I can’t tell what is real anymore. I saw this video on SportsCenter and I could not wait to blog about. But I have since heard that it is fake. Have you seen it? It’s amazing! Watch it and let me know if you think it’s fake.

Warning: The following post is about High Maintenance Friends. A high maintenance friend is different than a socially awkward acquaintance, an annoying neighbor, or a person that you just don’t like. They are a friend, but they require a lot of maintenance. Do not wonder if this post was written about you. Rob wrote it for all people to think about. If you wonder out loud and then ask Rob if you are a High Maintenance friend then you are being high maintenance. And yes sometimes Rob writes in the third person. This whole post is designed to be fun and make all of us think at the same time.

Do you have a high maintenance friend or two? Sure you do, we all do. Now the thing about high maintenance friends is that most of the time they don’t know that they are high maintenance. I’ve come to this conclusion because if they did I believe they would stop being so high maintenance. Now from time to time everyone of us become a little high maintenance, but there are some people that seem to never learn. I think they don’t learn because we (the friend) are afraid to hurt their feelings. We don’t tell them how we really feel and so they continue to live their life being high maintenance to you. That’s got me thinking…am I high maintenance? I know I have been from time to time, but am I continually a drain on my friends? To help with this question I’ve developed a little quiz. Take it to see how high maintenance you are.

1. How do you feel when your friends hang out with someone else and you are not included?

a. I love it! I’m glad my friends have other friends because I do too.

b. I get a little jealous but I don’t say anything.

c. I get jealous and I call my friend to let them know they hurt my feelings.

d. I plot out ways to get the other friend out of the picture. I’m not above blackmail.

2. Would your friends say you are…

a. Easy going and know how to take a joke.

b. Pretty sensitive, but can still laugh at myself.

c. Very sensitive and over analytical.

d. I’m always worried about what people say or how they are going to perceive what I said.

3. When do you call your friends?

a. Whenever you think about them and for any reason.

b. Mostly when you need something.

c. You don’t call your friends. You wait until they contact you.

d. You don’t call your friends and you don’t call them back when they call you.

4. When you talk to your friends…

a. You listen more than you talk

b. Talk and listen about the same

c. Talk more than you listen

d. Talk more than you listen and interrupt when your friends try to talk

5. In the past week approximately how much have you complained?

a. 0-5 times

b. 5- 10 times

c. 10 -15 times

d. There is nothing positive. Everything deserves to be complained about.

6. When someone gives you a compliment you respond by…

a. Saying thank you.

b. Deflecting the compliment by complimenting them. For example “Your pretty.” “No, I’m not. Your way prettier.”

c. Nobody gives you compliments so you ask for them by putting yourself down. For example “I’m not pretty.” At this point your friend feels the pressure to say something nice about you to build your self esteem. Normally resulting in half hearted compliments about how great your personality is or how pretty your hair looks.

d. Nobody gives you compliments so you make fun of others and put others down. Nobody is safe from your wrath.

7. When your feelings are hurt by your friend you…

a. Wait for the right time to talk to them about it. Your goal though is to communicate not win a fight.

b. Don’t say anything because you don’t like conflict. Thus you hold onto some hurt for periods of time.

c. Confront them. It doesn’t matter when or how. They need to hear what they did.

d. Talk crap behind their back and then pretend everything is OK.

8. Your friends would say the following about you…
a. You encourage them and help them find the good in things.

b. You encourage more than you put down.

c. You put down more than you encourage.

d. You don’t put down, you tell it like it is and the truth is everybody is stupid.

9. In the last year you have…

a. Invited yourself over to a friends house or to a function with friends.

b. Think you have received a pity invite because your friends were afraid to hurt your feelings.

c. Had a friendship end because of conflict.

d. All of the above.

10. When a group hangs out does something I don’t want to do I…

a. Do it anyway because I love hanging out with my friends.

b. Go, but don’t participate because you don’t want to do what they are doing.

c. Go and make everyone feel bad for not doing what I want to do.

d. Refuse to go!

11. When a friend gives you a gift you…

a. Thank them no matter what the gift because you are grateful they thought of you.

b. Lie to them and pretend to like it, but talk crap about the gift behind their back.

c. Tell them straight up you don’t like the gift. You think they should know what to get you.

d. Throw the gift back at their face.

12. When you call a friend just to talk and they don’t answer you…

a. Leave a message and wait for them to call you back.

b. Call again in 5 minutes.

c. Call every number you have for them until you reach them.

d. Call every number you have for them and leave multiple messages circa Jim Carey in the Cable Guy.

