Resilient

This weekend I was reminded of a lesson I’d learned years ago that is worth repeating.

You see, this weekend I was at a AAU basketball tournament with my family watching Noah’s 7^th grade team play their games.  On Saturday they went 1-1, playing well in the first game and they laying a complete egg in the second game.  In fact, it was probably the worst they’d played together as a team in two seasons.  On Sunday we had our first game against a team with a pretty good group of kids that were a little taller than us at some positions.  The previous game’s results had no effect on our kids as they came out firing on all cylinders and quickly took the lead that they never relinquished. 

The boys did have to fight in that game, as everything was going against them.  The one ref called everything on our kids, the other team had a ton of fans in the stands, and it was our boys against the world.  Yet they continued to battle, even as the game got close at the end.  They were resilient and withstood everything going against them to pull out the victory.

How often in our lives do we have everything going against us and we just give up?  It seems to me that today’s society sees giving up as an easy alternative to fighting through things.  Couples divorce when life gets rough all the time.  People often quit a job when it gets hard, and students drop out of school or drop classes all the time.  It doesn’t seem like anyone is willing to go the extra mile when the going gets tough, as they get going – in the opposite direction.

This week I want to remind you to be resilient.  Your relationship with Christ will be tested over and over again.  The enemy will continually search out a weakness, and once it’s found he will attack.  It could be your relationships or job.  Instead of just giving up, fight back.  Pray, read your Bible, seek counsel from a pastor or friend.  But, never give up.  Be resilient like this AAU basketball team was this weekend.  A life with Christ is 100% better than one without Him, and it’s worth the fight!

The Underdog

During the NCAA tournament this year I’ve been a fan of the underdog teams.  Sure they killed off a number of my predictions for the tournament, but overall the underdog teams are what make the tournament as much fun as it is to watch. 

Have you ever been considered an underdog in your life?  Maybe you played a sport and your team was an underdog.  Maybe you wouldn't consider yourself the best candidate for a job but somehow got it?  Maybe you beat a disease like cancer where the chances you were given by the doctor were less than on your side?

God loves the underdog.  Take the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel.  David was a small teenage boy when he took on the nine-foot giant Goliath.  Goliath wasn’t afraid of David or his slingshot, but he found a way to beat the giant and took full advantage.  David’s faith in God allowed him to look at Goliath in a way others had not.  To David, Goliath was just another person who had a weakness to be found.

My point today is that if we look at our problems and impossible situations from God's perspective, we realize that God will fight for us and with us. When we put things into proper perspective, we see more clearly and we can fight more effectively.  We can beat things like cancer, or a team that has been overlooked can take out a favored team. When you have faith in God, all things are possible.

Saying Isn't Believing

He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!

This is one of those sayings that is brought up every Easter in churches, on Facebook, and among family and friends.  It’s a great saying and is very powerful. 

Yet with most things repeated by people I often wonder if those saying the lines really know what the saying means in their lives.  I often feel that people just know the line but don’t feel the story behind it when they speak it. 

He is Risen!  - Jesus rose from the grave not because He had nothing better to do.  No, He did this for each and every one of us.  He knew that we’d all need a way to be with God and He provided the way.   This wasn’t something He had to do, but just like His dying on the cross it’s something Jesus was willing to do for you and me.

He is Risen Indeed! – Not only did Jesus ascend to Heaven for all of us, but He did so in such a way that no one could say that He wasn’t God’s son.  How else can you explain the fact that the tomb was empty without anyone moving the boulder at the entrance?  Only God could make such a thing happen.  This allows all of us to know that belief in Him is true and the only way to Heaven. 

My point today is that reciting such things is great, but truly believing in the words that we speak is the key.  I believe with 100% of my soul that Jesus is the way to Heaven, and I hope you do as well.

He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!

Nick Hall's Winter Jam Message

This past Friday marked the return of the Winter Jam tour to the Wolstein Center in Cleveland.  This is a yearly concert that travels starting in January and goes through March, doing concerts every Thursday through Sunday all over the country.  The cost is $10 per person, paid at the door, and all seats are first come, first served.  There are usually around 10 performers/groups slated at each location and the audience is given 5-5 ½ hours of entertainment during the evening. 

This has become a yearly outing for my family, this year including my six-year-old daughter as well.  It’s not very often that you can get that much value for the price.  Our family loves the music and really enjoys the variety of artists that are included, which often allows us to see acts that we’ve never seen before.

Every year one of the added elements is a special guest speaker who talks during some of the stage changeovers. This year Nick Hall was the speaker, and he made a huge point.  So, instead of repeating all that he said, I thought I’d suggest you go to this video and watch it yourself on YouTube.  I really think it’s worth watching, even if you have been to Winter Jam this year and heard the message.  This really does affect all of us, and it can be applied to all of our lives.

I hope you enjoy the message and learn from it just as I did at the concert (10 minutes – and the video is NOT from the Cleveland show, but it’s one of the best sound and video wise I could find on YouTube.):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26UXt_Pu9Rs

Making Time

This last weekend was a trying one at the Mozina house.  Late Saturday morning we found a ton of water in our basement.  This is water that hadn’t been there only an hour earlier and we instantly thought that the water heater had died.  After cleaning up the water and moving all the wet “stuff” out of the way, all of a sudden we find a bunch more water coming our way.  And it kept coming over and over again.  We couldn’t really stay ahead of the water coming into the house.

After fighting a losing battle we decided to call the city and see if there was some kind of water issue on their end.  Within thirty minutes a worker came to the house and checked everything out.  He didn’t see any problems on the city’s end so we kept fighting, thinking that it might be an issue with a change in the water table around the house.  We’d been told by the company that waterproofed our house almost two years ago that this was possible.  Yet, over an hour later we still had water coming in.

