Out of my mind…

My new glasses arrived today.  While that doesn’t necessarily get everyone else excited, it sure made my day.  Last Friday, I found out I’m legally blind without corrective lenses.  That means these glasses and my contacts are now officially part of my life forever.  But, considering I’ve worn glasses or contacts since the third grade, I’m sure I can handle it. Back to my glasses…

New glasses are always a challenge.  You always get excited because you will finally be able to see without the fuzz of the outdated prescription.  Then you get your glasses.  You put them on.  The nice lady adjusts them to make sure they fit properly.  Then you stand up to leave, turn for the door, and realize you are walking through a fun house.  At least the was the feeling that hit me today.  As long as I was stationary and looking straight ahead, I could see perfectly.  But once I started walking or looking to the side, everything was distorted like in those fun house mirrors where tall people look short and a three-inch-wide pole looks 5 feet in diameter.  It was trippy.  But as the day has worn on, I’ve become used to this new prescription.  I can see EVERYTHING clearly.  It is kind of amazing.

I was thinking about the Love Dare WHCC is doing over the next forty days.  We are being challenged each day with a biblical idea from Jesus’ teachings.  We are being asked to integrate these things into our daily lives.  But not just do one thing one day and another different thing the next.  These are supposed to all build upon each other.  

As we approached the idea of starting the Love Dare, I thought about the way I view daily life.  Then I thought about the goals of the Love Dare.  We often approach our daily lives in a bit of a haze.  Things can be distorted by opinions, desires, situations, and a host of other distractions.  If no one takes steps to make their vision better, it will continue to deteriorate.  That’s where God’s call for our lives comes in.  if we make a conscious effort to live the way He intends for us to live, our vision will improve.  As I read through the Love Dares each day and think about how each Dare builds upon the previous ones, I think about how my life will begin to clear up.  My anger and prejudice and selfishness all become challenged by what God has asked me to do.  Instead of gossiping about someone, I am called to say encouraging words.  Instead of ignoring people who are struggling, I am called to reach out and help them.  The best part about these Love Dares is that they all come from Scripture.  Every Dare is something God has already asked us to incorporate into our daily lives.

As the church continues this Love Dare, I encourage all of us to participate.  If you take it seriously and truly make the effort to build each days Dare into your life, I bet you see how life in Christ begins to become more and more clear.  If you don’t go to West Houston or have not heard about the Love Dare and would like to hear more and/or participate, let me know.  I’d be happy to get you the information and set you up to receive our daily Love Dare emails.  In the four days so far, I have been blessed.  I look forward to seeing the results of this experiment in living the way Christ has called us to live.

Well, I’m back from the National Youth Workers’ Convention in Sacramento.  What a great weekend!  I return encouraged and rested and looking forward to what the future holds for the junior high and overall student ministry at West Houston Church of Christ.  That being said, I want to share my encouragement with as many people as possible.

We are in a unique situation as youth workers, parents, volunteers.  We are in a position to reach out and touch people every day.  I think we take it for granted that our children are/will be Christians because we make them attend church every Sunday.  The fact of the matter is that believing attendance translates into faith is us fooling ourselves.  Thinking that the number of kids present means we have fostered a healthy ministry is not a guaranteed truth.  I can know every word of the Bible backward and forward, but that doesn’t mean I believe a word it says.  It just means we’ve filled seats and filled our heads.  It means we have exercised our power and authority over our youth and made them go where we want them to go.

Now, you’re wondering where the encouragement I was talking about comes in.  Well, here it is.  We have an opportunity to make a huge difference in the lives of our youth.  Think about it.  Parents, you are with your kids at home, running errands, driving to and from church.  I know things can get crazy.  Our schedules get full and we run from place to place focused on the tasks at hand.  But what if we took the time to talk about faith with our kids during those times.  Sure, it’s easier said than done.  Maybe we don’t always know what to say.  But at least we’d be saying something.  Kids and teens can tell what we value as adults by two things: 1)what we spend our time DOING and 2)what we spend our time TALKING about.  Sure, maybe we don’t know what to say about faith, but, if we take the time to bring it up and talk about it, we send the message that WE CARE ABOUT FAITH AND GOD AND WHAT OUR YOUTH BELIEVE IN.  And then, after we’ve done that, let’s act like what we just talked about is actually what our lives should be like.  Youth workers/volunteers, the teens know we are there at church with the purpose of spending time talking to them about God.  So let’s make the most of it.  In fact, let’s not only talk about it when they expect it.  Let’s ACT like it.  Let’s take 2 minutes to email them throughout the week and ask how they are and how God is working in their lives.  Let’s pray that God uses us to show his presence.

