Luke’s Notebook

Okay, I’ll admit it. I like ice cream. I like it a lot. Problem is, ice cream isn’t the best thing to eat, especially when you’re fighting to stay in shape. But still, I just like ice cream.

Ice cream cones from McDonald’s have long been family favorites, for a few reasons — two obvious ones being their convenience and inexpensive price. Also, according to the McDonald’s nutrition facts, a vanilla ice cream cone is only 150 calories! Not bad at all, considering they tend to give pretty generous cones. So a sizable cone for 150 calories is a very good “deal” calorie-wise!

Well, I recently decided to do a little bit of research and actually looked closely at the McDonald’s nutrition facts. They do, in fact, say that a vanilla cone is 150 calories, but they have it listed as three ounces. Their sundaes, which tend to have nearly the same amount of ice cream, are listed as nearly six ounces. Yet the sundaes, with no topping, are roughly 260 calories.

So I’m thinking the nutrition facts are accurate, but the issue is that it’s very rare that you’ll actually get a cone that is anywhere close to 150 calories or three ounces. Realistically, it seems, you receive something in the five-to-eight-ounce range, which might ring in at anywhere from 220 to 350 calories. Quite a difference from the 150 that’s listed!

Now, this generosity on behalf of McDonald’s is a good thing all in all. The problem, though, is that I’m always tempted to pretend that the gigantic ice cream cone I’m receiving is actually only 150 calories. “Hey,” I reason, “they’re the ones who claim that it’s 150 calories in the first place. It’s not my fault if they give me extra!” After all, I shouldn’t be responsible for any extra calories, right?

While it’s true that it’s not my fault, my body is still going to count the calories accurately. It doesn’t care if I got more than I paid for.

So this has been a bit of an eye-opener, as now I know that the numbers were a little skewed. And not that it’s a huge deal, not that a difference of 100 or 150 calories is terribly significant, but it does add up.

The most significant lesson learned from this is that the McDonald’s ice cream really isn’t anything special in terms of calorie content. It’s pretty much on par with what you’d get at Dairy Queen, Sonic, Steak ‘n Shake, or even in a store-bought container. In fact, here’s a list of the number of calories in a half-cup of vanilla ice cream:

Dairy Queen - 176

McDonald’s - 173

Sonic - 153

Steak ‘n Shake - 140

Chick-Fil-A - 136

Store-bought ice cream - 130

Although it’s somewhat disappointing to learn the true numbers, and that a real McDonald’s cone is often around 250-300 calories, it is pretty liberating to know the accurate numbers. Also, a tub of regular ice cream is often even lower in calories than one of these. So it’s cheaper and lower! Not bad!

What’s even greater is that there are a few different brands of low-calorie ice cream that are actually pretty tasty! Breyers makes a tub of vanilla that is only 80 calories per half-cup! Wal-Mart sells a generic brand of diet butter pecan that weighs in at 90 calories per half-cup.

Those numbers are awfully attractive!

I love learning things like this, whenever I find out that something I’m eating all the time is actually higher in calorie content than I had thought. That means, basically, that I’m allowed to eat more food than I thought.

As an extreme case, if I learned these ice cream cones were 1,000 calories a pop instead of 150, and if I would eat one every day, then I have just discovered that I am “allowed” 850 more calories than I had originally thought! Any news like that is good news, in my book.

Well, we’ve been playing softball for 10 weeks now, and we’ve played 28 games. Our team record overall is 14-14, which is pretty impressive, I think, considering the difficult leagues we play in and the number of young guys we have on our team. There are some very good teams in these three leagues, and to be at .500 overall is really something.

Here we are, a team of all Arndts, with the youngest (Jacob) being 14 years old. From there, we have a 16-year-old, an 18-year-old, and a 19-year-old. Four teenagers, and we’re still competing. So I’m very impressed with our team. We really have done a great job so far!

While it’s pretty striking to me that we’ve won 14 games, what’s much more amazing is what has transpired on some of the nights where we have lost a game.

We have 14 wins, but we also have 14 losses. A number of those losses have been due to some pretty sloppy playing on our part — whether it be poor defense, some bad base-running decisions, or just an overall flat performance.

