How to really make a mess

For those who know me, you know I LOVE football season. If I weren't in ministry, I'd probably be in sports journalism covering a football team somewhere. Nevertheless, I see athletics as a metaphor for life in many ways. Success are hard-fought. Victories are short-lived. Hard work makes a difference. Little things make the difference. Everyone must be like-minded and focused or mistakes come often and quickly. A prime example was yesterday's Cleveland Browns game. The Browns are not very good and it shows. On one particular play, they were penalized four times. That means at least four different guys, individually, had to make a different mistake in the span of about twelve seconds. I'll let the referee speak for himself. The following was his call to the audience: "We have four fouls on the offense: illegal formation, offense, No. 56. That penalty is declined. Holding, No. 90, that penalty is declined. Holding, No. 35, that penalty will be enforced, 10 yards from the end of the kick. We had an ineligible downfield on the kick, that penalty is declined." Sounds more like a preseason game than a regular season. As I said, when you're not clear minded and focused. mistakes will hit and hit hard. Let's not follow that example.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SBC Meeting #2 - June 14 2023

 Beloved friends, yesterday's optimism evaporated in the New Orleans heat today.  I had hoped for a few things today and, sadly for me, most of them broke the wrong way in my view.  The lone bright spot was Dr Bart Barber who did a masterful job handling the tough duties and managing the clock.  In spite of that,  it was a deeply saddening day for me.  Consider with me why. An amendment - known loosely as the "Mike Law Amendment" - had been given to the SBC Ex Committee months ago declaring the role of pastor to be limited to men.  That's already in the Baptist Faith and Message so I didn't think much of it.  Surely we won't take it as a litmus test for fidelity to the SBC - that's a creed and last I checked we Baptists are non-creedal people.  Or were.  I had hoped cooler heads would prevail and the "Mike Law" amendment would fail.  After all, the Exec Committee put it forward but did NOT recommend it for approval.  This motion declares there sh
Read more

SBC meeting - June 13 2023

 Friends, today was not the day I expected and I mean that in the best possible way.  I came into this meeting believing much of what I had read online to be an accurate portrayal of where Baptist life really was.  I was wrong.  We aren't nearly as angry or narrow as I feared.   Our friend Dr Bart Barber was re-elected in a resounding vote - 67.5% to 31.5%.  I didn't see that coming. The spirit of the meeting was pleasant, even jovial at times.  I didn't see that coming. The people who came seemed genuinely happy to be here.  I didn't see that coming.   There's still work left to do and there are questions left to be answered tomorrow, but this was a really good start.  And I'm glad it came, even if I didn't see it coming.  
Read more

Home

I'm home and it's Saturday morning.  I woke up - no surprises here - at 4 AM.  Jet lag takes a couple of days to dissipate.   So this is where I'll end my travelogue.  Already I'm back to regular pastor life.  I'd been in the house about 20 minutes when I got a call that one of our deacons had lost his father-in-law.  I left for the hospital immediately.  I knew my associate pastor could handle it, but that's not a job I wanted to give away.  Later today (I hope), I'll post some pictures from our adventure.  Thanks for reading this nonsense and for walking with me along this path.  The good news is our adventures don't end just because we're home.  My prayer for this moment in time is that I'll recognize the power of THIS moment as I did while I was traveling. 
Read more