Football, the Bible, and following Jesus.

       This post is a result of questions I have had for a couple years now, and have once again been pushed to the forefront of my mind because of the events that have transpired in the past couple weeks involving professional football players.  The question is simply, how should we as Christians engage with football (and other violent sports).  Is it something that we should embrace, enjoy, participate in, support, as God given recreation and enjoyment that has simply been tainted by sinful creatures.  Is it something that we should be careful not to embrace, enjoy, participate in and support too much, but not lay it aside all-together?  Or is it something that we need to move away from, not support, enjoy, participate in or encourage?  Here is what has led to this question.
       First, football in a violent sport and it takes a toll on bodies in dangerous and life altering ways.  I don't need to elaborate on this one as it is common knowledge to all who follow football.  Yes, the NFL has made some great strides in the past couple years about dangerous hits, concussions, etc.  But what about the countless athletes whose bodies never get back to normal because of the violent nature of the game of football.
       Secondly, in most cases football seems to bring out the worst in people.  Fans, coaches, players.  I get that there are exceptions, and the reason we love hearing about those stories is because sadly they are the exception, not the norm.  I can safely say that I would not want any of my kids to be like the vast majority of football players both on and off the field.  I have been to a couple NFL games, and fans are pathetic.  I would not want to bring my son into the environment of a regular season football game simply because of how fans react.  Coaches from 5th grade to the NFL have also demonstrated how football tends to bring out the worst in people.
       Thirdly, somehow so many things that Scripture describes as sin is glorified in football.  Pride being the greatest of many examples.  Watch a football game and watch the pride of the players, fans, and coaches.  Rejoicing in the demoralizing defeat of the opponent.  Pridefully celebrating after making a play.  Rubbing their success in the face of the one that was just defeated, trash talking, and on and on I could go.  Yeah, we say it is a part of the game, but is that ok when what is just a part of the game in the Bible is clearly described as sin.
       Fourthly, is the attitude of ignoring huge character flaws in individuals as long as they perform and help us accomplish our goals.  This is an attitude of succeeding at all costs and that ultimately character doesn't matter as long as we produce results.  As the Bible makes abundantly clear it is the heart that matters, not what an individual is able to accomplish on the football field.
      I could go on but I won't.  As I stated at the beginning this is based on thoughts I have had for a couple years now.  I have not talked much about it with others, because I guess I am afraid of the conclusion that I might come to, because quite frankly I love football (and hockey).  However, I love Jesus and the Word more.  If you love football, and Jesus, I would love to hear your thoughts.  Have you wrestled through these issues?  What have you decided?  What Scripture has informed your decision?  Please respond, here or on Facebook.  I would love to hear your thoughts.

Faith Like a Child: When life doesn't make sense.

       A little over a week ago Ty, our youngest child (10 months old), spent a little bit of time in the hospital because of an infection and an extremely high fever.  We are thankful to God that He is healthy and back to his normal self crawling all over the house getting himself into trouble!  If you have ever experienced being with a little one in the hospital it is hard.  The thing that, at least for me, made it so difficult was that it was impossible to explain to Ty what was going on, what was going to happen, and why they were doing everything they did.  I couldn't explain to him why I had to bear hug him and hold him down while they drew blood, and while they put his IV in.  I couldn't explain to him why he had this cord hooked to his foot that made it so he couldn't go wherever he wanted.  I couldn't explain why he felt so miserable.  I couldn't explain anything.  That is hard on a mommy and daddy and we hated it.  Even though we couldn't explain anything to him, there were things we could do; we could be with him, hold him, love him, sing to him, play with him, and wipe his tears away.  There were many things we couldn't do, but despite all of that what we could do seemed to be enough to get him through a very difficult and painful couple of days.  We didn't like what was happening to our little man, but we knew it needed to be done if he was going to get healthy.  We gave him everything we could, while the only thing he could do was lean into us and trust us, even though nothing made sense to him.
      This carries over to those of us who are children of God.  There are times when life flat out does not make sense.  What is going on seems to be the opposite of what desperately needs to be happening.  The pain seems pointless, confusion seems to dominate, and as much as we ask for an explanation we get nothing.  I believe it is difficult for God to watch His children go through pain, but in the midst of the pain and questions God offers us Himself.  All of Himself.  All of His love, comfort, peace, joy, and on and on I could go. God offers all of Himself, and asks us to lean into and trust.  Lean in and trust Him, trust that He knows what He is doing, and trust that everything will be ok.
       If you are in a place today where life does not make sense, lean in and trust God as He offers all of Himself to you.

