The Barking Dog

I’ve been struggling with issues of anxiety lately. It’s been strange, because I’ve never struggled with anxiety in the past. This is brand new territory for me.

I know what’s causing it – it’s a wide variety things. Some of it is uncertainty in life issues. That’s always challenging to me, since I like to always be in control of everything. Some of it is caused by the school-work load combined with the business of the last several weeks. Some of it is caused by me not having a “down” day in my schedule, something I usually try to build in. There are also issues with me trying to figure out how to help counsel some people going through some challenging times of life, and I don’t always know how to do that. Our church is facing challenges as well. As the economy falls, people become less giving – or so it seems, and trying to “guess” what the giving might be so we can properly steward the resources God has given us causes me some tension. I’m sure there’s other stuff – trying to figure out how to continue being a good dad and husband in the midst of everything is a stressor, but regardless –I’ve been feeling anxiety. For me, having mental/emotional things begin to impact me physically (heart racing, shortness of breath) or even cause me to feel lost (don’t know where to start, so I find myself sitting there for a few minutes in a near-panic) is completely new – and very unwanted.

My running has become pretty important – because it gives me time to process, to pray, to seek the face of God uninterrupted.

I’m training for a marathon, and this week all my mileage increased. That means I have to find new routes (and it means I’m really grateful for my Garmin Forerunner, but that’s off the subject…). Today was one of those new route days. New routes are fun. I ran by houses I didn’t even know existed! They’re also a little scary. I don’t always know where a street will lead. I’m not sure if it has an outlet. And… new routes means I find out where new dogs are.

When I’m running – I HATE dogs. Other than the weird grunting noise coming from the woods on one of my routes, nothing scares me more than dogs. I’ve never been bit while running – but I’ve had dogs chase me down the street, cross the road and bark inches from my ankles, and on a beautiful calm morning nothing is quite as terrifying as the sound of a deep-throated, protective bark coming from a yard you are running by. This morning, I found four new dogs. One of them was in a yard with an invisible fence. Those things are great, but when the dog is barking and it doesn’t look like there’s anything between you and it, it’s kind of frightening. I never saw two of the dogs, but they saw me. The dogs you can’t see can be frightening as well.

After being scared the second time today by barking dogs I started thinking – you know, sometimes life is like you’re surrounded by barking dogs. The evil one stands around and barks at you.

• “You’ll never get it all done.”
• “The church is in trouble.”
• “You’re a lousy dad.”
• “I thought you were a good Christian, but look at you all worried.”

They aren’t true statements – just barking lies. Anytime God starts to move in a direction, Satan starts to raise a ruckus, barking like a protective dog, trying to scare you off of territory he’s claimed for his own.

By dog three, I was telling God, “Ok – it’s sinking in.”

The fourth dog experience today had a dog not only barking, but coming across the street at me. I pulled down my face mask, looked straight at the dog, and said, “No” very loudly. Someday, that’s not going to work – usually it does. The dog kept barking, but stopped coming after me as I walked away, telling the dog “No.”

By this time, I was laughing (a rare experience while I’m running!). It’s like God was telling me – “Satan can “bark”. He can even chase you across a street, but remember, ‘Submit yourself, therefore to God, resist the devil, and He will flee’ (James 4:7).”

So, my barking dogs lesson for the day is that my anxiety is a natural human response to the barking of Satan. It may not be logical, but it is natural. My natural human response needs to be submitted to God. He’s my protector and my provider, and then, as I submit to Him, I can resist the devil.

It’s funny the lessons you learn while running – but God is good, and I will have victory over this anxiety. I’m not going to let the bark of Satan fill my life with terror. I may still, at times, be frightened – but I will not let terror rule my life.

Anywhere, Anytime

Several decades ago (I know – that makes me sound old, but I’m beginning to face the reality that I am, in fact, aging) I made a promise to God that I would go wherever he called me go to, whenever he called me to go there.

When I was 12 years old and first committed my life to ministry, I had some pretty wild dreams about what that would mean. I was sure that I was going to be joining Brother Andrew smuggling Bibles into Russia, or on some other high-stakes, secret-agent type of missions adventure.

Through a variety of experiences, I felt God calling me into youth ministry, and enjoyed 6 years as youth pastor at Maple Plain Community Church in Maple Plain, MN. God called me from there to Staples Alliance Church, where we’ve been for 7 years.

