Do I hate God?

You know how sometimes a really simple, and basic idea can impact you in an embarrassingly significant way? Oh... um.... neither do I. Okay, yes I do. And this is a tale of just such a scenario.

I've been reading "Bold Love" by Dan Allender. It's a good book so far, but one part has hit me particularly hard. I read his chapter "Taking our hatred out of the closet". It's all about how, even as Christians, we still find ourselves in situations where we hate God. Now, I realize (as does Allender) that hate is a strong word and that it seems completely out of place in this context, but bear with me. (almost typed "bare" with me... um... please don't.) Anyway, Allender suggests that since sin is, in itself, hatred for God, and we still sin, we still hate God. Granted, it's in much lesser frequency and it is resolved by our recognition and repentance much more quickly, but it's still there.

Allender states (my paraphrase here) that sin is a defiant movement, sometimes unintentional and other times very intentional, which refuses to depend on God for His direction and strength. It's the ultimate toddler temper tantrum. Shoving God's hand away in anger and insisting that our way will work much better than his "doo doo head" way. (sorry, couldn't resist) Sounds like hateful rage to me!

I didn't give this chapter too much thought until I got into the first page of the next chapter. It's here that Allender really nails the significance of this realization. He suggests that if sin is just a failure to conform, a mistake to do what is right, then forgiveness is cheap. It may yield appreciation, "Gee thanks God! That's swell!", but not worship. However, if sin is a failure to do what is right AND a deep, insidious energy that desires to eradicate an affronting and meddlesome God from our existence (Mostly Allender's words there), then forgiveness is breathtaking. And there it was... the simple idea with the massive impact, because, well, this blew me away.

Now, obviously in the heart of a Christian a struggle is born at regeneration. Paul describes this struggle as "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak". Basically, we're torn... but as we grow, we desire God and His ways more and more and want less of our own ways. So, it's just occasional rage.

This is a hard thing for me to grasp. Honestly, I've spent most of my Christian life building thought patterns (deep ruts) that consider my sin as "doing wrong", but not really considering too deeply my hatred of God. It takes work for me to process this now... and it's sad and pathetic. Consider a human analogue for God: a powerful world ruler.

Let's say you were to spend some time around the most powerful world ruler ever known... we can debate who that would be, up to this point, but maybe one of the Caesars or something. Anyway, not important. Say you're spending time with them... How do you think they would respond if you were to rebel? To scoff at their guidance? To suggest that they weren't loving because of all the evil going on in their kingdom? To push their hand away? To lash out at, harm, or kill, their close friend or relative? Hmm... I think we'd expect a quick and violent death for most all of these. And what if their response, instead, was mercy, forgiveness, and sacrificial love towards you? That'd be pretty impacting... and so it is with God...except our rebellion is about 1 million times as bad and God's response is 1 million times as unexpected and amazing.

Seriously. The Creator of the universe is going to sacrifice His son for our rebellion against Him? No wonder Paul calls God's plan "foolishness" to the world. It makes no logical sense by human standards. Love so amazing and un-human.. truly does deserve my life and my all.

Contextualized vs. Contaminated

I think that Christians are always being challenged, or at least they should be, to walk the line of being "In the world, but not of the world". Driscoll does a good job of addressing this delicate balance in this brief blog entry.

Since I believe that Christians are most effective, and pretty much always have been, when they are a part of their culture rather than an elite, separatist, sub-culture, I have a hard time getting with so called "Christian" coffee shops and book stores. I mean, first of all, and most obviously, a coffee shop cannot be a Christian... but I do recognize that the intent is that it be a place which is free from all of the worlds evils. But that's exactly what I can't get with. Why? Because I don't feel that it fits with Jesus' pattern of behavior. I mean, Jesus was accused of being a drunkard and a glutton... a friend of hookers and traitors (tax collectors). If Jesus came today do we really believe that he'd spend His time hanging out at Christian bookstores?

Now, that said, I do see value in having access to things like Christian radio stations... it's great to have these kinds of resources to enjoy and be encouraged through... but in moderation. As Driscoll points out, we need to be in tune with the culture around us so that we can be relevant and able to carry on coherent conversations with those around us. But additionally problematic to me is what I perceive as a tendency for Christians to see "worldly" music, movies, parties, or whatever, as "sinful" while they see "Christian" radio and coffee shops as somehow pure and spotless....and THAT is ridiculous.