We talk about role models and heroes.  Our youth spend their days watching the every move of sports stars and musicians and actors they never meet.  We are the ones they see and talk to daily.  The encouragement we have is that we are the ones in a position to make a difference.  We say that God is always with us.  If we can believe that God can give words to Moses when he lacks the ability to articulate his message, why can’t we believe he can help us talk to the people we have personal, close relationships with?  We have an chance to share with our teens the most important message they will ever hear.  And, as their parents and adults they trust and look up to, we should be encouraged that God has placed us right where He needs us to be.

Sports can be a good or bad topic when talking to someone.  Mostly because people either love sports or hate them.  For example, I LOVE sports.  I’m the kinda guy that will watch Sportscenter two hours in a row even though they run the same stories.  However, I realize not everyone shares my enthusiasm.  So please, stick with me.  I promise I’ll get to a point.

I have had a hard time finding people that do not like college football.  Something about the sport just excites people.  Whether it is your alma mater or the place you wish you had attended, it seems that everyone has a favorite.  Fans get so passionate about this game.  Last night (Thursday) I watched the fourth quarter of the USC/Oregon State game.  I didn’t bother watching most of the game because USC was supposed to win by 27 points.  They were ranked as the best team in college football almost unanimously.  In fact, I wouldn’t have seen any of the game if I hadn’t switched channels to watch Sportscenter.  Everyone just assumed USC had this game in the bag.  But as I watched the last five minutes of this game, I saw unranked, underachieving Oregon State finish what will probably play out to be the greatest upset of the season, beating #1 USC 27-21.  As I watched the post-game reports and Sportscenter, I was floored by what the commentators had to say.  Leading up to this game, all they could talk about was how USC was going to go undefeated and play for the national championship in January.  Everybody else was just playing for #2.  After this monumental upset, those very same commentators spoke of how USC was almost guaranteed to be out of the championship picture.  In a matter of three hours, these “experts” went from being sure USC was the best there was to saying no hope existed for them to win it all.

Now, those of you who are not sports fans are probably rolling your eyes and looking for an opportunity to leave, but WAIT!  That’s when I realized why people love college football.  Despite everyone whining about the ranking systems and how they decide who goes to what bowl and how bad the NCAA needs a playoff system, people love it because it is the way it is.  College football teams live and die with each game.  A team is forced to give everything it has every game.  If they don’t, if they lose, their hopes of a championship are gone.  One loss can end it all.  A team can be the best their is for 10 or 11 games, defeating every team they face.  But if they lose that last game before the championship, it doesn’t matter who they beat or how badly they won, they still lost.  They are still going to fall in the rankings and miss the championship they worked so hard for.  But people love that.  They love the suspense.  The love that you have to use every last bit of strength and every last shred of hope and honor to just have a shot to keep your dream alive.

And then it hit me.  There are days I love the suspense and the sacrifice and the battle of college football more than I love the faith I live by.  And I am a person that has chosen to spend my life helping others discover such a faith for themselves.  How can I honestly hold this game above a faith that calls me to make all the same sacrifices?

In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, the author writes of running the race:

“For you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize.  Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.  They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crwon that will last forever.  Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.  No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after i have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

If you want suspense and sacrifice and battle, here it is.  Our life is our race.  We run it everyday whether we want to or not.  Somedays we are leading the pack and others we seem to be fading and losing ground.  But we still run.  We are called to run, but not just run.  We are called to run to win the prize, eternal life and salvation with Jesus Christ.  Later in Hebrews 12, it is written that we are to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles”  so we may “run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”  We are called to do more than wake up and run each day.  We are to give our all and sacrifice everything to run the best race possible.  The best part of all this is that you just have to want it bad enough to strive for it.  God has put the prize within reach and even give us instructions and guidance on how to run for it.  Just like a football team competing and hungering so badly for a win and the ultimate prize or a championship, we must hunger for the life God has called us to live.  We must lay it all on the line to finish the race strong, the way He intends for us to finish.  I’ll leave you with a passage from 2 Timothy.  Here the author just reiterates the struggle and sacrifice of a life spent following Jesus.  He tells of how it costs a great deal, but is completely worth it.  I challenge you, as well as myself, not to just read these words and then finish your race today at a jogging pace.  I challenge us all to elevate your play to the excitement and challenge of the race God has laid out for you.  I challenge us all to sprint to the finish.  Today and everyday.

“For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

2 Timothy 4:6-8