A couple of years ago we (Elissa and I) felt as if God were asking us if we were still willing to go wherever He called, whenever He called. In particular, we felt that he was asking if we would still be willing to server overseas.

My initial, “Of course!” was tempered slightly by some of the realities that kind of change would mean for us. It would mean leaving family – Elissa’s grandma has Parkinson’s, and our kids really love our parents. It would mean leaving friends. It would mean leaving a ministry I enjoy and am fairly competent in to go thousands of miles away, to a place we don’t speak the language, and where we’d see parents on a very limited basis. We still decided that being submissive and obedient was the best plan of action – so we began the process of exploring options for missions through the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

Last month, Elissa and became accredited missions candidates. That means we still have a lot of hurdles in front of us, but it is a step where we are continuing to be obedient to God.

Over the coming 18 months to 2 years, Elissa and I have to take care of some education requirements, and funding would have to be there from the Alliance that would make it possible for us to go. We have no guarantees that we will be going to the mission field, and that’s not even really what we’re looking for. We’re just looking to continuing to want to be submissive to the leading of the Spirit of God to go wherever he calls us.

Does that mean that we don’t enjoy being in Staples? Not at all! In fact, we have enjoyed our ministry here so much that if it were up to us alone, we’d stay here. For a long time. In fact, we’ve made so many close friends here that it could reach the point that God would be leading us away and we’d want to not go. Part of the process for us has simply been, once again, being as submissive to God as possible to go where he calls.

Some of you may have some questions about what all this means! Feel free to ask, and when I have answers, I’ll be glad to give them.

Special Blog UPdate

 

This prayer request came from the C&MA President – please pray!

 

November 4, 2009

 

I received word this morning that Richard Herring (regional director) and Pieter Theron (Mongolian field director) were injured in a bizarre accident on Wednesday afternoon (Thailand time). Participants of the Asia Pacific Regional Conference in Bangkok attended an elephant show as an outing for the team. While the team was taking pictures, an elephant grabbed Pieter and Richard and threw them about 10 feet into the air. Pieter has a fractured skull and is in critical condition; Richard sustained a broken hip and possible other injuries less serious than Pieter’s.

 

Please put out a call to prayer for Pieter and Richard in your circle of influence. Additionally, pray for all the participants at the Regional Conference as they respond to the needs of the families of our injured colleagues. I expect, but am not sure, that the final days of the conference will be cancelled. As we get more information, we will communicate with you.

 

Below is a more detailed account of the accident from Brent and Lisa Liberda, Alliance workers in Mongolia.

 

Praying with you for Pieter and Richard, Gary

 

 

Here is an account from one of the people who was there:

 

Members of the RLT (regional leadership team) were on their one free afternoon outing to an elephant and crocodile zoo near the Rose Gardens. We all went to the crocodile show and later attended the elephant show. Everyone was sitting in the grandstands as the elephants performed in a field in front of us.

 

At the end of the show, the park staff brought out bananas, and about 10 elephants lined up at the fence where people could feed the elephants and take pictures in front of them. After most of the crowd was beginning to leave, some of us from the RLT started to feed the elephants and take pictures. Richard and Pieter were getting their picture taken in front of one of the biggest elephants when suddenly the elephant with his trunk threw them both about 10 feet up into the air. Richard landed on the cement, and Pieter fell on his head. It was very serious. A number of us started administering first aid and praying. There wasn’t even a first aid box in the entire park, so we used our shirts and other cloths we could find for compresses and pillows and kept the two men immobile. Both were conscious. Some Christians from other countries who had been there stayed and prayed at a distance. It took about 30 minutes for the first of two ambulances to come, which seemed like an eternity. Two or three from the RLT group went with the ambulances to the hospital.

 

The two men are currently in a hospital outside the city and will be transferred at 10 p.m. tonight to Vitchayut as the traffic is too bad now. Word from the people at the hospital is that Richard is stable and has a fractured hip. Pieter is in ICU with a fractured skull and is bleeding internally near the brain. He may also have fractured shoulders. The hospital is working on getting a neurosurgeon to the hospital to assess the situation so that Vitchayut will be ready to receive him. The latest news, which is good, is that Pieter’s vital signs are stable and the internal bleeding is minimal.

