How expensive is happiness?

I get a kick out of now former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, but some of the comments he made upon his departure last night are just sad.

"I want more money. I don't work here for years. No, I want more money. Years -- what, I'm going to die poor with the White Sox? Hell, no." Guillen continued, "Life is about money. People don't believe that. People are happy after they make money."

This coming from a man already making around 2 million per year to manage ballgames.  It begs the question, if you can't buy happiness on a 2 million dollar salary, just how expensive is it?

Friends, I'd submit to you that there will come a day when Ozzie won't care a lick about what he has in his bank account, but rather would trade it all for just a little more time with family and friends.   Don't believe the lies the world tells you. There's nothing wrong with money, but life really is about so much more.

Your relationships are what matter.  Your relationship to God, your spouse, your kids, your parents, your other family and friends.   I don't mean this to say that I don't believe Guillen values these things.  Guillen is an emotional guy and speaks without any filter whatsoever.  I think his comments just show how easy it is to get caught up in what we do and the rat race for material "success" that we lose focus on what our priorities should be.

Stuff is nice, but the greatest thing you can leave behind is a legacy of character.  What kind of legacy are you building?

What can you learn from a piece of tape?

I love NASCAR.  I know that it doesn’t seem to be the most cerebral of sports to some folks, but believe me when I say that there is a lot more to it than guys driving fast and turning left. 

This past Sunday I was down in the Sprint Cup garage area waiting to take my family and some friends to the pre-race chapel service for drivers and crew members.  We watched as the teams pushed their cars through the final technical inspection area before they would put them on the starting grid.  There was a slight mist falling but not so much that we were uncomfortable.

Several cars were in line including the cars of Hendrick Racing teammates Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

As we watched, my friend Gary Hogue noticed that Johnson’s car had a piece of tape covering the exhaust pipes that point out from under the side of the car.  Being an engineer by education, Gary surmised that the tape must have been placed there to prevent any moisture from entering the engine.  Gary also noticed that of all the cars in line, only Johnson’s car was taped in this fashion.  Not even his own teammates were taking this precaution.

If you follow NASCAR racing at all you know that Jimmy Johnson’s team has won the last 5 Sprint Cup championships in a row.

I thought about this for the next several hours.  (There ended up being a rain delay so I had plenty of time to think)  I came to several conclusions about that little piece of tape.

1)  The value of associating yourself with people with different views and perspectives is immense.  I’ve been attending NASCAR events since I was a boy, but I never would have noticed the tape or considered its purpose if I hadn’t been standing next to an engineer.  Nothing in my legal or seminary training had conditioned me to see things that way.  If we become too homogenous in the people we surround ourselves with we will necessarily miss out on some things.  Nobody sees everything.  A wise leader will understand where his blind spots are and seek out people to help him in those areas.

2)  It is cliché, but those who excel at the highest levels are those who pay attention to detail in ways that seem odd or obsessive to most of us. The chances of rain getting through those pipes and getting into the engine of that racecar were probably miniscule, but they weren’t taking any chances.  You have to wonder how many other things that Johnson’s team is doing on areas of the car that can’t be seen or in their shops away from the track that their competitors don’t do.  I bet it’s a lot more than putting a piece of tape over an exhaust pipe. Details make the difference.

3)  Don’t allow pride to cause you to become hard headed.   The most amazing thing to me in all of this was the failure of Johnson’s competitors to notice the tape and implement it themselves.  Johnson has won five consecutive championships.  You’d think his competitors would be studying him intensely given his success yet that didn’t seem to be the case.  Why would these other teams miss such an obvious thing?  It surely isn’t laziness or a lack of educated engineers.  Every NASCAR team works super hard and has lots of smart engineers.  The most reasonable explanation I could come up with is pride.  Sometimes smart folks with a lot of drive let pride and ambition cloud their minds.  It’s not just that we want to excel, but we want to do it our way.  We hold to doing things our way sometimes even though others around us are continually having better results doing it differently.  We don’t just want to win.  We want to be vindicated.  Pride can bias our vision and our judgment. Wise leaders will recognize and guard against this tendency.  It’s much better to be an adaptable winner than a hard headed loser.