I’ll be honest — these losses are tough! I can get to be very competitive, and I very much want to win. It can be frustrating to feel like you just gave the game away, or to kind of choke in a clutch situation. Bottom line, I don’t like to lose!

But what I am learning is this: Not only does losing build patience (at times, lots and lots of patience, if you catch my drift ;)), but it also builds character.

Here’s something I wrote in my personal journal on May 19th, after a tough softball game:

We lost the softball game tonight (with some pretty ugly defense, actually), but we won every-thing else. No joke. It was… wow.

That was referring to a game that we had lost 17-9, and it was just a particularly sloppy contest. Obviously, from that little excerpt, we didn’t play our best that evening. It was pretty frustrating.

What happened after that game, though, was what was remarkable. It was a late game, and there were many people hanging around, watching our game, sitting and talking with friends and teammates. Since it was the last game of the evening, and since we didn’t have our best game ever, we took advantage of the empty field, and Dad took some practice swings while Paul pitched to him and I caught.

Nothing terribly earth-shaking happened during the batting session, but I just remember being so struck by the level of respect and of goodwill going around the park. It’s difficult to explain what I mean, but it’s like the atmosphere of the park turned into that of the Softball Classic, where the best is brought out in people.

On that night in particular, we lost by eight runs in what wasn’t a very impressive outing on our part, yet people were still friendly, still sociable. I would tend to think, “Good grief. We just made a laughingstock of ourselves! What an embarrassment.”

But then I see these guys who are sitting around, watching, chatting with us, still as open and friendly as ever. I almost wonder, “Wait, this doesn’t make sense. Didn’t they just see us play that game??” Yet, here they are, and it just couldn’t be a more lighthearted mood out there.

So I keep realizing that it really is not about winning or losing! I have a tendency to think that we would be most-liked and respected by all if we were 28-0. If we were the perfect team, wouldn’t that be the best possible witness, to show that Christian guys could still be great at sports?

Well… honestly, I think not necessarily. See, when you get down to it, everybody is human. Everybody has their flaws, their weak spots, their vulnerable areas. It’s kind of hard to relate to somebody who is just naturally perfect.

I think what is much more potent to people is to observe how you react to adversity. Sure, it’s easy to be happy and light when you just win a game, but what about when you lose? What about when the umpire makes a bad call? What about when you just got creamed? Those are situations that many people can relate to.

As much as I want to win games, as competitive as I can be, my thinking is starting to be transformed. This isn’t natural to me, but winning is starting to become secondary. I would much rather lose a game and have been a good example than to compromise, to claw and fight, in order to win a game.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m not going to stop trying hard, stop hustling, or stop competing. But there is just nothing that compares to having somebody respect your character. Win or lose, good or bad, if you can maintain your class, your dignity — basically, if somebody respects you and not simply your ability to hit a softball really hard — then that’s the real goal.

I keep getting reminded of what Jesus said:

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ lend to ’sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.”

It’s not the best analogy, but I think it’s very appropriate. The point is, it’s easy to be joyful when everything is going your way. But what is really telling of your character is what you do when things aren’t going so well, when you are wronged, when you are feeling frustrated. How do we carry ourselves then?

To kind of wrap this all up, I’ll just say this. I am pretty amazed as this whole concept continues to sink in. Like I said earlier, we still want to win, and we still want to improve, but way above and beyond that has got to be our character, our disposition, how we conduct ourselves, both on and off the field.

If we can be encouraging and a light — in essence, a representation of Jesus — after (and even during) a bad game, then we’ve won the real victory.

It’s pretty liberating, too, because then your joy for the evening is no longer tied to whether or not you touch home plate more times than the other team. So that’s something I need to continue to remind myself. We can enjoy the wins and the progress we make, but the constant, in the good and the bad, has got to be this demeanor that is honoring God.

I’ll admit it — here and there as I was growing up, I’d see something on TV or hear of something that was going on, and I would think to myself, “Wow, is it coming to this?” But I have to be honest and say that I can’t remember ever asking myself that so strongly than when I checked out the Drudge Report this evening and was reminded that gay marriage is now legal in California.

Is it really coming to this? I just have to wonder, what’s next? Seriously.. I’m just wondering. What other ideas are we going to come up with? Say 10 years down the road, if gay marriage is the norm. What next? I really don’t know. It’s scary.