 

Please pray for God’s healing touch in the lives of these two men. Pray especially for Pieter, that God would stop the internal bleeding and that he would be able to receive the help he needs in the shortest amount of time. Pray for his wife, Haniki, as she is at the hospital with him and several others. Dr. Benedict in Colorado has been notified of the situation.

 

Many thanks for your prayers,

David Strong

 

Thank you for praying for this situation with us!

Brent and Lisa

 

P.S.

This just in! As we were preparing to send this e-mail we received the following news. Peter does not need brain surgery. He has some blood on the brain but not enough to require surgery. He has a fractured skull, both shoulders seem to be fractured, and a broken wrist. He is in ICU and will be closely monitored. His internal organs appear to be good and his vital signs appear to be good.

 

He is in the care of good doctors and in one of the nation’s best hospitals.

 

Praise be to God. Please thank all who have prayed and are praying.

What I think everyone should know about government, pt 2.

1. Money doesn’t REALLY work differently on the national level. First off, I am far from an economist. I don’t always get how things work, but at one time in my life my family was really, really far in debt compared to our income level, and here’s what we learned. First of all, you can live beyond your means – just not for long. There’s enough credit available, even to people who don’t have money, to give us the opportunity to live beyond our means. If we can’t afford something, we can delay payment by putting it on credit. It works! You can even, manage to amass debt that goes beyond your annual income. Sometimes, for us, the debt that we amassed was because of we bought things that we really didn’t need. Other times, we ended up with emergencies that caused us to have to put necessities, things like groceries and gas on the credit card. Either way, our debt continued to grow until we had reached a debt level that was simply unmanageable.

   A couple of things eventually got us. The first was that our income didn’t increase enough to keep up with our growing debt. This wasn’t anyone’s fault. We really weren’t even expecting higher income to pay off the debts, but quite simply, we needed to make more money to keep paying off our increasing debt, and we didn’t. Secondly was interest. As both our debts increased and our interest rates increased we couldn’t pay down principal. At one time, I mismanaged things so badly that I went over the limit on a credit card. That generated a fee. That month, I couldn’t afford to make the minimum payment, which meant I was also, technically, “late” on a payment. Between those two fees (late payment and overlimit) and the interest, I couldn’t afford enough to bring the credit card under the maximum, which kept adding fees, month after month. That was the breaking point for us. We had to talk to a credit management company and negotiate for lower interest rates, and work hard for years living below our means to put all we could to debt. We’re still not debt free – but what we have is manageable, and there’s an end in sight.

   So how does it work on a national level? The government has income, not money that they make, but money that they collect from taxes. The money they collect goes to a wide variety of things, and I won’t get into debating what’s worth spending on and what isn’t worth spending on, that gets all sorts of ideological debates happening, and that’s not the point here. The point is that in 2008, the government collected 2.52 trillion. They spent 2.98 trillion, meaning that we added 455 billion dollars to the national debt. That national debt, like personal debt, has a level of interest connected to it. In 2008, interest payments were the fourth highest expenditure in the budget. (Following medicare and Medicaid, social security, and defense). In 2008, 15 cents of every dollar collected in taxes went to pay just the interest of the national debt.

   Over the last 40 years, we have run deficits – spending more than we collect – in all but 4 years. Our national debt is over 11 TRILLION dollars right now (compare that with income of 2.52 trillion, and our debt is over 4 times our income). On the path we are on now, the national debt will increase by over 1 trillion dollars each year for the coming 10 years. By 2015, our debt will be 100% of our GDP (market value of all final goods and services made within the borders of a country in a year). That means that if every dollar from all the goods and services were collected from every American citizen for an entire year, it would “just” pay for our debt.

   The difficult part now is that as people lose jobs, the government’s tax base decreases. In the face of decreasing tax base, the government is spending more. Spending is not bad, it’s necessary. The problem always becomes (just like it is for people personally) can we spend less than or the same amount as we collect.

   The breaking point for us will come when we can no longer afford to pay the interest on our debts. Historically, nations have printed more money to make the payments (Germany, pre WWII). When that happens, the money is actually worth less (inflation), so nations increase interest rates on the debt to get the same value.

