The Merciful Wrath of God, Part One

The Makings of the Perfect Church

A God Who is:

...sovereign
...revealed
...just
...involved
...loving
...merciful
...gracious

People who are:
...grateful
...trusting
...devoted
...loving
...faithful
...compassionate

Pastors who are:
...people
...teachers
...equippers
...counselors

Thoughts on Pastoring... Short Enough To Be On Twitter

if a pastor
SEES HIMSELF AS A KING
OR SETS HIMSELF UP AS A KING
isn't he now
in REBELLION
against the KINGDOM?

Your Life's Quest

Tomorrow night I get to speak at a high school graduation in Ohio. I'm looking forward to it. Here's an early draft of what I'm going to say (there will still be some minor revisions):

As a parent, I have on occasion had the opportunity to sit through piano recitals. Have you ever been to a piano recital?

Some students are brilliant, some are difficult to listen to; but at the end of every song, the parents of the musician applaud wildly as if they have just heard the world’s greatest pianist. Why?

Because they are there, not to be engaged by the music, but to support and celebrate the hard work of their children. Months of practice and lessons have led the family to the recital. It is a celebration of the student’s most recent accomplishments and a demonstration of their newly acquired skills.
But the recital is not the goal. Learning to play the piano is like a Quest, the goal of which is a lifetime skill which allows for an on-going enjoyment of music. The recital is just a temporary target along the journey. It’s a demonstration of the student’s success and progress as they work toward the completion this great Quest.

Life is like a quest. We are all on a journey toward something. The Bible speaks often of the path we are on, and the road we are following. Tonight as you contemplate your future, and your life’s quest, I would like to suggest four simple thoughts that can aid you in your journey:

Set unrealistic goals
Expect failure
Focus on success
Celebrate progress

1) Set unrealistic goals

• A good piano teacher will choose recital songs which initially seem impossible. After hours of frustration, figuring out new combinations of notes and sometimes awkward timing, slowly the piece begins to sound like music. Eventually, practice becomes about finger muscle memory as the piece has been mastered and is now being memorized. Finally, at the recital, all are made aware that the student has mastered a higher level of piano artistry, one that several months ago seemed out of reach.
• This same principle applies in life. The loftier the goal you set, the higher you will fly to reach it. The surest way to achieve nothing is to set goals that require no effort. More often than not, the seemingly impossible can become the probable when honest effort is employed toward an unrealistic goal.
• My son loves soccer, but has never loved juggling the ball. Last week I offered him a reward if he could triple his highest juggling total by the end of the day. He began working at it, chipping away at the unrealistic goal; and even though he put forth a mighty effort, he fell a bit short. However, rather than be discouraged, we celebrated his progress. In one day, he had more than doubled his previous best.
• If you will commit in life to setting unrealistic goals, and honestyly apply yourself toward accomplishing them; you may not always completely achieve the goal, but you will always surprise yourself with the progress you have made toward your ultimate quest!

2) Expect Failure

• Musical perfection doesn’t happen overnight. Every piano student fails repeatedly before they succeed. Every good teacher understands this. By patiently reminding their students that missed notes are a part of the process, they minimize frustration and seize opportunity for growth. Students who are willing to acknowledge their mistakes, will learn to fix them, and ultimately eliminate them.
• We all make mistakes. We can choose to be embarrassed by our shortcomings and attempt to cover them up with deceit and manipulation, or we can choose to embrace them as an opportunity to make ourselves better. Those who choose to ignore and hide their errors are destined to repeat them. Those who expect to fail, and learn from their failures will grow and will likely not make the same mistake twice.
• Wednesday night, Detroit Tiger’s pitcher Armando Galarraga pitched what appeared to be a perfect game, one of the rarest occurences in all professional sports. But at the very end, he was robbed of the honor when Jim Joyce, the first base umpire, called a runner safe, even though TV replays showed him to be out by a step. Jim Joyce had a choice to make. Once he realized his mistake, he admitted it, and did something few if any umpires have ever done. He went to the player and offered him a sincere apology. Compare Jim Joyce to the people you know who can never admit they’re wrong, who are always trying to explain and give excuses for their shortcomings. In his failure, Jim Joyce seized an opportunity to grow, and in the process he earned the respect of all those around him.
• You will fail. You’ll fall short, you’ll make mistakes, you’ll miss goals and opportunities. But in your failure, you can grow, if you’ll embrace it and learn from it. Expect to fail.

