It Is Time

It is time.
Just Walk Across the Room is upon us.
I am looking forward to what God will do through us.
We have a wonderful opportunity to help people far from God come to know who Jesus is.
Please, pray that many will take Him as Savior.

Tell Your Story

I received a great deal of positive feedback from the message a couple of weeks ago about telling your story. God has used that message and subsequent encounters to really get some of you thinking about your story.

As a follow up I would like to share this with you. God is using this idea in my life as well. As I mentioned earlier, Amy and I are reading through the Bible together this year. Right now our prescribed reading is in the book of Acts. We have been reading the last few days about the Apostle Paul. Paul was a missionary and church planter and preacher and theologian; however what has really hit home with me is how many times he just told his story! Over and over again in Acts he simply retells his story. “I was on the way to Damascus to round up Christians so that they could be punished for following Christ…and…I came face to face with the Master.” Another time he will say, “You know…I am a Jew as well, but I have come to faith in Christ.” Then another time he will say, “You cannot hold me without a trial because I was born a Roman citizen…and…the reason that the Jews wanted me arrested is because I was preaching about Jesus.”

Throughout his life and specifically toward the end of his life, God just keeps giving Paul opportunities to share his story. I have no doubt that God will do the same for us. As we study Just Walk Across the Room next month I pray that we will find the encouragement and the tools to tell our story effectively for God’s glory and for the sake of those whose lives need to be changed by the power of Jesus Christ.

Sin Crouches At Our Door

So many times we can get to a point where we think that following Christ will go on auto-pilot. The truth is that sin will keep knocking on our door. We will always wrestle with our sinful nature. Sometimes we will be tempted to give in and decide, “Well, I just can’t help it. This is the way that I am.”

Henry Blackaby, in his book Experiencing the Cross, points out that if we function with that attitude we are canceling the practical effect of God’s promises. To avoid this trap we must learn to recognize all that God has done for us and take full advantage of it. We must accept His complete provision.

The Apostle Paul said it this way…
Philippians 3:13-14 (NLT)
No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, [14] I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.

Perhaps, as you pray today, you can incorporate this in your prayer.
“Father, I know Your promises. I know that You have made all that I need for living a godly life available to me. Help me to hang on Your promises and implement these blessings.”

Ten Things I Think I Think

1. I think that of the 44 years that I have been alive, I have been on a diet for 43 of them.
2. I think that you will enjoy and be inspired by Just Walk Across the Room.
3. I think that this is the weirdest winter weather that I ever remember in Southern California.
4. I think that it is awesome that the ladies in the coffee bar have my tea all ready for me every Sunday!
5. I think that I do not look forward to Major League Baseball Spring Training nearly as much as I used to.
6. I think that Hillary Clinton flip flops more than Bill Clinton.
7. I think that rehab used to be a PR nightmare for celebrities, but now it is the PR answer to everything for them.
8. I think that Because I Said So is easily one of the top three worst movies I have ever seen.
9. I think that the National Football League was very wise to back off on their threats against churches having Superbowl parties.
10. I think that all of the men of Venice would be wise to remember that next Wednesday is Valentine’s Day.

A Place to Unload

Amy ran across this in a devotional by Chuck Swindoll.
I thought that it was really good.

I will just give you the gist of it and attempt to put in the context of life at Venice Church.

Life is a long journey. For some of us it seems like an endless trip filled with thankless responsibilities, relentless tasks, disappointments, deadlines, and daily demands.
The fact that we are imperfect people does not help. Every once in a while we make poor decisions. We say things that we wish we could get back. We tend to look out for ourselves and then end up regretting it. We are impulsive and foolish and prideful. We hurt others. All of this stuff caves in on us and we begin to wonder if anybody could love us...even God.
So...we need a place to unload! At Venice our place to unload is called a small group. It is the place where best attempt to live out the "one anothers" that are found in the Scripture. Love one another. Serve one another. Build up one another. Live in peace with one another. Confess your sins to one another. Speak to, admonish, comfort, and pray for one another.
And this one.