   What’s the solution? The same as it is for people personally! We can hope for the US to grow out of the problem. If there’s a sudden reversal in the economy, jobs come back, and income levels skyrocket, tax income may increase enough to no longer have a deficit. Even if that’s not the case, we must spend less than we collect and pay down our debt. The only way this will happen is if we change our expectations for government and make fiscal responsibility a high value. Unfortunately, that’s not valued. Our expectation for government often becomes a desire for them to provide for us – without understanding that the money comes from somewhere.

   Will we ever get it? Apparently not, because we keep electing people who think spending more than we collect is the best answer…

What I think everyone should know about government, pt 1.

Right from the top, I’m going to say that I do tend to be occasionally opinionated (on most occasions, in fact.) I don’t really fit into any of the standard political parties. I think we should take care of the earth we’re living in, and feel that people are important and that we should be compassionate – but also think that government is too big. I think that healthy businesses make for well-paid workers, but also think that businesses need to be responsible about the things that they’re doing and look to more than JUST profit.

Saying that, I just thought I’d share some things that I think people should know about government. You don’t have to agree, in fact – if you don’t – great. I’m open to hearing new opinions and am always willing to evaluate my preconceptions about the role of government in society. I don’t do a great job of daily posting, but as I have time and when I think of it, I’ll add to the list.

Here is the number one thing I wish everybody understood about government:

1. The Government Does Not Make Money. It may print money, it may distribute money, but the government does not make money. It’s not an industry. It produces no goods. There is nothing that it sells to collect income.

   Someone said recently that they like it when a certain party is in office because that party provides more programs – and I had to just shake my head, because the mindset seems to be that when one party is in office the government suddenly makes more money. No, it doesn’t. This year the government will spend almost $1.5 TRILLION (that’s $1,500,000,000,000.00) more than they will collect, which is a good segue way to how the government gets money.

   Government COLLECTS money. I work in the nonprofit industry. I don’t have anything that I can sell to make more money. When our church makes up a budget each year, we have to find the delicate balance between faith (“We believe that God is going to provide”) and stewardship (“This is what was provided in the past.”) We have to anticipate what the changing job market is going to do and trust that as people mature in their faith they will also support God’s work more. For us to increase our budget, we either need people to give more or we need more people to give. I can’t sell more widgets or introduce a new product line at an increased cost to increase revenue.

   The government is similar. It collects money from taxpayers. The only way the government can get more money is to collect more taxes. They tax income, tax purchases, tax certain purchases more than others, tax you when you make money selling something, or when you gain interest on your investments, or when you die and leave money for those you care about. They can charge “fees” for not complying to their standards, make you pay to drive your car on an annual basis, and charge you for use of things by making you have a license to enjoy certain privileges. The government doesn’t have anything to sell, though, because the government is NOT a business. Government’s role is to govern, and governing has some implied expenses that are paid for through collection of money, which we call taxation.

   Simple enough, right? It would be – except that people don’t seem to get it. They love programs but hate the costs. They think that we can keep adding programs, providing “free money” in bailouts, stimulate the economy by buying or giving large sums to banks, automobile manufacturers, and insurance companies and then also fund a war on two fronts, manage the infrastructure of our own country (police, roads, etc.), provide better education and add a health plan paid for by the government but not pay more taxes. That’s insanity! You can’t get it for free, the only way the government is going to have the money to pay for all the things that people are asking for is if they take it, through taxation, from the people they are providing the services for (or from those who aren’t receiving the services themselves so others can afford it, which is a topic for a different time.)

   There is no free lunch, and government will collect money to pay for the services it is providing, if not now – they’ll collect it later, from our children. There are no “widgets” for sale.

What are you doing to be in the game?

This week I helped the Verlennich family pack up their earthly possessions into a 28 foot trailer (twice) as they head off to Detroit Lakes, MN to plant Xperience Church.

Mike and Amy are a great couple. When I came to Staples Alliance Church 7 years ago Mike was playing guitar on our worship team. It’s been incredible to see God grow and mature him, and to see him making decisions to follow God with his whole heart. He and Amy have prayerfully and carefully asked God what He wants from them in their life – and God called them into full time ministry.