3) Focus on Success

• Often piano students cannot properly understand or play a piece until they’ve heard someone else play it. By playing the song accurately for the student, a teacher can demonstrate what success looks like. Having seen and heard a piece played properly, the student possesses a standard against which they can measure their own performance. Because they know what success looks like, they can focus their energy on becoming successful themself.
• Learn what success in your life’s quest looks like. Read books by those you admire. Talk to those who are older than you, who have travelled the road ahead of you. What will success look like for you in five years? What about next year? How will you know next month if you’ve been successful? Take the time to figure out what success in life will look like for you, and then focus on that.
• Have you ever played with a Rubik’s cube? I had one when I was young. Some of my friends figured out how to solve it, but I never did. I did on a few occasions get it “solved”, but only because I took the stickers off and put them back on in the right order. Looking back, I now understand why I failed at my goal. I was focusing on all the wrong things. I focused on myself and refused to learn from others. II was too focused on my failed attempts, and my growing frustration. Instead of focusing on success, and learning the solution from others, I stopped focusing all together and took the easy way out.. As a result, I never succeeded.
• Whatever you are pursuing in life, find people who can show you what success looks like, and follow them and learn from them. Focus on their success, and make it your own.

4) Celebrate Progress

• The ultimate success for a piano student is a lifetime of piano mastery. The short-term measurement of success is a well-played piano recital piece. But even before the recital, students achieve many small successes. The first time a piece is completed without stopping, and the first time a piece is completed without mistakes are successes. When the student practices the prescribed number of times, they’ve succeeded and are making progress. A quest is not successful only at the end. Success occurs every time progress is made in the right direction.
• Take time to celebrate progress in life. When you accomplish an unrealistic goal, take yourself out for coffee; when you use a failure to grow, throw a party for yourself. And help others celebrate their progress. When you see a friend succeed, take them out for ice cream or send them a congratulatory note on facebook or email... or even paper.
• I remember hearing a story when I was young about two soldiers in basic training. One evening, they were instructed to run such a great distance that it would take them most of the night to finish. After running for several hours one soldier was ready to give up, convinced that he could never complete the task. Before he quit, his partner convinced him to just run with him to the next street light in the distance. Once they arrived at the light, they congratulated each other and decided to run to the next light. They continued throughout the night, running from light to light, congratulating each other on each small victory... until finally, they had successfully completed the task.
• Celebrating each of life’s victories is a sure-fire method to avoid discouragement, to encourage a positive outlook, and to sustain you in the middle of a long and difficult task. Be a celebrating person. Celebrate your own progress, and the progress of others.

Tonight, this ceremony is a celebration of the conclusion of one of life’s stages, but it also marks the commencement of a newer, grander journey. Where you are in five years or even ten will be partially determined by the steps you begin taking, even tonight. When this ceremony ends, your life’s quest begins.

Can I leave you with a simple suggestion? Pursue the things of God. The greatest quest you can ever undertake is to live your life in a way that brings glory to God. Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of heaven.” He knew how easy it is for us to be distracted by our pursuit of other less important things like money, clothes, popularity, or security. But he said that if we are chasing after the things of God, all these other things will be taken care of.

Jesus said in Matthew 5, and in 1 Peter 2, Peter repeated the idea that we are to live unique lives in the world, so that people will see our good lives and change their minds about God. He has placed us here to be His ambassadors to the world. There is no greater quest you can undertake than to be God’s messenger of good news to His creation; and this quest begins with a commitment to spend your life chasing the things of God.

I promise you, this is an unrealistic goal. It is impossible apart from faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. I promise you that you will fail along your way. That’s why we have the promise that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But I also promise that there are many who are already engaged in this quest, who will gladly model success for you, and as you go, they will celebrate with you every step of the way. Don’t neglect to invest yourself in partnerships with those who share your values and will assist you rather than weigh you down in your life’s quest.

Tonight, you have succeeded. We are all here to celebrate with you this great accomplishment of graduating from high school. But don’t let this be your life’s greatest achievement. Don’t be content with just this. Let this be the beginning of a far greater quest. The quest to find your true identity as a representative of God to the world around you.