I guess, for me, it comes down to contextualizing vs. contaminating. What I mean is that I believe the best way to show Jesus to the world is to show them how the gospel applies to their place in life... their situation. This is called "contextualizing the gospel" and it's exactly what Paul had mastered. Read the sermon on Mars Hill. Paul shows the Greeks how the gospel applies to their situation by referencing things familiar to them and by quoting their poets. Some Christians have a problem with contextualiztion, but, as Driscoll points out, the gospel is always contextualized:

Practically, this means doing what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:22–23, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” The truth is that every ministry is contextualized, the only difference is to which culture and which year of that culture. Everything from pews to chairs, sound systems, projectors, suits, and a printed Bible in the English language are very recent missiogical contextualizations in light of the two thousand years of Christianity.

Now, this is contrasted with contamination. Contamination is what I'd call it when a Christian becomes SO into the world that they abandon the truth of the Bible, compromise the gospel, and embrace the lusts of the world around them. Essentially this means that they replace God with His gifts (idolatry) and find their joy apart from Him.

I think this fear of contamination drives some people to abuse verses like Phil 4:8 to mean that we should disconnect from the world completely for fear of being "soiled". While I do see the value in not immersing myself in sin, because then my mind DOES become saturated, I don't believe that's what this verse means. Focusing on what is pure can often get twisted to mean that we shouldn't listen to "non-Christian" music at all. As if the only place you can find anything of beauty or value is in the Christian sub-culture.

We should be discerning with what we listen to and view, but just the same with "Christian" content. Christians sin and put out inappropriate content. Christians put out heresy. I think Driscoll said this well in his post when he said the following:

"Sadly, a theology of “garbage in, garbage out” remains quite popular but has numerous flaws. First, there is no such thing as a pure culture untainted by sin and sinners, including Christian entertainment, which has had its share of scandalous behavior. One such example is the fact that as I’m writing this blog, the leader of a major Christian television network has publically confessed to adultery. Second, it is uncertain what distinguishes clean “Christian” and unclean “secular” entertainment forms and why Bibleman is so much better than Spiderman."

Again, I think it has to be reiterated that evil comes from the heart. Humankind is humankind and ALL, whether Christian or not, are capable of beauty, and evil. It's just up to us to be able to guard our hearts and minds without extracting ourselves from the culture. After all, we're all called to spread the gospel, and that's hard to do if we're locked away in a compound of Christian culture, inaccessible to the world around us.

As always, these ramblings are more to clarify my own thoughts than anything else, but please feel free to drop me a line to agree, disagree, or discuss.

The problem of evil

I often hear that one of the toughest questions faced by a Christian is “Why does a good and loving God allow evil in the world?” Here’s my suggested answer(s)...

1. God allows us to have freedom. We have the ability to make choices and decisions. As such, man chooses to commit evil. Now, certainly God could judge and punish evildoers right then and there.. but that leads us to the second reason God allows evil.
2. Where should God start? Should He start by judging the most heinous evils and move down from there? Or start small and move up? We’re all evil. We all do evil... so if He were to eradicate evil, he’d have to eradicate mankind. I’m sure the response to this would have something to do with the existence of ‘varying degrees of evil’. So maybe God should stomp out the big evils, but let the others slide. But what’s a big evil? Even our ‘small’ evils can have devastating consequences. A harsh word or lack of love from a parent can help to create a child that grows up to be a serial killer. That ‘small’ evil would have big consequences. (all this is not even considering the fact that God cares about the individual heart and not about the severity of the evil) Really the question of evil must be rephrased to something like “Since I commit evil, how can a good and loving God allow me to live?”. But instead, we like to turn it and make it man-centered. How can God, who is obviously here to cater to our needs, allow extreme evils, which impact us humans negatively, to exist? It comes back to our religiousity and our belief that man is inherently good and that, if not for a few bad apples, our society would be doing pretty well. Unfortunately, sociological studies disprove this. In almost every instance where people are given power over others, they abuse it. It’s our nature. God is perfectly good and perfectly just and if He is to eradicate evil, He must eradicate mankind.
3. Evil allows us to know more about God and about the very existence of true good. Light cannot be known without darkness. By God allowing evil, we are able to see His goodness, grace and mercy more fully.

