It happened yesterday, March 14. Aidan is a March Madness baby, which suits him fine. He celebrated with ice cream, books, a Big, Colorful Wooden Toy, and a new library card. Later, he was kind enough to include his mother and me in a Birthday toast. "May you enjoy the the second year of my life even more than the first, and may the Jayhawks win the NCAA Championship!" You're a bit of a show-off, but you've got your head screwed on straight, young man. We love you.

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You made me do it.

I had hoped it wouldn't come to this. But the need to validate my love for The Pants won out, and when Lindsay took a convenient trip to Price Chopper, I snapped this picture while Aidan looked on, snickering. Behold, The Pants. Comfort fit. Subtly nonconformist hue. How could you not like these guys?

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Like back-stabbed, beaten-down King David or whale-stinking, sunburned Jonah, we've all had moments where we're ready to hang it up. Now David Benatar, head of the Philosophy Department at the University of Cape Town (sorry, Verashni), confirms our darkest suspicions with his new book: Better to Have Never Been - The Harm of Coming Into Existence.

I knew it!

(Just kidding.)

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The Bible is a divine document inhabited by a Ghost, which is cool, but I like my alien norms.

Can we get away from these rough-edged statements like "You're wrong?"

I haven't heard God's voice today, but that will make our reunion all the sweeter. Besides, he is self-sufficient, right?

If I had the spiritual x-ray vision of the prophets, I think it would be alarming to see all the hollow people surrounding me.

Pride? I call it cavalier self-assurance, and the church needs more manly men. Pride? What an arrogant insinuation to make.

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I wore The Pants again today. It was almost as if I had no choice, as if honor made me do it. Lindsay doesn't like The Pants. Aidan is indifferent, though willing to back me up. I acquired The Pants second-hand for a couple of dollars, so they occupy "trophy" status. I was, and continue to be, pleased at the accomplishment, but Lindsay immediately called my victory into question, stating merely that she "didn't like the color." Devastating.

For awhile this was enough to keep The Pants under wraps. But it was only a matter of time until they made a reappearance. Yesterday, they came out of hiding. Once again, I felt my good taste and eye for a bargain had been exonerated. Once again, Lindsay observed, "Oh, you wore those pants I don't like." Lindsay doesn't like the color. But I like the color. So I wore them again today. Just to prove a point? Hardly. This was an important phase in my self-development. It has taken me time to reach this place of safety, but I now have the confidence to wear The Pants at the time and place of my choosing. This can hardly be considered a small thing.

It's taken me months--no, years--to achieve this level of freedom and confidence. The journey hasn't been an easy one. But These Pants are worth it.

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I'm on a KU Jayhawk binge and I'm not apologizing. Midway through the Big 12 conference season, Sherron Collins convinced me that he could bring the hoops-swagger that had been mostly lacking from KU up until that point. This despite being a freshman. Collins is tough. KU has become a tenacious, gritty team, and I give Collins a lot of credit.

Once he got in shape, there was no keeping him out of the line-up. Yesterday he came up huge, leading the Jayhawks with 20 point (6 rebounds) and bringing an aura of fearlessness. Collins was more than willing to go into the paint against taller players. A couple times he drove inside against Kevin Durant, shot blocker par excellence who stands about a foot taller than the 5'11" Collins. A nice gesture? More than that--Collins came away with points.

“I thought he was the best player in the game with the exception of Durant," noted Bill Self. And again: “We had no chance to win unless he was really good today, and he was fabulous. And he had that one week where he went stale and couldn’t make a basket, but today the game was his, and I love it when he’s in attack mode like that."

From where I'm standing, Sherron Collins looks like a made-to-order NCAA Tournament player.

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KU is a Final Four Team


Last year, Kansas smacked Texas in a thrilling down-to-the-wire victory similar to yesterday's instant classic. I was so impressed that I handed KU one of the highest basketball accolades this blog is capable of. The Smash-Mouth Jayhawks, I called them. Prophetically, in the same post I also mentioned that first round opponent Bradley had a couple NBA-caliber players and would be a tough opponent. Slight understatement.

Obviously, my assessment of KU's toughness last year proved to be premature. Today, I feel like the Jayhawks' swagger is more justified. Down 22 in the first half, KU came back to win in overtime against a Texas team featuring the nation's best player and a strong supporting cast. They set a school record in the process (greatest margin in a comeback win).

Mario Chalmers says, "We are fighters," and he's right. Tourney time is here and I feel very good about KU. Slight understatement. Despite getting burned last year, I'm handing Bill Self's squad the coveted "Smash-Mouth" moniker again. This time they've really earned it. I see these Jayhawks in the Final Four.

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All I can say is I did my best. For the most part, I tried to keep Aidan under wraps. True, his photos appear here every couple weeks. Occasionally I mention his ridiculous hoops savvy or his precocious theological gifts. But I knew that too much bragging, too much exposure too soon, might go to his head.

Well, now Timothy has blown the lid off this little secret (25 inches tall, to be exact). This Inquirer-like expose even includes never-before-seen Aidan photos. Who can say where this will end? But as long as Aidan is living at home, he still has to do what we say.

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Thinking About Romans 6

If God gets angry with you when you sin then he's been about ready to kill you for the last 20-some years. We can only live under the I-sin-&-God-rages paradigm if we think a) God hates me all the time, or b) I don't sin but once every six months or so, and God cools off after awhile.

What's the reality? The form of our relationship with God is paternal once we believe in Christ and start following him--not judiciary. This is not to say that justice stops mattering to God, or that before we believe in Jesus, God's interest in us is strictly forensic. But Christ steps in, and God's eternal hatred for evil is redirected from us to him.

Thanks to Jesus, our connection to the Father is a relationship, not legalism. God loves you even when you sin in the same way that your parents love you even when they catch you robbing the convenience store. Implications?

Bank on love and sin like mad? This makes sense, in a morbidly logical way. But if it even seems like a reasonable reaction to the love of God, your status as his child is called into question. What kind of child are you? The kind that recognizes the unconditional love of a parent and comes out of the secrecy of the bedroom to shoot up coke in the living room?

The love of God is so beautiful it draws the prodigal home. It is not so beautiful that it creates new rebels.

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Note that I posted this midway through the KU-Oklahoma game with the Jayhawks only up by 2. No bracket fraud here. My confidence is high. Anyone else have picks to offer?

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