Galatians 6:2 (NASB) Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ.

We need a place to unload. We need a place where we can sit and talk and experience person-to-person caring and sharing. It must be a place with no judgment, no shame and no embarrassment.
Small groups are not miniature church services. They are pockets of people who love Christ and believe in helping one another. The don't point fingers, preach or compare. They are brothers and sisters in Christ.

Get Ready

There is a good chance that over the next several weeks God will give you an opportunity, an open door to enter into a spiritual conversation with somebody who is far from Him.

As a Christ follower and a member of Venice I want you to be able to take advantage of the situation to help somebody move toward faith in Christ. In the passage below, Paul provides some pivotal clues that will allow us to be successful in this endeavor that God will call you to.
Colossians 4:2-6
Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. [3] Don't forget to pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to preach about his secret plan—that Christ is also for you Gentiles. That is why I am here in chains. [4] Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should. [5] Live wisely among those who are not Christians, and make the most of every opportunity. [6] Let your conversation be gracious and effective so that you will have the right answer for everyone.
Paul says several very simple things. He asks the people at the church in Colossae to pray for these things in his life and to embrace them for their own lives. Allow me to simplify.
Be devoted to prayer.
Be alert and thankful.
Pray for opportunities to share Christ.
Live wisely with unbelievers.
Make the most of every opportunity.
Be gracious and effective in your conversations.

God will open the door. Walk through it and engage in a gracious and effective conversation that will point that person to Christ. You can do it. I will be praying for you. Please, pray for me and my opportunities.

Thank You Very Much

I have begun my annual Thanksgiving list.
Every year I list several things that I am thankful for.
As I am doing my little self-survey I find myself thinking a lot about our country.
It is an interesting time, these times that we live in.
One of the things that I am thankful for this year is that the election is over and I don’t have to see any more poorly produced and lame campaign ads. Can I get an amen?

As I was thinking about our country and giving thanks for our country and praying for our country I had this thought. What if we really gave thanks to God this year? What would that look like? Then…I came across this Psalm.

Psalm 67:1-7 (NLT)
May God be merciful and bless us.
May his face shine with favor upon us.
Interlude
[2] May your ways be known throughout the earth,
your saving power among people everywhere.
[3] May the nations praise you, O God.
Yes, may all the nations praise you.
[4] How glad the nations will be, singing for joy,
because you govern them with justice
and direct the actions of the whole world.
Interlude
[5] May the nations praise you, O God.
Yes, may all the nations praise you.
[6] Then the earth will yield its harvests,
and God, our God, will richly bless us.
[7] Yes, God will bless us,
and people all over the world will fear him.

This type of prayer is the type of prayer that I believe our forefathers were praying at Thanksgiving. Perhaps you would like to adopt it as your prayer this year. There has never been a time when we needed God’s mercy more than we do right now. There has never been a time when we needed God’s face to shine on us more than we do right now. May our nation praise Him. May He richly bless us this Thanksgiving season.

10 Things I Think I Think

1. I think that it is almost Halloween and I think that because I saw Al Gore on TV last night. Very scary.

2. I think that the feel of autumn in the air, even in Southern California, feels good.

3. I think that most everybody is really enjoying our new building, especially our coffee bar.

4. I think that the USC Trojans have the best college football team in the city, but the UCLA Bruins have the prettiest uniforms, not just in the city, but also in all of college football.

5. I think that you will love our new church logo and our new website, even though the website is in its infant stages. Check it out at http://www.venicechurch.com/.

6. I think that it is fun to watch grown men dragged behind a ski boat at 40 miles an hour on an inner tube.

7. I think that venicechurch is becoming ?Baby Central? and that is very cool. Congratulations on all the new babies and the ones on the way.

8. I think that I am glad that the Dodgers and the Padres did not meet in the National League Championship Series. It may have tested the Christian love between some of my brothers in Christ and me.

