So for reasons that are a little too complicated to explain here, I found myself in church last Wednesday night.
No, I haven’t converted from Judaism. But there I was with some Christian friends of mine, at the Calvary Christian Center in Ormond Beach, Fla.
It was … an experience. I’d been to church a few times before, but this was a whole different thing.
First off, the place was huge. Enormous. It was like an amphitheater, with a huge camera hovering over us and giant speakers and all that good stuff (By the way, that’s not the church I went to pictured above. Just picked a random church photo of the Internet.)
Secondly, it was loud. Quite loud. The first 40 minutes were singing and dancing a whole lot of shouting. I was involuntarily hugged several times, which usually doesn’t happen in synagogue.
Third, the message and sermon I heard was, obviously, quite different than what I’d hear in temple. The pastor was full of energy and talked really fast and seemed to gain momentum and enthusiasm as the service wore on.
When it was over, I wasn’t particularly moved by what he’d said, and I disagreed with several items (though it did strike me as interesting that one of his themes was blaming “rogue” pastors who said one thing and lived another. Certainly a few of those out there roaming the countryside…)
But life is all about exposing yourself to new things, and different beliefs. So for a night, I did. I may have even hugged someone at the end.
Hey, I’m a hugger in any situation.
**I’m an extremely pessimistic Jets fan most of the time. Really, there are no other kind of true Jets fans than a pessimistic one.
But I don’t know … this 2010 team is starting to make me think they’ve got something special going on. Once again Sunday they played a close game. Once again they didn’t play great, and once again made all kinds of mistakes that in past years would’ve doomed them to a loss.
But once again they pulled out a win, 24-20 over the Denver Broncos. That makes 5 straight wins for my boys, and the best record in the AFC.
Mark Sanchez didn’t play great, in fact, he was downright bad in the first half. But the defense came up big in the second half, Sanchez played big when he had to, and the Jets got a huge (but correct) pass interference call against the Broncos at the end of the game on 4th down, when Gang Green was down to its final play.
Five and one. Feels pretty darn good.
Some other NFL thoughts:
– Anyone out there sad the Dallas Cowboys are 1-4? Yeah, didn’t think so.
– The Chargers are 2-4. And lost to the Rams yesterday. One more reason I don’t gamble on the NFL.
– Unbelievably scary hit by the Falcons’ Dunta Robinson on the Eagles’ DeSean Jackson. Check it out here.
– Damn New England Patriots. Ravens had ‘em 20-10 down, 4th quarter, and still lost in OT. Ticked me off.
