This past Saturday evening we enjoyed ourselves at the Perry Park Golf Resort Lodge. AS you will see from the pictures, John Ashcraft really enjoyed his new Louisville Cardinal shirt.

Good morning, I hope you all are doing well.  Last night we spoke about "WORDS" and our "ACTIONS"  and the effect that they can have on people.  We learned that words can be weapons of destruction or tools to build hope in the lives of those around us.  Actions also can be huge of people that we know or come into contact with.  The old phrase, "Actions speak louder than words" could be no more true today than when it was first spoke.  

The quote I shared with you all last night,  

How does that make you feel inside?  Does that quote challenge you at all, or do you just chalk it up to another negative truth about christianity?  I hope that it challenges us to want to do more, try harder, finally to give our lives over in submission to our God and King. 

Over the last few days two stories have come to the forefront in the national spotlight, one has received much greater press.  One is about a very popular and very gifted athlete, the other is about a young girl that could be anyone of of classmates,neighbor, relative or even friend. 

The first, is Sean Taylor.  A football player for the Washington Redskins. He was a fourth year all-pro, who was making a name for himself in the NFL. He coaches and teammates had nothing but good things to say about him.  He had a great house in Florida. He was a nice-looking guy—somebody we’d look at as successful, somebody who had it all. The fact that somebody broke into this Redskin’s house and shot him is terrible. 

The other story is one that I watched on Anderson Cooper’s show this week was about Megan Meier. You may already know about her death. If you don’t, there’s a sickening twist to it.

Megan had always been heavy-set and had struggled with good self-image and depression since third grade. At the time she was 13, and under her parent’s supervision, she set up a myspace account. When a guy named Josh Evans asked to be her friend, she begged her mother to let her add him. Josh showed interest in Megan, turning upside down all her feelings of bad self-image. Then one day he said he didn’t want to be her friend anymore, because “she wasn’t nice to her friends.”

So upset about Josh and so frustrated that her mom wasn’t consoling her (since her mom was upset with her for the language she’d used to tell off Josh), Megan took a belt and hung herself in her closet. Her mother found her soon after she did it. Her dad came running and cut the belt. He tried doing CPR on her, but he couldn’t save Megan.

Josh turned out to be the mother of a girl who’d been in Megan’s class, a girl whom Megan had ended an on-again, off-again friendship. This family even lived in Megan’s same neighborhood! An adult’s—not even a teen’s—revenge is written all over Megan’s death.

Why do I bring up these deaths? They’re sad. The twist for us is, greed, jealousy, and revenge are emotions that we all struggle with. OK, maybe we aren’t gonna pick up a gun and kill someone who’s “made it” in this world or deceive a neglected (a term Megan used about herself) person. But I think this is a good time to think about how we treat others. Do we ignore them or hate on them in other less violent ways?

Even though I’ve been out of high school a while, I know it’s a tough place to navigate. I’ve got news for you, adulthood is also a tough place to navigate. There are still cliques, and adults envy each other’s bank accounts, spouses, kids, etc. All I’m saying is, The Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12) is not out of style, and it never will be, no matter your age. I challenge you to live The Golden Rule now, because it just might save some young people’s lives. 

Living Dangerously for Him

Bruce Horstman

Youth Pastor 

Monterey Baptist Church

502.750.0786

bruceallan@mac.com