Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Monday, February 18, 2008
Texas Fight, Go... BEARS???
Saturday, I was fortunate enough to go see my favorite college team, TEXAS play Baylor in Basketball. I am a HUGE UT fan as anybody that knows me will tell you. It doesn't matter what the sport is, if Texas is one of the teams playing, that is who I am passionately cheering for.
This game has been sold out for months because it was going to be a nationally televised game and Texas would have the opportunity to be a top-ten ranked team in the country with a win against Baylor.
My brother-in-law's high school basketball coach is now the assistant coach at Baylor. So after a couple of phone calls, we got lower-level seats at Baylor for a sold-out game. You can imagine my excitment at the invitation to go to this game and see Texas play!!! Here was the catch: In order for us to have the seats, we had to wear Baylor colors and cheer for Baylor. This was no problem for the other people I went to the game with, but it was a huge problem for me.
So, I wore the green and white I needed to wear, but had no intention of actually cheering for the enemy!!
The game was incredible, Texas had a 20 point lead at one time, but Baylor came back to within 2 with only a minute to go in the game (you gotta love college b-ball). Through the whole game I would politely sit there as my team dominateed the game while screaming my head off inside my mind. But as the game grew close and every basket mattered, I could hear all of the UT fans in attendance, in the upper-deck, cheering like crazy. At times they were even louder than the Baylor fans. I would just smile, and wish that I was wearing my team colors and cheering along with them.
Needless to say, Texas won and I left very satisfied at the victory, but unsatisfied at the experiance. You see, going to a game is not about the end result as much as it is about the experiance. The energy, the excitement, the struggle, feeling like your cheers will make your team win.
How many of us go through our daily routine, feeling like we can not cheer for our team? For those of us that call ourselves Christians, followers of Christ, we do not need to be ashamed of who we are or what we represent. Just because it may feel like there are more people that don't "cheer for the same team" as you do, doesn't mean that you should walk in fear to stand up for what you believe. I know that it may be intimidating to show your excitment for something when you do not know how it will be received, but let me tell you that you are not alone. There are a lot of people that are afraid, and all they need is people to start cheering for their savior and they will find the freedom to join in.
This is another reason why it is so important to be involved in a church and small group, so that you can be surrounded by people that believe in Jesus and want to cheer Him on together, so that when you are at the "visitors stadium", you will be energized, excited, and proud to let everyone around you know that you love your team!!!
This game has been sold out for months because it was going to be a nationally televised game and Texas would have the opportunity to be a top-ten ranked team in the country with a win against Baylor.
My brother-in-law's high school basketball coach is now the assistant coach at Baylor. So after a couple of phone calls, we got lower-level seats at Baylor for a sold-out game. You can imagine my excitment at the invitation to go to this game and see Texas play!!! Here was the catch: In order for us to have the seats, we had to wear Baylor colors and cheer for Baylor. This was no problem for the other people I went to the game with, but it was a huge problem for me.
So, I wore the green and white I needed to wear, but had no intention of actually cheering for the enemy!!
The game was incredible, Texas had a 20 point lead at one time, but Baylor came back to within 2 with only a minute to go in the game (you gotta love college b-ball). Through the whole game I would politely sit there as my team dominateed the game while screaming my head off inside my mind. But as the game grew close and every basket mattered, I could hear all of the UT fans in attendance, in the upper-deck, cheering like crazy. At times they were even louder than the Baylor fans. I would just smile, and wish that I was wearing my team colors and cheering along with them.
Needless to say, Texas won and I left very satisfied at the victory, but unsatisfied at the experiance. You see, going to a game is not about the end result as much as it is about the experiance. The energy, the excitement, the struggle, feeling like your cheers will make your team win.
How many of us go through our daily routine, feeling like we can not cheer for our team? For those of us that call ourselves Christians, followers of Christ, we do not need to be ashamed of who we are or what we represent. Just because it may feel like there are more people that don't "cheer for the same team" as you do, doesn't mean that you should walk in fear to stand up for what you believe. I know that it may be intimidating to show your excitment for something when you do not know how it will be received, but let me tell you that you are not alone. There are a lot of people that are afraid, and all they need is people to start cheering for their savior and they will find the freedom to join in.
This is another reason why it is so important to be involved in a church and small group, so that you can be surrounded by people that believe in Jesus and want to cheer Him on together, so that when you are at the "visitors stadium", you will be energized, excited, and proud to let everyone around you know that you love your team!!!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
What is Love
There is a movie called "Night at the Roxbury" that is a silly comedy about two brothers that want, more than anything, to be exepted at nightclubs. They drive around from nightclub to nightclub and the music that is always on is an upbeat song called "what is love" to which they do this rediculuos over the top head-bob.
Well during the Super Bowl, Pepsi made a commercial utilizing this very specific head-bob to this same song. So needless to say, at random times during the day, I find myself bobbing my head with the song running through my mind.
Today is Valentine's Day and over the past two weeks I have meditating on that question, "What is Love?". I know all the deffinitions for love, and I know the "churchy" answers, but I was needing something more, something new.
I started a series about love and relationships for the youth I pastor, and yesterday was the beginning of it. I shared out of John, where Jesus tells his desciples that He is giving them a new command, to love one another. As I was studying for this and still meditating on this need I was having, it dawned on me that Love was not a new command. Leviticus 19:18b says: "but love your neighbor as yourself." You see Jesus understood that the way we Love ourselves is not enough for others. Many of us have horrible views of ourselves, insecurities, and even live a life that hamrs ourselves.
Jesus showed us perfect love, and not only that He did it in a way that we could receive it. (that is another blog for another day) Jesus wants us to love others the way He loved His deciples not the way we illusion Him to love us. You see I have found that people like to completely "humanize" God and view His love for us like another person would. Jesus showed a far more precious love to His deciples that started with a great relationship and ended with selfless sacrifice.
What is love? It is what Jesus showed His desciples, and what we are supposed to show the world!!
Well during the Super Bowl, Pepsi made a commercial utilizing this very specific head-bob to this same song. So needless to say, at random times during the day, I find myself bobbing my head with the song running through my mind.
Today is Valentine's Day and over the past two weeks I have meditating on that question, "What is Love?". I know all the deffinitions for love, and I know the "churchy" answers, but I was needing something more, something new.
I started a series about love and relationships for the youth I pastor, and yesterday was the beginning of it. I shared out of John, where Jesus tells his desciples that He is giving them a new command, to love one another. As I was studying for this and still meditating on this need I was having, it dawned on me that Love was not a new command. Leviticus 19:18b says: "but love your neighbor as yourself." You see Jesus understood that the way we Love ourselves is not enough for others. Many of us have horrible views of ourselves, insecurities, and even live a life that hamrs ourselves.
Jesus showed us perfect love, and not only that He did it in a way that we could receive it. (that is another blog for another day) Jesus wants us to love others the way He loved His deciples not the way we illusion Him to love us. You see I have found that people like to completely "humanize" God and view His love for us like another person would. Jesus showed a far more precious love to His deciples that started with a great relationship and ended with selfless sacrifice.
What is love? It is what Jesus showed His desciples, and what we are supposed to show the world!!
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