Monday, May 21, 2012
Porsche's Grant Larson Makes the Best Christmas Cards
GRANT LARSON - THE DESIGNER OF THE PORSCHE BOXTER AND PANAMERA
My brother's best friend in art college in Milwaukee, WI (Grant), was a genius as an artist. In the 1980s He sent my wife and me a self designed Christmas card that blew us away. I have never seen a card that was so artistically beyond brilliant. It was heads and tails better than any modern Christmas card drawing I had ever seen. It was basic, simple, yet brilliant. Did I use the word brilliant too much? It just was. I don't know what happened to that card, but it disappeared in years of travel and moving around in life, but I will say this, Grant was so good that he could make a Chistmas tree light bulb look cool.
All I remember of the card was a light bulb that posed as a rocket travelling through digital space.
After studying in Milwaukee, Grant moved to Pasadena, CA to finish his schooling there. And then after some time working for another car maker in Europe, Porsche scooped him up and Grant moved to Germany where he met his wife and started a family. As a young man, somewhere around 30 years old, he did what very few companies would dare to permit: Without a team, he designed the exterior of the Porsche Boxter - the car that helped Porsche break into the more affordable market and as a result helped Porsche to stay in the business.
Today Grant is the Exterior Designer for the company.
A recent article said this about Grant:
He has been responsible for such bold and breakthrough designs as the original Boxster and Panamera, who's production stunned the automotive world and have taken Porsche to an entirely new level. Grant also led designs for the Carrera GT (show car), the 911 (type 997) Carrera and Turbo, and enthusiast cars such as the most recent 911 Speedster, Boxster Spyder, and 911 Sport Classic (http://www.fastcodesign.com/porsche-grant-larson).
When Grant is in the U.S. he is persued by very famous people like Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld and other famous entertainers who are also car enthusiasts.
Grant became famous for his amazing creative talent - and, as he admits, for being at the right place at the right time. For those who design cars, Grant is one of the best if not the best.
The Deaconess Who Married a Powerful African War Lord
SUSAN
For personal reasons, I don't care to give out her real name. Susan was a White American middle class wife and a deaconess in my church (when I was a Pastor). As I viewed her, she was the kind of person who stopped at nothing to get what she wanted (which can be good in the right situations). She was also the kind of person who was, like many, attracted to other people's power, position and/or fame.
During the 1990s, a lot of African refugees came into my church to worship with us. Susan was at the forefront of ministry to and for them. The refugees in our church had ties to high places in their government, which was captivating for Susan. Within a few months, she had made the connections needed to be on the phone regularly with the Vice-President of the African nation. And in time she visited the VP in his own country. With the encouragement of her own father, she divorced her husband and married the VP, thus placing her in a polygamous marriage.
Her father was also very much drawn to others who were famous and/or powerful in his own mind. For his living, he sold books written by famous Charismatic authors, pastors and laymen. He sold his books at the conferences these famous Christians spoke at. Her father also worshiped at the altar of fame. As I viewed him, he sought to live his life in the fame shadows of famous people (Christians), licking up the crumbs that fell from their plates.
Even today, as the First Lady of an African nation, Susan is not known to most people in the U.S., but many in her husband's country know who she is... I think. Actually, I am not sure how much the VP wants his people to know one of his wives is an American white lady.
I have not talked to Susan for 12 years. I saw her husband, the VP, one time at a family event (I was still friends with many in her family), but didn't care to meet him or introduce myself to him.
For personal reasons, I don't care to give out her real name. Susan was a White American middle class wife and a deaconess in my church (when I was a Pastor). As I viewed her, she was the kind of person who stopped at nothing to get what she wanted (which can be good in the right situations). She was also the kind of person who was, like many, attracted to other people's power, position and/or fame.
During the 1990s, a lot of African refugees came into my church to worship with us. Susan was at the forefront of ministry to and for them. The refugees in our church had ties to high places in their government, which was captivating for Susan. Within a few months, she had made the connections needed to be on the phone regularly with the Vice-President of the African nation. And in time she visited the VP in his own country. With the encouragement of her own father, she divorced her husband and married the VP, thus placing her in a polygamous marriage.
Her father was also very much drawn to others who were famous and/or powerful in his own mind. For his living, he sold books written by famous Charismatic authors, pastors and laymen. He sold his books at the conferences these famous Christians spoke at. Her father also worshiped at the altar of fame. As I viewed him, he sought to live his life in the fame shadows of famous people (Christians), licking up the crumbs that fell from their plates.
Even today, as the First Lady of an African nation, Susan is not known to most people in the U.S., but many in her husband's country know who she is... I think. Actually, I am not sure how much the VP wants his people to know one of his wives is an American white lady.
