By Steve

3 Things

1. I might become famous. Last week while packing the car to get ready for my road trip, I was asked to take a picture. Normally, this means someone wants me to take a picture of them...not this time. This guy walking down the street saw me loading the car and he wanted to take a picture of me. He said he was from Russia and he wanted a picture of an American. I am no poster boy for America, but I did pose politely with Ali as this kind tourist snapped the picture and went on his way. I wonder what conversations will emerge when he returns to Russia and his friends see the picture of me. I mostly hope I don't find my head photo shopped on to someone else's naked body with a caption reading, "Citywalk pastor spotted naked in downtown San Diego."

Next time you travel, please take a picture of some random local and bring it back to show me.

2. After my paparazzi experience, I went to OB for our teams final night of volleyball. Although we had a lot of fun this season, our team didn't do real well so I was a bit nervous about the nights big tournament. We quickly lost our first game of the double elimination playoffs and found ourselves in the losers bracket. And in my estimation, even though we won our next 3 games, we were losers that night. Our first loss came to a team that did not play by the rules, and we were upset losing to a team of cheaters (notice the lingering bitterness). Later in the evening, we faced the team again and took much joy in beating them badly. In addition to working very hard for our redemptive victory, we made sure things were fair, right and by the rules. We voiced loudly our complaints. We showed our pride. We hid our sportsmanship. We won the game. But we also lost.

3. I competed in a bike race over the weekend. I crashed very hard 3 times, damaging both me and my bike. I did not finish well and even lost to my brother whose single goal was to beat me. And it was all worth it.