Even if you’re not an NBA fan, you’ve probably heard the name ‘Jeremy Lin.’ And you’ve probably suffered through many of the bad puns that his name has given birth to. But you may not know the back story.

Simply by virtue of the fact that he’s one of the few Chinese players in the NBA, Lin has a huge following in the Asian community. Earlier this year, he was thrust into the limelight after leading the Knicks on a 7 game winning streak.

Lin had been cut by the Houston Rockets and the Golden State Warriors. He was sent down to the D-League (stands for ‘Developmental’ – the NBA equivalent of the minors) 3 times in his career. It is rumored that he wasn’t more than a week away from being cut by the Knicks when he was inserted into the fourth quarter of a blowout in Carmelo Anthony’s absence.

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Aaaaaand now for something completely different. A fun little video, in honor of the winter we never had.

This is hands down the sickest thing I’ve ever seen happen on 2 planks.

Props to Daniel Burd, esq., for bringing this little bit of awesome to my attention.

This is 4.5 minutes you will not regret spending on The Right Thing.

Enjoy.

Some of you guys may remember my pal Dan O’Leary, Lead Pastor at Arise Community Church. Dan was with our church a couple of Sundays last spring and was actually scheduled to preach at True North the week we cancelled services due to Hurricane Irene. That was a loss for us and we will remedy that this year.

Last month this article on Dan ran in the King’s Park Patch, and I thought it was worth sharing. Dan and the team at Arise are doing an incredible job and their potential as an organization is HUGE. True North is supporting them financially as they get off the ground and it goes without saying that I really believe in them.

I respect Dan for a number of reasons and among them is that he’s out there working a second job to supplement his income as a pastor. He’s not complaining about how bad things are, even though he’d obviously prefer to work full time at Arise. He’s doing whatever it takes to provide for his family. Huge thumbs up.

Here’s the article. Enjoy.
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This past Sunday at True North, we wrapped up a message series called “How to Be Rich.” If you missed it, you can check out the audio here, at our message archive.

It was a pretty heavy three weeks and I got a ton of positive feedback on it, which really encouraged me because talking about money always sets me off balance.

We talked at length about how blessed we are and how no matter what, we’re all convinced that we’re broke and that “rich” is a title for someone else. The truth is, if you live indoors, you have indoor plumbing, hot water, more than enough clothing to wear and more than enough food to eat, you’re rich.

You have extra money for a movie once in a while, or appetizers at Applebees? You’re rollin’ thick. Most people in the world will NEVER have those luxuries. You’re rich.

Don’t believe me? Visit globalrichlist.com and enter your income (remember to select $US Dollars – default is Great Britain Pounds). I bet the results will surprise you.

At the end of the series, I’ve challenged everyone in our church to tithe for the month of March. That is, to live on 90% of your income and to give away 10% as an offering to God. Not out of guilt. Out of thankfulness. And to take the scary “what if something terrible happens to me tomorrow?” question out of the equation, if you have a financial setback in the next three months and you need the money back, we will refund it to you, no questions asked.

You read that right. That’s a money back guarantee on your offering!!

Just a warning though – tithing is really rewarding but it’s hard work. The best way to get it done is to decide in advance what you’re going to give. Want to set it and forget electronically? Visit www.truenorthchurch.net/give and just follow the instructions. We’ve done all we can to make this easy and secure.

Kick it around. For many people at our church, this will be the most generous they’ve ever been. And for some of them, it’ll be the first time in their life they really felt rich.

And for now, enjoy this video. Someone emailed it to me this week and it’s a really funny take on all this stuff we’ve been talking about.