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Fantasy Lost

November 23rd, 2010

Well, I had been winning my fantasy league until last night!  I went head to head with the other team with a 7-3 record and come up short – 4 points short.  And today I can blame it on the coaching!  Not, the highly paid NFL coaches, I can blame it on this blogger’s coaching.  I guessed wrong.  I benched the players who scored touchdowns, and I played the players who forgot they had a game to play!  But really who would play Mark Sanchez over Kyle Orton or Forte over Bradshaw?  The inconsistency of it all is about to make me pull my hair out!  One week 2 touchdowns 150 yards, the next 25 yards and fumble! Who should I bench now!

The inconsistency of that fantasy football stuff started me thinking.  I found myself thinking about our spiritual lives.  We’re hot, we’re cold.  We fight off the devil, we let him win.  Man, if our Creator was playing Fantasy Spiritual Living, he would be going crazy with out inability to keep high scores each week.  But then again, he’s used to it – as he struggled with the nation of Israel for years in the love-love-not-so-much relationship.

However, he is always there.  He never trades us, he never benches us.  He is still there despite our selfish ambition and our affairs with Satan.

8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8 (New International Version, ©2010)

Wow. I don’t know about you, but I find comfort in knowing that. Despite my inconsistencies, he’s still the same, and still full of forgiveness.
Maybe, I just found a new coaching technique.

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Dressed for Combat

September 3rd, 2010

Football season kicked off last night in grand style. I even found myself slipping out of bed a few times to check out what happened to the Pitt overtime game and the USC game.  Finally a sport to watch again ( sorry baseball fans!)

Anyway, as most men know the uniforms are half of the deal when the team takes the field.  Several times after the last few years teams have changed colors in the locker room before entering the field for the game with the intention of creating come motivation and inspiring the crowd. Even my wife tells my boys “looking good on the field is most important”.

Anyway, earlier this week Nike released it’s new “Pro Combat” uniforms for a few selected schools.  And you guessed it the Mountaineers were in the mix this year.  They will were their uniforms against Pitt later this year.  It’s amazing the buzz this has created with Mountaineer fans, and I assume with the other team’s fans that are in the mix this year.  I can only assume the players are pretty excited as well.

So why?  Why is the uniform so much more than just a shirt and britches?  Why is so important that your uniforms like so tough and bad?  Why do teams like to wear that menacing all black?  We know, because it tells who we are.  It expresses what we feel about ourselves. In football, its say I am ready and I am playing hard and I am going to play as good as look.  We look the part that we want to be.

So what about our life, especially our spiritual lives?   Well check Galatians out:

26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ Galatians 3:26-28 (New International Version)

Paul says Jesus Christ is our uniform!   Can you think of anything more menacing in spiritual warfare then to be wearing the son of God?  We are clothed with him, we have put in on!

For some odd reason, I have made the picture of the new WVU uniforms my background on my computer.  Really, I am not sure why.  But I can say that every time I see it, I get a little bit of extra motivation, as if I were putting those one someday.  Which is really sort of childish, isn’t’? But what I am realizing is in the spiritual battle, I am wearing a uniform that is so much cooler and lighter weight and refreshing then the Pro Combats from Nike. The question is will I play like it today!

Put on the uniform that Christ gave you, and realize that you look ready for combat in them.  Play like it today!

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Boys of Fall

September 1st, 2010

Forrest GreggI am sure most of you have heard Kenny Chesney’s new song Boys of Fall.  Last night, we watched the ESPN documentary that aired Sunday by the same name.  Maybe some of you watched the program as well.  If you have every played football, or been a fan of football, I am sure you will want to try to catch that show. Although I tried my hand at the gridiron in junior high, I was too skinny and slow to be effective as a football player and moved on to other endeavors.

But that is not today’s point.  This documentary is filled with interviews with great names from football’s past and present – from Joe Namath to Peyton Manning.  The part, however, that I found very interesting was when a few of the coaches talked about the impact of tradition and history.  Phil Fulmer even said, that when you are out there and its fourth and one and you think of all of the other guys that have worn the orange and white before you that it makes you get that extra yard, that it makes you dig deeper and find a way.  Sound familiar?

So that and the whole concept that was being discussed that football was a microcosm of life led me to think about our lives of faith.  We understand in football why the tradition has an impact on the current players.  We understand the team aspects, the ‘no holds bared’ way of fighting on the gridiron.  So can we take that same approach to our spiritual lives?  Maybe Paul, or whoever wrote Hebrews, was a football coach on the side?  He delivers a pretty good locker room speech in Hebrews 12 that sounds a lot like some of the talk on Chesney’s show:

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.  4In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”  Hebrews 12:1-6 (New International Version)

Think about all of those who have followed Christ before you, those who have led the way, and take encouragement from them today.  You can hang in there, even when its fourth and one.

Hm, maybe life is a big football game?

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National Letter of Intent Day

February 3rd, 2010

Its here.  Its the culmination of all the college football recruiting.  Its National Signing Day, or Letter of Intent Day.  (For all of you non football fans – its the day when high school seniors “commit” to the university which they will attend and play football.  Its the day they make their intentions clear. – who wouldn’t be excited about that, right?)

So anyway, college football fans will wait anxiously today to see if their school will commit enough talent to make the fans happy for the next 5 years.  This is one of those out of control, overly hyped days that make America what it is.

However, declaring your intent isn’t always hyped up.  Sometimes is a little, well unfortunate, like the two guys caught stealing Twinkies because they left their tracks in the snow.  They made their intentions well known to all.   However when it comes to our lives, intent isn’t hyped up enough.

Declaring our intentions is important.  No coach likes a player who is not certain which team his is going to play.  Likewise, deciding how your going to live is important as well.  Being intention in our actions or living with intent is good.  Deciding how you are going to approach situations in life ahead of time helps you deal with those situations when they occur.

Think about your intentions.  Fence sitting is really becoming less and less fashionable.  If you had to sign up today, where would you sign up?  And recall Joshua, and the day he declared his intention.

14 “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:1-15

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