Daily Archives: March 12, 2014

Football

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Football Field

Football Field

Football

Along with 110 million others I watched as quarterback Russell Wilson played what has been called a ‘perfect game’ leading his Seattle Seahawks to a 43 to 8 rout over the much ballyhooed Payton Manning and his Denver Broncos.

Russell Who?  I must admit that like most of those 110 million I ad never heard of Russell Wilson.   I am not one who watches a lot of sports.  In fact the Super Bowl is about the only game I watch.  The first words I heard Russell Wilson speak were following the game when he spoke of his father’s belief in him when he told his son, “Why not you?”   Russell was divided between the two sports loves of his life, baseball and football.  He had the opportunity to play 2nd base with the Baltimore Orioles but his father knew he could do more.  Even though at 5’11” and 206 lbs he was not great quarterback material.

Who believes in you?  Perhaps along the road of your life a lot of people have put you down, bullied you or made fun of you.  I had a lot of that growing up and I never understood why.  But my mother and my father believed in me and that helped to believe that even if others didn’t see much in me, there was more there.

Simon Peter, James, John whose images are forever etched in images of stained glass in our churches, were commercial fisherman, and not very good ones at that.  Matthew, who’s name is born on the first  book of the New Testament was one of the most hated people of his day, a tax collector (read here Internal Revenue Service!).   When Jesus called to them to follow Him, He saw something in all of them that nobody, perhaps not even themselves saw.  He believed that underneath that rough exterior, underneath the bitterness or cynicism that this world is so adept at kindling in us, there was much, much more.

Just maybe there isn’t anyone in your life who believes in you.  But God does.  “He (Jesus) came to His own, yet his own people did not receive him.  However, to all who received him, those believing in his name, he gave authority to become God’s children.” (John 1:11-12)  WOW! Jesus was rejected too!  And the One who was rejected and knows what it’s like is offering you something better… even that winning the Super Bowl!  Talk about Someone believing in you!  So what will you say?  Say yes!  And the greatest adventure you can ever know begins!

Plastic Bags

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Plastic Bagsplastic bags

Walking our dog after the rain had swept through I noticed, caught in the shrubs along the drainage ditch plastic shopping bags caught in their branches.  Looking more closely I realized that most of them had been there for some time, dirty, tattered, deteriorating from sun, mud, wind and rain.  They have no value.

Later in the day after paying for my purchase the sales clerk placed in another plastic bag not unlike those along the ditch back. That bag placed on the seat of my car continued to serve a purpose.  That bag contained something important and was needed until the contents were safely home.

With a new year has come the ever renewed resolution to take better care of our bodies.  In some ways our bodies are like those plastic bags.  Their real value is not in the bag but in what they contain.  Our bodies are NOT us.  Our bodies DO serve the purpose of containing “us”, holding us, keeping us alive in this world and able to do what we were put here to do.

Sooner or later, these bodies fulfill their responsibility and are set aside.  We call this death, passing away, or just “passing”.  We may spend a moment looking at them but then they begin the same journey as those abandoned bags along the bank.

Resolutions to work on our bodies are important.  But infinitely more important is the care of our souls, the contents of “the bag”.  Feed the body.  Feed the soul.