So this week, Mike and Amy, their 7.7 kids, their dog, and their house full of possessions went to Detroit Lakes, MN to be obedient to God’s call. That’s awesome! I’m so proud of their spiritual growth and dependence on God. Elissa and I support them financially (you can too, by the way! Go to Mike’s blog site and follow the You Can Help! Link at the top of the page.) I’m also praying for them, because what they are trying to do is not easy! It’s hard work to start a church in a town where your contacts are limited, and you’re basically starting from scratch.

The awesome thing is, they’re being obedient. God won’t call everyone to be a church planter – but he does call everyone to be obedient! He calls us all to be involved – to be in the game. What are you risking? How are you involved?

Take a risk this week! Share your faith with ONE person. Will it be hard – I’m sure, but it will be rewarding as well. Let God use you.

The sad reality of a downturn in giving…

Elissa posted on it yesterday – and I’m not really sure I have time to talk about it as much as I’d like to, but I do want to “strike while the iron is hot” on this particular topic.

Yesterday I received an email from the president of the C&MA, Gary Benedict. He was sharing with us a letter that he had sent to the missionaries. In it, he said:

At the Board of Directors meeting in February, the budget for next fiscal year was set at $37.5 million, which is a decrease of $3.2 million from the present budget. I have been working with the team in Colorado Springs to make the appropriate adjustments. As difficult as it is, we are at the point of personnel reductions. This is an agonizing experience for leadership and the workers affected. The first week of March, personnel reductions were made at the National Office.

To meet the reduced budget target of $1.8 million less in International Ministries, plans have been made for a 5 percent reduction in missionary personnel above normal attrition. This represents 30 people. The International Ministries team, including field, regional, and National Office leaders, has poured itself out on a number of fronts to deal with the financial realities. Included have been focused times of prayer and fasting, initiatives to increase revenues, capping new appointments, additional cutbacks in field budgets, careful use of reserves, and selling of some assets to provide additional revenue streams. Many of the people who are working on this are present and former missionaries who have felt deep anguish over all of this.

As I read the letter, my heart sank. I know that this decision was not easy to make – and frankly, I’m not surprised it’s come to this. We’ve been seeing the GCF (Great Commission Fund – the fund used by the Alliance to finance missionaries) struggle to make budget, and the reality is that if giving doesn’t increase, spending decreases. We see that in local churches. We have a flat budget – same as last year, for our church – with no salary increases for pastors. We know this is part of the reality of ministry.

People pin it on all sorts of things – many people will say this is because of the recession, but I’m not convinced. This GCF struggle is not new with the downturn in giving. People blame it on generational issues – people not wanting to give to a “fund”, but I don’t think that’s completely true. Honestly – I think it’s a reflection of misplaced passions.

In the early years of Crown College, when it was still St. Paul Bible College, they would hold city-wide missions conferences where 20-30,000 people would attend. People would take off their jewelry and put it in the offering plates because they believed that giving to missions made a difference! They believed that lost people mattered to God, and that he desperately wanted them found. They sincerely believed that if they didn’t fund missions, lost people could die and go to hell.

That’s the heartbreaking thing for me. 30 missionaries will be coming home. Four couples – fully accredited and ready to go are not going to be sent. That has an eternal impact – because lost people will not be hearing the good news. I’m deeply grieved for the missionaries that will be coming home, I can’t imagine the heartache they will be experiencing – but I’m even more saddened that the result of this is that there are people who will not hear.

3.2 million dollars is a lot of money – but if 100,000 Alliance families gave $32.00 more a year, we would not have a problem. That’s less than $3.00 a month – $.75 a week.

To me the big problem isn’t that we’re in a recession. The big problem is that American Christians are not so impacted by the fact that people are lost and going to hell that it impacts their spending habits. Too many American Christians have determined that cell phones, satellite or cable TV, high-speed internet, fast-food excursions, and designer coffees are necessities. I’ve had couples in my office asking for financial help with humongous monthly cell phone bills. It’s astonishing what we have allowed to become needs. We’ve been incredibly blessed by God, yet we’ve used it for our own pleasures. Rarely do you hear of people sacrificially giving, because we’ve twisted our theology in such a way that our excess is a sign of God’s blessing. It’s perverse, and in our relatively small denomination, we are seeing the impacts of that.