I really think all three of these points work together, but not alone. For example, if I believe that God allows evil just so we can know His good qualities more fully, then what about Adam and Eve? They wouldn’t have known God fully and God’s creation, which was initially good, would be incapable of representing Him fully. But, because we were allowed freedom of choice, and chose to commit evil, the best available response from God is to allow evil and to demonstrate His love, mercy and grace in spite of that evil.

I can’t help but think that if this played out how many people think it should, it would go something like this:

• A man commits murder, and is vaporized by God. People fear God and try to be good.
• A woman abuses her children, and gets vaporized by God. People fear God more and try to be good.
• A man steals from a charity, and gets vaporized by God. People begin to live their lives in fear, trying to do good.

The problems with this are many. 1) This is not the gospel and it’s not what God wants. God doesn’t want people terrified of Him who try to do good to avoid being zapped. There’s no way people would desire a relationship with this God. They would NOT feel at peace. They would NOT feel safe or protected. They’d feel terrified about what they might do to kindle His wrath. This is similar to the Twilight Zone episode where a town lives in terror under the reign of an omnipotent child who can even read peoples minds.

But again, the biggest problem with this is that evil is done by everyone. In reality, the above example would look more like this:

• A man commits genocide, and is vaporized by God.
• A woman commits murder, and is vaporized by God.
• A man molests a child, and gets vaporized by God.
• A woman abuses her children, and gets vaporized by God.
• A man steals from a charity, and gets vaporized by God.
• A teenager bullies another student, and gets vaporized.
• A woman commits adultery, and gets vaporized.
• A man loses his temper, and hits his wife, and gets vaporized.
• A 14 year old child tells his 10 year old sister she’s stupid, and gets vaporized.

These are all evil, are they not? I mean, they definitely have varying degrees of impact upon other people and society, but they are all a form of evil. So... who should God judge? Where does He start and stop?

Evil is an ongoing, ever present problem that is perpetrated by humankind and which is dealt with by the cross of Christ. We all commit evil, and Jesus fixes it by taking our place when it comes time for God to dole out judgment....because don’t be mistaken, God WILL judge and punish EVERY instance of evil. EVERY instance... He is perfectly holy and just... but He’s also perfectly merciful and gracious and He has given us a way out. That way out is made available by simply acknowledging the evil in our hearts, desiring to turn from that evil, and placing our faith and hope in Jesus to take our place when punishment is due and to change our hearts in a way that helps us to turn and follow Him. That is, in a very simple explanation, the gospel.

Despicable me...

The heart is deceptive, not only able to deceive others, but even its owner.

This is something I've said, taught, preached, etc.... I mean, obviously it's in the Bible, so it's not something I came up with, but man is it true! I consider myself to be pretty self-aware and introspective, but I have, in the last year, discovered some things about myself that I'd rather not have known. Okay, well, I guess a better way of saying that is that I'd like to have known about them a long time ago so that I didn't have to find out that I've been doing them for so long... vague enough? Ok.. let me get more specific. These are in chronological order, oldest to newest...

1) Firstly, I discovered that I was not a very loving person. This happened long enough ago that I actually don't remember what triggered it. But, it's true nonetheless. I'm not very loving. Sometimes this is simply due to pure selfishness, but not always. Again, things are never so simple... Often times my lack of love occurred via lack of awareness. I'm not an overly compassionate person, so I don't naturally consider the pains and needs of others. Additionally, I'm introverted, so I don't naturally desire the company of others and thus, again, don't consider their needs. I also tend to be very task oriented and I put my tasks ahead of people. And make no mistake, I'm plenty selfish as well. So, all this works together to form a mighty unloving person. Essentially I'm being the kind of person I'd not want anyone to be.

2) I think the next thing I discovered was that I had gotten into leadership for the wrong reasons. While I'd like to think that my motives weren't anything like POWER! (mwahahahaa!), in some ways they were. I think that there may have been a desire for admiration of man, for people to look up to me or to think me mature, a feeding of my pride. This is a foundational misunderstanding of the gospel (as we'll see in a moment). But, in addition to my desires to look good, I also had a desire to do full time ministry. Leadership was the path, in many ways, to full time ministry. But, as I discovered that full time (paid) ministry was not likely to be a viable option (for reasons I'd love to discuss with you some other time) I began to question why I was in leadership at all.

