The Trick To Going Undefeated

/ Alex Doriot / Leave a comment

(It’s Wrestlemania week on POP GOD! Join us everyday this week as we count down to Wrestlemania XXIX this Sunday with new posts searching for God in the squared circle.)

What is the ultimate accomplishment in sports?

It’s not championships. It’s not the Hall of Fame.

It’s being undefeated.

Undefeated means perfection. Zero losses. Zero hits. Flawless victory. All As and no absences. Five stars.

Look what’s swept the sports nation recently. Not March Madness – the Miami Heat’s undefeated streak.

The Heat’s 27 straight win streak captivated the nation because we seek perfection. When we witness it, we are often in awe.

undertaker-makes-it-20-0In the wrestling world, the word undefeated is synonymous with one man – The Undertaker. Continue reading →

Practice?

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(click here if you can’t see the Youtube clip above)

Practice?

Why are we talking about practice?

After all – isn’t life just one big practice round? Aren’t we just biding our time until the next life comes around?

If the next life after this is so important, then why do we spend so much time talking about and worrying about this life?

There must be a point to this practice round. There must be a reason why God placed us in this world. There must be a reason why He hasn’t rescued us from it yet.

Maybe this practice round really counts. Continue reading →

So I Thought I Could Dance…

/ Alex Doriot / Leave a comment

There I was, just an ordinary kid, on the precipice of the most important night of my life: the fifth-grade dance. If I had learned anything from watching hours of “Saved By The Bell” every morning before school, it was that true love is born at school dances.

nrcc.net

nrcc.net

Desperately desiring a girlfriend, I knew I needed to enhance my appearance for this night. This was my first school dance. It had to be perfect.

I picked out a snazzy shirt from my closet. I doused myself in drug-store cologne. I slicked my hair back and sprayed it down until it was brittle.

I looked good.

My best friend and I gave each other pep talks in the car on the way to the dance. I arrived with confidence, ready to find true love and dance the night away.

Instead, I spent the night stuffing my face with cookies and candy bars, standing scared against the wall for two straight hours. Continue reading →

Childlike

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beck-bennettKids say the darndest things.

By now you’ve probably seen the series of AT&T commercials featuring a droll corporate everyman interviewing a series of elementary school children. The man in the suit asks kids questions like “What’s better – doing two things at once or just one?” He typically receives the answer you’d expect from a 6-year-old.

These commercials are the greatest thing ever:

(Click here if you can’t see the Youtube video above.)

All of this is to promote how even little kids are smart enough to realize AT&T’s products are superior to other phone companies. The commercials may not be super effective in mobilizing you toward AT&T, but they do illustrate just how insightful kids are. They also provide a great lesson to us about wonder. Continue reading →

One Easy Way To Tell If You’re Crazy

/ Alex Doriot / 1 Comment

Here’s a test to answer that looming question we all ask ourselves at one time or another – Am I crazy?:

Look in the mirror.

Do you see a reflection?

If yes, then you are crazy.

We’re all crazy in our own little ways. It’s just a matter of figuring out which type of crazy we are.SilverLiningsPlaybook_620x350

Silver Linings Playbook (the best movie I’ve seen from 2012) is a movie about mental illness, the different ways people cope with their craziness, and how they find the silver linings amidst all the negative turns life takes.

Everyone in the movie is unbalanced in their own special way. There’s Bradley Cooper’s bipolar divorcee, and Robert DeNiro’s obsessive-compulsive football fan, and Jennifer Lawrence’s unhinged widow. Even the psychiatrist waves his crazy flag as a face-painting Philadelphia Eagles fan.

I liked the movie so much because I think it’s pretty true to life. God didn’t make any person perfect. He created us all a little quirky. Continue reading →

Fozzie Bear and The Power of Persistence

/ Alex Doriot / 1 Comment

Fozzie Bear believes in the power of persistence.

He’s an old-school Vaudeville comedian. He believes in his jokes, and he pushes them through to the punchline no matter how many stops and starts he faces along the way from frogs who don’t understand comedic timing.

Fozzie believes in his act. He commits to it with his entire furry self.

Whatever opposition you face this Friday, be persistent. Commit to your cause. And do it with a Muppet-like smile.

fozzie

(If the video does not appear in your browser, check it out here.)

Win Or Go Home

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Logos_NCAA-MENS-BASKETBALL.png
Win or go home.

It’s the mantra that will be in the head of every NCAA Basketball player as the annual March Madness tournament begins this morning.

If you don’t win the next game then you’re done. You’re heading home; there’s nothing left for you.

“Going home” is usually equivalent to losing. Only losers go home; winners keep on playing. Winners do not retreat. Continue reading →

The Most Embarrassing Situation Known To Man

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photo-dictionary.com

photo-dictionary.com

There may be no more embarrassing situation than purchasing a plunger at 2 in the morning.

Because there can only ever be one reason to buy a plunger at 2 in the morning: your toilet is overflowing, and it cannot wait.

You can’t buy a plunger in privacy. You can’t just order one off Amazon and wait a couple of weeks (or even just a couple of days if you have Amazon Prime). If your house isn’t prepared with a plunger already, you would only buy one when you really need it.

I ran into a friend in Walmart the other night doing just this. We didn’t say anything about the plunger in his hand. We both knew.

There’s no way to hide buying a plunger at 2 in the morning. And you shouldn’t have to. We’ve all been there.

You shouldn’t have to hide any of the other crap you have backed up in your life either. We all have sins and secrets, the things we do at 2 in the morning we’re embarrassed and ashamed of.

If we all have secrets, then whey do we try to so hard to hid them? And why do we ever try to hide them from God? It’s not like God doesn’t know what we’re struggling with. We act like we can keep it from him.

You can’t. Your life is on record. You are on camera at all times. There is no moment in your life you can hide. Continue reading →

Wake Up With Purpose

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What does your morning look like? Do you typically sleepwalk through the same routine seven days a week? Does the alarm on your iPhone go off for over an hour before you finally throw off the covers? Are you up every morning at 7:30 but not really awake until 11:30?

Maybe you should try waking up to something different. Maybe you should try waking up like Rick from “The Walking Dead”. Rick-Grimes

In the first episode of “The Walking Dead”, a routine traffic check goes awry and Officer Rick Grimes is shot. The next time we see Rick, he’s waking up from a coma in an Atlanta hospital.

The problem is he’s the only person left in the hospital. In the indeterminate time since Rick has been shot, the world has become overrun with zombies. The walking dead have taken over the hospital and the world around him.

There is no time to waste when Rick wakes up. His life is in danger. His family is missing. There is no time to fool around with the snooze button. There is no time to procrastinate. Continue reading →