On the show we have about 7 or 8 people I call "regulars." These are people who listen to just about every show and e-mail us all the time. Most are non-Christians and think our presence on the radio is pretty ridiculous (although a couple are ultra-conservatives and think our show is too liberal). Usually I love these people. Honestly, it is what makes my job so much fun. Their e-mails are usually very creative, hilarious, crude, and thought provoking. I love it. However, a couple of weeks ago, I got an e-mail from one of the regulars who took a fairly cheap shot at Allen after he shared something very personal over the air. I don't care what gets sent to me - it can be vulgar, crude, inappropriate, heretical - anything, but I don't respond to cheap shots.

But the cheap shot got me thinking. I think one of the most frustrating things about faith is what I am labeling its catch-22 syndrome. No matter what happens, faith can't win, and there is always an excuse not to have any.

Lets say I come to you and say, "Jesus is the most important thing in my life." And you say back, "well yeah, but what happened in life." And I say, "well my parents got divorced when I was 12." And then you say, "well there ya go. You need faith because of what happened to you in life." Fair assessment huh? I use faith as a crutch. I get it.

But then you go over to a friend of mine, and they say, "Jesus is the most important thing in their life." And you say, "well tell me about your life." And she says, "well I have had a pretty good life. My parents love each other. My parents love me. We haven't had a whole lot of adversity." And then you say, "well there you go, you have had an easy life. No wonder you believe in God, you have such a naive perspective of life."

Lets say your parents were Christian. Well then it's obvious why you are a Christian - you were raised to be. Lets say your parents weren't Christian. Well then that is obvious too - you are just rebelling against them but instead of smoking some pot and sleeping around, you found this imaginary being called "God."

This conversation could be repeated about a hundred different times with a hundred different circumstance and the conclusion is all the same: "you have faith because of something in your life, but frankly, I don't need faith because I haven't experienced what you have experienced."

But really that is just a scapegoat isn't it? The reason we don't have faith is because we don't want it. We don't want to be told we are not in control because we think we are. We don't want to be told that we are loved unconditionally because it seems illogical. We don't want to believe that God exists - so we come up with any and every reason He can't.

I never finished the book Catch-22 when it was assigned to me (actually I never started it), and I probably should. But I found this excerpt from Catch-22's wikipedia page ironic:

Within the book, "Catch-22" is a military rule, the self-contradictory circular logic of which, for example, prevents anyone from avoiding combat missions.

So whether we are using circular logic to avoid combat missions or accept faith at face value, it still doesn't change reality. And from my observation, it is a reality where faith makes all the difference.

This past month I turned 25. I decided to spend it like I did most of my weekends this summer: down at the beach on Hilton Head Island. It was real low key - and if you know anything about me - that's the way I like my birthdays (isn't that right Patrick ;) ).

I originally sat down to write this while at the condo in Hilton Head, but I got distracted by a beautiful woman who still has 3 years to turn 25, hit save, and haven't touched it since. But I am glad I didn't because it wasn't until this past weekend that I knew what my point was with it, and here it is: I was never suppose to get this old.

This past weekend, Molly's parents and I dropped Molly off at Samford University for her to start her 4th and final year of college (I'll blog about that experience later). The ride home was really quite enjoyable as Molly's parents and I had some great conversation. As we were entering the greater Atlanta area, Molly's mom started talking about how weird it was to drop Molly off this weekend, and her younger sister a couple weekends earlier (actually the weekend I turned 25), and next year they are going to be dropping off their youngest. As we passed over 285 she made the comment, "I was never suppose to get this old." And after reflecting on this further this past week, I have to say that I think she is right.

I am not going to bore you with another discussion on why time proves there is a heaven. If you missed that, you can check it out here. But what I do think after putting some thought into this is how often life tells us exactly what we need to know, yet we ignore it. It is moments like these that God uses to remind us that something is seriously wrong with what we call life. Yet do we notice?

What happened to high school? Remember longing to get your driver's license? Or showing up for the football game to meet friends? Or getting ready for Prom? And then we moved on to college and how many of us woke up the day after graduation, looked in the mirror and just said in that subdued, quasi-depressed tone, "wow, it's over." And if you are reading this and are older than say 25, I am sure you are thinking, this kid doesn't even know the half of it; and you'd be right. I can't even imagine what it is like watching my kid grow up and go to college and start a life on their own and have their own kids just to start the process all over again.

Whether turning 25 or dropping your youngest kid off at college, it is only natural to feel as if something isn't right with the equation. We were suppose to live for eternity. We were created to live outside the bounds of time. But what do we do with that feeling? Do we just get depressed and long to have the moments back? Do we take the opposite approach and start freaking out and attempt to grab every single moment we can while driving everyone else around us nuts? Or do we simply cherish the moments we are currently having because we know they too will be short, but take solace in the idea that one day it will all be corrected? I am not sure how I am going to react, but I do hope these moments always draw me closer to - not further from - my God and my loved ones.

It has been a freakin' hot summer in Atlanta - they don't call it Hotlanta for nothing. Needless to say, I am glad I spent most of it at Kathy & Charlie's beach and at Molly's lake. But all this warmth got me thinking about Global Warming and why I think it is a bunch of crap!