3) I, more often than I'd like to admit, fail to embrace the gospel. As I mentioned above, the cracks began to appear in many areas, such as in my desire to look mature. Really, a desire to look mature is born from a few reasons. Maybe I am proud, and just want to look snazzy. That can be true, though sinful. Maybe I believe that I must be good and do good to really be a Christian. Uh oh. This has been me for a long time. It's a subtle thing that I believe is an easy trap to fall into. The gospel alone, I mean God's grace alone, seems unbelievable. "Surely" we say "there must be something more... some additional requirements for God's acceptance!". Even if we don't blatantly state that, or would never SAY that, it's what we subtly believe. Oops, I see I've slipped into "we" again... I mean, it's what I subtly believed. (I'll come back to this we vs. me thing later). God has shown me (via a "cast iron pan in the face" subtlety) that I stink at living the gospel. There is so much freedom and peace when you embrace what Christ TRULY taught - namely, that we are saved by faith in Him alone. NO works, NO good deeds, NO acts of obedience will cut it. In fact, they don't even help. God doesn't love me more when I'm good. He doesn't love me more when I read my Bible. God loves me perfectly all the time. He loved me enough to die for my evils...

So, when I am able to recognize that, and embrace that, my life can be lived with complete peace. I'm not "good enough", but that doesn't matter. The Bible says that God's strength is perfected in weakness. I need to be willing to admit my weakness and not try to act smart enough, or good enough. (Laughably, as I wrote the last couple of sentences, I thought "This doesn't sound very smart... certainly not my best bit of writing." Wow... ironic with a capital I.)

4) I most often mistake God's gifts for God himself... and thus love the gifts more than the giver. I'd say I first started on the path to discovering this as I began reading "Enjoying the presence of God" by Jan Johnson. That book is, among other things, about learning to, as close as possible, approximate what Paul spoke of when he said to "pray without ceasing". It's about learning to enjoy God's presence constantly, rather than boxing Him into a "quiet time" or a "worship service".

God used that book, plus my own conviction, plus my wife's suggestion, to reveal more fully some of the errors in my heart. I've discovered that I really do seek my own pleasure and that even when I seek to make things orderly and good (a fine desire) I twist it into something ugly. I think I'm seeing that I am very good at thanking God for His gifts, but I am not very good at enjoying God Himself. He is the ultimate prize to be pursued and I'm too often satisfied with stopping at His gifts; the things which are to be pointers to Him! I do not want this to continue... I do not want my praise to terminate on His gifts. So, I'm praying He'll change me and redirect my desires yet again.

As I work through these, I praise God for #3.. God forgives me. That IS the gospel. All I have to do is accept that it's true and live a life of repentance. I am a messy, sloppy, destructive, work-in-progress. But, I pray that as I work through these things, my children will be aware that Daddy sins, but Jesus forgives him... and that by seeing this, they'll not grow up to be hypocrites, atheists, or, worst of all, pharisees.

So... that's been my year. What about yours?

Kids are like mirrors...

We're discovering more and more that our kids are very much like us. We've found that Danya is an extroverted version of me, while Shea is an introverted version of Corey. How so? Danya is very logical, black and white, has a strong sense of justice (because of this strong sense of justice, she, like her daddy, argues with and corrects people.... a lot), and chews her nails (unfortunately both of her parents are fidgety). She often tells us we have to read her the bible at night because "It's important." We've had to explain to her WHY it's important, and that it is NOT because God will love us more or that God demands us to read. Danya could easily be a legalist, and will have to harness her powers for good.

Shea, on the other hand, is emotional and compassionate, relational (her toys, silverware, crayons, whatever, are always talking to each other), and focused. Like her mommy, if she is watching TV, or doing anything requiring a bit of focus, she completely tunes out the world. As an example of Shea's compassion, when she was 2 1/2, she came out during a movie where one of the main characters was crying. Shea looked at it, looked at us and, with tears, said "why is she crying?". Poor kid...

