Rooting for the Yankees...for more than one reason

Yankees are my all-time favorite team. I like to see them win, obviously, so obviously, I'm rooting for them to win this postseason. But I'm not just rooting for the Yankees because they're my favorite team. I just learned from watching the game that George Steinbrenner, the owner of the Yankees, is going to fire Joe Torre, manager of the Yankees, if the Yankees don't win this series against the Indians. For me, that's very depressing news....Joe Torre is like, the best manager in the major league. He maintains such fantastic composure on the bench, he never loses his temper, and I don't think he's been thrown out of a game. So we haven't won a world series since 2000. Big deal, we've been to the playoffs all the other years! I can't imagine the Yankees without Joe Torre...it just doesn't make sense to me. But even this is a minor reason. Recently, my dad had some pretty serious surgery, for a tumor in his back, which hopefully we found isn't cancerous. Since the surgery, he has had minor complications, which right now aren't serious but there is always a possibility they could be serious, for sake of longevity I won't go into detail. He is still in the hospital right now in recovery. If anyone saw me around my dad, they would probably realize quickly that I am VERY close to him. He's the kind of guy that you just can't hate. He's my hero, no doubt about it. He raised me to be a Yankees fan. Sometimes I'll get from someone, "Why are you a Yankees fan?" I can't really give them a real reason, other than "Because my dad is." Right now I'm in college while my dad is in the hospital. The Yankees won the game tonight 8-4. For awhile it looked pretty hopeless for the Yankees, because they were behind in the score going into the 5th inning, and I was expecting another letdown. Then they started to rally, which topped off with a 3-run home run by Johnny Damon, putting the Yankees in the lead. Luckily no one was in my room at the time, because I would have been pretty embarrassed, but I instantly started to cry. I couldn't think of anything else besides the fact that my dad was happy, and that made me happy. In the 7th inning, Ronan Tynan sang a beautiful rendition of God Bless America. It was fantastic. God bless the Yankees. God bless Joe Torre. And always first and foremost, God bless my dad.

Choked up

Have you ever been in a state that you've felt so choked up, that you couldnt say anything? I just felt that tonight in a service i went to for college. The auditorium was filled with people and we did a few songs, about 4 or 5 of them, one of them was "In Christ Alone" which really got to me today. The worship team did a very good job with the song, but the third and fourth verses are so great. "Then bursting forth in glorious day, up from the grave he rose again. And as He stands in victory, sin's curse has lost its grip on me; for I am His, and He is mine" and then the start of the fourth verse: "No guilt in life, no fear in death - this is the power of Christ in me." What a message that is! No fear in death? Granted, I should try to live as long as i can, but I don't have to be afraid to die because Jesus already took that punishment, and now I get to go to Heaven. And the even better part is Jesus beat death, and He's also with God in Heaven. Now more to my point....do people realize this? I mean, this is the greatest message that anyone could ever hope to hear, do people even CARE? I mean here I am, singing this song, really realizing what the words say and fighting back tears as I'm trying to sing....but other people just....don't care. They're too occupied with other things....there were a guy and a girl in front of us that were all over each other the whole service, and only interested in each other. That's actually idolatry, holding something in your life at a higher position than God. It really saddened me when I saw this going on. I felt helpless, because I'm here worshiping God with all my might, and people are just indifferent about it. I could go on and on, basically saying the same thing, but I would be wasting my breath. So anyone reading this...I'm begging, PLEASE don't fall into this mold. God is far too important to be taken lightly. He's far too deserving of anything less than our 100%. When you worship, look at the words in the song....there are messages in every song, and it's enough to get you choked up from just feeling God's presence and worshiping Him.