Now, maybe I’m reading too much into a small piece of tape.  Or maybe I’m not.  After the race concluded Tuesday (it had to be rescheduled due to rain) there was a new driver leading the Sprint Cup point standings.  His name was Jimmy Johnson.  Go figure.

Random Things Final Installment

I'm sure everybody has been breathless with anticipation for me to finish this up...LOL


1. I'm a country bumpkin. Let's get that straight right off the bat. I hunt, fish, like Nascar, drive a tractor, and I've castrated pigs on the farm. And though she isn't as country as I am, my wife once clogged at the Grand Ole' Opry when she was a girl. That's bona fide!

2. Having children is the greatest thing I've ever done. Words can't describe how much I love them.

3. The most important days to come in my life will be the days when my kids accept Christ as their savior. Living an example of Christian faith in front of my children is the most important priority in my life.

4. A good steak and my Mom's onion rings has been my favorite meal for as long as I can remember.

5. I am unapologetically Southern, and it's a good thing too because my accent kind of makes it difficult to pretend to be anything else. Keep your stinkin' yankee oatmeal. I'll be eating grits.

Why do we pray? Some thoughts on the invocation that is sweeping the nation.

If you haven't seen Pastor Joe Nelms' pre-race prayer from this past weekend's Nationwide Series NASCAR race, you should check it out.  I'll hand it to him, it has certainly got folks talking.

Here's the link if you are interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM_MKCg1U-c&feature=related

Since I'm pretty outspoken about my faith and my love for NASCAR racing some folks have asked me what I thought of it.  While many people are calling this the greatest sports prayer ever (including some Pastor friends of mine), I just cannot agree.  The prayer didn't sit well with me for several reasons.

First, this pastor was asked to come pray before a highly dangerous sporting event.  The drivers and crew members in NASCAR put themselves in potentially deadly situations with regularity.  Part of the reason that NASCAR always starts events with a prayer is that although this reality is not often openly talked about, it is something that everyone in that community understands.  That moment before those guys strap in their seats and fire engines is a serious moment for them and their families.  It was inappropriate not to recognize that.

Second, this pastor lost sight of the fact that a public prayer should be more about bringing honor and glory to The One being prayed to and not the one doing the praying.  We should pray to seek God's blessing, not to entertain people listening.  It reminds me of the way the Pharisee prayed in Luke chapter 18.  You might remember that there the Pharisee gave a long, proud sounding prayer to impress all those around him.  In response to this Christ says in Luke 18:14 "...For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

Third, it is absolutely great to give thanks for your wife.  Men should do that.  The Scripture says that he who finds a wife finds a good thing.  However, living in a culture that routinely makes sex objects out of women, I don't think that it set a good example for a pastor on national tv to objectify his wife by calling her "smokin' hot".  I'm glad that he finds his wife attractive.  I find my wife attractive too.  However when I think of her beauty and all the reasons I'm thankful for her, physical attractiveness takes a back seat to all of her other traits that matter so much more.  Emphasizing physical attractiveness over Godly character in prayer is a prime example of the culture influencing the church instead of the church influencing the culture.

Fourth, it was fairly obvious that this pastor's "inspiration" for this prayer was a scene from the movie Talladega Nights where Will Ferrel's character offered a rather ridiculous prayer before a meal.  The purpose of the scene was to make people laugh by making fun of people who actual take saying grace before a meal seriously.  It was irreverent and sacreligious.  Pastors ought to be seeking their inspiration for prayer from other sources.


I know that some will read this and think that I'm just an uptight Christian who can't take a joke.  That's not the case at all.  It's just that I expect that kind of humor from Will Ferrell.  I expect something a little different from a pastor.

At the end of the day, his prayer was more about entertainment than anything else and that bothered me.  When called on to give an invocation before a sporting event, it's best to leave the entertaining to the drivers/players.

More random things 6-10

Almost done...