It'll be interesting, and scary, to see what Cooper is like....

Happy Birthday Shea-Ray

We recently celebrated Shea's 3rd birthday. First was donuts for breakfast, followed by meatballs for dinner. Next was birthday cake and presents with her grandparents. Finally,a Curious George birthday party with some of her friends. It was a jolly good time and we're so blessed to have such a beautiful and sweet little girl.















Donuts for breakfast















Dinner and cake with the grandparents















Presents















More presents















Presents with her friends















A bunch of friends at a Curious George party
















A monkey cake...

The Little Merman

Well, he's not a little mermaid, but he sure likes this "Ariel" necklace that the girls have.... any time he hears it, and I mean ANYtime and from ANYwhere, he starts singing. He can be in the middle of a screaming tantrum, and if that necklace is played, he starts singing.

Kitchen remodel

Here are the pics of our kitchen... we painted the cabinets, put on new countertops and backsplash. We're not thrilled with the backsplash we chose, but it works.

Josh the Red

So my lovely wife has been subjected to about 10 years of me talking about wanting to color my hair red (just for fun). This year, for my birthday, she finally relented and embraced the redness. I'd always intended it to be a bit more drastic, but this is probably the more mature (if that's even possible here) way to go about this. I'm assuming a lot of this will wash off later, even though they CLAIM it to be 'permanent'. If it lightens up too much, I may do it again... Maybe a less 'natural' shade next time. :)

Bathroom Remodel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are the pics of our (finally) finished bathroom remodel.

First, the "before":





















And, the "after" pics.

PS - I hate blogger. The posts NEVER look like they look in my preview and I always have to go back in and edit them after I post them. Meh. (Or, as in the case with this one, I had to go back in FIVE TIMES to edit it...)

Just finishing up a little plumbi........NOOOOOOOOOO!!!

What does a bathroom remodel have to do with the step going into my bedroom? Well, the bathroom remodel/plumbing revamp (replacing the old galvanized pipe under the house) birthed a leak in the PEX pipe under the step going into our bedroom area. Long story short, I turned the water off, did my work, turned it back on and, a day or two later, found a large puddle in my crawlspace. I thought it was just a bad connection so I ran to the plumbing supply store, bought what I needed, came back and patched it up. Turned the water back on, still leaking... turns out it's coming from up higher....like above my floor! This is where my bad decision making led me to run a pair of lines up under the step, under the laminate floor, (which is on joists above concrete) and over to the other part of the house. In the first picture here you can see the discarded "tee" connections on the left, which I cut off after realizing they were leaking. The floor is partially dried in the above photo.

My bad decision was to put too much pressure on some pex fittings... they don't do well under pressure and began leaking when I turned the water on. SOOOOOOO.... we've been without water for the last 12 hours and I've torn out a rather nice (if I do say so myself) step, exposing a leaky mess... the water spread several feet, even getting my bedroom carpet wet. I'm replaced that section of PEX with copper and put it all back together today. This picture shows the copper "manifolds" I soldered to fix the problem.

The Mother Lode

I'm not sure how someone like me is so blessed, but somehow I ended up with a GREAT mother (completely out of my control... only by God's grace) who loved me unconditionally, even when I was rotten.... AND on top of this I managed to coerce an AMAZING woman named Corey to become my wife and the mother of my children. By God's grace she was enamored with me and my faults, or maybe it was pity.... but at any rate she's mine and she's wonderful.

I was loved unconditionally, and still am, by my mother. My kids are loved unconditionally, and always will be, by their mother. My little girls have some AMAZING role models available to them... I hope they follow them.

LITTLE GIRLS, HEAR MY WORDS! FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF YOUR MOTHER AND GRANDMOTHER!

They are...

• Patient
• Joyful
• Wise
• Smart
• Loving
• Christlike
• Diligent
• Creative
• Intentional
• Patient (yes, I know it's on their twice)
  
• Gracious
• Compassionate
• Generous
• (and your mom is hot too... you don't have to follow that one, though it's a nice bonus for your spouse)
  

It's just too bad that it takes a national holiday for me to say this, but it's all true nonetheless.

I've been sick for 2/3 of the winter... what's your excuse?