9. I think that North Korea is just crazy enough to mean it.

10. I think that marking things off of a to-do-list is really quite fun.

Sexually explicit lyrics move teens toward sex...duh?

Wow! This story is amazing. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060807/ap_on_re_us/sex_lyrics_teens
A recent study says that sexually explicit lyrics in music arw moving to teens toward sexual encounters at an earlier age. Well...duh? Parents, pay attention to what your kids see and hear. As Rayfield Wright said in his Hall of Fame acceptance speech on Saturday, "Parents are the windows through which children see the world." That is why parents are so important. Be the filter for them...please.

Thoughts On a Notepad

My thoughts today…in no particular order.

Isn’t it funny that during this heat wave we cannot remember how cool our spring was? We were begging for some warm weather about three months ago.

It was great to see Bonnie Martin and her little girl Brianna on Sunday. Jarrod (USAF) and Bonnie got married and moved to Germany four years ago. Now they are headed to Washington D.C. for four years.

It has been 25 years since Amy and I graduated from High School. I have never been to a reunion and we don’t know anybody that we went to High School with.

The Pro Football season begins in 43 days.

I knew that our new building was going to be great, but it will be better than even I expected.

My first draught of this was handwritten. My penmanship stinks. I can’t write at all anymore.

Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer who has ever lived, yet I still sense an immense emptiness and loneliness in him. At the end of the day he is just like everybody else. He is a sinner who needs to come to know the Savior.

The biggest mistake that most Christians make is reading and studying the Bible for information and knowledge instead of for life-change.

My mom turned 66 years old on Monday. Everybody should have a mom who loves God, is down to earth, and likes to watch football. (It doesn’t hurt if they bake good cookies too!)

I don’t know how we ever survived without cell phones, computers, ipods, and TIVO. I don’t think that I could survive without them now.

Most Christ followers need more obedience and less counsel in their lives.

Popular music can be extremely “nasty” these days. Even country music has “booty” songs now.

I didn’t see the movie Click with Adam Sandler, but I love the concept. Sometimes you need TIVO for life for those “did you see that” moments. This morning we almost saw a guy kill his buddy with a poorly struck golf shot. Wayne said, “Eight second that. I want to see it again.”

I know a lot of people who feel like they need to get a job delivering pizza at night just to pay for their gasoline. But wait…that would be counterproductive wouldn’t it?

My wife Amy is amazing. She has been putting up with my junk for 26 and ½ years. We have been married for 22 of those. I wouldn’t trade her for anything. She is truly a blessing and gift from God.

Last one…I believe that every member of Venice Church should be in a small group, serve in a ministry, and have good worship music in their car. Here is a music suggestion for you. Get All To You Live by Lincoln Brewster. We already sing several of his songs and we are going to learn more.

It's Hot!

This just in...it's hot. Okay, it's not that hot. We are just spoiled little westsiders who are appalled if we perspire. It gets to 80 degrees with a little humidity and you would think the end of the world is on the horizon. But wait...maybe it is. The literal heat that we have been feeling pales in comparison to the "hot spots" around the world these days. The conflict in the Middle East has led many to speculate on the possibility of World War III. Isn't it amazing that after all of these years and all of these decades and all of these centuries Israel is still right there in the middle of all of it? The promises that God made to Abraham and the land that God promised to Abraham is what the fight is all about. You would think that people would pause and consider that maybe there is something to Israel’s claim that they are God's people and that is the dwelling place that God promised to them. Well, they are and it is. That is exactly what they are and that is where they are supposed to be. That is precisely what the Bible says!

I don't want to get on a rant about Israel and about the current conflict, but this much I do know. Jesus Christ is going to reign from the throne in Jerusalem. I do not know exactly how it all is going to come about and I certainly would not pretend to know where we are on God's timeline, but I do know this. When I read Jesus' description of the end of the world in Matthew 24 and in Luke 21 it sounds an awful lot like today. I do not know what role our nation plays in the big scheme of things, but I know what our role as a church is. We must redeem the time. We must share the gospel at every opportunity. Souls, lives, and families are at stake.
Here is what Jesus says toward the end of Luke 21.
Luke 21:28
So when all these things begin to happen, stand straight and look up, for your salvation is near!
I cannot help but think that our salvation is near. These are exciting times. Let’s make the most of our opportunity to make a difference in our neighborhood.