I’m not sharing this in a boasting way – but Elissa and I have made decisions for our family that do have an impact on our luxuries. We chose to get out of debt and to support some ministries – so it means we do without. We tithe, give to our local church’s building fund above our tithe, and support the GCF. We also give some money to friends that are church planters. Every time we’ve upped our giving, we’ve had to make sacrifices. We don’t carry cell phones. We don’t have satellite tv, we have just 1 reliable car, we try to tightly regulate our expenses. Certainly – we also spend on some things. We do have high speed internet. We subscribe to Netflix. We purchased a new laptop. I remodeled our house last year. But – what we do is prayerfully consider what we should give, and then understand that it has a cost. For us – the fact that lost people will hear about Jesus is more important than having 150 channels at the touch of a button. I’m not trying to say that in a condemning way – but I think that we have lost that mindset in many of our churches. People don’t have to give what we give (and we’re not giving THAT much) – but they do have to realize that every yes to something is a no to something else. The lattes, the McDonald’s trips, the Satellite TV, the High Speed internet, and every other choice needs to be carefully scrutinized and should be prayed over. These things are not RIGHTs. The money we have is a gift from God – and needs to be used for His kingdom.

It’s one thing to say that we care about lost people. It’s another thing to actually let that impact your life choices. In our church of over 100 families, last year we had 17 families pledge to give to the GCF. More people than that gave, but still… more than 83 family units chose to not commit to monthly support of missions. I understand it’s a personal choice – but it is one with consequences. Some of my families couldn’t afford to give much – but I know that every one of them could afford $3.00 a month. Christianity is not a theoretical religion – it’s one that impacts our life. If we only care about lost people in theory, we are doing nothing to save them from hell. It must be practical.

I’m having trouble bringing this in for a landing, so I’ll just close with this – would you pray? Pray for the missionaries that will be hearing that they have to come home, but also pray about how you can be a part of the team that’s reaching lost people around the world! Pray about your financial decisions – and how you can be a part of the team.

 

Blessings,

 

mike

The movie Taken…

Ok, I’m really not a movie critic, so it’s not meant to be a commentary on the movie itself. In a strange, “me man, protector of me family” way, I did enjoy the movie – so there, guilty pleasure out.

I did feel, by the time the movie had ended, and I’d seen my quota of killings for 123 lifetimes, that move ratings sure seem to have changed. I’m not sure that the same movie would have skated under an R rating 10-20 years ago.

Secondly – ever since Bourne identity there’s a fascination with a film quality that just about leaves me motion sick. Seriously – why do we have to have so much bouncing around on the camera and flashing to different strange angles. I have a headache.

Third – the movie is an interesting way to bring a really serious topic more into the limelight. Sex trafficking is a real problem. I’m not sure the best take-away is to think that the answer is killing everyone, but we do need to raise the level of awareness on this. It’s truly a serious issue.

Anyway, if you don’t mind some of the cheesy things that come along with the style of movie that it is – bad guys have lots of guns but can’t aim properly – good guy only needs one shot, etc. – a decent movie – but don’t let the PG-13 rating fool you.

How does a Christian compete?

This “rant” (although I’m not really sure I’m ranting – more just questioning true ethics of competition) is in response to the following article:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,482825,00.html

 

OK – so if you didn’t read the article, I’ll give you a summary. One girls basketball team is playing against another. The winning team beats the losing team 100 to 0. That’s right , the losing team didn’t score a single point while the winning team reached the century mark. This is where it gets weird for me.

The winning school issues an apology for beating the losing team so badly, because apparently, the girls on the winning team were still shooting 3-pointers in the 4^th quarter and the coaches were cheering for the girls more and more the closer they approached 100 points. The winning school apologized to the losing school for having a “non-Christian” attitude toward playing, which is an issue because the schools were Christian schools.

The coach disagreed, saying that his girls played with integrity, and then was fired – but we’re not given the exact reasons why.

So – here’s the issue to me. Is it really “unchristian” to beat a team 100 – 0? I mean – I was pretty lousy in track when I was in high school, and I never accused the winners for being unchristian, regardless of the margin of victory. I never asked them to slow down to make me look better, or accused them or humiliating me.

I think the situation that team found themselves in would have to be one of the hardest coaching situations around? How do you keep your girls excited to play when you are destroying another team? Is it really your team’s fault the other team doesn’t score? Would of it made a huge difference if the score had been 75 – 0? Or 50-0? It’s humiliating for the other team, either way.