I’m treading kind of cautiously here, because the nature of my blog, and just my approach to things in general, is not to discourage people, not to condemn, not to tear down. Instead, I try to inspire, to be uplifting, rather than focus on evil, on sin, on people’s failures. There’s so much good going around that it doesn’t make sense to give a lot of time to the bad.

So that’s my standard M.O., if you will. But I have to be honest and say that in this situation, I just feel like I cannot keep quiet. I fear that if people like me, who have a strong reaction to something like this — if we just keep quiet, then all you’re going to hear is from people saying how great a day this is, how historic, how liberating, how progressive we are becoming. And before you know it, you’re going to think, “Well, gosh, I guess I was wrong… evidently, gay marriage is okay.”

Here’s something that just amazes me. It really seems like we have the mindset in this country that something that was “wrong” 50 years ago can now be okay. It’s like popular opinion can now determine the morality of something.

What I really wonder is then, was gay marriage ever wrong? How about abortion? Were these things always perfectly okay in terms of morality, but we as a culture were just too narrow-minded to realize it? If they were not always okay, then when exactly did the change take place?

Another thing I would wonder, I would seriously ask somebody, is if there are any objective morals or standards. Just anything whatsoever, no matter how simple. For example, is murder always wrong? And will it forever be wrong? What about rape?

If there is anything, even one thing, that is objectively right or wrong, then where do we get that from? Would everybody in this country agree that murder has always been wrong, is still wrong, and will forever be wrong?

If so, says who? That’s one of the biggest questions I would have. How can there be any absolutes or any objective morals if there wasn’t somebody who created them?

Honestly — if there is no God, or if God didn’t really mean what He said, then where in the world do these morals come from? How can there be any true right or wrong? Who’s to say what’s right and wrong? I mean, judging from history, we’ve flip-flopped many times already.

It’s a very slippery slope when you throw out the possibility of there being an objective truth. And we, as humans, are very, very good at making excuses, trying to justify what we are doing, trying to make ourselves feel okay with disobeying God. The obvious danger in this thinking, even if there was no God or no objective truth, is that what happens when my truth collides with your truth? What happens when my “right” is your “wrong”?

This whole thing goes way beyond gay marriage. Honestly, although I’m really just sickened by this, I can kind of see this for what it is. It’s really nothing more than our human tendency to try to make the truth fit our lifestyle. In simplest terms, it’s a way for us to just find a way to do what we want to do. It’s not real tricky.

While I am absolutely, undoubtedly against gay marriage, I want to point out that I think a lot of people end up making the mistake of acting like homosexuality is the only sin in the world.

It’s funny, but we don’t just tear into people who are into other types of sin. “Oh, those gossipers.” “Those people who gorge on food.” “Those liars.” “Those lazy people.”

I agree — homosexuality is a disgusting thing to God. But… that’s not the only thing. Hatred, gossip, slander, pride, jealousy, deceit — we know these are sins, but somehow they’re just more accepted these days among Christians. We have such a strong reaction to people who practice homosexuality, but we don’t seem to care that much about people who hate, people who are filled with pride, those who lie.

It’s kind of disturbing that we don’t meet these other sins with such strong disgust. We don’t spitefully say, “Did you know that so-and-so is lazy?” For me, anyway, seeing how much of a sickening feeling I got when reading about gay marriages, I was kind of convicted. Why don’t I feel so strongly about other sins? Somewhere along the way, I must have gotten desensitized to these more “popular” sins, and that’s what really scares me. It almost seems like with enough exposure to any given sin, it seems to lose its seriousness.

At the end of the day, a sin is a sin. Now, we do know that sexual sins are very serious ( 1 Corinthians 6:18 ), but a sin is still a sin — it’s falling short of what a perfect, holy, powerful, awesome God has commanded. If there’s one lesson I want to teach myself from all of this, it’s that I need to treat every sin this way. There is no safe sin, no neutral sin, no well-technically-it’s-a-sin-but-everybody-does-it-so-it’s-not-really-that-bad sin.

So that’s what I need to remember. There simply are no “okay” sins. Anytime I fall short of God’s standard, it’s a big deal.

