The Cheap Seats

Lately I’ve spent a few nights watching some high school basketball. I really enjoy the game as it’s, at least to me, very pure at the HS level. The kids are taught to play the right way and they work together as a team. What I like about it best is you really get a good look from the stands at a team’s strengths and weaknesses, at least if you know what you are looking at.

That leads me to today’s point: Often a weakness can easily be seen from the cheap seats.

Let me explain. As I watch the game I often find players on a team that seem a tad weak at one kind of defense or another. What I really love is when the coach for one of the teams sees the same thing and starts to exploit that weakness. The coach will direct his/her team to do things that will take full advantage of that weakness. They’ll keep attacking it until the other team makes an adjustment. In fact, to me that is the true beauty of the game, the chess match the coaches play in trying to gain their team an advantage, causing a disadvantage to the other team.

I mention all of this because many of us have weaknesses that are continually being exploited in our Christian walk. The devil attacks us over and over again the same way, and we fail to make the adjustment. Then, when we finally do adjust, the devil looks for another weakness to exploit. This is part of the day-to-day battle that we must fight, continually adjusting our weaknesses in order to keep the devil out of our lives.

How is your ability at making adjustments? Do you allow a weakness to continually be attacked, or do you work to keep that from happening? Do you even know what your weaknesses are, or do you need someone else sitting in the cheap seats to help you see what you are missing? If you know the weaknesses and keep adjusting, good for you! If you need help seeing what is happening, then find a friend, prayer partner, spouse, and pray about it. Find the weaknesses and adjust. Your spiritual life will be stronger because of it.

Homework

When I finished college I thought that my days of doing homework and studying were over. Well, God seems to really like practical jokes, and one that He got me with was that with kids comes homework once again. On average every week my wife and I spend at least 2-3 hours per week helping the kids with homework by reviewing their answers, having them read things to us, helping to study for tests, etc. How funny our God can be, eh?

As I think about it more though, we all should be doing our own homework as well. There is saying that goes something to the effect that the minute you stop learning, the minute you start losing. It takes into the thought that others will continue to advance their knowledge, and that if you don’t do the same then you will eventually lose to others.

This thought process definitely works into our spiritual lives. If we as Christians aren’t always advancing by doing our homework then we give the devil a foothold. We must continually be reading the Bible, praying, etc.

Now, I think I write this to slap myself on the wrist as much as anyone else. I know that I don’t do as much as I should in these areas. Yes, I read spiritual sites, blogs, and devotionals sent to me every day. I also pray alone and with my wife on a regular basis. I am a part of a group that meets together on a semi-regular basis. Yet, is that enough? No. If I’m not regularly reading His word, I fail just like anyone else who doesn’t do the same thing.

So, this week I, along with many readers, am getting a bit of a wake-up call. It’s time to put the focus where it should be. I have to get back to doing homework. Instead of just settling for a C maybe I need to strive to get an A again. How about you?

Icicles

I don’t know about you, but I have quite a few icicles hanging from my house. The combo of the snow, rain, ice, etc. has pretty much filled my gutters and they’ve frozen. Although it slowly melts, the rest of the stuff from the roof is melting too, and it’s all trying to find somewhere to go.

I find icicles interesting. They start out as just a small drip, then they freeze a bit and continue to build and build and build. They get longer and longer, until at some point they break off and fall to the ground. We have one on the side of our house that we noticed last night that was almost as tall as the side of my house. I have no idea how it hasn’t broken yet, but I’ll be very interested to see if it’s there when I get home.

Icicles can be used as an example to represent stress and anger in our lives. They also start out small, and if not dealt with right away they can continue to build until at some point we just break. Do you have any icicles of stress or anger in your life right now?

The key to not getting to that breaking point is by taking care of them early. There are things you can do to relieve stress, decrease anger, and keep from getting more icicles as well. Just like with the gutters of the house where you can put heated coils or do other various things, you have to find ways to keep these things from becoming a giant problem. If we allow the icicles to keep growing we could have major problems with the house, as it could even drag down the gutter. What are you doing to keep that from happening with the icicles in your life?

My suggestion this week is to find ways to take care of the issues before they start. Prayer in my mind should be first and foremost. Then, have a good support system. Your spouse, friends, church body, etc. are there to help, so use them. Be willing to express your feelings to others to help you vent and get rid of some of the pressure. Also, be willing to take a time out. Get away from the issues even if it’s just 20 minutes sitting at McD’s in the morning one day a week, walk around the reservoir, etc. Find something that you like to do and do it.

Icicles are just a part of winter, and a part of your life. Finding ways to prevent and deal with them when they develop is the key. I pray that you’ll find ways that work for you, and that from this point forward you’ll be stronger in your walk with Him because of it. God bless.

Toothpaste

Have you ever looked at a mostly used toothpaste tube? It started out completely full and easily allowed you to get the toothpaste out. Then it began to empty and it gets a little harder, and then at the end you have this mostly used tube just sitting before you. It is almost out of its contents and you could probably squeeze out more if you wanted, or you could just replace it.

How many of you will do whatever you can to get the most out of that tube? How many of you will discard it in favor of the new tube?