My Skills Are Not Nearly As Polished As You Think They Are

I was reading Psalm 146 this morning and was struck by the list of people for whom God is in the business of providing assistance:

• the oppressed
• the hungry
• the prisoners
• the blind
• those who are weighed down
• the foreigners
• the orphans
• the widows
• (also, he loves the godly)

This is a list in which I would prefer not to find myself. Apart from the fact that I am occasionally weighed down by my own inability to stay in shape, I don't really think the rest of this stuff applies to me... but...

does that mean God isn't in the business of helping me?

I think it kind of does mean that.

As Jesus pointed out several times, he did not come for the sake of the righteous. He said that those who are healthy (or at least think they are) don't need his help. Only the sick are in need of his assistance. Unfortunately, I'm often in the position of thinking I'm healthy. I don't think I belong on the Psalm 146 list because REALLY i often don't think I need God's help. I think I'm a pretty capable guy who can get things done on my own.

But I want God's help!

Because deep down inside (in the words of Colonel Nathan Jessup),"in places we don't like to talk about" I know that I desperately need God's help, because while on the outside I appear to be pretty solid; I am nothing more than a major league mess-up barely being held together by string and duct tape...

So, I need to find myself on this list. I need to admit that I am oppressed by my selfishness and foolishness. I need to acknowledge that I am far too often blind when it comes to loving God and loving others. I am a prisoner of my desires and of temptation. I am an orphan who needs to run to the arms of my adopted heavenly Father.

May we all learn to admit our shortcomings so we can bask in the help God willingly offers!

A Couple Thoughts on Psalm 8, and Our Responsibility to Creation

I'm reading Psalm 8 this morning and I just start fiddling around with an outline...

1. The Greatness of God.
His glory is in evidence in the vastness of the sky and space, but also in the smallness of a baby's first cry. Bono says, "My first cry was a joyful noise." When a baby cries it is evidence of God's amazing creative power in making life.

2. The Graciousness of God.
"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" What is the best thing you've ever created? I've made some neat pictures from time to time... Nothing I've every made compares to things like the moon and the stars. Yet God still cares for me and demonstrates grace toward me.

3. The Giftedness of Man.
Because of his grace, God has chosen to appoint man as his representatives on earth. He's given us charge over creation; over the animals, over the birds, and the fish, and everything in the sea. We are to take care of it as He would. Have you ever felt honored because someone you greatly admired thought enough of you to give you a significant job? How hard did you work?

The creator of the universe has given you a job to serve as his representative to all creation. How hard will you work at this?

When a great God
Gives a gracious gift
We must be faithful and wise
in our application.

Five Ideas to Help You Make Better Judgments in Life

These are just five nuggets of wisdom I picked up today from my reading in Matthew 7:

• you are not as good as you think and others are not as bad as you think
• not everyone has pure motives
• there is a reliable source for good wisdom and wise judgment
• the route of the majority is rarely the route of the righteous
• external behavior will eventually reveal internal motivation

Comparing the Yankee-4 with the Tiger-5

Have you seen the newest Sport's Illustrated cover? It's a picture of the four "core Yankees" of the past 15 years (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, and Andy Pettitte). Personally, I feel it's a bit, errr, "feminine"? Looking at it makes me uncomfortable.

But it does make me think about what the Tigers of the late 80s and early 90s could have been if Tiger management would have been willing to:

• Shell out the cash to keep players around (which the Yanks have done)
  
• Shell out the cash to surround their core with big name role players (the list for NY is long!)

Consider this. In the late 70s, the Tigers had not 4, but 5 cornerstone-type players break into the bigs (Lou Whitaker, Alan Trammell, Jack Morris, Kirk Gibson, and Lance Parrish). While I recognize that sadly none of these will be in the Hall of Fame (and probably 2 of the 4 Yankees will), I think these five, as a group, compare quite nicely with the Yankee 4.




Whitaker was a rookie of the year. Trammell was a league MVP runner-up (really should have won it). They manned the middle of the infield together longer than any other combination, and both of them put up career numbers that are in the top 5 for their position in their era. Lance Parrish was an all-star EIGHT times and hit over 300 HR in his career.

Gibson probably underachieved most of his career (partly due to injury), but after he left the Tigers, he did win an NL MVP one season and hit what is arguably the greatest home run in the history of baseball.