Conspiracy Theory

I could not help but notice that Brokeback Mountain received eight Oscar nominations this morning. I am almost 100% certain that it will take home the Oscar for Best Picture. I have not seen it. I will not see it. There are many reasons, but one of the reasons is that I like my Cowboys playing football in Dallas with stars on their helmets, not lying under the stars together on the prairie.
Now, I am not one to blast Hollywood too much. We have many people in our church family who work in the industry and I think that is great. We need godly men and women in the industry. When it comes to Hollywood, they are what they are. If you do not realize what they are allow me to share my thoughts. I believe that Hollywood has two basic bottom lines. The first and most obvious one is money. Movies, television, radio, and the music industry exist primarily to make money. That is why the weekly box office ratings are measured in dollars. That is why there are like 47 entertainment shows on each night. They are there to promote Hollywood not necessarily to inform us. So we have money and, now some of you will bristle at this because there is an “art” factor in a lot of what Hollywood produces, we have their second bottom line, which is their agenda. Hollywood has an agenda.
I am not much on conspiracy theories, however there are times when they are exposed or in some cases they expose themselves. Ang Lee, the director of Brokeback Mountain, exposed Hollywood’s agenda in his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes earlier this month. In his tribute to the other directors that were nominated he said, “I just want to give my first thanks to my fellow filmmakers for strengthening my faith in the power of movies to change the way we’re thinking,” And there you have it. The confession. The admission. They have an agenda. They want to change the way that we are thinking! When the pressure was on, when the hot lights of award show interrogation went on Ang Lee buckled under the intense pressure and he spilled the beans. He inadvertently ratted out Hollywood. They want to change the way that we think.Don’t get me wrong. I believe in America. I believe in Larry McMurtry’s (and his typewriter), Diana Ossana’s and Ang Lee’s right to express themselves. I believe that Ang Lee had every right to expose Hollywood’s agenda through his free (acceptance) speech. I believe that as Christ followers we have every right to reject what Hollywood is subtly trying to feed us. I am not preaching against movies. I am preaching for godly thinking. I am just saying that when you go the movies this weekend…pay attention. They might be trying to tell you something.

Life Lesson #347

Life Lesson # 347: Be careful what you put in your microwave.
Be careful what you put in your microwave because you just might burn down the church parsonage. Here is the word of warning. Never trust Pizza Hut.

So here is what happened...
My wife left town. We ordered Pizza Hut. 20 piece hot wing and two large pizzas. We clean up lunch and there are a couple of slices of pizza and three hot wings left over and they are tucked away in the refrigerator. The boys go to Shockwave. Now is my chance to eat the last three wings. I rip the styrofoam box from the fridge, pop it in the microwave, and hit one minute and I turn back to the fridge to find the bleu cheese dresssing. Wings taste better with bleu cheese dressing. Not ten seconds later I hear a loud crackling noise. I look in the microwave and I observe the literal meaning of the term wings of fire! So I pop open the door, grab the box, and pivot to place the wings in the sink where I douse them with the little spray hose thing on the sink. (Man, am I glad that I did not walk away from the microwave.) The fire is out...but now I see styrofoam soot wafting upwards and then drifting slowly back down to land on literally everything in our kitchen. Everything in our kitchen is white. My wife keeps a very clean house. Dead man walking. She is going to kill me. Did I mention that the refrigerator door was still open. All the stuff in the fridge was covered with this soot too.

The problem was that inside of the box the wings were wrapped in paper. One side of the "paper" was foil. I strongly recommend not nuking foil in your microwave because it WILL start a fire.