Here’s how I would view it as a coach. If my team is destroying the other team, I know the tendency would be for my players to begin to feel sorry for the other team – to begin to play sloppy ball to give them a chance. It’s the way I sports with my kids. I intentionally don’t play as hard – because I know they don’t have a chance. But if I were to play that way against people my age, it would be humiliating to them. This used to happen with our church softball team. Occasionally, we’d get in a hitting streak and the other team was playing really bad defense. They had some kids playing on their team, and for whatever reason, just couldn’t get an out. We made a “rule” that if a team scored 10 runs in an inning, it was the same as 3 outs, but when that happened – the other team looked humiliated, not just because we scored 10 runs, but because they couldn’t get us out. Our guys started trying to hit pop fly’s to give them a chance – but that’s the last thing you want to do… Bad habits are hard to break – so if your team starts taking it easy, or playing light, then you have a problem later on.

So – as a coach, you find new things to motivate. You put in your reserves, and if they are still blowing the other team out, you set a goal. Hey guys – keep playing the way you know you should. Get some good playing time, and lets see if we can score 100 points. Why? Because if you don’t set a goal in front of your players they will begin playing down to their competition. If you don’t keep them motivated, they’ll begin playing sloppy to give the other team “a chance.” You don’t want bad habits in your team.

All the other team had to do was play basketball. If your team can’t score a single bucket, that is NOT the opposing team’s fault!

Honestly, I’d be more humiliated if I was on the opposing team and saw them start playing “keep-a-way” just to keep the score down. If they start playing out of their game and running out the clock and holding the ball for minutes at a time (which you can do in high school basketball because there is no shot clock) I would feel more embarrassed. At least when a basket is made, I get a new chance to try to score. If I lost 100-0, I’d be embarrassed – but I certainly wouldn’t blame the other team.

This coach made the best of difficult situation, in my opinion. But, I could be wrong? What do you think is the Christian thing to do? Should he have told his girls to let the other team score? Should he have talked to the other coach at half time and just had the other team forfeit the rest of the game? Would that have been fair to his 2^nd (and may be 3^rd string) that got time to play? Should he have played keep-a-way? Was there a good way to win this game – and isn’t the margin of victory relative after a certain range? If the score would have been 50-0, would it have really been any different?

Maybe I’m seeing this poorly because of my own competitive side – so post your perspective so we can learn from each other!

Confessions of a lifer…

I don’t have much time – but this came to mind during my reading this morning.

I was, for the most part, raised in the church (not literally – but as long as I can remember, we were going to every church function offered.) The Bible has always been special to me – I remember sleeping with my Bible when I was 12-14 years old. I would fall asleep reading it and wake up to read it. I love God’s word.

Last year, I finished reading the Bible for the 10^th time – 5 times in the last 3 years. I love the book.

But sometimes, I get to familiar passages, and I find myself wanting to skim through it. It’s the old “I already know this” mindset.

So, this morning I got the 2×4. I was reading in Luke 8 – and I came to the very familiar Parable of the Sower. I know the parable, know the explanation, etc. – so I was just kind of skimming through. Then, I came to verse 16 – and again, very familiar – you don’t put a lamp under a bed or a basket… Then, verse 18. Here’s how it reads in the Holman CSB:

Therefore, take care how you listen. For whoever has, more will be given to him; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him.

Wow! I’m sure those in the church have discussed that verse in different ways in the past – but as I was skimming this morning, God was reminding me – take care how you listen, Mike. In every passage, those who have will receive more – but there’s the requirement of having care while we listen. Skimming isn’t going to get the job done – have care while we listen.

In the same way – falling into patterns of just showing up, singing familiar songs, hearing familiar passages, saying hi to familiar people isn’t going to cut it in church, either. If we want to keep growing – we need to have care how we listen. Then, if we have, we’ll receive more – but if we are careless – even what we think we have will be taken away. There really is no plateau in the Christian faith – you’re either growing, or shrinking.

And we see that, if we’re honest, don’t we? We see that people don’t really remain at a level of spiritual growth. If they don’t keep growing, they begin to be overwhelmed by the cares of the world. They begin to drift off center.

So – it was a good message for me, this morning – a reminder to not skim – but to listen carefully. Hope it’s a good reminder for you also!