New England Patriots, BCS, Free WII's, and Gas Prices.

Just testing out the site meter and search engine settings on my blog.

What in the world would I do without Google? I Google anything I can. I use it to find things, to remember the names of famous people, to get definitions for things, to prove a point to a friend who swears that something isn't true. Most search engines will probably get you what you need, but I prefer Google. I have heard that people have tried to insert the information available on Google into their brains. I suppose I should Google that to find out if it is possible.

Should things really be this easy? Quite often I find that I take things for granted. I can easily remember slaving over a word processor at the library when I was in college. Now I have a computer in my house that my 4 year old daughter can operate. She really enjoys the Disney website. I sometimes even have trouble imagining life without computers. I honestly have no idea what my job would be like without computers and I really don't want to know. I like the speedy access to information. I like having a million fonts to choose from when I write a letter. I like to be able to check up on my football team. I suppose it is an OK thing.

But sometimes we take things for granted and it is not OK. This past Sunday our church observed communion as it usually does on the first Sunday of each month. For the longest time I looked at communion as a time to pray really hard and really quick. I would try to summarize what I was sorry for in my life and reflected on the things that I needed to improve and then I would decide how I would stop doing those things and turn things around to make God happy. All of this had to be done, before it was my turn to take communion. Don't get me wrong, I understood what was going on during communion. Basically a reinactment of the Last Supper in which Jesus urged the disciples to remember the sacrifice he was about to make. But I only recently gained a perspective of what communion meant to me.

About 3-4 years ago, I saw the movie, Passion of the Christ. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. As I watched this movie, I first began to realize exactly what it meant to be persecuted, to be flogged with a cat-o-nine-tails, to be spit upon and riduculed, to have a crown of sharp thorns pressed onto my head. I also began to see what it was like to have to see this happen to someone you loved and adored and yes, even, brought into this world. My oldest daughter was just a year old around that time and I viewed the Passion from a new perspective, as a father.

I believe watching that movie prepared my heart for what happened to me a few months ago. I was at a men's spiritual leadership retreat and one of the speakers was discussing communion. As the guy talked through his presentation, one of the support staff brought around a small communion cup to all of the men at the retreat. As the speaker was nearing the end of his talk, he asked that we all take communion. Everyone in the room picked up their cup and in unison took a drink of what we soon learned was vinegar. The impact was shocking to me. Try it if you want to. Pour a few ounces of vinegar into a cup and swallow it down. After we all recovered from our bitter drink experience, the speaker reminded us that the last thing Jesus had to drink as he hung on the cross was vinegar.

How humbling. Christ was perfect. He committed no sin. Yet out of love for you and me he endured an unimaginable death. He was betrayed by a close friend for a small amount of money. He was beaten and tortured like you and I could never imagine. Lashes from whips, shards of bone digging into his flesh and then ripped out. Being forced to drag a heavy cross to the place where he would be crucified. Nails pounded into his hands and feet. And then raised up to allow gravity to pull on his body and eventually put him to death. And all I can think about is my dumb hangups and stupid behavior and how I can try to make things better.

I can't even imagine what the first communion must have been like after Christ had gone back to Heaven. But I am going to try to the next time I have communion.

Luke 22:14-20 (NIV) - When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God. After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."