Fix It
My house smells like dog pee. Not as much as it used to, but the scent is still there. It’s all because of this guy: my dog The Roc. 
He can’t really help it. He’s an old, small dog with an overactive bladder. If I don’t get home every few hours during the day to take him outside, he can’t help but to use the living room as his personal toilet. I would do the same thing if I were him.
If you were to visit my house, you might get a whiff of the urine smell when you walk in the door. I’ve had the carpet cleaned and I have an air freshener that mists a fresh laundry scent every thirty minutes. If you have a pet though, you know that when you have pet odor sometimes it never truly goes away.
But I don’t really notice the scent anymore. I’ve gotten numb to it. I’ve spent so much time trying to clean it up and not getting any results that I’ve resolved myself to the fact that the smell ain’t going anywhere.
We often grow comfortable with the commonplace filth around us. When we see others living in filth and doing disgusting things, it is alarming and offputting. If I were to walk into someone else’s house and there were puddles of pee on the floor and an overwhelming stench, I would be disgusted. But when it’s your own mess you don’t mind it so much. I’m densensitized to it in my own house since it’s my dog and I see it all the time. I don’t worry too much about ever stopping the problem – I scrub it up, put some air freshener on it, and hope no one else notices since I don’t really notice anymore.
I think we do this with sin in our life. When we see someone else living in sin we either pity them or are repulsed by them, and we usually feel superior to them. But when we have to confront our own sin we don’t really do anything to fix the issue. For many of us there are sins that we’ve been dealing with for so long that we become numb to them. We do our best to clean up the mess, put some air freshener on it, and present ourselves back into the world as if nothing is wrong without addressing the real underlying problem. (more…)
Name Changer
What’s in a name? Do you know what your name means? If you don’t, type it in on Google and find the meaning of your name. It’s ok. I’ll wait.
Got it? It can be pretty neat to see the meaning behind your name if you’ve never seen it before. Mine, Alexander, means “Protector of Mankind”. I like the sound of that, if only I could live up to it.
As we look at the Definition of who we are, a great place to start is with our name. (more…)
Timeless Part 2: The Exercise Machine
I’m not embarrassed to admit that I’m a pretty big Tae Bo fan. My Dad is a bit of an exercise freak, and while I’m certainly not in the same shape as him, I do enjoy a good workout myself. A couple of years ago I was looking to do something different than my usual routine of jogging and weightlifting, so I turned to the wonderful resource that is Comcast On Demand. And there I found my first Tae Bo workout. After that first 20 minute sample, I was hooked. Go ahead, take a few minutes and try the sample of the workout above and tell me you it doesn’t make you want to go out and take on the world.
Besides Tae Bo being a lot of fun, there’s one main reason why I do the workout once a week or so. Every time I pop in the DVD, I think that I’m just a few karate kicks away from having Billy Blanks’ abs. Growing up and seeing my Dad workout all the time, and being a sports fan for so many years, I’ve always dreamed about having that perfect body. Whenever I work out I honestly feel like I’m on the brink of being there if I can just keep it up for a few more workouts. I’m always game for trying a new workout. In fact, I’ve got the much-heralded P90X DVDs sitting on my kitchen counter right now waiting for me to crack open.
You might think I sound a bit crazy for being so concerned about my body, but answer me this: have you ever looked in a mirror before? Then, my friend, you too are concerned with how you look, no matter how much you may want to deny it. Look, it’s fine. No need to fret. There’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting to look decent. Jesus tells us not to be concerned with our clothing, but I don’t think it’s a sin to look in the mirror in the morning to make sure your pants match your shirt, and that your hair doesn’t look like homeless fellow. If we all walked around with stained clothes and unkempt hair then we’d be ostracizing ourselves from society in a way that would make us ineffective in spreading God’s message.
Unfortunately we often let image hold a little too strong of an influence on our lives. (more…)
I Was There
http://djosito.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/06/25/benoit_2.jpg
I was there. The “there” that I’m referring to is Wrestlemania XX at Madison Square Garden in New York City. For my 18th birthday and my graduation gift, my parents sent me and my best friend to see this once in a lifetime event. Even then we didn’t know it would be such a glorious occasion. Our favorite superstar Chris Benoit (on the left, celebrating with best friend Eddie Guerrero) would walk out of the ring that night with his first ever World Heavyweight Championship. Sure, pro wrestling’s just an act, but to us, as fans who’d followed Benoit for years, it was hard to separate his real emotions from our own. Like a great Broadway production, the ending of Wrestlemania XX sucked us right in. It was an unforgettable moment to see Benoit achieve his dreams and win the belt, and I even still have a piece of confetti that fell from the ceiling as a keepsake.
For three and a half years afterward, seeing Chris Benoit win the main event at Wrestlemania XX in Madison Square Garden would rank as without a doubt one of the most special moments of my life. And then this happened: (more…)