6. I've had three dreams of what I'd like to accomplish in life. The first was to be a country music singer, but I can't carry a tune in a bucket. The second was to play major league baseball, but I couldn't hit my body weight against good pitching. The third was to be Governor of South Carolina, but I've really grown sour on the idea of running for office. (haven't ruled it out though)

7. Speaking of politics, I served two terms the State Chairman of College Republicans in SC and I was the youngest delegate from South Carolina to the 2000 GOP National Convention in Philadelphia. (Strom Thurmond was the oldest)

8. I like to drive fast. I've been to numerous race car driving schools and I don't mean the thing where you go follow an instructor for 10 laps and get a certificate. I'm talking about multi-day things where they teach you how to go fast. I'm able to achieve a focus when I'm behind the wheel of race car that I can't achieve anywhere else. Trying not to get killed will do that to a man I guess.

9. Making my wife laugh is one of the simple pleasures in life that I hope I never take for granted again.

10. I have many limitations as a man, but one of the biggest ones is that I may be the least "handy" man to ever be born into my family. It's so bad that sometimes when friends are doing handyman projects they will call me and ask if I'd like to come over and get in the way.

Random things about me (11-15)

11. The Tommy Bowden "era" of Clemson football surely took 10 years off my life. I'm not sold on Dabo, but at least there's hope we won't continue to underachieve as we have in the past....Maybe now we can just expect and accept mediocrity.

12. My Grandfather and I shared the same birthday 60 years apart.

13. The best teachers I ever had taught me tons more outside of a classroom than they did inside of one. Thanks Walter Hogg, John Huggins, Billy Keels, Booker Ingram, David Gillespie, Tom Weaver and Jody Lipford.

14. I'm totally convinced my wife is a direct descendant of Job from the Bible. No way anyone could stay with me for as long as she has without patience that defies understanding.

15. I've never left the United States of America but I'm hoping to rectify that soon. My favorite places to visit in the US are Manhattan, Washington DC, and San Francisco. I don't particularly care for Las Vegas.

Dad as Pastor Part 1

So how does a man serve as the Pastor of his home and provide the spiritual leadership his wife and children need?  Here are some specific ways you can follow the servant leader example of Christ with your family.

1)  Take your family to church regularly.  Many folks will say that you don't have to attend church to be a Christian, and while that is technically true, it misses the point.  If your goal is to pattern yourself as a servant leader in the model of Christ, then you have to look to his behavior.  Luke 4:16 tells us that it was Christ's regular practice to be in the synagogue on the Sabbath.  If it was important for Jesus to be in a house of worship on the Sabbath, then I think it's safe to say that it is important to your family too.

2)  Make it your business to serve your kids at every opportunity.  Christian leadership is really about being an effective servant to God, your family, and your fellow man.  Don't sit back at the dinner table and wait to be served.  Be proactive and serve everyone else.  Wash the dishes, fold some laundry, help the kids make the bed.  Be service minded and your kids will too.

3)  Don't miss an opportunity to teach your kids.  A big part of a pastor's job is teaching the congregation.  If you want to be the pastor in your home, you've got to teach too.  Too many times fathers are quick to criticize and find fault.  While it's part of a father's job to point out error when appropriate, we should always try to pair that with a message about the way something should have been done.  Always be ready to say, "here, let me show you how to do it" or "now let me explain the reason why we don't..."

4)  Love their mother.  The Bible describes the church as the bride of Christ.  If you want to demonstrate Christian leadership in your home, then you've got to obey the command that tells husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church.  Serve your wife.  Sacrifice for your wife.  Never do anything major without first considering what effect it will have on her.  The way you treat your wife will impact the type of husbands your sons will make and set the bar for what your daughters will expect in a potential mate.  For those of you guys who are divorced or had a child when you weren't married, it is still very important to treat the mother of your children with courtesy and respect. (I don't care how much she does to make you angry)

5)  When it comes to complaining, shut your pie hole.  If you want to be the spiritual leader in your home put a sock in it when it comes to complaining in front of your children.  A habit of complaining and murmuring is one of the worst things you can pass down to a child.  A hopeful and content attitude is one of the hallmarks of a man who has put his trust in the Lord.  Let your walk demonstrate that you have a peace that passes all understanding.  (Philippians 4:7)  Trust me, it will show through and it will make a ton of difference in all of your relationships, especially within your family.

I'm sure some are wondering why there is no mention of prayer, bible reading, or devotionals in this list above.  There will be more to come on those subjects later in the week.