Jack Morris was the greatest of the bunch. He won more games than ANY other pitcher in the 1980s. He was a five time all-star. He won FOUR world-series rings, and he had one of the all-time greatest world series pitching performances in 1991, throwing 10 INNINGS of shut-out ball to clinch game 7 and the World Series MVP award.

So here's how I score the comparison:

Jeter > Trammell (not sure how the numbers compare, but I think most people would agree)
Pettitte < Morris (for those who never saw Jack pitch, this might be tough to believe, but it's right)
Posada < Parrish (Check the numbers, it's really not even close!)
Rivera vs. Whitaker/Gibson (kind of a wash... hard to compare different players, although Rivera's greatness is undeniable)

Here's the conclusion. These four Yankees have been great, but clearly the Tiger core of the 80s was at worst comparable, and at best better... If only the Dominoes guy had been as willing to spend money as the Little Ceasar's guy, we might have seen 3-5 World Series in TigerTown...

What You Pray Should Deeply Impact How You Live, Right?

Here are five things we should desire as a result of praying the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6:

• That the reputation of God on earth will match the character of God in heaven
• That man's obedience to God should reflect God's provision for man
• That we will learn to want and need what God has already given to us
• That we will be as forgiving toward others as God has been toward us
• That we will fight temptation with a ferocity that proclaims the battle is won already
  

PineWood Derby: Getting Rid of Life's Friction

DISCLAIMER:
I am not a pinewood derby expert. I am far from it. In fact, I believe the pinewood derby was invented by insecure men who wanted to make men like me feel stupid. But I don't. My self-worth is not tied up in how fast my son's car is, as long as he and I had a good time making it. And we did. That said, here's my pinewood derby story and lessons learned.

Our cars never compete. They look great, and are usually pretty unique and original; but they're never fast. We simply don't have the know-how, the tools, or the skills to make a fast car. But all my talented friends tell me that the way to make a fast car is to concentrate on the axles. Apparently, proper weighting and aerodynamics make a minor difference, but the true speed comes from the relationship between the wheels and axles. The faster the wheels spin, the faster the car will go. (It makes perfect sense, we just can't seem to put it into practice!)

Allegedly, there are two crucial steps to preparing a pinewood derby car's axles for the big race. They are:

• Polishing the axles (the process of REMOVING imperfections that cause friction)
• Lubricating the axles (the process of APPLYING solution that eliminates friction)

If you didn't already figure this out, The enemy of speed is FRICTION! The more friction and causes of friction you eliminate, the faster your car will go.

Think about your life right now. Whether you want to focus on your family, your job, relationships, hobbies, or your spiritual life; you have some kind of friction you're dealing with. Friction is the stuff that holds us back or slows us down in the pursuit of what we know is right. You have friction, I have friction, we all have friction.

How well we deal with the friction in our life will determine how quickly we get to the place we know we need to be. The same process we use to handle friction in the wheels of a pinewood derby car will work to handle friction in our lives (I don't mean sandpaper and WD40 here, I'm speaking somewhat metaphorically).

Here are three questions you can ask yourself to deal with the friction in your life:

1. What is the cause of my friction? (you can't deal with the friction until you understand its ROOT CAUSE. don't settle for your first answer here, keep asking "why?" until you get to the bottom of it)
2. Should I polish with sandpaper or a file? (the bigger the imperfection, the more "grit" you need to polish it. You may need to start with a file and be really aggressive. Then, as you begin to eliminate the imperfection, you can start using less abrasive sandpaper. Eventually you can polish to a shiny finish using very fine sandpaper. The truth is, getting rid of friction causes takes time and endurance)
   
3. What systems can I create or modify in my life to avoid and eliminate friction? (you are probably doing some good things the wrong way, and you are probably doing some wrong things. Change your systems to avoid having to keep dealing with the same friction)

Taking time regularly to evaluate and deal with the friction of life will help every area of your life run a lot more smoothly, and will get you to the finish line in a lot better shape! (and yes, that's our car/jet at the top!)

How I Got Burned By McDonalds. And What We All Should Learn From It

This would appear to be a normal, run-of-the-mill cup of coffee. If you are a coffee drinker who drinks McDonald's coffee, you'd probably drink from this cup.

And if you did, you'd get burned.