I have not talked to Susan for 12 years. I saw her husband, the VP, one time at a family event (I was still friends with many in her family), but didn't care to meet him or introduce myself to him.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Jimmy Swaggart
I like to read. I like to read especially about people who make a difference in the world, some for good and some for bad. Either way, as a subject, fame is fascinating. There are people I know and who I am close to who are famous, and there are people who simply stoke my interest.
It's not Always Good to Be Famous
I use to go to a small Assemblies of God church in Hialeah, FL with the nicest pastor you could ever know. Jim Rentz and his wife were great - I visited them a lot when I was stationed in Opa Locka.
Jim moved from his AG church and headed up Jimmi Swaggart's church in Baton Rouge, LA, when Jimmy Swaggart was the biggest T.V. preacher in the world.
As a young man barely out of High School, I became a born again Christian down South, which meant I had to get rid of all my Rock and Roll albums and replace them with Gospel and Southern Gospel music. During this phase in my life for some odd reason, I began listening to and enjoying Jimmy Swaggart's boogey woogey style of piano playing, and in time, I grew to love the crooning type of Gospel music he performed.
Even though I could listen to his music for hours, I always hated his preaching. I always felt attacked when he preached and I could only put up with so much of that.
As I grew older and grew in my faith, I slowly returned to the Rock and Roll that I so dearly loved as a High Schooler and drifted away from Jimmy Swaggart's music.
Not too long after, when I lived in Brussels, Belgium, I stopped at a book store and saw a book by Jimmy Swaggart about fornication which caught my interest. As I paged through the book, I saw a different Jimmy than I heard preaching. To this day I am convinced he had a ghost writer pen the pages of the book. Even though it was a subject I expected Jimmy to write about, it just wasn't Jimmy's style of writing or study.
Around that same time, I had also read that Jimmy called Christian Rock the "fornication of Gospel music," which in hindsight is a very interesting description.
After living in Europe for one year, I moved into the forests of the Congo, as a missionary, smack dab in the middle of Africa. I was talking to a friend that day about Jimmy Swaggart. I told him, "Usually, when people preach against some particular sin, its because they have the problem themselves, but I don't think Jimmy Swaggart would do that, even though he writes and preaches so much against fornication." I made the mistake of thinking that anyone with a huge ministry like that would want to protect it and stay holy, but one week later, Jimmy Swaggart's crying face was all over the news in the U.S. stating, "I have sinned!"
The day I heard about his mishap, I learned then that people are as careless about their morals when they are successful as they are when they have no success. After attacking and destroying the ministry of a fellow minister for his sexual failures, Jimmy was busted by that same preacher he ruined. The other preacher took pictures of Jimmy entering into a hotel with a prostitute.
Again, 3 months after his tearful confession, a police man pulled him over and Jimmy had another prostitute in his car with a pile of pornographic magazines he was trying to stuff under the seat.
After the second time of being publicly shamed, and after ignoring the Assemblies of God's discipline, Jim Rentz, my old pastor (who was the pastor for Jimmy Swaggart's church), fired Jimmy Swaggart from his position, but Jimmy Swaggart turned around and fired Rentz who then left Jimmy's fold.
Since that terrible time (for Swaggart) I have read several books and articles about Jimmy and I discovered that Jimmy Swaggart's wife holds a strong hand over him, his kids, their wives, and the people who work for him.
CONCLUSIONS
Drama doesn't get any better. I spent days after these types of exposures, thinking about whoever just lost their dignity. I get hit with a lot of feelings. I get angry, repulsed, frustrated and thankful. I become thankful for several reasons:
1. First of all like the 1st Century stereotypical pharisee, I become thankful that I am not like other people:
a. I don't visit prostitutes
b. I have never had any affair
c. I have nothing in my history that would shame my reputation (for whatever my reputation is worth).
I know I am hypocritical in part, because I cannot throw the first stone, but I am thankful that although I struggle as anyone else does, I do not struggle with the types of sins that would disgrace me. And because I don't have those types of issues, I don't have to worry about getting caught in anything disgraceful.
2. I wonder what it would be like to be in the situation of embarrassment. How do their kids feel, their wives, and friends? Were Jimmy's kids neglected as so much attention went to him after the fall? How did they feel about the dad they admired and loved?
3. How could someone so depraved get to be such a famous pastor? It seems unfair. When I was a pastor, I put every ounce of energy I could into living right before God and yet my 2nd church struggled with divisions, jealousies, fear, and a lack of trust in each other and in their pastor. My first priority was keeping right before God; and I felt good about that. But Jimmy Swaggart lived a secret life visiting with prostitutes and pornographic magazines, spending the money his church members tithed toward God.
