Posts Tagged ‘Mountaineers’

« Older Entries

et tu Bracketus

March 15th, 2012

It’s the middle of the craziest month of the year! And today March Madness kicks off with vengeance.  You may want to slip off to BW3 during the work day to catch your favorite team.  As for me, my team plays tonight.  Hopefully they will not be one and done.  I have to admit, I did not go all in this year with the old Mountaineers. I hope they comes back to destroy my bracket!

There’s probably a great object lesson in there somewhere waiting to be explored.  But alas, ’tis the ides of March, which conjures up memories of warnings of Roman revolt and Shakespearean prose.  And there unto, a verse from the 1611 KJV.

 13Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. 1 Corinthians 16:13 King James Version (KJV)

Beware!

No comments »

Posted in Daily Post

Tags:

Worthy of the Effort

January 26th, 2012

Last night the Mountaineer basketball team lost a game that they should have won.  What’s worse is they lost it really because of a lack of effort or concern.  It’s long been established that the coaches at West Virginia continue to tell the players that they play for the entire state – a state that holds the reputation of being a blue collar, hard working, coal mining state.

After the game last night, their coach Bob Huggins reportedly said that the effort the team displayed was very disrespectful to West Virginians.

“I’m sure there are a lot of days they don’t want to go down in that mine, but they do.”

Hmm. That’s pretty interesting.  He was essentially saying “They go work, they do incredible hard dirty work so that you can play basketball.  How are you going to respond to that?”

I guess we could even think about it that this way: Those miners are going to work today, to harvest coal, that will be turned in electricity, that you will consume – what are you going to do with that power?  Will it be worthy of their trip?

Even more so, we can think about some one else who did the work for us, so that we didn’t have to do a thing. The book of Romans address this in several verses spread over a few chapters.

5:6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

5:11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

6:8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him

6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

 

In light of that work, what effort are you giving today to  live?

 

 

1 comment »

Posted in Daily Post

Tags:

So Pumped

January 5th, 2012

I am so stoked today I can’t hardly stand it.  As most of you know, I am a huge WVU fan.  And West Virginia ended up the Orange Bowl last night with a pretty impressive victory over the Clemson Tigers.  My excitement is to such an extend that I could barely sleep last night and I can’t hardly stop myself from posting on Facebook!!!

Pretty ridiculous really, That much joy from watching 20 year old kids play a game?  Especially when you consider that all I did was sit on my couch in my climate controlled room watching the game on my High Definition big screen TV.  I didn’t practice, I didn’t call a play, I didn’t run a play.  All I did was claim that team as my own and cheer away – and believe. (Although, I can say I was pretty nervous in the first quarter!)

And yet, the joy overflows this morning!  I wonder if it will last past the time I walk through the office doors!

Wow, sort of reminds me of something else.  Something else that I did absolutely nothing to attain, except to believe.  Something that was done for me, for free.  Something I didn’t ask for, but has been given.

 9-11Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah! (Romans 5:9-11 MSG)

 

Double Joy!  Maybe even Triple Joy!

And this joy is unstoppable.

So in reality the effects of this game will wear off – and the old Mountaineers will lose again sometime in the future(maybe), but the true joy that comes from the Messiah, the Christ is there forever.

Pretty sweet uh!

No comments »

Posted in Daily Post

Tags:

Elementary, My Dear Watson

February 15th, 2011

There is so much going on this week that I can’t decide what to write about when!  With all the exchanging of flowers and chocolate yesterday, forgot to tune my TV over to Alex Trebek at 7 to see the great IBM Challenge, plus I was watching my dear Mountaineers give the game to Syracuse with bad shooting.

Anyway, last week my favorite IBM employee and account rep, forwarded me the information that this week on Jeopardy the Watson supercomputer is going to take on 2 of the greatest Jeopardy champions of all time in a man vs Artificial Intelligence duel to the death ( or maybe to $1 Million !) And if there are three people I guess that is not technically a duel!  This is really a pretty big deal in the AI industry, as its a real time test of over 4 years of development efforts on this super computer.  It seems last night, Watson got off to an incredible start, but was slowly reeled in my one of the human contestants before the wheel starting spinning at half past the hour.   I have set up my DVR to catch the heart racing action for the next two nights.

It is really amazing that men can build and program a machine to be able to process and answer to quickly.  To be able to replicate in certain ways the workings of our brain is really really amazing.  But I wonder if we will ever be able to really capture all the true intricacies that make us human.  For instance our ability to create and organize and plan and build – those abilities are truly unique among the inhabitants of this world.  Truly unique because they are given from God.

27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.  Genesis 1:27

and then here is an obscure instance of in Exodus

30 Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the LORD has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— 32 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 33 to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. 34 And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. 35 He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers. Exodus 35:30-35 (New International Version, ©2010)

So, as we watch things like the Watson supercomputer and marvel at its complexity and let us celebrate the way men are using the gifts God has given them and then lets us use our gifts as well.

No comments »

Posted in Daily Post

Tags:

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!

1 comment »

Posted in Daily Post

Tags: