Day 349

[Text from image: Paul's pattern of leadership]

Day 348

[Text from image: How we should act in our relationships toward people, God, and the world.]

Day 347

[Text from image: Paul's instructions > (1) Pure heart (2) Clear conscience (3) Genuine faith > All believers filled with love]

Put me in coach! (1 Timothy 6:17)

Have you ever thought that being a christian means you can never have any fun? Have you ever looked at the Bible and thought that is was chock-full of THOU SHALT NOTs? Let me give you this little parable:

In the offices of the local football team, the head coach is quietly looking over his notes for the upcoming season when his offensive coordinator bust open the door disheveled and frustrated.

“Coach have you seen this!” The offensive coordinator frantically waves the official football league rule book at the head coach. “I thought I knew the gist of it, but I spent some time this off-season reading over it in depth! You won’t believe all the things we aren’t allowed to do!”

The head coach, as calm as can be, kindly gestures his offensive coordinator to sit down at his desk. “Tell me…what rules have been bothering you?”

“Well you better not have anything else on your schedule today then, because this will take me some time to get through the all! There ridiculous!” The head coach again calms down his offensive coordinator and asks him to point out one of the rules giving him problems. “Check this one out. This one has to be at the top of my list!”

Rule 7, Section 5, Article 1: The offensive team must be in compliance with the following at the start of a play:
(a) It must have seven or more players on its line of scrimmage; and
(b) Eligible receivers must be on both ends of the line, and all of the players on the line between them must be in eligible receivers.

The offensive coordinator looks at his head coach in anticipation of an outburst of rage at the rule.

Nothing happens.

“Don’t you see?" yells the offensive coordinator. "This is ridiculous! I only get 11 guys on the field for each play and they want me to have 7 of them all on one stinkin’ line! Then when we pass the ball, 5 of those guys are even allowed to touch it! Almost half my players are useless! Why do we even have them out there? And to top it all off I was just over telling this to the defensive coordinator and you know what he said? He said his guys can line up pretty much anywhere AND they can get the ball whenever they want!” His angered rant leaves the offensive coordinator panting and staring at the head coach waiting for any possible relief.

The head coach thinks for a minute before he begins to speak. “You’re here to coach football, right?” The offensive coordinator nods his head. “Well there are rules that go into playing football correctly.”

The offensive coordinator pipes in. “How are we supposed to win a single game this season following these rules!”

He is quickly silenced by the head coach. “If you break these rules there will be consequences. Maybe can you get away with a lot of penalties in a couple games, but in the end following the rules is the only way to succeed.” The offensive coordinator gasps in disbelief. “Let me ask you this,” continues the head coach, “what don’t you find in the rule book ” The offensive coordinator thinks for a minute without a response. “A rule book doesn’t tell you all of the amazing possibilities you can use when you follow the rules.” The head coach pulls out a thick binder three times as big as the rule book that is clutched in the hands of the offensive coordinator. The head coach drops the binder on the desk with a loud thud and flips open to the first couple pages. “Here’s the overview of all of our teams basic offensive formations.”

“Each one of these formations contains several pages of possible plays and all of them use the rule that you think we can't follow if we want to win. And that’s just our team. Every team in every league has a book like this and none of our books are the same. On top of that, there are so many more possibilities that we haven’t even come up with yet! You're focusing on the rules as barriers to your success. Start seeing them as a guide for your success."

Illegal formation on the offense:

Repeat 1st down.

Christian karma (1 Timothy 5:24-25)

The letters to Timothy have a lot of great imagery, but this verse stuck out to me due to a recent argument I had with my mother about karma. There is something very appealing in the idea that “what goes around comes around.” There's even some scripture, like this one, that seems to back it up.

The idea of karma first made a big impact on my mind several years ago when I started traveling overseas. It's the main experience I've encountered that no matter how much planing you do in advance, everything seems to be out of your control when it's time to fly. Is my luggage gonna get stuck in customs? Will I catch my connecting flight in an foreign airport that may or may not post signs in English? Will I be sitting in the middle seat of the middle row between people who the break the boundaries of personal space or fall well below the standard for hygiene? With so many seemingly random variations, your mind tries to justify what you did wrong to get stuck on a flight next to a newborn baby.  “I'm suffering now because I cut that guy off on the way to the airport, aren't I?” One of my travel days was going so perfect that I became nervous I had used up all my good mojo so that my next flight would be a disaster. Then I remembered that the last trip I switched my prime seating for a dreaded middle so a boy could sit next to his parents. Look at me cashing in my karma chips! Sweet!

Now while I may talk about karma like this, let me clarify that I don't believe in the religious concept of karma. I use the term more as a metaphor for “getting your comeuppance.” The true definition of karma is in contradistinction to Christianity. (Check out the Wikipedia definition upping my vocabulary quotient for the day. I can now pretend to speak at a college educated level!) These two concepts can't mix because karma is based on personal deeds resulting in spiritual payback while Christianity is based on the grace of God that can not be earned. As a Christian, your greatest accomplishments couldn't even cover the reservation fee for booking a ticket to heaven. The good news is God is eager to give out free boarding passes.

If you try to cash in your frequent flier miles for Jesus Points: