Luke’s Notebook

Well, a brief recap of the past few days.

On Thursday evening, we played a softball game against the Bombers. We came back from a 10-3 deficit and tied the game, forcing extra innings, but we finally lost in the eighth inning by a score of 15-13 or something like that. I batted 3-4 with a walk, and it ended up being a very tight game.

Also on Thursday, Mark, Jude, and Philip returned from their 24-day trip out west. They seemed to have a great time! It’s good to have them back, too, as things slowly get back to normal here.

On their trip, they brought with them a new(ish) laptop that I bought off of eBay in August. It’s a Toshiba Tecra A4, and it’s a fast little machine — especially for the price. Anyway, they took it along to do deposition work and also to use it to load photos and such, but I finally have it back and I’m slowly converting it into my main computer.

In the process of doing so, I ended up frying one of my 160 GB hard drives, thanks to an external hard drive enclosure that seemed to have a bad power cable. I’ve never had a hard drive flat-out die on me like this, as now it won’t even spin up at all. I’m thinking a faulty power cable must have shorted it or something. At any rate, there has been one casualty in this whole conversion process. Aside from that tragedy, though, things seem to be working pretty well in regards to this conversion. I still have a couple of things to iron out, but I think this is going to work pretty well.

While I’m talking about technology, I might as well mention the new cell phone I picked up a couple weeks ago. It’s a Samsung A-930. It’s a black clamshell (flip-phone) with a blue OLED display on the outside and a big color screen on the inside. I really like it! It has the ability to have MP3 ringtones and can also play WMA songs.

Additionally, it has a slot for a MicroSD or TransFlash memory card, which are these tiny (think the size of your pinky’s fingernail) cards. I have a 512 MB MicroSD card, and it can store songs, photos, videos, and all sorts of good stuff. It’s so amazing that a little phone like this can double as a decent music player. I’d say MP3 player, but technically it doesn’t really play MP3s well… kind of silly, since it has the ability to, but I guess Verizon would rather you use their V-Cast music download service.

Oh, and the phone also has built-in Bluetooth, which is pretty handy for file transferring and things of that nature. My laptop doesn’t have internal Bluetooth — although that would be very handy; Dad’s does — but I have a small USB dongle that gives me Bluetooth ability, so that does a pretty good job. Man, technology is amazing!

2 Timothy 3

1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power…

What really struck me is that last verse there — “having a form of godliness but denying its power.” That sounds awful familiar, doesn’t it? You hear people talking about a vague sense of spirituality or “having religion” in their lives, but it has nothing to do with Jesus being crucified and us being forgiven because of that. Instead, it’s some sort of touchy-feely religion where, hey, you follow your God, I’ll follow my God, and all will be well. I think people are created with a so-called God-shaped hole in their lives, and for those who don’t know the true God, something in them wants to fill that void, so they try to come up with another brand of “religion” or “spirituality” that fits their desires.

Well, I have to run. I just read that in Timothy last night and it really struck me. It reminds me of so much of what I see on TV or of what I’ll hear people talking about. People want to have some sort of security in a belief, but if that clashes with their lifestyle, then something has got to give.

On Tuesday night, we got crushed, creamed, manhandled, torched, smashed, embarrassed, crunched, slaughtered, pummeled, humiliated, our collective clocks cleaned, trampled — well, you get the idea. We… didn’t win. A & S Satellite beat us 18-2 in four innings in what was one of our shortest games of the year. Those guys pounded the ball and we, well, didn’t. But to be fair, we only had four innings to play with and only 12 outs to spend… two of which I spent, in my 0-2 effort. Oh, well.

Tonight, Paul, John, James and I went out to dinner with Aunt Jane and Aunt Ann at Mungo’s restaurant in Fairview Heights. It was kind of a late birthday celebration for Paul and James, and John and I were invited to tag along. We had a great time and ended up eating some very delicious food. Filet mignon is pretty tasty, I’ve come to find out.

And in other news, I also learned tonight that tomorrow evening, the three weary travelers — Mark, Jude, and Philip — should be returning home with Grandma and Grandpa after embarking on their 24-day trip to the northwest. It should be a nice homecoming! I didn’t even realize they were coming home so soon. On last Saturday’s webcast, I mentioned that I didn’t even know if they would be back by this Saturday’s FamTeam Live, but evidently they’re going to be back with two days to spare.

I read this last night in 2 Timothy 2:

14Keep reminding them of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. 15Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 16Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. 17Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. 19Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,”[a> and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”

20In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. 21If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.

22Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 23Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. 24And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. 25Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

The middle paragraph there is what kind of struck me. I realize it’s up to me what kind of tool I’m going to be for God. If I want to be used for special things, I need to live a life worthy of that. I need to be totally surrendered to God, obedient, ready to follow His direction. If I’m stubborn and unwilling to let go of every part of me, how could God even use me effectively? God, please just take control of all of me, even ares that I tend to want to be master of. I want to be wholly Yours; that way, You can show me what to pursue.

