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Yesterday I mentioned I was going to do a giveaway for Casting Crowns’ latest album “Until the Whole World Hears.” Well, today is the day it’s going to happen…at least partially.

Thanks to Reunion Records, I have several Casting Crowns CDs to give out. For this contest, I’m only giving out one…or maybe 2 if the responses are really good.

Here’s how you win:

Whoever can come up with the best response for the following Top 10 List will win the album. The Top 10 category is:

Top 10 Signs You Know You’re at Church Camp

Keep it clean and appropriate. If you have the funniest, most creative, most realistic, etc answer, you will win the album.

All responses must be in by 1:00 PM (CST) Monday April 26, 2010 and feel free to submit more than one answer.

If your answers are good, they may appear in future editions of Horizon and Direction magazines.

Enjoy!

Today is a very underrated day in sports. It probably doesn’t seem so because Twitter and every sports site is going crazy with coverage of the NFL Draft. Experts are speculating picks, and some writers are even making up rumors just to get their name out there. In some ways, journalistic integrity is dead.

While I am extremely excited about the 3-day NFL draft that kicks off tonight, there’s also some other great sports stories out there. What has been overshadowed by the draft is the news that the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will only expand to 68 teams, and not 96 teams. For people who love the tournament more than sponsorships and money, this is great news. What I’ve heard is that teams 61-65 will play teams 65-68 for a chance to get into the tournament. Personally, I’d like to see this a bit different. I’d prefer if the tournament would take 8 bubble teams and make them play for a spot at a 12 seed in the tournament. Let the Arkansas Pine Bluff’s have their opportunity to play on Thursday or Friday if they win their conference tournament. Make teams like Illinois, Wake Forest, etc fight it out for the 12 seed. Anyway…it’s still great that the tournament did not go to 96 teams.

To add to this news, a release was also issued that CBS and Turner Sports have won the TV rights to the tournament. By Turner getting into the mix, we have been guaranteed that every game will be shown live for the first time in tournament history. Instead of live look-ins, March Madness On Demand, and Mobile TV, we can now catch the games on CBS, TNT, TBS, and truTV. Great news!

On top of this, there are 3 NBA playoff games tonight, featuring LeBron, Kobe, Kevin Durant, and Steve Nash. The NHL also has 4 playoff games tonight involving Sidney Crosby…and a lot of foreign guys.

Sidenote: Cardinals are in first place in the NL Central. Carlos Zambrano just got moved to the bullpen for the Cubs. HA HA!

Oh, and for all my fellow Cardinals fans out there…Ray Lankford is now on Twitter (@raylankford1). I’m nothing special, but you can also find me @iPopEditor

Chances are if you’ve even so much as taken a breath on this earth, you’ve gone through a spiritual rut in your life. They’re never fun. Usually they seem dark, lonely, uncomfortable, confusing, frustrating, monotonous, depressing, unending, as well as many other things.

Many times I wish our spiritual lives could be in a step by step format. I often think it would be nice if we had a handbook that told us how often we need to go to church, how long we should pray, what we should read in the Bible and for how long, etc. Obviously, that book doesn’t exist (and no, the Bible is not that book). Even if that book did exist, our faith would be more about following a schedule and routine than living out authentic faith.

Since that handbook doesn’t exist, what do we do when we get into a spiritual rut?

I’ve heard different opinions from different people. Some of them were great. Some of them were…not so great. But nevertheless, I’ve found that there is no exact science for getting out of a spiritual rut. However, I do think we can learn great things from each other, and from people in the past (the Bible included).

So let me pose the question to you: How do you get out of a spiritual rut? What method(s) have you found most effective? Did you have to change something in your life, or did you just have to maintain consistency in what you were doing, even when you didn’t “feel” something?

Cars are frustrating. When they’re running fine, they’re great. When they’re not, they’re a pain. Very few people know how to fix cars, and some that do try to rip you off. Others think they know how but really don’t. Doesn’t it seem like car insurance should cover all car problems? Health insurance covers me when I need a checkup, medication, or surgery. Can’t car insurance do the same? I sure pay enough for it, and haven’t had to file a claim yet. Does this rambling sound like an essay from a 4th grader yet? I hope so. All I want is for my car to pass its emissions test so I can pay $79.00 and get my tags. Is that too much to ask? I’m done.