Now look at that tube in your mind and change it to your spiritual life. When you start out it’s easy to get the most out of it and spread it wherever you want the contents. As you move on, it is still partially full but could use some refilling, and it’s not as easy to pass on the contents to others. Then, as you continue to move on and don’t refill it, you end up with hardly anything left to give. You could easily discard your spiritual walk in favor of other things (the world) or work to push out that last little bit.

My point this week is that if you aren’t looking to refill your spiritual life, you will eventually end up at the end of the tube. You’ll either choose to go back to your old ways, keep pushing out the little bits you can get, or get a refill. Yet, if you keep refilling it throughout the entire time you are using it, you’ll always have a fresh tube. Now, you can’t do that with an actual toothpaste tube (not without messy results at least), but you can do it with your spiritual life. Refill your tube by spending time in His word, spending time with other believers, praying, listening to Christian teachings, etc. Don’t ignore the need for refills, or you’ll end up with an empty tube of toothpaste on your hands.

Teamwork

As some of you may know, I play basketball in the Norwalk city league with a group of guys from Calvary Baptist church. I only knew two of the guys on the team before the one practice we had prior to the start of the season, and it took a bit for us to build any chemistry. The first few games saw us winning thanks to whoever taking over that particular game. In fact, up to last night we had lost only one game and had won 5.

So last night we went into the game, and due to some injuries and other commitments, we had only five of us at the game. To add onto that, the game was at the old rec (Monroe St. Gym) that is still under construction. They are putting windows in, which right now are covered by plywood. So, the effect is that it’s freezing in the main entry area, and it's overcompensated with the heaters running very hot – making the court almost a sauna. Oh, and did I mention the other team had 9 guys present?

So we play the game and work very hard to keep it close or take the lead whenever we can. We get through by using our time-outs and working together as a team. By this point in the season we all know our roles on the team and run the defense very well to the point where we all can communicate very well and let each other know where the offensive players are. The other team, though, didn’t have that same chemistry. From the outset of the game they were complaining to one another and definitely didn’t trust each other at all. If one guy got beat no one came to help.

So we come down to about 5 minutes left to go in the game. They had been trying to run on us to make us tired and it had been pretty effective, although we were tied at this point. That is when our teamwork took over the game. Our team fought through the tiredness and minor pains from the game and worked hard on offense. We looked for one another, and if someone was making shots they he got the ball until he stopped making it. Defense was also very tough, and we managed a good number of steals. The opposing team, on the other hand, fell apart. Their nagging at each other came to a boiling point. Guys on their team were yelling at each other on the bench, and puling themselves out of the game because they didn’t want to play with one guy, etc. They ended up all trying to win the game themselves, and that ended any chance they had. We won the game by 8 points, a well-fought victory for our team.

I mention this because as Christians we’re all a team. One person may take the lead from time to time to get the team over a hurdle, but everyone is important. We all have a role in order for the team to be successful. It doesn’t matter if the odds are stacked against us, the team as a whole – when working together – can overcome any obstacle. My question for you is, which team would you rather play on? The team that has everyone working together towards a common goal, or one where everyone is playing his own game? This is the game that we’re all playing every day, the game of life. What is your role? What team are you on? How hard are you willing to work? If you haven’t’ already, join the team! Ask me any time, I’ll help you find what you need to do to get on the Christian team.

I've Got Nothing...

Years ago a great TV show was on NBC called “Seinfeld”. The producers and actors promoted the show as being about nothing at all. Yet, week after week it was the #1 show on TV in its time slot, and more often than not the #1 show on TV overall.

The reason I mention the show is because I know there are people out there who say that you have nothing to offer others in your spiritual walks. If that is truly the case, why are you here? Why does God have you right here, right now? You must have something to offer someone, or else you have no reason to be here.

Think about that the next time you think you have nothing. I mean, I thought that I had nothing to write about this week, and look what I came up with! See, there is always something, even if it’s about nothing.

I Am...

I am a man.

I am a husband to a beautiful wife.

I am a father of 3 great kids.

I am the main provider for my family.

I am the spiritual leader of my household.

I am an elder at my church.

I am an office manager at my job.

The reason I bring this up is because of a song I heard during the Christmas season. I’m sure you probably heard it as well. The version of “Mary Did You Know” by Casting Crowns is a favorite of mine. I feel it to be extremely powerful the way that they emphasize certain parts of the song.

The one part of the song that really hit me this year is when they ask Mary if she had any idea that the child she was carrying would be known as the Great I Am. Those two words, I Am, are very powerful in so many ways. Think about the fact that Jesus was born into the world to be more than any of us could ever imagine ourselves to be. He came into the world to encompass it all, and eventually die on the cross for every one of us! And kids today think they have pressure!

Anyway, this got me to thinking more about who I am, and how it could even start to compare. I started to think about who I think I am versus who the world thinks I am. Is the “I am” that I think I am the same as the “I am" that the world sees me as? How do I come across to others, and where on the list above does everything rank on someone else’s list? Am I truly doing my job as a follower of Christ if other people in the world see me as something not on the list way before any of the things I’ve listed above?

These are the things that I’ve been thinking about for the last month. My question to you this week: What is your “I am”, and how does it compare to the “I am” that you show the world each and every day?