It's been an interesting couple of weeks in the lives of the rich and famous. According to news reports, disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy is expected as early as Thursday to face federal gambling charges. The 40-year old official is suspected of betting on NBA games and giving gamblers inside information.
Tour de France officials insisted yesterday their event will survive its latest crisis and that former race favorite Alexandre Vinokourov's initial positive test for a banned blood transfusion is a sign of health, not fatal illness, in their sport. Vinokourov's positive blood test result came the day of his Stage 13 time-trial win Saturday. After that result, Tour officials immediately demanded that his team, Astana, withdraw. (Boston Globe, July 25th)
Who hasn't heard the reports of NFL star Michael Vick's federal legal woes connected to an alleged dog fighting ring and animal abuses on his property in Virginia. Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank has now weighed in. From The Atlanta Constitution Journal July 25th : Blank said multiple times that the charges levied against Vick-losing dogs were allegedly tortured, shot, hanged, drowned and electrocuted — were repulsive. He tended to follow his rebuke with claims of Vick's presumed innocence, but his angst was on full display. Blank said he's so distressed by the situation and the 18-page indictment that he has wished he were back in Kenya, where he was earlier this month, with the "lions and cheetahs." "I'm honestly very disappointed that Michael has put himself in the circumstances he finds himself in," Blank said. "I'm disappointed for him, for our coaches, players, our fans, our community, all the fans in the National Football League. We have to let this play out and see what the facts develop. I'm certainly disappointed by the circumstances."
Former child actor Lindsay Lohan continues to struggle with growing up. On Tuesday, Santa Monica Police booked her on suspicision of drunken driving and cocaine posessesion. She's been out of rehab for less than two weeks related to another drunken-driving case.
As a diehard animal lover, it would be easy for me to join the media frenzy and public finger-pointing at Vick, Lohan, Vinokourov, and Donaghy, were it not for words written by the Apostle Paul two thousand years ago. Those words stop me in my tracks and remind me that I am no less a sinner. Paul wrote:
...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. (Romans 7:18-20)
I need, crave and routinely ask God for grace. He is not stingy or conservative about dispensing it either. He lavishes it on me. So how can I, someone who professes to be the recepient of such divine grace, withhold it from others, regardless of what they have done to me or others? That would be hypocrisy. I'm not saying we need to condone illegal behavior, drugs and violence that are in direct conflict with God's Word. However, there are other behaviors that are just as conflictive with God's Word and destructive that we routinely dismiss. Things like sarcastic comments toward obese people, or those of us who are follicly-challenged. And don't forget the town gossip, or the professional who won't face his/her racial or social prejudice. You can add the condescending judgmental legalist to the list as well.
I need, crave and routinely ask God for grace. He is not stingy or conservative about dispensing it either. He lavishes it on me. So how can I, someone who professes to be the recepient of such divine grace, withhold it from others, regardless of what they have done to me or others? That would be hypocrisy. I'm not saying we need to condone illegal behavior, drugs and violence that are in direct conflict with God's Word. However, there are other behaviors that are just as conflictive with God's Word and destructive that we routinely dismiss. Things like sarcastic comments toward obese people, or those of us who are follicly-challenged. And don't forget the town gossip, or the professional who won't face his/her racial or social prejudice. You can add the condescending judgmental legalist to the list as well.
While we let the legal process work, instead of trash talking and pointing our fingers, we need to pray for Vick, Lohan, and the Donaghy's of this world. We also need to learn from their mistakes and use them to educate succeeding generations to limit the future repetition of such behavior. But most importantly, we can pray that they will personally discover that none of us has to be a slave to sin and there is something we can do about. We can share the hope that we have. The Apostle Paul again:
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)
If we're going to seek grace then we've got to be willing to extend it to others. This is probably one of the most difficult biblical life applications we can make. Remember Jesus weeping over the spiritual condition of Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday? Perhaps more of us need to weep and toil in prayer for these high profile, but all too human idols our culture holds so high from Hollywood to professional sports.
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