Christian, don't forget your mission

       Christian, don’t forget your mission.  This post is less a response to the election results than it is a response to the reactions of some of my brothers and sisters in Christ are having to the election results.  Responses that at times have seemed almost hysterical and responses that have been predicting gloom and doom for the American nation.  Regardless of weather you are rejoicing or fearing gloom and doom this morning, I want to remind all of us about a couple of things.  

First, our hope cannot reside in a political party or a certain canidate.  Our hope rests in God.  What the people of this country need more than a balanced budget or a better economy is forgiveness of our sins and redemption of our lives.  That is the greatest need any person has, and the beauty of the Gospel is that it is available through Jesus Christ.  So our hope is not in politics, politicians, or legislation, it is in God and what is offered because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  So Christian, regardless of who you voted for, remind yourself where your hope needs to rest. 

Secondly, if what the people of this country need more than anything is forgiveness and redemption, than what this country needs is you, as a Christian, living out the mission God has given to all of us.  Christian, if the hope of the world rests in Jesus, you have way more to offer than any political party, politician, or legislation.  What people need is for Christians to live out their mission.  Our country needs Jesus followers who will faithfully and daily live out the great commission and the great commandment.  Christian if you truly grasp that the greatest problem humanity faces is sin, than you realize that you hold the ONLY thing that can deal with that problem.  YOU, not the government, not the president, YOU.  So the question is, what are you and I going to do?  

       So today let us focus on the great commission and the great commandment.  Let's make a commitment to live those out today and everyday.  That is after all the mission that God has put us on after he so graciously forgave our sins, and redeemed our lives.  That is what we have been called to do, and that is what a dying world desperately needs from us.  Christian, don't forget your mission.  

Entitlement kills our joy.

       This morning I was reading Mark 15 which gives the account of the trials, crucifixion, and death of Jesus.  Verses 16-20 stuck out to me, "The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (this is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers.  They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him.  And they began to call out to him, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him.  Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him.  And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him.  Then they led him out to crucify him."
        As I was reading those verses, and the verses that followed, I began to wonder what that must have been like for the God of the universe who created everything, and everything was created for, to be mocked.  The one who was perfect, the one who left the throne to come to earth for the very people who were at that moment mocking and ridiculing him.  As I was thinking about that it occurred to me that Jesus at that moment had every right to unleash terror and destruction upon those who were mocking Him.  He was entitled to it, it was his right to unleash terror and destruction.  If anyone ever had a claim to being entitled to something it was Jesus.  He had a right to be worshipped.  He had a right to be magnified.  He had a right to be praised.  He had a right to bring down justice on anyone who failed to live up to the standard of perfection.  It was His right, He was clearly entitled to it.
       However, he didn't demand his rights, instead He took upon Himself everything that I deserved.  The one who was entitled to everything, took the punishment of the one who was entitled and deserving nothing but hell.  Can you say amazing grace?!?!
      After reminding myself again of how amazing God's grace and love is for me, I began to feel convicted about how often I feel that I am entitled to so many things.  According to the Bible the only thing I deserve is hell.  That's it.  The moment I begin to think I am entitled to anything beyond that is the moment that the joy in my life is killed.  The opposite it also true.  The moment I realize that I am only entitled to hell, joy, overwhelming joy, begins to flow out of every fiber of my being.  When  I realize that everything I have from the breath I am taking as I write this, to having my sins forgiven and eternity secured and everything in between is an astounding gift from the God of the universe, is the moment joy overwhelms my life.  Take time today, and everyday, and preach the Gospel to yourself and be prepared to be overwhelmed with joy as you see gifts of grace everywhere and at every moment.  "Praise God from whom all blessings flow."

Something is broken in our churches

       Over the summer I have spent a significant amount of time reading about statistical findings on youth and religion.  In addition to the books that were reporting these statistics, I spent time reading and interacting with books and articles that we attempting to interpret the statistics and offer possible solutions and remedies to the problem.  The "issues" that showed itself time and time again was the incredible rate by which young people leave the church just prior to, or just after high school graduation.  I knew the statistics were accurate as I recalled in my mind all the students that I have worked with over the years, and figuring out who was connected with a local church and who wasn't.  The statistics are depressing.
     One of the books that I read that was working on interpreting the findings suggested that one of the reasons young people are leaving the church as such alarming rates is because they do not feel that they are connected to the church body.  On Sunday morning at sunday school I was talking with a group of about 15 students.  We were talking about the body of Christ, and that we all have a role to play.  I asked the question, "Do you feel that you are a part of the body of Christ at NIBC (the church that I am currently at)?  After a lot of silence, one girl answered the question by saying, "No I don't feel like I am a part of the body of Christ here, because I feel that if I were I would be missed if I left, and I don't think any would miss me or care if I left."  As she answered the question I could see her answers resonating with everyone else in the room.  I asked who else felt the same.  Every single hand in the room went up.  It broke my heart, and opened my eyes wide to a massive problem that we have at NIBC and I would guess the vast majority of churches in America.
      THIS HAS TO CHANGE.