4. How does someone live with such huge contradiction?
Most of all I think about the proverb: "The bigger they are, the harder they fall."
It's not Always Good to Be Famous
I use to go to a small Assemblies of God church in Hialeah, FL with the nicest pastor you could ever know. Jim Rentz and his wife were great - I visited them a lot when I was stationed in Opa Locka.
Jim moved from his AG church and headed up Jimmi Swaggart's church in Baton Rouge, LA, when Jimmy Swaggart was the biggest T.V. preacher in the world.
As a young man barely out of High School, I became a born again Christian down South, which meant I had to get rid of all my Rock and Roll albums and replace them with Gospel and Southern Gospel music. During this phase in my life for some odd reason, I began listening to and enjoying Jimmy Swaggart's boogey woogey style of piano playing, and in time, I grew to love the crooning type of Gospel music he performed.
Even though I could listen to his music for hours, I always hated his preaching. I always felt attacked when he preached and I could only put up with so much of that.
As I grew older and grew in my faith, I slowly returned to the Rock and Roll that I so dearly loved as a High Schooler and drifted away from Jimmy Swaggart's music.
Not too long after, when I lived in Brussels, Belgium, I stopped at a book store and saw a book by Jimmy Swaggart about fornication which caught my interest. As I paged through the book, I saw a different Jimmy than I heard preaching. To this day I am convinced he had a ghost writer pen the pages of the book. Even though it was a subject I expected Jimmy to write about, it just wasn't Jimmy's style of writing or study.
Around that same time, I had also read that Jimmy called Christian Rock the "fornication of Gospel music," which in hindsight is a very interesting description.
After living in Europe for one year, I moved into the forests of the Congo, as a missionary, smack dab in the middle of Africa. I was talking to a friend that day about Jimmy Swaggart. I told him, "Usually, when people preach against some particular sin, its because they have the problem themselves, but I don't think Jimmy Swaggart would do that, even though he writes and preaches so much against fornication." I made the mistake of thinking that anyone with a huge ministry like that would want to protect it and stay holy, but one week later, Jimmy Swaggart's crying face was all over the news in the U.S. stating, "I have sinned!"
The day I heard about his mishap, I learned then that people are as careless about their morals when they are successful as they are when they have no success. After attacking and destroying the ministry of a fellow minister for his sexual failures, Jimmy was busted by that same preacher he ruined. The other preacher took pictures of Jimmy entering into a hotel with a prostitute.
Again, 3 months after his tearful confession, a police man pulled him over and Jimmy had another prostitute in his car with a pile of pornographic magazines he was trying to stuff under the seat.
After the second time of being publicly shamed, and after ignoring the Assemblies of God's discipline, Jim Rentz, my old pastor (who was the pastor for Jimmy Swaggart's church), fired Jimmy Swaggart from his position, but Jimmy Swaggart turned around and fired Rentz who then left Jimmy's fold.
Since that terrible time (for Swaggart) I have read several books and articles about Jimmy and I discovered that Jimmy Swaggart's wife holds a strong hand over him, his kids, their wives, and the people who work for him.
CONCLUSIONS
Drama doesn't get any better. I spent days after these types of exposures, thinking about whoever just lost their dignity. I get hit with a lot of feelings. I get angry, repulsed, frustrated and thankful. I become thankful for several reasons:
1. First of all like the 1st Century stereotypical pharisee, I become thankful that I am not like other people:
a. I don't visit prostitutes
b. I have never had any affair
c. I have nothing in my history that would shame my reputation (for whatever my reputation is worth).
I know I am hypocritical in part, because I cannot throw the first stone, but I am thankful that although I struggle as anyone else does, I do not struggle with the types of sins that would disgrace me. And because I don't have those types of issues, I don't have to worry about getting caught in anything disgraceful.
2. I wonder what it would be like to be in the situation of embarrassment. How do their kids feel, their wives, and friends? Were Jimmy's kids neglected as so much attention went to him after the fall? How did they feel about the dad they admired and loved?
3. How could someone so depraved get to be such a famous pastor? It seems unfair. When I was a pastor, I put every ounce of energy I could into living right before God and yet my 2nd church struggled with divisions, jealousies, fear, and a lack of trust in each other and in their pastor. My first priority was keeping right before God; and I felt good about that. But Jimmy Swaggart lived a secret life visiting with prostitutes and pornographic magazines, spending the money his church members tithed toward God.
4. How does someone live with such huge contradiction?
Most of all I think about the proverb: "The bigger they are, the harder they fall."
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