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Holiday Edition: Happy Labor Day

Hey all, enjoy your day off work.  Find some time to rest and enjoy some time with your family.  That’s what I am doing so the thoughts are short today.

Get out there and celebrate work by being lazy today, but be ready to hit it again tomorrow!

5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
my hope comes from him.

6 He alone is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.Ps 62:5-6

18 Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot. 19 Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. 20 He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart. Ecc 5:18-20

God is good.

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Dressed for Combat

Football season kicked off last night in grand style. I even found myself slipping out of bed a few times to check out what happened to the Pitt overtime game and the USC game.  Finally a sport to watch again ( sorry baseball fans!)

Anyway, as most men know the uniforms are half of the deal when the team takes the field.  Several times after the last few years teams have changed colors in the locker room before entering the field for the game with the intention of creating come motivation and inspiring the crowd. Even my wife tells my boys “looking good on the field is most important”.

Anyway, earlier this week Nike released it’s new “Pro Combat” uniforms for a few selected schools.  And you guessed it the Mountaineers were in the mix this year.  They will were their uniforms against Pitt later this year.  It’s amazing the buzz this has created with Mountaineer fans, and I assume with the other team’s fans that are in the mix this year.  I can only assume the players are pretty excited as well.

So why?  Why is the uniform so much more than just a shirt and britches?  Why is so important that your uniforms like so tough and bad?  Why do teams like to wear that menacing all black?  We know, because it tells who we are.  It expresses what we feel about ourselves. In football, its say I am ready and I am playing hard and I am going to play as good as look.  We look the part that we want to be.

So what about our life, especially our spiritual lives?   Well check Galatians out:

26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ Galatians 3:26-28 (New International Version)

Paul says Jesus Christ is our uniform!   Can you think of anything more menacing in spiritual warfare then to be wearing the son of God?  We are clothed with him, we have put in on!

For some odd reason, I have made the picture of the new WVU uniforms my background on my computer.  Really, I am not sure why.  But I can say that every time I see it, I get a little bit of extra motivation, as if I were putting those one someday.  Which is really sort of childish, isn’t’? But what I am realizing is in the spiritual battle, I am wearing a uniform that is so much cooler and lighter weight and refreshing then the Pro Combats from Nike. The question is will I play like it today!

Put on the uniform that Christ gave you, and realize that you look ready for combat in them.  Play like it today!

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Midnight Runner

Last night at 10:15 I decided that it was time for me to go on a 3 mile run.  I was not able to ‘get my run in’ earlier in the day and it was still over 80 degrees outside.  So while the eldest was finished up Algebra homework and the other two were reading themselves to sleep in bed off I went into the black night.  (From a training perspective this was a big move for me – having to get the mileage in, as just a month ago I would have just grabbed a bowl of ice cream and plopped in front of the good old tele!”)

So off I went into the night down the street.  It’s been a long time since I had run in the dark and it always seems that the darkness at 11pm is darker then the darkness at 6am.  Not sure why, but it seemed a whole lot darker and more ominous then when I run in the mornings.  Anyway, on with the story and away from boring not needed details like this sentence.  I noticed that I really could not see the road in front of me, outside of the few times I crossed the path of a street light or a porch light.  The rest of the time, I was just running in the general direction of the road towards the lights I could see in the distance.

It struck me how much this is like life.  We spend so many parts of our life not really sure of the road we are on, not able to clearly see what lies right in front of us, but we continue pushing onward, towards the light, towards the hope that lies out there, trusting that the road will be there.

I have recently added a few Fireflight songs to my playlist and this reminds me of the lyrics of their song Unbreakable

Sometimes it’s hard to just keep going
But faith is moving without knowing
Can I trust what I can’t see to reach my destiny?

and later in the song

Forget the fear it’s just a crutch
That tries to hold you back
And turn your dreams to dust
All you need to do is just trust

Even as I approached my house I could see the faint outline of the porch light reflecting off my mailbox, but I could not make out the house, or bushes around it.  I was hoping there was not a huge coyote or man eating night stalking creature in the shadows.

But that’s us.  Pushing forward, trusting, moving with faith, uncertain of  the road, but certain of the destination.

13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 (New International Version)

Keep your focus today!  Stay strong, and keep running!

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Boys of Fall

Forrest GreggI am sure most of you have heard Kenny Chesney’s new song Boys of Fall.  Last night, we watched the ESPN documentary that aired Sunday by the same name.  Maybe some of you watched the program as well.  If you have every played football, or been a fan of football, I am sure you will want to try to catch that show. Although I tried my hand at the gridiron in junior high, I was too skinny and slow to be effective as a football player and moved on to other endeavors.

But that is not today’s point.  This documentary is filled with interviews with great names from football’s past and present – from Joe Namath to Peyton Manning.  The part, however, that I found very interesting was when a few of the coaches talked about the impact of tradition and history.  Phil Fulmer even said, that when you are out there and its fourth and one and you think of all of the other guys that have worn the orange and white before you that it makes you get that extra yard, that it makes you dig deeper and find a way.  Sound familiar?

So that and the whole concept that was being discussed that football was a microcosm of life led me to think about our lives of faith.  We understand in football why the tradition has an impact on the current players.  We understand the team aspects, the ‘no holds bared’ way of fighting on the gridiron.  So can we take that same approach to our spiritual lives?  Maybe Paul, or whoever wrote Hebrews, was a football coach on the side?  He delivers a pretty good locker room speech in Hebrews 12 that sounds a lot like some of the talk on Chesney’s show:

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.  4In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”  Hebrews 12:1-6 (New International Version)

Think about all of those who have followed Christ before you, those who have led the way, and take encouragement from them today.  You can hang in there, even when its fourth and one.

Hm, maybe life is a big football game?