… but I’m guessing if I had sustained any sort of serious knee injury, I probably wouldn’t be able to run like I have been. Tonight, for instance, I had a triple and an inside-the-park homer. My knee isn’t 100%, but I feel like I can run about as fast as ever. So even if it is kind of painful when flexing it, I would be kind of surprised if there was any kind of permanent or serious injury.

By the way, we had another rematch against Buzz, and we won tonight by a score of 6-1. A huge win for us against a very good team, and our defense was terrific! I managed to contribute with those two hits and four RBI, and it was a good feeling to get back on track as a team and just to get a pair of nice hits.

I sure hope I don’t have a lateral meniscus tear in my right knee!

I think I’ve been doing a little too much Googling for my own good. Hopefully I’m just a hypochondriac. I guess time will tell.

Either way, friends, please keep it in your prayers! Whether I just have a temporary injury or something is actually torn, God is the ultimate healer.

You know, I’ve been able to play softball pretty well and even play volleyball tonight, so in a way it seems unlikely to me that there’s a serious injury. I might just be scaring myself. I would think if it’s an injury that would require some sort of surgical intervention, I probably wouldn’t be able to run and jump and do things like that. I guess I just don’t know enough about the injury, and the possibility of a permanent injury kind of scares me. But, God is in control!

Tonight, we played at 7:30 against Buzz, d/b/a (or p/b/a — “playing ball as”) Curt Smith’s, and… we got walloped. They’re a very, very good team, and they hit the ball very well. In addition to that, our defense wasn’t so great tonight, and so the end result was a five-inning short game that they took by a score of 19-7.

I batted 1-3 with a two-run single, and I also made a couple of nice plays out in left-center field. One was a deep fly ball to left field in which I just ran like crazy, stretched out my arm, and barely manager to catch the ball at the warning track. I really didn’t think I would be able to get to the ball in time, so I was pleasantly surprised to feel the ball land in my glove a split-second before I caught myself up against the fence.

I also made a sliding catch in the outfield, and unfortunately I flexed my right leg again. I heard a loud pop as I slid, and for a second there my knee really hurt. Thankfully, it really didn’t hurt after that, and I don’t think I reinjured it or anything. But still, it’s not 100 percent.

Starting this upcoming Sunday, I’m going to be playing volleyball again, and while I’m excited to be playing again, I’m wondering how I will fare with this ailing leg. As I am now, I think I’ll be just fine for most everything, although I’m not sure what would happen if I try to crouch or do something that flexes the leg a lot.

As long as I don’t hurt it again doing something like that, I think I should be fine. And I’m really hoping that it will be able to heal up while I’m still using it during softball and volleyball. If you guys wouldn’t mind, please keep me in your prayers! It’s certainly nothing crippling or anything, but there are a few things that I do that makes it really hurt a lot. Thanks.

In other words, I hear that today Mark, Jude, and Philip drove through San Francisco, they visited Yosemite National Park yesterday, and they are now somewhere in Nevada. They sent home a couple photos of the Golden Gate Bridge. That was cool to see! They’re having a great time, and I guess they’ll be home in a little more than a week!

We played at 6:30 against the Spartans, and our offense had a pretty good game. After being held scoreless in the first inning, we put up a nine-spot in the second and ended up winning the game 17-7 in five innings. We hit three home runs on the night, and James had a three-run single today, which happens to be his 18th birthday! I… didn’t do so well. 0-2 with a sacrifice fly. Oh, well! I bat 7-8 in two games, then the next two games I bat 0-5. *shrug* Such is the game of softball!

Tomorrow morning, I plan to get up right before sunrise in order to start a time-lapse recording of the sunrise. It was such a beautiful day today, with a clear sky and some pretty clouds, and I’m hoping for something similar tomorrow. It could be somethin’ neat.

Well, we had a rematch against the Scrubs last night, but unfortunately we didn’t fare nearly as well as last Thursday’s game, and we lost 18-8 in five innings. I personally didn’t do much to help, as I batted 0-3, and it was just one of those games where we weren’t really sharp on offense or defense. But oh, well. That makes us 1-1 on the Monday night league. We’re 1-1 on Tuesdays, too, and tonight we play at 6:30.

I hope we play better tonight. Even if we lose, it’s just so much easier to take if it doesn’t feel like we beat ourselves, where we made too many errors or just underachieved as a whole. You like to at least go down with a fight and feel that you put your best effort out there. That way, if you get pounded, at least you know you did all you can do. But if it was a game like yesterday or last Thursday, those are games I really think we could (and maybe should) have won, so it’s a little harder to swallow. But either way, it’s just a game, and we play for fun.

By the way, today is James’ 18th birthday! A year ago today, Mark, James, and I were in Prescott, Arizona, with our grandparents, as we were wrapping up a three-and-a-half week RV trip out west. I believe to celebrate his birthday a year ago, we went to Pizza Hut. Or maybe it was Golden Corral. I can’t remember. Either way, we ate a lot of food.

I made a long entry last night, but I don’t think it’s quite ready for prime time. So for the time being, it’s protected. I might end up just publishing it, I might revise it, or I might shelve it. But the easiest thing to do after writing it was to simply protect it, so that explains that.