If I could type this blog entry by banging my head on the keyboard, I would. I've tried, but it just looks like this afrlfhvFHUN;sdvf;svfnsdfsdjklchnsdlhfdsfhlfsdhl;asdfhl.

After a couple of weeks of blissful health we again, once again, got sick....again.... did I mention that this has happened to us a few times this year? So... we're miserably pathetic as we fight off some odd variant of the plague. If you're keeping track at home you can go ahead and write us down for the following:

• Fevers
• Coughs
• Snot
• Ear infections
• Snot

Soooooo.... go team.

Trapped in my office during a butterfly fairy princess invasion...

My daughter is having her 4th birthday party today and the theme is "Butterfly fairy princess". So, accordingly, the little girls are all dressing up in princess outfits. I was told by my daughter that I was, essentially, not welcome because I'm "a boy and boys don't dress up like that". I was allowed to pass through, eat pizza and take some pictures though.

Oh well... she's worth it and I'm glad she's girly.

Northern Iowa???

Okay... I realize I'm probably going to be the only one to read this, but I need to do it. It'll be therapeutic. KU lost tonight in the second round of the tournament to Northern Iowa. It's a loss that could have been seen coming for, well, most of the year.

For whatever reason, the basketball "experts" this year were blind to the huge deficiencies on this KU squad. When Bill Self was asked what his team needed to improve on, he inexplicably said rebounding and first shot defense. My answer would have been TURNOVERS. This KU team did not value the ball. This team also displayed a consistent inconsistency. From one game to the next you never knew what you were going to get. But, for the most part, you got sloppiness. There were only a couple of games this year where everything really clicked. Offense, defense, ball handling, rebounding....But why? So much talent, and results no better than last year?

I think it comes down to a personnel issue.

Things have to start with Collins. Unfortunately, Sherron Collins brilliant career began to show cracks during the second half of the season. Don't get me wrong. I loved watching Sherron... I loved his passion, toughness and intensity.... but I'm guessing he has been battling some injuries. That's the only thing that would explain his inconsistency. His junior season = brilliant. The first half of this year, for the most part = brilliant. His Big XII season and postseason = pedestrian. His shots would not fall... unfortunately injuries don't explain his carelessness with the ball. Again... turnovers.

What about Taylor? For whatever reason, sophomore Taylor = freshman Taylor. There was no visible improvement from Tyshawn. His season started with off the court issues and things never seemed to click after that. I still think he's got loads of promise and I hope he turns it around next year.

Aldrich: Cole started the year off weak. He seemed fatigued and apathetic. But, to his credit, once his health improved, and, sadly, once his grandmother passed, he began to really excel. His defense and rebounding were even better than last year. Unfortunately, for some reason, he regressed offensively. Maybe he got more attention, but it sure looked like he was simply less aggressive. Rarely did he take it strong toward the hoop instead being content to shoot fade-away hook shots or to pass it back out. If Cole chooses to come back to KU next season, he should really look to assert himself offensively. This means making moves TOWARD the hoop. He's soooo tough when he does this and again, for whatever reason, he did it more last year. I do believe it's worth noting that the team stunk at looking for Cole in the post this year. Only Brady seemed adept at it. He was the only one who would intentionally stand there waiting to give Cole the ball until Cole established position. Everyone else would glance inside, and if there wasn't an obvious opening, they'd move on. I think it would be HUGELY beneficial for the team to watch NBA film on feeding the post. How to feed a big man 101. (see Shaq, or Olajuwon)

Xavier Henry: Started out the year on fire. Then, teams figured him out and, consequently his confidence suffered. When confidence suffers, the shot suffers... he went into a LOOOONG slump. He never really seemed to get out of the slump, although late in the season he showed some flashes of aggression. He seems to suffer from Brandon Rushitis. (lack of aggression). Man, I know he is laid back and all, but I saw more fire in his high school highlights than in college. Too often he looked like a deer in the headlights. He has the whole package, but until he learns to assert himself AT LEAST AT THE COLLEGE LEVEL, he will be a bench rider in the pros. Again, love to watch him play and I think he has LOADS of talent, but he's simply not aggressive enough.