Life lesson #347...be careful what you put in your microwave.
Life lesson #347A...there are two sides to everything.
I am sure that there is a spiritual application that can be made here, however I seem to simply be learning to pay more attention to what I am doing.

Have a wonderful week and...boycott Pizza Hut.
Better yet, have a brain wave before using the microwave.
By the way...I am just here to make the mistakes for you. You can thank me later.

White Sox Close The Deal

Well...the White Sox did it and all of Chicago rejoices! Ding Dong the witch is dead, blah, blah blah...
It just goes to show you that good pitching beats bad hitting every time.
So here is to Ozzie, Paulie, A.J., J.D. and the rest of the guys. Let's do it again next year. That means...sign Paulie right now!!!

Let's Go White Sox...

I don't know if you are paying attention or if you care, but my Chicago White Sox are on the verge of winning the World Series. I have been a Sox fan since the spring of 1973 when my family moved from Davenport, Iowa to the suburbs of Chicago. On a cool Saturday afternoon in early May some of the White Sox rookies came and gave a clinic at a strip mall near my house in Addison, Illinois. I was eight years old and I had never met a big league player before so it was quite a thrill to meet Bucky Dent, Jay Johnstone, Terry Forster, and Rich "Goose" Gossage. I have been a White Sox fan ever since and I have to tell you that it is not always easy being a White Sox fan in Chicago. You see, the Cubs are Chicago's darlings with the quaint little ballpark and the white collar fans. They play up on the north side where things are "nice".

When you cross Madison Ave. and head south in the city of Chicago things change. The economy changes, the neighborhoods are vastly different and honestly it is not so "nice" in some places. The White Sox are the step children in Chicago. Much like the Los Angeles Angels of Placentia...er Anaheim here in the southland. (Just kidding. Please no bitter replys from the Angels fans.) In Chicagoland the Cubs rule or they did rule, but now everything has changed. The Sox are about to do for their owner Jerry Reinsdorf and for the city what his other team, the Bulls, used to do for it and for him. Give them and him a world championship. It will be very sweet if they can close it out. (See...this is a Sox fan trying to believe, but not wanting to jinx it!)

I must tell you that I love this team! Not just the Sox, but this group that makes up the White Sox. From their manage Ozzie Guillen all the way down to the last guy on the roster they provide a wonderful example of leadership and teamwork. Ozzie leads the team by serving and teaching and cheering and rebuking. Man, do these guys follow. And the players just seem to pick each other up time after time. It dawned on me last night at about 11:10 PM our time (during the 14th inning of the longest World Series game ever) that we can learn a lot about ministry teams from these guys. There is a love, a bond, and a passion for excellence that is infectious on this team. I pray for the exact same characteristics in our ministries. We want loving, honest, and passionate leaders in our ministries. I want to be that type of leader in our church and on my ministry teams. I am sure that you feel the same way. I want to be on ministry teams where, because none of us are perfect, we pick each other up, we have each other's back, and we encourage one another and we raise the level of play on our team.

As I have watched the playoffs the last couple of weeks it has seemed to me that the White Sox are having the most fun. Yea, I know that everything is always more fun when the breaks are going your way and you are winning, but I think they are just having fun playing baseball together. When ministry goes well it is a lot of fun too. Bill Hybels always says, "There is nothing better than doing God's bidding with people that you love." And listen...we have so much more to live for than baseball! Being a part of a team that is honoring to God and serving with people that you love is way more fun and rewarding than baseball.

So..."Play Ball!"

I Am So Proud

Venice Baptist Church, you are to be commended for your generosity. You gave $3,660.00 to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. A check for $4,000.00 (We rounded up expecting more offering to come in!) was mailed to WorldHelp yesterday. I know that they will put it to good use. WorldHelp is partnering with local churches in Mississippi and Louisiana to meet the physical and spiritual needs in the region. I know that God will bless you and our church as we look beyond ourselves to help meet the needs of others.