Because unbeknownst to you (but knownst to the person who passed the cup out the window to you), this cup is defective. Making matters worse, the top of this cup is positioned perfectly so that the cup's defect can have its maximum effectiveness. See the chunk out of the top (yes, it looks like someone took a bite of it, but that has such disgusting ramifications i don't even want to think about it)? Yes, all the coffee comes out there, not out of the opening in the top.

Which means, of course, that the hot coffee ends up on me... not in my mouth.

Lesson: Usually, when you get burned in life, it's by something you never saw coming.

So here's something to think about:

When life burns you because you didn't see something coming, don't spend your time kicking yourself for not seeing it. Don't beat yourself up over what you really didn't have an opportunity to stop.

BUT

Don't let it happen again. After my first attempt to drink coffee ended with a lapful of the liquid gold, I didn't try again until I had taken the top off to see what went wrong. Then I decided to not try that method anymore. Now I'm sipping my coffee without the defective cup and I'm really enjoying it, burn free.

Don't let the hiccups of life turn you into an indecisive willow. When life burns you, fix what went wrong and start living again.

Thanks, McDonalds.

Church + Giving = Offering (Right?)

Whenever you hear someone at church talk about giving you probably think about money, don't you?

Do you ever feel like giving and church are only connected by the offering?

Is "stewardship" just another word for financial planning?

I think we need a bigger view. To start thinking about giving and church in a new way, here's a list I published in our church's celebration guide last week.

10 Ways You Can Use the Resources God Has Given You:

• Give a hug to someone
• Give a meal to someone
• Give financially
• Give an encouraging email or facebook message
• Give your time to listen to someone
• Give your advice to someone who is asking
• Give your energy to another person's project
• Give an encouraging letter or postcard
• Give a shoulder to cry on
• Give an authentic greeting to someone you don't know

Truth is, we can all give a lot more than we think, and it doesn't even have to include our money.

5 Year Plan? How About a 35 year plan!

I've thought about this before, but I was thinking about it again this morning, so I thought I'd write it down. I think one's life should generally follow this pattern:

• In your 20s, learn what you are best at and what you love to do.
• In your 30s, learn how to do what you are best at and what you love to do.
• In your 40s, do what you are best at and what you love to do.
• In your 50s, teach others how to do what you are best at and what you love to do.
• In your 60s and beyond, resource others who are doing what you are best at and what you love to do

I think this is how I'll live my life. Check back with me and see how it's going when I'm 55.

Nice Guys Don't Always Finish Last But They Often Fall Down the Stairs

It was a dark and stormy morning...

Well, it wasn't really stormy, but it was dark. Emma and I were sneaking around the house as quietly as possible trying to get ready for school/work while everyone else in the house (little brother, inlaws, outlaws, etc.) slept in. In the course of our preparations, I noticed that the towels had really stacked up in the bathroom, so I grabbed them and made a pile in the hallway at the base of the steps. This way, I would remember to throw them in the washer when I got home that afternoon.

Just as we were about to successfully leave the house without making so much as a peep, I remembered a book I needed to bring with me. I deftly climbed the stairs to our bedroom, grabbed the book off my desk, and lightly descended the hardwood stairs all silently as I had yet to shoe myself.

Then...

One step from the bottom, I stepped on the corner of a towel which had made its way onto the step. Did I mention our steps are hardwood?

The towel slipped right off the step... and my foot went with it. Of course, where my foot goes, my leg goes and the rest of me follows. A late grasp for the handrail to steady myself was ineffective, largely because I missed the handrail. Having grabbed nothing but air, instead of steadying me, my outstretched arm crashed down to the stairs elbow first. It was followed by the back of my head which barely proceeded the landing of the rest of my body. At that point I gracefully? thumped down the two or three stairs between me and the first floor and ended up in a dazed heap at the bottom of the floor.

The pain and confusion I sensed at that moment was quickly erased by the joy of realizing that Emma, who had witnessed the entire thing, was standing in front of me with a look of horror and deep concern. All bad feelings melted away in the warmth of knowing that my firstborn daughter cared deeply for me and was worried about my welfare. She asked, "Are you okay?" Before I even had a chance to respond and remind her just how tough her dad was, she finished her question, "Are you going to be able to drive me to school?"

Sigh.