Back to the original thoughts. What to do now? Gay marriage is now legal in California and Massachusetts. So what can we do? For those who don’t want to stand for this, who don’t want to see the culture decay any further, what can we do?

Pray. Pray, pray, pray. Don’t ever underestimate the power of prayer. Pray for this country, for the leaders, the judges. And pray for the people of this country. We’re all just a bunch of messed-up people, and sometimes we buy into crazy ideas. If people aren’t rooted in God, they’re bound to get duped.

Also, just be an example to people. You don’t have to be confrontational. Just be a living example. Be a light. It is just incredible how many people tend to get drawn to you when you’re just minding your own business, trying to love and honor God.

This entry has been slightly unorthodox for me. I don’t like to get political, and I usually try to avoid just lamming into some issue. But I guess I just felt like I had to say something. But hey, who knows? Maybe God is going to bring somebody to read this and challenge them or convict them.

I’m not sure. Truth is, I really don’t like to focus on the negatives. There are way too many amazing things going on, way too many joys in life to get down in the dumps over what some people on the west coast are doing.

One thing I would just urge anybody to do is this: Get really familiar with the truth. If there is any objective, unchanging truth, get to know it.

If there wasn’t any objective truth, then it wouldn’t matter anyway, because then there’s no possibility for absolute morals. But if you think it’s possible that there are some things that can never change or never be swayed by popular opinion, I’d strongly urge you to get very familiar with those.

This being Father’s Day weekend, it has really brought something to the forefront of my mind, something I have been thinking about for a long time.

It’s pretty easy to notice it, and I’m sure this isn’t much of a surprise, but these days the whole image of a father or what a dad should/could be is just pretty pitiful. In so many sitcoms or movies, you have a clueless, bumbling dad, who is way out of touch with reality. He drinks, he’s overweight, and he likes sports. He is totally ignorant to what is going on in the real world, but thankfully his wife and his kids are sharp enough to pick up where he leaves off.

Even though these shows are fiction, I know that we as humans are imitators, and whether it’s totally true or not, we slowly start to buy into stuff like this. Guys no longer feel compelled to be responsible, to be leaders. Conversely, girls don’t feel they can realistically expect a man to be, well, a man.

It’s kind of this “Homer Simpsonization” of the guys in the culture that is really bothersome. It’s more acceptable for men to act like overgrown kids, to be irresponsible and immature. It amazes me, but it almost seems like it’s cool to be a beer-drinking couch potato, while neglecting real duties. Somehow, guys are no longer expected to be leaders, to sacrifice, to be dependable.

I wonder if I’m missing something. I think that being a parent, being a dad, is a huge deal. It’s a privilege, for sure, but it is also a tremendous responsibility. I don’t want to take it lightly.

Just think about it. Think about the power you hold as a parent. Literally, you are creating another human being. You are sculpting them, shaping them. You get at them while they’re still developing, before they “harden,” so to speak. You help shape their personality, their character, their outlook on life. You get to show them God’s love through you.

So is there something wrong with me for praying that I would turn into a great dad? I just can’t see a much greater responsibility. If I want to affect people, what greater way than by being able to start from scratch, from a blank canvas?

One of the questions I get asked most commonly is whether or not I would want to have a lot of kids.

The easy answer is yes, I would definitely be open to it. But to expound a bit… really, I just don’t want to assume anything. There are so many unknowns, so many hurdles, where I don’t feel comfortable in just saying, “Yes, I’d like to have X amount of kids.” I can tell you that I sure hope to have a family someday, and I would be very, very open to a lot of kids. Growing up with so many siblings, we have just had so much fun. I definitely have a good taste in my mouth from it.

Another easy answer to the question is “Whatever God wants.” And while that is absolutely true and is not a cop-out, I also want to add that I would really want to do it right. Each baby is going to be a totally unique creation, and being entrusted with even one would be an amazing thing.

In summary, whether I an the dad to one baby or a dozen, I just really pray that God would give me the ability to lead them, to teach them, to be somebody that they could look up to. I don’t want to buy into the trend that dads/husbands are allowed to be big fat slobs.

It’s kind of scary to think “Wow, you mean, my baby will imitate me?” I know all of my flaws and shortcomings, so to think that whatever I do will be copied can be kind of unnerving.