Wednesday I posted a random question on Facebook and asked people which Office character they most closely associate themselves with. The answers were all over the board, with the notable exceptions of Michael and Dwight.

Today I started thinking about a similar, yet different question. I started wondering which Office character represents your work ethic. That may sound like a crazy question (and it is) but if you had to describe your work ethic, which character would you most resemble? Which character would you most want to resemble?

If people could be represented by their ideal character, most people would probably hope for Jim or Pam, depending on your gender. However, as far as work ethnic goes, I’m not so sure those are desirable options.

Jokes have been made throughout the show that Jim doesn’t work very hard because he’s bored with his job. He gets his work done, but he just doesn’t put much effort into it. In the episode entitled “Business Ethics,” Jim spends the entire day trying to prove that Dwight wastes time. At the end of the episode, Jim admits that he spent so much time watching to see if Dwight wasted time that he got absolutely nothing done that day.

It seems that the more likable characters on the show are the biggest time wasters (Michael, Jim, and even Pam). The hardest working characters are the ones that seem to be the least noticed (Phyllis, Stanley, Toby). Perhaps the reason they are not noticed as much is because they’re actually doing their jobs.

Now please don’t take me too seriously with this. Obviously this is a fictional show and if everyone was doing their job like they were supposed to, there would be no comedy nor would there be a show.

I just find it interesting that the most likable characters on the show are also the ones that seem to have the poorest work ethic.

Never thought I’d say this, but as far as work ethic goes, maybe it should be more desirable to be like Dwight rather than Jim.

Not to get too spiritual, but I’m reminded of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

I sometimes think this verse is the most compartmentalized verse in the Bible. It’s easy to give our all when doing things we enjoy. It’s easy to give our best in a few selected areas of our lives. It’s a lot more difficult to give our best at everything we do.

Apparently Tiger Woods made his return to professional golf today by teeing off at the Masters. If you didn’t know this, you’re either from another planet or somehow managed to evade all forms of media for the last 2 months (If you didn’t know, please contact me and tell me how to do that sort of thing).

From ESPN to USA Today, every news outlet has been covering this story nonstop like the whole world revolves around it. In fact, ESPN.com used the headline “The Wait of the World” to describe this occasion.

I’ve been trying to find out if people really care about this as much as the media makes it seem like we should care. Does the average Joe really care about all of this…or is all this hype relegated for the TMZ crowd?

Let me ask this 2 questions and hopefully I’ll get some feedback:

1) Do you care that Tiger Woods is returning to golf today?

2) Has the media overhyped this entire story, or are they on par with what the average sports fan is thinking/feeling?

I love food just as much as any other guy. Actually, I probably love it more than most guys, which explains why my waist has fluctuated by about 8 inches over the last 6 years (Thankfully, I’m on the downside of that right now). While I am trying to eat healthy and exercise as much as possible, I am really intrigued by KFC’s latest creation: the Double Down.

What is the Double Down? I’ll be glad to tell you. It’s actually a breadless chicken sandwich. Instead of using a bun, it uses two boneless chicken fillets to hold the sandwich together. In a sense, your sandwich is the bun and the bun is your sandwich (Think about that for awhile). In between the chicken is two pieces of bacon, two slices of cheese, and some kind of sauce that has yet to be identified.

The sandwich debuts on April 12 and is only available for 6 weeks at KFC. That’s probably how long it will take the FDA to deem the sandwich deadly. While some early reports had the sandwich at 1200+ calories, the latest reports at KFC have given a much milder diagnosis. The sandwich only contains 540 calories. Unfortunately, the sodium and saturated fat content is sky high, but who really cares about that stuff anyway? (Besides doctors that is)

When April 12 comes around, I just might have to splurge and throw down my money for this $5 heart-attack. I’ll let you know how it goes…if I survive…

(Note: Food is guaranteed by me to not look as good in person as it does in the picture)