Of course, our hopes of escaping the house without anyone waking up were now dashed. One startled person yelled out, "Is everyone okay?" I mumbled something about "I dropped something" (which indeed I had) as we headed out the door.

But here's the story behind the story. I had great intentions that morning. I wanted to let everyone have some extra sleep time. I wanted to help out with the laundry. I wanted to get my daughter to school on time. I can honestly say, for the most part I was really focused on others that morning. I was really being a "good" guy. I really had the absolute best motivations for everything I did.

My elbow still hurts... a lot.

See, the best intentions in the world don't always translate into reality. Things happen, and often our intentions end up having ZERO effect on our actions. I intended to let everyone sleep in. No one got to, because I slipped up. I intended to put the towels in the wash for Marianne. I ended up not doing it. I intended to safely go down those stairs.

Our intentions often have very little to do with our reality.

That's why God doesn't judge us on our intentions. He judges us on the reality of our actions. All of us intend to do good. None of us do it. That's why Jesus had to come and do good for us. He is the only person ever whose life perfectly matched his intentions. But even He struggled with it. His intention from the moment He left the Father's side was to save us from our sins, but in the garden as the cross loomed, he wrestled with the heavy burden of reality that sat on the shoulders of his intentions. Unlike me, though, he came through.

On Tiger Woods and the Great Cover-Up

Full Disclosure: I am not now, and have never been a fan of Eldrick Woods. Since the early days of his professional golf career I have perceived him to be unnecessarily arrogant. I find the behavior of his caddy (and himself) to be indicative of their own sense that they are entitled to different treatment than anyone else. His outbursts and temper tantrums on the course make it clear that he has little to no respect for the game which has given him so much. That said, what follows is most certainly written from a fair and unbiased perspective.

Money moves the world. Few people in the world have more money than Tiger Woods, and few people in the world have the ability to make money for others like Tiger Woods. This is why he used to have so many companies clamoring for his endorsements. This is also why many of those companies have inexplicably stood by him even as he was revealed to be devoid of any character or moral fiber. Money moves the world.

Tiger's money moves the news. This is why so few details of his "accident" and the following events have ever come to light. Certainly if any other "celebrity" had been involved in a similar incident we would have every detail down to and including what kind of crumbs were in the back seat of the car, and how long they had been there. The news media had more access to Princess Diana's death than to Tiger Wood's fender-bender. Tiger's money moves the news.

Did you know that way back in 2007 the National Enquirer had photos proving that Tiger Woods was cheating on his wife? Why would they not break what they had to know was one of the HUGEST stories of the decade? Because Tiger made a deal. He agreed to uncharacteristically do an in-depth interview and story for Men's Fitness Magazine which just happens to be under the same ownership as the National Enquirer. But don't take my word for it, read what the Wall Street Journal says (http://tinyurl.com/ya9s8n3).

Why does this matter? Two reasons:
1) Tiger Woods has the ability to control how and when stories about him are released.
2) He knew in 2007 that eventually this story would come to light. He just needed to decide how and when.

So why now?

On September 14th of last year a medical assistant was questioned at the U.S/Canada border because she was transporting human growth hormone (HGH) and other illegal (performance enhancing) drugs for Dr. Anthony Galea. On October 15th, Dr. Galea was arrested in Toronto. He has regularly admitted to using HGH (a banned substance for all professional sports) himself, and giving it to several of his patients; although he denies giving it to athletes. Both Alex Rodriguez (an admitted user of performance enhancing drugs) and Dara Torres (remember her incredible transformation for the summer olympics two years ago) are patients of Dr. Galea.

Records show that Dr. Galea went to Orlando four times last winter to administer "platlet therapy" to Tiger Woods. For a few days, this story was all over the news, then suddenly in the middle of December, it was gone; eclipsed by the far more salacious stories of Tiger's multiple mistresses and the sordid details of his affairs and text messages. (if you want to check any of this out, just google "Dr. Anthony Galea")

What happened? How is it that the REALLY big story (Tiger Woods Uses Performance Enhancing Drugs) just went away in favor of a nastier, but ultimately less harmful to his career and legacy story? Where are the hard-nosed journalists who stalked Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire for half a decade? Did Tiger temporarily sacrifice his image and family so that his golf-playing legacy could endure?

I'm just sayin'.

You be the judge on this one.