a nice celebratory dinner is what I wanted to do. But somewhere after turning from the mailbox it all gets fuzzy. Fast forward a few days and now it’s definitely time to put the new license in my wallet. No joking around, it’s time. Only thing is, I can’t find the envelop with the license and I have to leave for work in 20 minutes. I scan all the normal places; on the kitchen counter, around my room, in the refrigerator. Nothing. I even skipped a shower (sorry, people I work with). So the action plan was to come home after work and engage Operation Under Where. You just thought about underwear, didn’t you? I was absolutely sure the envelop was somewhere close, but being gone all day, I knew before exploring all the nooks and crannies of my house, I wanted to take the dogs for a long walk. But then, it was going to be on! And I mean on like finding Bin Laden on, not like oh, look, Boy Meets World is on.

We were having a pretty good walk, the dogs and I. As we got closer to home, I began thinking about where I’d look for the license first, but then I became curious about a white envelope in my neighbor’s yard.

I have my license after 5 days of being run-over… over and over and over.

In Case of Rapture, This Car Will Be Unmanned

I was driving back from my cousin’s wedding. A comfortable ride, the radio playing my favorite songs, the sun rising to my right, the dogs asleep. It’s the time of year where you can leave the A/C off, just open the vents and let the cool air fill the car up. The cruise control was set at 77 and I was doing just that, cruising.
I must love my dogs because I kept thinking about what would happen in case of rapture. My car would still be cruising at 77 and I know my dogs are smart, but there’s no possible way they’d wake up in time to gain control of the car and bring it to a safe and harmless stop! So maybe I’ll come up with a new bumper sticker that says, “In case of rapture, hit this button.” Oh yeah, I’d put the bumper sticker inside so the dogs could see it, and oh yeah, I’d have a button installed that automatically pops out 3 red turtle shells to orbit around the car like on Mario Kart, and oh yeah, I would’ve already taught my dogs to press buttons, you know, with any available paw. No one knows when the rapture will happen, so I guess for now, me and my dogs will just cruise.

Think Outside the Box

The problem with everyone thinking outside the box is that now everyone is thinking outside the box. It’s actually more original to think inside the box. Afterall, didn’t the box have some good stuff inside? All of the sudden no one wants anything to do with the box, but what did the box ever do to us? We just decided, “Oh, we don’t like boxes. We don’t like being taped up and secure. We don’t like FedEx shipping us at a flat rate.” Well, what the heck are you going to use when you wrap Christmas gifts this year? Write this down: thinking inside the box is the new thinking outside the box. It’s like in football when coaches call a timeout to ice the kicker before an important field goal. By all standards, that’s thinking outside the box. But to truly ice the kicker, you need to get back inside the box… by not calling a timeout which will surprise the kicker who was expecting you to call a timeout.

To summarize, when someone in your next meeting says to “think outside the box,” throw a red bow in their face and say, “Merry Christmas, boxist!” Then go find a box and pack up your things because you’ll probably get fired.

I Was 4 Years Old Again

When you have those rare moments that shut you up, what do you think about? When you’re not close to death, but your life flashes before your eyes, what do you do next? Are the experiences you least expect the ones you remember the most? I wasn’t expecting to get all nostalgic and deep tonight, but on the way home from work “Unglued” by Michael Tate was playing on my iPod. About halfway into it, I saw a Pinellas County license plate. All of a sudden I was a 4-year-old at Sheridan Hills Christian School. I was hearing Chariots of Fire for the first time on the piano. I was encountering my first bully. I was playing with a spritely beagle puppy named Belle. I was hugging a giant teddy bear that Mom-Mom and Pop just gave me. I never thought of being a 33-year-old guy. But if I did, would the life I imagined back then look anything like what it is now? I don’t feel like an adult. But I don’t feel young. I’m rich in some ways and poor in others. I’m wise sometimes and others, a fool. I have moments of pure genius and others that set me back 5 years. I’m happy but frustrated. I’m strong but naive. Life is good, but not as good as it could be, or will be. Alanis Morissette would call that ironic. Katy Perry might call it being hot and cold. I just call it being 33 years old. I just call it a 33-year-old with the giant teddy bear he still has and the belief that the little 4-year-old he once was is going to turn into something great.