Now before you label me a heart-less conservative that is just toting the Republican line: give me a second. I want to believe in Global Warming. I really do. I would love to believe that we have enough data to know that out of the millions and billions of years this earth has been in existence, the last 100 years of human interference through the use of fossil fuels and energy has created a global warming effect that could be stopped if we just changed our habits. But frankly, I just can't.

Remember Hurricane Katrina? Remember that Hurricane season and how bad it was? All the Global Warming people were crying at the top of their lunges that it was due to Global Warming. The next hurricane season came and they "predicted it was going to be worse because of Global Warming" - alas it was pretty week. But did anyone retract that statement: no. This hurricane season was even weaker.

But here is the real crux in the whole theory: the whole universe is getting hotter. Check out these two articles by National Geographic and Colorado University. According to these articles Mars and Venus are also getting hotter. So unless there are men and women consuming oil and other fuels on Mars and Venus, something else is at work here.

So here's my question; what sounds more plausible. A.) Our limited 100 years of data showing that the mere 6 billion people on this earth (which is relatively small given the surface area of the earth) has consumed enough oil and related products to drastically change the climate of a MASSIVE planet; or B.) the sun is getting hotter for some reason we don't know and raised the temperature of the earth a few degrees.

I am going with B. Al Gore can continue flying around on his private jet burning more fuel in one flight than most Americans do driving their car for an entire year telling us how the world is going to collapse due to our fossil fuel usage, but for me, I am going to blame it on the sun.

This past weekend my Aunt and Uncle moved my cousin David back to University of Miami (the one in Florida). I was excited because I got to watch my cousin Nick - which is always a lot of fun.

On Saturday, Nick and I were hanging out with my girlfriend Molly and it came time to do the show. So we hopped in my Aunt/Uncle's extra car (a Jeep Wrangler), Molly stole my Cubs hat so her hair didn't go everywhere (which of course made her look even hotter than normal), and we hurried to the station before we got rained on. All and all, a great afternoon...then it got a little weird.

I pull up to the station and Allen is sitting outside in his truck - which is odd. He rolls down the window and informs me that Arum (the show before us) has John Mark Karr in the studio with him. If you don't remember, John Mark Karr is the guy who claimed to kill Jon Bennet Ramnsey and was escorted back from Thailand.

I have to say, I usually try and believe that all people can be loved and all people are not "weird" or "creepy." Why? Because all people make mistakes. All people make stupid decisions. All people are redeemable. Thus all people should be treated as such. But I have to say, John Mark Karr creeped me out. What a great show to bring my 14-year old cousin and my 21-year old girlfriend (who I make fun of all the time for looking 15-years old).

At one point, Molly had to go to the bathroom and asked if I would escort her - to which I didn't blink an eye. While I was standing outside the bathroom, John Mark Karr came down the hallway and entered the Men's bathroom. Right choice to escort: check.

So what is my point? I am not really sure honestly. I don't even know if I have a point. But if I were to sum it up in classic Scrubs fashion, I would have to say that I wish it didn't creep me out. I really wish I could have blogged that it was an experience where I saw a real person that just needed to be loved and a little grace. But I didn't and I think I sort of resent myself for that. Don't get me wrong, there is no way I wouldn't have escorted Molly, or left Nick in the room with Karr by myself. But deep down, I wish I was different than Boortz and everyone else I heard talk about how creepy it was that he was in the same studio; but I am not. And there's the rub. What should be prayed for more: John Mark Karr and his "creepiness" or me and my lack of ability to love as Jesus would want me to.

I haven't been writing very frequently this month and I apologize. It has been a hard, but GREAT month. I have been working 60-hour weeks trying to get our studio ready for our national syndication (some real exciting stuff), but I have also been spending the weekends at Hilton Head Island - which has been a blast. Last weekend I was down there with just friends, this past weekend I went down and met up with family, this upcoming weekend I am going down with Molly.

Last weekend was really a great time. On the first night we went to this amazing restaurant, that had these beautiful, huge windows that overlooked a cove on the island. I had some great shrimp and scallops, and enjoyed some good time with some family.

About 20 minutes into the dinner, a huge storm rolled through out of the blue - and when I say huge, it was huge. For someone who loves storms, it was awesome! But the first thing that came to my mind was, "crap, did I close my sunroof." This got me thinking about materialism.

I was sitting at the end of the table with my Uncle and I vocalized, "you know what is strange, I add this 'luxury' item to my life (yes, a sunroof is a luxury item to me), and look how it adds complication and becomes something that 'owns' me."

Back when I didn't have a sunroof, I never worried when it rained. I just enjoyed the thunderstorm and the company of those I was with. But now, it "ruined" the moment - because I couldn't get it out of my head.

Now obviously I don't think having a sunroof is wrong (or other luxuries) but it does make you realize that Jesus was right when he says that, "it is easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven." Why? Because the only thing that is suppose to "own" us is God.

We want the beach house, but then would worry about hurricanes. We want the nice car, but then would worry about it getting dented. We want the huge house, but then we got to hire people to tend to it and everything is more expensive to fix. And then we realize life is unnecessarily complicated. Now don't get me wrong, I am still going to enjoy the luxuries of life. But I think the idea is to recognize that if we aren't careful, that which we strive to own in life, eventually owns us.