Don’t forget that this Sunday there is ONE SERVICE @ 10:00 AM. The men are off on their annual ski-trip immediately following.

Now, about this Entertainment Tonight deal that is coming up on Saturday October 15th… This will be a lot of fun…if you will get involved. I know that many of you have hidden talents. We would love for you to share your “real” talent with us and we would love for you to share some of your, well let’s say, not so real talent with us. I have many talented people in my family. For an example, my wife, Amy can blow a bubble within a bubble with bubble gum. My brother can eat a fully loaded hot dog whole in one bite. I know because I saw him make a good amount of cash doing so in college. It was slightly overshadowed by my friend who would eat drinking glasses in the cafeteria, but still effective in picking up some cash to spend over at the DQ. And you just cannot beat talent like that. So start working on your song, your dance step, your poem, or your extraordinary eating talent and join us for a wonderful time with our church family and friends.

Late,
Craig

Faking It

There is nothing worse than getting a call from someone who just starts talking at you as if you know who they are. I received a call yesterday from a couple that I went to college with. Yea, I recognized their names, but there was no way that I could put a face or any other information with the name. As it turns out, I haven't seen them since before I moved to Venice! They were talking as if we have stayed in touch all of these years. So I did what any warm blooded human would do. I faked it. I lacked the courage and was too embarrassed to say, "Wait. Who are you? Not ringing a bell." I faked it because I should have known them. I talked with them about old classmates and preachers and missionaries and I really enjoyed reminiscing with them...even if I could not remember who they were.

Now, here is the great thing about living in the 21st century. As soon as I hung up the phone I sprinted to my computer to "googled" them. I found them on the Internet and then it all made complete sense. I knew them I just couldn't remember them. They are great folks who are doing a great work for God in Africa. Now I can pray for them and maybe keep in touch with them and next time they call I will not have to fake it.

Brain Cramp

Do you ever wonder why we have brain cramps? You know what I am talking about. You have an idea, a plan or a clue, but somehow and for some reason your brain just locks up and your idea, plan or clue just explodes into a pile of goo. This is fresh for me today because last night I had one of those cramps that stay with you for a while.

We had a wonderful 4th of July. I started the day by mixing my Grandma Henson’s famous homemade ice cream recipe and pouring it into our ice cream maker. One hour later the little motor ground to a halt and we had a canister full of one and one half gallons of the richest and creamiest homemade ice cream ever. After I tucked that away in the freezer I fired up the grill with good old charcoal (none of that gas stuff) and cooked up 10 pounds of carne asada.

The feast began at one. The food was good. The company was average. (Just kidding!! Lighten up!!) The day was glorious and then everybody left and we cleaned up the mess. Amy and I were kicking back, just relaxing. It had been just about a perfect July 4th by our standards.

About 10:00 o’clock, with the neighbor’s fireworks tapering off, Richie, Paul, Ernesto and Becky showed up and things got weird. Richie walked in the house and asked me why the garage door opener was not working. I knew instantly what the problem was. I remembered that the automatic garage door opener had accidentally been unplugged during our teardown. So I scurried out to the garage to plug it in. I cannot quite reach the plug, so I grabbed a church folding chair. (This is probably where the brain began to seize up.) Yes, I grabbed one of those blue church chairs with the wooden seat and I opened it and set it up. This is a no brainer right? You just stand in the chair and plug in the opener. Yea, it’s easy as long as you don’t have one of those brain cramps. I nonchalantly step on the seat of the chair with one foot and as I rise to reach for the plug my foot slips on the seat of the chair and slides toward the back of the seat and the chair just folds up on me. My foot slid down through the back of the chair and went between the legs of the chair while the chair simultaneously slammed shut and folded up. The chair clinched my leg like a vice and I fell to the floor like grizzly with his foot in a bear trap.

