Monday Nitro and the Worst Night of our Lives

On January 18, 1999, my best friend, Marc, and I, were preparing to enjoy the night at WCW's Monday Nitro, which was in Columbus. We were both big wrestling fans, and we were super excited to go to the show that night, where we had floor seats. We had spent the weekend at a church retreat and gotten back that day.

We were at my house (which was in the ghetto), preparing for the show. How do three teenage boys (our friend Jeremiah was also coming to the show with us) prepare for a wrestling show where they'll have floor seats?

Signs. Lots of signs.

We were making signs for the show.

Marc and I recount this night as one of the worst nights of our collective lives. Here's why.

As we were making the signs, we got into an altercation with some boys from the neighborhood who were looking for my little brother. They came to the place looking for a fight, and I, being the master of calming people down, just poured gasoline on their fire.

At first they wanted to fight me. I masterfully convinced them that they didn't need to fight me, they'd win. Then, they decided they wanted to fight Marc. He wasn't able to convince them they didn't need to fight him. Chaos broke loose.

Jeremiah ran into the bathroom.

I ran into the kitchen.

Marc took a beating.

Another neighbor threw the boys off of Marc and chased them from the house. We called parents and police (in that order). We deadbolted the door and buckled down for our parents to come back (they all had made plans doing other things).

Eventually the police came and asked us why we were so stupid to let the punks in the house.

I genuinely have no idea why I am so stupid and let the punks in the house, but I feel absolutely sure that it was me and not Marc or Jeremiah who did so.

The police officer also asked why I abandoned my friend when he was getting beat up.

I genuinely have no idea why I abandoned my best friend when he was getting beat up.

After all of the chaos from getting jumped in my house died down, we finally made our way to the Schottenstein Center for Monday Nitro! We still had floor seats, so it was going to be AMAZING!!

However, we got to Nitro and realized, when we looked at our tickets, that our friend had mixed the tickets up and given us tickets to Disney on Ice.

We were devastated! Jeremiah had gotten his tickets earlier, so he just went into the show, leaving Marc and I outside like chumps! We were taken into the security office where they decided they were going to let us stay and watch the show, but we didn't get our floor seats. Instead, we sat right next to the entrance in between the lower and middle bowl (the handicapped aisle).

I literally remember nothing about that show. I found it on YouTube, so I'll definitely be watching it.

The reason I tell this story today is because tonight, Marc and I are making our triumphant return to the Squared Circle. We're heading to the Nutter Center tonight for RAW.

I'm super excited to enjoy my first wrestling show (Honestly, I've stricken the first time from my memory as best I can).

This year, we both turn 30, what better way to start the year than by going to WWE together and reliving our teenage years. We had wrestling parties, PPV parties, backyard-trampoline matches (I can tell you with ABSOLUTE ASSURANCE that Bret Hart's Sharpshooter hurts like CRAZY!) and many moments of watching wrestling and/or talking about it non-stop.

Marc and I at my wedding... still JUST. TOO. SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!!!!

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Looking Back: Friends Season Two

Friends was wildly popular from the word "Go." Millions and millions of people tuned in to watch Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Chandler, Joey and Ross each week. The first season was unquestionably a success, but I've always maintained that Friends hit its stride in season 2.

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The Second City

When Holly and I got married, we went to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg for our honeymoon. We returned the next year when  Holly was pregnant with Xavier. We haven't taken a vacation since. We spent a day in Washington DC about a year ago, but that was a part of an interview weekend in Baltimore, so I don't count it as a vacation.

It was one of my goals before my birthday to take Holly to a big city on a vacation. We found the time and the finances to go to Chicago the week of Thanksgiving.

I had gone to Chicago for a mission trip with my students in 2012. It was actually the final thing I did as a staff member at High Street. It was bitter and difficult for me, that trip was meant to be a long term investment from me to my students, but it turned out being something different.

I was eager to take my wife to Chicago, I thought she'd like it. We found a great rate for a hotel, but the catch was we had to go the week of Thanksgiving. We stayed at the Hotel Indigo in the Gold Coast neighborhood on the north side of Chicago.

We loved the hotel and the neighborhood. Seriously, we both were just in awe of the beautiful neighborhood as we drove through it.

We enjoyed pizza at Giordano's and had breakfast at a little pancake house and enjoyed dinner at a little Italian place a block away from the hotel.

We visited Navy Pier and shopped along Michigan Avenue. We didn't have any money to spend, but we did splurge on some wonderful popcorn from Garret Popcorn! I had it my last time in Chicago and absolutely loved it!

My major goal in Chicago was to relax and enjoy the company of my wife. We were able to do that and we had a great time.

We'll definitely be returning to Chicago someday, hopefully for a Cubs game! It's the thing I haven't been able to do there, but I really want to!

This was one of the larger and more expensive things to do on my list of 30 things, so I'm glad to have it scratched off. I'm making progress, but it's slow going, slower than I'd like. I'll have to work at a couple other items on the list before the month is up, I'm just not sure which things I'll do first.

Any thoughts?

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Looking Back: Friends Season One

On September 22, 1994, six people jumped into the collective hearts of TV-watching Americans. Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe are six of my favorite television characters of all time.

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My 2014 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot

This year's new Hall of Famers will be announced the day after tomorrow. In honor of that, I made up my own Hall of Fame ballot. I'm not a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America, so my vote carries no weight, whatsoever. It's just my opinion on who should be in the Hall of Fame.

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2013: A Review

2013 was a big year for me and my family. I started the year living with my in-laws and working as a part time cook making nearly minimum wage at a restaurant. I ended the year working full-time as a pastor again, living on a farm!

I've taken some time and thought about ten of my favorite experiences/memories of the year. Here they are, in no particular order.

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Book #10 - Follow Me

In 2005, at the age of 26, David Platt became the lead pastor of The Church at Brook Hills, a megachurch in Birmingham. He was known as the youngest megachurch pastor in America. I imagine this has to be a pretty huge honor and responsibility.

It's probably a good thing God never called me to be the youngest megachurch pastor in America because I'd probably be too prideful.

That said, Platt wrote a book called Radical in 2009. I read it and then studied it a little bit with the Northeastern High School FCS group a couple of years ago. The subtitle of the book was "Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream."

Platt is telling us that something is wrong, then he sets out to fix it.

His latest book, Follow Me is about making disciples. He takes aim at the Sinner's Prayer and some of the cliche ways we've gone about furthering the kingdom. I even preached a sermon about this a couple weeks ago called, coincidentally "Follow Me."

Needless to say, the concepts really struck me. He's completely right that too often we preach for converts but not disciples. Because, the truth is, converts are easy to get, disciples are much harder to make. But the mission of Jesus is to make disciples. His call is to follow; his mission is to make disciples.

I was challenged by this book, and a quote from the book jumped out at me more than any other.
"We've taken the lifeblood out of Christianity and put Kool-Aid in its place so that it tastes better to the crowds, and the results are catastrophic."

With 9 and a half months to go before my birthday, I'm 1/3 of the way through my goal of 30 books! 

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