Marcus Morris: Stud. Great year, huge improvements. He was the one to carry us most of the second half... super consistent. If he keeps up the hustle he'll be great. I think the one thing he could improve on (before he goes pro) is shooting off the dribble. He's going to have to play a lot more like a guard to make it at 6'8" in the pros.

Everyone else: Pretty much as expected. Solid supporting cast. Morningstar disappeared late in the year, but Reed stepped up. Markieff was solid (other than his lack of confidence at the free throw line). The youngsters (Johnson, Withey and Robinson) will be great players...you can just tell.

Conclusion - I.e. why I wrote this: KU has some serious flaws that haunt them almost every year. And they are pretty consistently the same every year. The turnovers were a relatively new anomaly this year, but that's the only "new" thing. The two main things that have killed us almost every tournament for the last 15 years are:
1) Our help defense habitually leaves pure shooters. Whether it's by design, or by habit, our help defense continually leaves pure shooters too open. Nobody should EVER leave a shooter like Ali Farokhmanesh open... even momentarily. The instructions to his man should be "I don't care what else is going on, even if someone has a clear lane to the hoop, you stay with Farokhmanesh!" It's someone like this that kills us almost every year.
2) Very similar to the above... WHERE IS OUR ALI FAROKHMANESH? I mean, I understand recruiting the biggest, fastest, most athletic guys possible, but how about some shooters? The retort will probably be "what about Reed?" or "what about Collins?". Well, they are fine shooters... BUT, they can't shoot from anywhere in any position. A pure shooter has a quick release and only needs an inch to get his shot off. He can do it off screens or on the pull up. He can hit his shot anywhere, anytime. The problem with the guys we recruit is that they generally have slow releases and need space to shoot. Collins is the exception, but he's hardly a "shoot in any position" or a "shoot coming off a screen" type of guard. He generally needs space, and his penetration ability affords him that space.... unless his penetration isn't working (see Northern Iowa game circa TONIGHT!) I can't think of the last KU player who could do this... who could shoot quickly and in any position. (maybe Jeff Boschee? Though late in his career he was far from pure...)

And just to head anyone (Yes I know I'm talking to myself here...) off at the pass. No, our perimeter shooting is not good. Generally we get good open looks from our talented frontcourt or from penetrate and kick-outs. We don't have a single shooter, nor have we for many years, who can pop off a screen quickly and deliver a jumper. We've had a few who COULD have, but didn't for lack of aggression (see Rush and Henry)

Coach Self... You are the man. You're doing an awesome job. I never thought anyone could replace Roy Williams, but you've done it fantastically. My one piece of advice for you, from a completely outside and uneducated perspective: RECRUIT A PURE SHOOTER. A Steph Curry, an Ali Farokhmanesh, a Mickey McConnell... or, at a higher level, a Lacedarius Dunn or JJ Reddick. They're usually lightly recruited and all from mid-major schools. Almost every mid-major program has one, so they can't be that hard to find. My guess is that big schools pass them up because they're short, or slow, or can't dribble, or whatever. But come tourney time.... they kill you.

The next couple of years may be tough for KU fans as we are likely to be severely lacking in the 3-pt shooting department. If Henry DOES bolt for the pros, then next year we'd have guards of Taylor, CJ Henry (if he stays) Johnson, Little, Releford, Morningstar, Reed, Woolridge... as well as a assorted backups. The only proven shooters in the bunch are Reed and Morningstar, both of whom need a lot of daylight to get their shot off. Johnson, Henry and Woolridge are relative unknowns beyond the arc. Taylor, Little and Releford are all below average deep shooters. Oh, and ALL of these players (with the possible exception of Woolridge and Henry) need lots of daylight to get their shot off.

So... next couple of years may be more of the same. Good inside presence, lots of athletes, but inconsistent perimeter shooting.

Ahhh... that was therapeutic. Or something...

RSV = Not Fun for Cooper (and family)

Our little Cooper has RSV and has been spending the last few days with his mommy at the hospital. He's on oxygen (the lowest setting) and they plan to keep him on it until he fights the virus off. Meanwhile, at home, those of us who gave Cooper RSV continue to sniffle and cough. I have, what I believe to be, the beginning of an ear infection and the girls are just a bit snotty (nasally, not attitudinally). Anyway, pray for us. Here's a pic of Cooper at the hospital.

New pics of the Coop