Fruit of the Spirit- FAIL

      It was a major FAIL.  It happened at the breakfast table as Anaya was eating breakfast.  My Bible was open to Galatians 5:22-26, and I was writing in my journal about how I was going to spend the upcoming weeks focusing on the fruits of the Spirit.  Spending a week focusing on each of the fruits of the Spirit, and I was kicking it off by beginning to focus on love.  As I was writing down the fruits of the Spirit in my journal Anaya, in typical two year old fashion, knocked her bowl of cereal off the table sending milk and Peanut Butter Crunch plummeting to the ground beneath.  In retrospect here was my first chance to respond in love.  To respond in a way that would be even remotely consistent to love and the fruits of the Spirit.  After all, I had just read, and was in the process of writing the verses down so it should have been easy to respond in love!  However, I FAILED.  I FAILED big time.  No I didn't scream and get really mad at Anaya, but love was absent from the way that I responded.  After I got the mess cleaned up (which consisted of getting our dog out of the bedroom) and got a new bowl of cereal poured, I sat back down before my Bible and journal and realized how badly I failed.
       My failure made me realize how desperately I need the Spirit of God to work in me and through me.  Galatians 5:17-18, "For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature."  I desperately need the Holy Spirit if I am going to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit in my life.  I need to yield my life to the Holy Spirit, I need to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit, I need to spend more time in the Word, in prayer, in fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ, in order that the desires of the Spirit would become stronger and stronger and the desires of the sinful nature would become weaker and weaker.

I talked too much

      I talked too much on Friday night.   For those of you who know me you might find this hard to believe (except when I preach :)) but it is the truth!  It seemed like I talked on and on and on and on and on.  My mouth was dry.  My throat hurt.  I talked too much!  Why?  I was trying to explain to my 6 year old son Ethan the game of football as I took him to his first vikings game on Friday!  Have you ever tried to explain football to someone who really has no idea about any of the rules of football?  It is exhausting!  I have watched, enjoyed, and played football for a good part of my life!  I love it!  I understand the game, the rules, and what both the offense and defense are trying to do.  When you know something really well, it can be hard to explain in such a way that someone who is clueless about it can understand.  One example of how this proved to be true at the vikings game!  It was a boring game, too many field goals and not enough touch downs!  Throughout the game I kept quizzing Ethan about how many points a team gets when the kicker kicks the ball between the uprights (the two yellow polls that are sticking up into the air).  He had it down, the answer was 3, he knew it!  However, near the end of the game the vikings scored a touchdown tying the game at 9-9!  After the touch-down we kicked the extra point!  To Ethan this seemed to be identical to a field-goal because the kicker kicked the ball between the two yellow polls sticking up in the air and he excitedly exclaimed, "Daddy, we now have 12 points!"  I then had to explain to him that when you kick the ball through the yellow things after you score a touchdown it is only worth 1 point, not 3.  In the midst of explaining field goals, how far a yard is, how you have four tries to get 10 yards, field position, penalties, punting, kicking off, offense, defense, and on and on, I was exhausted!  However, I think Ethan walked away with a much better understanding of the game of football as a result of the effort I put into explaining it in a way that would make sense to someone who was clueless about all the details of football.
      As we were driving home from the game (which in classic viking fashion we lost on a last second field goal, because surprise our prevent defense for the one millionth time did not work) I was thinking about how explaining Christianity to someone who has no knowledge of the Bible, Jesus, God, is very difficult and time consuming!  However, it is incredible important that we do it!  As fewer and fewer people have contact with the Church, and the Bible, the more important it will be for us to learn how to explain our faith in ways that make sense to people who don't understand the Biblical language.  We need to know how to explain extremely important concepts such as sin, repentance, salvation, redemption, propitiation, justification, sanctification, faith, grace, mercy, who God the Father is, who Jesus is, who the Holy Spirit is, the trinity, and so forth!
       So how would you do, how would I do, in begin able to explain these concepts to someone to whom these concepts are completely foreign?  Do you know these concepts well enough to explain them to a four year old?  If you don't we need to keep working on your understanding of these concepts.  It is true that if you know something really well, you will be able to explain even really complicated ideas, in an easy to understand way.  Do you engage in theology?  Do you study the above concepts?  Do you discuss these with your brothers and sisters in Christ?  Do you ask questions about the above concepts?  It is easy when your life is surrounded with the above concepts that we assume everyone knows what we are talking about.  They don't, and we need to do the hard work of preparing ourselves to explain the vital concepts of the Christian faith to those who desperately need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ!  Talking too much once in awhile might prove to make an eternal
difference!