See, I want to be a rock for my wife, for my kids. I wantto be somebody that they can respect, that they can look up to, and somebody they can trust. I wantto be a great example of what a father or a husband can be.

I know that to do this, it needs to be God’s strength, God’s wisdom, God’s faithfulness working through me. I just pray that He’d give me the humility to just follow His lead. On my own, I’d never cut it, but I love the fact that God can use imperfect people who are just trying to obey Him.

*** Warning: This is very long, and it’s all about, as Mom would put it, “a silly baseball game.” Here’s your chance to save five or 10 minutes of your time and pass on reading, as I go into great detail about the last week of softball and my fight to remember how to hit the ball. I can’t guarantee that it will be an interesting read… so proceed at your own risk.

Well, some time has passed since my panicky posts about my hitting woes. I thought it might be a good time to give an update, and to recap the last week of softball, including a crazy tournament weekend. I was already really kind of self-conscious about my batting going into that tournament, and after getting one hit in eight at-bats that weekend, that… didn’t really help things much!

But, the tourney was… different. Much different. And weird. So let the excuses begin.

For starters, when we (Paul, Jude, and I) arrived there for the first game, we learned that there is a two-home-run limit per game for each team. Every home run thereafter is an out.. which is not a good thing. Also, the fields happen to be quite a bit smaller than where we normally play (the fences must be at 270 or 280 feet as opposed to the normal 300-ish). And finally, the softballs we were using were quite a bit harder — and thus flew farther — than the balls we typically use.

So while I was already still unsure about my swing and my ability to hit the ball well, all of a sudden I’m scared to just cut loose and swing, because I don’t want to be the guy that makes an out just because he hits a home run!

Anyway, our first game was late Friday night. I ended up batting second in the order, which is a bit different than my normal spot of clean-up (fourth). A brief side note here — in all softball games these days (tournament and season alike), the batter starts with a 1-1 count — one ball and one strike.

Anyway, my first at-bat, the first pitch I see, I take a mighty swing. And… I fanned. I missed completely. Not good! “Uh-oh. Here I am, at this tournament, with many people watching. I’m batting second — I’m the second guy to bat in this game — and I can’t even hit the ball?! Am I in for a weekend of flailing the bat, striking out every time?!?

Needless to say, that wasn’t a very positive start! I then find myself with two strikes, and I’m just hoping that I don’t swing and miss again and strike out. Keep in mind that this is slow-pitch softball, and you’re pretty much expected to at least know how to make contact with the ball!

So, the second pitch comes, and I swing again. This time, I hit the ball, and it carried to deep right field, where it was caught. 0-1. While you never want to make an out, I was actually just relieved to hit the ball — and I really did hit it fairly well. So I wasn’t too worried.

By my next at-bat, I believe we had already used our two home runs. So I was not wanting to hit one out. And since this is virtually never a problem, I was in an unfamiliar position, so I just was going to the plate in an attempt to just slap the ball to left field or something.

I ended up flying out to deep left field on another decent swing. I’m not sure of the order of my at-bats, but I also had a walk in there and a fielder’s choice. So I ended up 0-3 after the first game.

On to Saturday afternoon, where we started a 1:00 game. I can’t quite remember what I did in my first at-bat, but I know I made an out. We had just wrapped up the second inning of the game when a huge downpour was unleashed over the park. We ended up pausing the game for two-and-a-half hours.

When we returned to continue the game, the field was just awful. The infield was so soupy, so slippery. It really wasn’t nearly good enough to play on, but because this was a weekend tournament and there wasn’t any option to reschedule games, we just had to play anyway.

Well, I was one of the first ones to bat when the game resumed, and I actually got my first hit of the tournament! It was funny — I attribute the hit to the sloppy field, because what happened was as I started to swing, my front foot gave out on me a little bit — started slipping in the mud — and so my swing ended up only being like a check-swing.

Because of this, because I didn’t hit it hard, it managed to drop in in shallow left field. So while it was an ugly hit, a hit’s still a hit! And at that point, I really didn’t care HOW my hits came. I’d take anything I could get!

I believe I just had one more at-bat in that game, and that was a ground out. So that put me at 1-3 for that game and 1-6 overall in the tournament. Then came the third game…

The third game was Sunday morning at 9:00 AM. I really wasn’t looking forward to that game, especially it being on a Sunday morning, but thankfully it worked out where we were able to make it back home in time for our church service.