13. You ask a friend to go to a party with you. When they say no because of a prior engagement you say…

a. I understand, maybe next time.

b. Cancel your plans and come with me!

c. What the ____! (And then you pout and make them feel bad).

d. I hate you and everything you stand for.

14. On a road trip your friends would say…

a. That was fun let’s do it again!

b. That was fun, but we need a little time away from each other.

c. Never again!

d. I hate you and we are never speaking again!

15. When it comes to being on time…

a. I’m right on time.

b. I like to be early to everything…the earlier the better.

c. I’m never on time and I make everyone wait on me.

d. Sometimes b and sometimes c, but I don’t call to let anyone know I just show up.

Score: a = 1 point, b = 5 points c = 10 points d= 15 points

Add up your score.

If you scored 15 to 50 points – You are low on the high maintenance scale. You’re probably laid back and your friends like having you around. Expect a lot of calls from really attractive people.

If you scored 55 to 75 points – You are pretty laid back, but at times your maintenance runs high. Avoid people when you are tired, hungry, or in a bad mood.

If you scored 80 to 150 points – You are HIGH MAINTENANCE!!!! Your friends like you, but talk about you behind your back. Every once in a while they forget about your high maintenance ways and invite you on a trip. Don’t get excited. After 25.5 minutes of the trip they are praying to God that your head spontaneously explodes. There are still times where your friends like you but after long periods of exposure to you they feel drained and exhausted.

If you scored 155 + points – I’m proud of you for being this honest, but WOW. If you scored this high then your high maintenance levels are off the chart. You are everything the 80 to 150 point section is on crack.

Forgiving someone who hurt you is incredibly hard. I wish there was an easy answer or way to do it. The following are the things that I have done or think about to help me forgive. Comment and let me know what you think. Do you have someone you need to forgive? What helps you forgive others? Let me know.

• Saying the words “I forgive you” out loud. I don’t know why this helps, but when I have become bitter (bitterness = unwillingness to forgive and holding on to the hurt that another person caused you) at another human being this has helped. For years I held onto some bitterness against someone. One day a few years ago I was thinking about how this person hurt me, and I was pretty upset. At that moment something clicked in me. You see some of Jesus last words were “Father forgive them…”. He said this out loud for everyone to hear. Why? I don’t know, but saying the words “I forgive you” out loud worked for Jesus and so I gave it a shot. I said out loud I forgive ______ for doing _______ to me. My relationship with this person hasn’t been the same since. I’ve truly forgiven them and saying it out loud is what aloud me to finally let it go.
• I once read that forgiving someone has nothing to do with the other person it has everything to do with you. When you are bitter towards someone it doesn’t affect the other person. They don’t think about it, know about it, dwell on it etc. But when you are bitter you hold onto it, carry the burden with you, and it affects you a ton! Learning to forgive is about not carrying that burden any longer. It’s about letting go. Decide in your heart that you will no longer carry the burden and then let it go.
• Learning to understand how God forgives us. Our poor choices (or sin) are what put Jesus on the cross. We sin all the time and it is in complete rebellion to God. Yet, when we ask God to forgive us, somehow God forgives us and loves us like it never happened. Understanding that God is not bitter at me helps me learn to forgive others. Jesus forgave a cruel group of self righteous men who basically had Him murdered on a cross, He forgave one of His closest friends who denied Him, He forgives me when I rebel against Him. That is challenging because I’ve never been hurt like that. If Jesus can forgive then I need to.
• Pray for that person. Jesus said to pray for our enemies. It is difficult to pray for someone you hate.
• Understand that people aren’t perfect. People are going to let you down 100% of the time. They will. At some point every human will let you down. You can either understand this and offer them God’s grace (grace – freely given unmerited love of God) or you can fault them for being imperfect. Now I believe that the Bible teaches us to be wise. If someone continually hurts you or doesn’t have your best interest in mind then you should remove yourself from them and not allow them to hurt you. But if someone hurt you and it was either because they are imperfect and made a bad judgment call or because they had your best interest in mind, but it wasn’t what you wanted then understanding that humans are imperfect helps alleviate some of the pain.

An Awesomely Bad Movie is a movie that you think is AWESOME, but if you were to show it to a group of friends they would say it was a BAD movie. I want to know what your top 5 Awesomely Bad movies would be. Leave a comment. Here are mine…

5. Willow

4. The Rocketeer

3. Cloak and Dagger

2. Bloodsport

1. The Last Dragon

Sunday was a great day at Waters Edge!

