John Gunter, Author at John Gunter

An open letter regarding prayer and (seemingly) Bible contradictions

April 18, 2013 by John Gunter

As was the case a few weeks ago, I wanted to share another “open letter”. This one was to both the same girl from the previous letter (CLICK HERE to read it) and her best friend. In follow-up to the question about dating, they sent me the following questions regarding prayer and the Trinity. I answered their questions by explaining my principle in dealing with seeming contradictions of faith and the Bible.

Tools of the trade for writing and emailing. . . at a local Starbucks — My setup at a local Starbucks. . .

I know this is more technical than any other post on this blog, but hopefully it will be helpful to someone with similar questions. Again, I do not claim to be a theologian, but rather a Christian who has wrestled with my own faith on many levels. This email is the product on some of my personal wrestlings.

As was the format with the letter on dating, the first part of this post is the email the two women sent to me. Following this is my response. These are both abbreviated, as I deleted the personal content of the exchange. (I have added some headings in this post to better assist in organizing it.) [Read more…]

“Baseball Saturday” for the glory of God. . . (video included)

April 15, 2013 by John Gunter

The men of Baseball Saturday; me, Rush Stuart, Scott Littlepage, Tyler Leuck, Andrew Ols, Ty Nash, Michael Gregory, Conner Norton, Sean Doody, and Manny Mann.

Saturday was special here in my neck of the woods. The American men in our city decided to get together and hang from noon on. In this city of many millions (literally), there are only a handful of Americans who live here permanently. My guess is 30-50 in total. This is probably a generous guess, as I personally only of know 22. Of that number, 11 are men.

Ten of the eleven men I know in this city decided to dub the 6th day of last week. . . “Baseball Saturday”. The content of the day was simple; American food and baseball all day. We were to both play baseball and watch baseball in the midst of gorging on red meat and other such American culinary delights.

We met for lunch at McDonald’s (the only “American restaurant” within an hour of where I live). After destroying our bodies, we headed over to a local university in search of a field to play baseball. Between all of us, we have seven baseball gloves, two baseball bats, and four actual baseballs, so “playing baseball” is a pretty generous description of what we were planning.

We found a soccer field, but were quickly dispersed by an official university function.

We ended up finding our way to a dimly lite, closed basketball gym on campus. We decided the place was perfect for our “Plan B”. [Read more…]

4 “big picture” principles on living the single life well

April 11, 2013 by John Gunter

This post is from “My thoughts on singleness (a series. . .)” which I have been writing off and on, for the past three months. You can find the other articles in this series if you CLICK HERE.

Driving the Todd girls around. . . one of the families whom has opened their family to me. — Driving the Todd girls around. . . one of the families whom has opened their home to me.

There are entire sections in book stores on marriage. What does it mean? How to thrive within marriage? How to deal with marital conflict? Etc. . . .

However, I’m pretty sure no such sections exist for singleness. Cards on the table. . . I have never looked. Wish I could now, but being in Asia makes this type of practical research impossible.

It is with this motivation that I have been writing this series on singleness.

Yes, there is much difficult with being single. However, there are practices we can follow and habits that we can form to help us thrive, and not simple survive, within singleness.

Here are a few big-picture principles I have embraced in living my life which have helped guide my singleness.

1 – Serve the world around you with the energy of a family man (or woman)

One of the benefits of being a long-time bachelor is that I have had the opportunity to see many of my friends get married and have children. As I have observed, families take a ton of work! I really admire my friends who are great parents. There is no short-cut in parenthood. It is an exhausting, all-encompassing endeavor.

In my singleness, I have tried to be equally committed to my calling, with as much effort, passion, and commitment as my friends with children exert. Their lives are 120% about serving their worlds around them (their kids; if they are good parents), so why should mine be any different?

In marriage, as in singleness, we are called to give our lives to the world around us. For marrieds, this is obvious where your priorities are lie. With singles, our priorities are not as obvious, but

[Read more…]

The transcendent values of BASEBALL

April 8, 2013 by John Gunter

My friends Troy Coons, Phil Autry, Julian Krevere, and I at a Braves game two years ago

As I sit here in a local coffeehouse, I am thinking about baseball. We are on the cusp of one on the greatest weeks of each year; Opening Week of the Baseball season.

I love the sport and always have. I don’t remember a time in life where baseball wasn’t important to me.

Baseball is different than any of the other American sports. I’m not necessarily saying better, I’m just saying different. No other sport is called our “National Pastime” like baseball. As I think about it, I do believe there are transcendent values to the game of baseball which are unique to the sport.

So, in honor of opening week, here are four (plus one bonus) of the more “transcendent values” of the game of baseball which have kept me engaged with the sport well beyond my playing days.

1 – The generational aspect of baseball [Read more…]

“Mad Men” and the futility of sin

April 5, 2013 by John Gunter

I published this article last June. However, in light of the fact many new people are now reading this blog and in honor of “Mad Men” beginning this weekend, here it is once more (slightly revised).

MM.edited — The iconic image of the tv show “Mad Men”.

The activities of last night have become somewhat of a routine. A new episode of Mad Men hits the internet, I feverishly download it, and then Chris & Ann Marie Musgrove and I watch it. We take it all in and then promptly discuss what we just witnessed. . . what we just experienced.

Mad Men has become one of my favorite tv shows for this simple reason. . . it is a realistic study of the nature of sin. Nothing glamorous about sin. Nothing desirable. Just a weekly glance into the lives of people that live for the single purpose of satisfying their personal desires and gains.

The show does not make sin seem appealing. In fact, the exact opposite is true. The characters are pathetically and tragically enslaved to their own sin. They gain everything the world has to offer. Professional success. Financial wealth. Sexual prowess.

However, while the characters of Mad Men get EVERYTHING they want, they are miserable. Chris, Ann Marie, and I literally cringe