The Watchman Awards #4 – A Pursuit Of Greatness

I apologize to all of my blogging buddies for my lack of posts since Wednesday and for the belated posting of this week’s awards. I am sure, however, that you all understand and will therefore not attempt to explain.

This Friday, my home church, First Baptist Church in Amboy, IL, took our youth group to an overnight youth rally in Chicago. They asked me if I would attend and I gladly obliged. We had a wonderful time and the preaching was great, but there is one story in particular that I feel I must share with my loyal readership (you are all loyal readers, right?)

One portion of the overnight activity included activities at a YMCA from 10 P.M. until 2 A.M. Our group, being the first to arrive at the YMCA, was quick to head inside and explore our options. As we entered the building there was a long hallway leading toward the gymnasium. There were four doors along the right-hand side of the hallway leading to four separate locker rooms: girls, boys, ladies, and men.

As I approached the door to the men’s locker room, I noticed a sign posted stating that children who were seventeen or younger needed to use the boys locker room. I stopped my group and told them that if they were younger than eighteen they needed to use the other room.

One of my absent minded teenagers promptly turned around and marched straight into the ladies locker room, having no idea what he was doing. A look of horror quickly came over my face. “Quick,” I shouted, “Someone go tell him to get out of there!” One of my teens jogged over to the door to relay the message.

The second teen began to open the door when a YMCA employee decides to take a stroll down the hall. “Hey!” he hollers, “That’s the ladies restroom. Don’t go in there.” I explain the situation to the employee and the second teen hollers inside. We all stand back and wait for our absent minded friend to return.

As we wait a lady comes walking down the hall and begins to head toward the lades room. As she approaches, the door opens and out walks this teen guy. The look on her face was priceless. Oh well, though, it was an honest mistake.

When he came out, I took some time to re-explain what I meant about using the other locker room. He looked at me for a moment and then replies, “Oh…I’m eighteen.”

Hmmmm.

Thank you all for stopping by. I hope you all enjoy this weeks Watchman Awards. I won’t be posting anymore until next year!


1st. The Evangelical Outpost: Dismantling Implausibility Structures - “Everything that we believe is filtered through our plausibility structures -- belief-forming apparatus that acts as a gatekeeper, letting in evidence that is matched against what we already consider to be possible. For example, if I were to find a box of cookies in my kitchen cabinet I would assume that my wife had bought them at the store and placed them there herself. If someone were to argue that tree-dwelling elves baked the cookies, packaged them for their corporate employer, and stashed them in my pantry, I would have a difficult time believing their claim; the existence of unionized tree-dwelling elves is simply not a part of my plausibility structure.”

2nd. The Constructive Curmudgeon: Fifteen Refusals For 2007 - “In good curmudgeonly fashion, I will forgo the tradition of resolutions for 2007. Instead, I offer refusals, negations, denials. I soon turn 50 after the beginning of the year, so these refusals are born out of the gravity of aging and the thirst to make the most of the time God gives us in this vaporous life. But with every refusal comes an "instead," or an affirmation. Every true curmudgeon (in the sense defined and, I hope, illustrated on this blog) denies only because he is utterly enthralled by the transcendent Ideal, the divine Yes.”

3rd. Hardecker: “Thy Name” Introduction - “The Bible teaches us all of what we could know about God. We didn’t and couldn’t learn about God on our own in fact, God reveals Himself to us through His Word. The majesty of God’s name has been a blessing to me in my studies. I would like to share this with you and I pray that God would richly bless you as we look into learning more about God through His declared names in the Bible.”

Good Night and God Bless You!