• Stu delivered a powerful talk and I don’t know the numbers yet but a bunch of people started their relationship with God today at church! Translation: People got saved!!!
• Worship Set List – Awesome is Lord Most High by Christ Tomlin, Here is Our King by David Crowder, and Phil closed the service with Nothing But the Blood of Jesus arranged by Steve Fee.
• Special rocked my face off! The 80′s medley was a grand slam! 14 different songs in 4 minutes…it was rad!!!
• Did I mention a bunch of people became Christ followers!

I love having a blog!!!

• Last week I connected through the Blog world with a fellow youth pastor in VA Beach, Terrace Crawford Connecting with other ministry leaders is one of the main reasons I started a blog.
• I started a blog friendship with a pastor from Australia, John Finkelde, and learned what a sook was. A sook is Aussie slang for someone who craves attention, whining all the time, overstating the need, soft as jello! The last part describes my beloved Lakers…soft as jello. I love the term and I would have never learned it if it were not for the blog world. John also has a post on tips for parenting teens that I enjoyed reading.
• On Monday someone from Israel and then someone else from Russia visited my Blog. I wish they would have left a comment. How the heck did they stumble upon my little blog?
• Two weeks ago I talked junk to Vince Antonnucci the pastor from Forefront who posted a video with the guys from his staff as the boy band “Out of Sync”. They were good, but it is my opinion that the Waters Edge Boy Band could take them any day. One day I hope to have an old fashion battle against them…all for fun and all in the name of Jesus of course.

I would love to find out who else has checked out my blog. If you are a regular reader, but haven’t left a comment, then leave a comment and let me know how you found the blog or say hey if you know me. No pressure, but I love connecting with people.

Monica is on her second day of her trip. I’ve kept myself busy with work and a Waters Edge House Party. I’m now home alone and I miss her! I honestly don’t function right when I’m not around her for periods of time.

In my sorrow I ate the rest of the buffalo chicken dip, but this time I ate it on a bagel. I’ve never done that before but on my way home every song made me think about Monica. I heard Kiss Me by Sixpence on 94.9. Bob FM played I’m in love with a girl by Gavin DeGraw. They then followed it up with Let’s get it on by Marvin Gay. Weird combination of songs. I wondered if God was trying to tell me something? I was too scared to wait to hear the third song fearing it would be Please Don’t Go Girl by New Kids On the Block, or Lonely by Akon. I went into the house feeling sad and ate my troubles away. I recommend the bagel buffalo chicken dip combo. Good stuff.

On a good note Monica surprised me with a gift. Today at my desk was a framed poster from the movie Rocky. She had someone deliver it while I was at lunch. Very cool! Monica comes home tomorrow and I can’t wait to see her! Thanks Kathy and Nicole for hanging with her and making it a great trip!

Now, please forgive me if my understanding of supply and demand is incorrect. I didn’t major in economics, microeconomics, or business. I majored in youth ministry, and yes that is a real degree. Before you joke on my degree answer this question…are you doing the job your degree prepared you for? A lot of people aren’t, but I am. If you are then feel free to joke.

Supply and Demand drives me crazy! Have you ever wanted something (demand), but what you were looking for wasn’t available (supply). Nintendo is a genius company and I am convinced they release only a limited amount of their products (supply) because it causes people to want what they offer even more (demand). This week I went on a search for the Nintendo Wii game MarioKart (demand). I dragged my poor wife to Best Buy, Target, Toys R Us, Circuit City, and Wal-Mart (no supply). Not one place had it (creating a bigger demand!). I then called multiple game stores and they all said they were sold out until mid July (what the poo…stupid supply. I hate you!).

I did a wedding over the weekend and I would like to spend some of the money on this game. I would be fine with waiting to get it, but because I can’t have it I want it even more (supply and demand at it’s best). Isn’t it funny how that works? Have you ever experienced this? What do you want right now but can’t have? Leave a comment.

PS…I finally found it at Game Crazy (supply), which is connected to Hollywood video. They had one copy and I bought it.

So, Monica and her team have this great idea. The 3 of them teach 4 grade and throughout the year they cover a lot of history that involves Virginia. Anyway, her team decided to go on a road trip across VA and take pictures of all the historic stuff. Now when they teach it to their students they can show them actual pictures of where stuff went down. Great idea!

The only problem is it means she will be gone for 3 days. Today is her first day away. Before she left she made me a little piece of heaven called Buffalo Dip (see former post “Yummy!!! for a recipe). In my sorrow I ate it for lunch and then dinner. I may eat a little bit more for 4th meal. Thank God taco bell invented 4th meal. It’s the meal after dinner and I may need one tonight. Make fun of me all you want, but I hate when she’s gone.