It was then that things changed.  The water turned from just water to something else.  We felt there was a bit of a smell, but we didn’t know for sure where it was coming from.  It was then we decided to call a plumber.  Thankfully a friend of ours was available and he came, used his machine to snake the sewer line, and all our water problems went away.  There is still a good amount to clean up, but thankfully the lasting damage was avoided. 

I mentioned all of the weekend’s events because of a lesson I learned through all of this.  I’ve been wanting to clean up this area of the basement for a couple months now.  Yet, so many other things have taken my time and haven't allowed me to do the work.  Now all of a sudden I was forced to get the job done.  Yes, we had to miss oldest son’s basketball games, but fixing this problem had to be the priority.  He was still able to play thanks to our friends taking him. 

The lesson I learned is that if something is worth getting done, and God wants it to get done, then He’ll find a way to give you the time to do it.  In this instance it was just some cleaning in the basement in the long run.  Yet, I can say that if God wants me to spend more time reading my Bible, then He will find a way to make that happen.  If I need to spend more time with my family, then He will make that happen.  All too often I put off one thing in favor of another, and this weekend God reminded me that He will find the time if I don’t. 

So, my suggestion for everyone reading this today:  Make time for God, and if you don’t do it on your own He will give you a wake-up call as well. 

The picture is from my friend and editor Larry Lepard....why he had it in his collection I'll never know!

The Man and the Flood

A Christian man lived in a town not that far away.

One  day he heard a report on the radio warning everyone in the town to leave their houses right away due to the fact that a flood was coming.

The guy told himself that he wasn’t going to leave because he was a praying man and God wasn’t going to let him die. 

So, he stayed in the house, and the flood waters came.

A while later a officer in a rowboat was looking for people who hadn’t evacuated and found the Christian man.

The officer told the man to come into the boat so he could take the man to safety.

The Christian man said that he was a praying man and God wasn’t going to let him die, so he refused the officer's  help and the officer went in search of others.

Later a helicopter was flying overhead and saw the Christian man.

The person in the helicopter yelled down to the Christian man that he would help him evacuate the area.

The Christian man refused, saying that he was a praying man and that God wasn’t going to let him die.

So the people in the helicopter went on to search for others.

And the flood waters continued to rush in, and eventually the Christian man died.

So as the Christian man reached the pearly gates and demanded an audience with God.

When they met, the Christian man talked to God.  He told Him that he was a praying man and always did what he could for others. 

If he was this way, then why did God let him die.

God replied to the Christian man:  "What do you want from me?  I put out a radio report, I sent an officer in a row boat, and I sent a helicopter to help you.”

So what is the moral to this story?  Often we pray for things and God answers our prayers, and we don’t even realize what He has done because it wasn’t answered exactly the way we thought it would be answered.  The man obviously expected God to just spare him and his house from the incoming flood waters.  Instead of stopping the water God instead sent him a warning about the flood and two rescuers.  All of those were ignored by the man because that wasn’t what he wanted.

How often are we like the Christian man in the story?  I know that there have been many times in my life that I’ve expected God to answer a prayer one way, only to see it answered another.  I think it’s time that we start to pray and expect an answer from God, but know that the answer we will get might not be what we were expecting.  I hope you remember this story as you pray, and don’t be like the Christian man.  Accept His answers to that prayer, however they come.

Determination

As I’ve mentioned in this space before, I coach a fourth-grade boys' basketball team.   This past weekend was our final weekend of the season, a weekend of tournament that involved seven other fourth-grade teams.

The first game on Saturday the boys played pretty well but not up to their potential.  Yet, they battled through a number of mistakes and won the game.

A few hours later we got our second shot for the day.  I’m not sure if it was the long layoff or what, but the boys came out with no emotion at all in that game.  They really lacked any fire, and that lack of fire caused them to lose a close game by 3.  I then told the boys after the game that if they don’t want to be there then don’t come back on Sunday, but if they want to give me everything they have and a fire to win, then show up and we’ll get to work.

So we come back to the tournament on Sunday and all the boys show up, and they have a different look in their eyes.  They are all focused on beating a team that is undefeated all season long.  A team that hasn’t scored fewer than 40 points in any game they’ve played this season.  A team that had beat us 44-19 earlier in the season.  Not only did we take the fight to this team, but we had them on the ropes throughout the game.  We were losing 4-2 at half time and only gave up 20 points to them in the entire game.  No, we didn’t win, but that effort allowed us to win a tie breaker that put us in the semifinals.

That semifinal game pitted us against a team that has already beat us twice this year, both times in very close games.  We’ve battled them very tough every time we’ve played them and this game was no different.  My boys worked extremely hard, and again a lack of putting the ball through the rim was what killed our chances.  We lost by three points in yet another close game.

My point in rehashing the weekend with you is to show you that with hard work anything is possible.  This team has a record this season of 3-8.  Yet, that doesn’t tell you the whole story.  They were determined to get better and determined to fight for all they were worth.  Week after week this season they wanted to get better, and although we didn’t often come out on the winning side of things, it didn’t slow these boys down.  They kept working hard, and as they kept fighting week after week, they improved.  The final record might not show it, but they are a group of kids that the rest of the NOL better be ready to battle for years to come.

I will use this team as a reminder to myself to never give up and to continue to improve myself every day in my Christian walk.  If I continue to be determined to be better, then there is no stopping me in the future.  I have valued the time that I’ve spent with these boys and am proud of each and every one of them.  As I told them on Sunday, it’s only eight months until we start it all over again.  They need to keep working on their own until we get the team back together again in November…a fact that I know will be followed by all of these determined boys.