I was able to free myself very quickly and I made a quick inventory and every thing checked out, however I am left with swelling in my right leg that has just about doubled the size of my cankle. (A cankle is an ankle that is so big that you cannot tell where the calf ends and the ankle begins.) So at the end of a perfect day the brain cramp strikes out of nowhere and a man is hobbled. Honestly, I am doing fine. I am just a bit gimpy. But I am very thankful. It could have been worse. My kids, or worse, my wife could have witnessed it. It could have been caught on tape or worse on TIVO and my kids could play it back and forth and in slow motion over and over again. At least I was lying on the garage floor writhing in pain alone with my dignity, my trapped leg and my cramping brain!

Still Alive and Kicking,Craig

Pretty Quiet

It is a fairly quiet week on the home front, however I know that it is probably a busy week for you with the onset of summer, graduations, weddings and vacations. So, this touching base will be short and sweet.

This Sunday we will worship together in one service @ 10:00. We are giving our Shockwave Student Ministry a head start on their ski trip. Please pray for them as they head to the lake on Sunday. They will return on Thursday June 30th.
It will be our privilege to have our missionaries Dave & Nan Walter with us on Sunday. I know that you will enjoy hearing how God is working in their lives and ministry.

Reality Television Is For Geeks

Do you remember the good old days when summer television meant reruns? Back in the day we were perfectly content to catch up on the episodes of Happy Days or Three's Company that we missed. We don't need no stinking original programming. All that I needed in the summer when I was a kid was Cubs games in the afternoon and Sox games in the evening and then it really got good in August when the Bears pre-season games would begin. We were doing fine until several years ago when some genius (I think Mark Burnett) came up with the idea of reality television. He said, "Let's put real people in really bizarre situations and see who can 'survive'". Now we have survived 10, count them 10, Survivor seasons and that particular game is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many reality shows now that you can virtually construct entire paragraphs by just using reality show titles.

(Example: My favorite reality show to date is The Contender and it was produced by Sylvester Stallone who starred in Rocky III and it's theme song was The Eye of the Tiger by the band Survivor. There had to be a Fear Factor for Stallone and Sugar Ray Leonard his television Apprentice, after all they ran the risk of falling into the vast wasteland of Maximum Exposure that is The Osbornes and The Anna Nicole Smith Show and other Rich Girls who would say, "I Want a Famous Face." Of course it could be worse they could be like my wife Amy and work for The Biggest Loser, who doesn't know What Not To Wear, could use a makeover on Queer Eye For the Straight Guy that she refers to as My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss. Unfortunately The Benefactor of this lunacy seems to be Paris Hilton who needs an Extreme Makeover on her character because she does not live in The Real World. Forget about Starting Over she should adopt the attitude I Want To Be a Hilton because what she really needs is a Big Brother to whip her into shape.)
Enough already!! Stop it!!

This summer has given us three more ludicrous and pseudo entertaining installments of reality TV. The television "off season" of 2005 has given us Hit Me Baby One More Time, Dancing With the Stars, and the WB's Beauty and the Geek. While I haven't watched it yet this last one has peeked my attention simply with its title. Amy and I began to think about the title. Beauty and the Geek. That is pretty much our life since we met 26 years ago, however if you call Amy a geek one more time I'll rip your lungs out.
Websters Online Dictionary defines geek this way:
1 : a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake
2 : a person often of an intellectual bent who is disapproved of
I know that most of us were not familiar with definition one. Definition number two is the one that we relate to. A geek is a nerd or someone smart who is perhaps a bit socially dysfunctional and therefore disapproved of. By the way, if you were familiar with definition one then you need to stop reading your dictionary and get out more, cause you are a geek.

Which brings me to my point. Mark Burnett, while obviously genius, is just a geek when you get right down to it. He and the others who produce these shows are just reality TV geeks and those of us who watch are geeks too! We all are geeks in some area. Some of us are fantasy sports geeks, and some of us are cyber geeks, and some of us are music geeks which means that we are geeked out on our ipod 24/7. When you get right down to it you cannot avoid being a geek because someone will always disapprove of you even if it is on intellectual grounds.

Craig