And the reason we made it back home? We got short-gamed! See, in continuing the trend of things getting weirder, this game was probably the weirdest one I’ve ever played in! Due to the rain delay on Saturday, the guys who ran the tournament were in a bind because they needed to squeeze some more games into Sunday.

Their solution was that we would play our game “one-pitch” style in an effort to speed it up. I hadn’t heard of this prior to the game, but one-pitch simply means that every batter starts with a full (3-2) count, meaning if they take a pitch, it’s either a walk or a strikeout.

So this obviously changes the game quite a bit! You pretty much have to step up to the plate with the idea of swinging at anything that’s in the same area code as the strike zone. That is, you don’t want to strike out looking!

Hitting-wise, I was 0-2 with a walk. And that one-pitch rule ended up dooming us, as our pitcher was having trouble throwing strikes, so we just walked one batter after another. Before long, we had been 10-run-ruled, and the tournament was over for us.

Needless to say, it was a bizarre tournament. I was definitely out of my element for many reasons (new teammates, new location, new game times, new rules, shorter fences, harder balls, soupy infields, crazy rules). And also, as i’m sure you can guess, it wasn’t real encouraging to combat a slump with a 1-8 showing in a tournament.

Now, it’s true that those numbers are accurate, but I fought to remind myself that there’s no way that that could have been a fair representation of how I’m batting, of whether or not I’m hitting the ball well! I had thought that I had broken out of the slump, but when getting only one hit all weekend sure didn’t do much to boost my confidence.

Well, due to Memorial Day on Monday and rains on Tuesday, we didn’t play another game until Thursday. So I would have to wait a little bit to find out if I did indeed break out of my slump, or if I was still struggling to simply hit line drives.

So then came Thursday’s game. And the results were… nice. Very, very nice!! Honestly, I felt so relieved after that game. My first at-bat, I hit a line drive triple into right field. My second at-bat, a hard-hit single. Third at-bat, another single.

I’m 3-3 on the day, and we’re in the bottom of the seventh. We’re down by two runs with a 5-3 score. Paul leads off the inning with a triple. I bat for my fourth time, and I hit game-tying a home run to left-center field!! If there was any doubt that the slump was disintegrated, that confirmed it!

We ended up winning that game 6-5 on a clutch single by James. It was a great game all-around, and obviously I was very relived to hit the ball well. And to bat 4-4 with a triple and a home run was just a huge bonus!

Now I get to stop thinking and just start playing again. I tell ya, things are much more enjoyable that way. And really, it’s not about getting four hits in a game. What relieved me the most is that I was just hitting the ball well. Even if they were outs, I’d be happy with the fact that I just hit a hard line drive.

By the way, several weeks ago I mentioned that I’m going to make an effort to not track my batting average this year. Well, it was hard initially, but now I’m pleased to say that I’m blissfully unaware of where I am! I think it’s safe to say I’m over .500 and under .800, but aside from that I just don’t know… and really, to a certain extent, don’t care! I’m just having fun.

And… I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t aware of my home runs. I’m pretty sure I have eight so far on the year. It’s hard not to keep track of those. I still haven’t gotten tired of hitting them, so each one is still special. Plus, I need to make sure that I beat Paul and Jude in this year’s home run race…

So what worked?

Well, that’s a great question. I’m going to do my best to answer it so that in the future, the next time I find myself struggling, I will hopefully be smart enough to bring up this post and read about what I did to correct things.

What I did was really very simple and very fundamental. I waited on the ball, making sure I didn’t swing too early. I also kept my hands back and kept them elevated, so I wouldn’t have an uppercut as I swing. Also, I made sure to just watch the ball. As simple as it sounds, if I’m not watching the ball well, then how can I expect to hit it well?

Aside from that, I just made sure to swing really hard, to try to be kind of spring-loaded in my swing, and also I made an attempt to step into the pitch, to step in the direction I was hitting.

Really, I can’t think of any dramatic changes. The biggest thing, I would say, was hitting the ball to the middle part of the field. It seems every time I focus on that, good things happen. And I think that’s because it forces me to be a little more patient. Whatever the case, it seems to work.