Its a Game!

I want to state up front that I am a diehard University of Kentucky fan. My DNA was infected by Big Blue Madness at birth. You can blame my parents on that one. I’m old enough to recall former Cat greats like, Dan Issel, Kevin Grevey, Jack “Goose” Givens, Kyle Macy, Melvin Turpin, Sam Bowie and Kenny “Sky” Walker.

One of my favorite childhood memories is my Dad taking me to Louisville’s Freedom Hall to watch the Cats practice late during the Baron’s (Adolph Rupp) tenure as head coach.

I don’t know how many Kentucky basketball games I’ve watched since about 1968-69, but it’s been a busload. I’ve enjoyed the highs (1978, Pitino’s run, Tubby’s first title and Cals freshman phenoms) and the lows (Sutton and Gillespie years) of the storied program. Big Blue Nation has some incredible fans and like any other school, we have our share of those who blindly worship these flawed and imperfect, human players and coaches. The other day I heard a UK fan call in a national radio show and state that if UK was playing his church basketball team he would cheer for the Cats! And there was a recent report of a fan who was offering to sell his wife on CraigsList in exchange for tickets to the Final Four! Yes, that’s for real.

The Kentucky-Louisville Final Four matchup Saturday night is better than anyone could’ve dreamed. Two extremely competitive coaches. A major in-state rivalry and blue chip talent on both teams. State pride and season bragging rights is huge in my native Commonwealth. A season long, top ranked program versus a late bloomer peaking at tournament time is a prescription for major attention. If you are a baseball fan it’s the Red Sox & Yankees. If you are a football fan it’s Clemson v.s. South Carolina, or Alabama v.s. Auburn. However, at the end of the day, it’s just a game! Okay I’ve said it.

Reality check----there is more to life than football or basketball! Trust me, on the backside of chemo and radiation treatments you realize that sports (those we play and those we follow as fans) are not about life and death despite media attempts to prove otherwise. Remember, it’s big business to the networks regardless of which teams win. They are games. The alignment of the planets and the rising of the sun isn't dependent on the outcome of Saturday’s game. Win, or lose, the sun will come up on Sunday, grass will grow, flowers will bloom and life will somehow find a way to move on. That said, I pity anyone in the Bluegrass state who planned a wedding, or scheduled elective surgery this week. You might find a pastor willing to do the wedding at half-time, or a surgeon who will operate as long as the game broadcast will be on in the operating room. Doubtful though.

As a Butler University alum I know exactly what it’s like to lose the biggest game on the national stage, not once, but twice in back to back years! It’s not a great feeling, but guess what? Life moved on. A tumor and surgery popped up between those games. Cancer treatments, a child’s wedding, and the birth of a grandchild. Now those are important things. Just like those battling divorce, losing a job, or struggling with an awol teenager. The game of basketball serves an important role in the midst of all this life junk though. Like a great flick, it takes our minds away from the all too serious side of life. It lightens our load. It puts the focus on something other than disease, disappointment, heartache and pain. It takes us high in the joy of victory and low in the agony of defeat. But when it’s over, it’s just a game, even one of national proportions.

So Saturday night, as I cheer for my beloved Cats, and believe they will get by Pitino’s boys for the second time this season, I have no doubt that I am going to sleep soundly when my head hits the pillow. I’m not going to burn a couch in my yard if we win, or hang myself if we lose. I’m going to smile and thank God that were it not for His amazing grace instead of watching a “game” I might be spending the night hunkered down with my family in a dark, moldy and muddy Syrian shack as my own government drops bombs on my town and shoots its own citizens. Now there’s some perspective!

And by the way, dare I risk saying something sacrilegious to diehard Cat fans? Okay, here goes: God could care less about the outcome of Saturday's game. His glory is greater than either school, coach and their players. Somehow I think He is far more concerned about the hurting, hungry, imprisoned, widows, orphans and the broken than He is championship banners and trophies. That said, Go CATS!

Feeling Unholy Heading Into a Holy Week

I don’t know about you, but the Lenten season nearly always reminds me how far away I am from God. The period of reflection and soul searching is necessary, but often painful. I see my life and what Christ has for those who follow Him and I realize how often I settle for so much less.

Holy Week is rapidly approaching and my Lenten journey has exposed just how unholy I am. These 40 days of self-examination and consecration have revealed my all too human flaws. I find myself identifying with the disciples who fell asleep, not once, but twice when Jesus asked them to stay awake as He prayed the prayer of His life in the garden. (Matthew 26:36ff) Sure on this side of the Resurrection we all would like to say, “Well I would’ve stayed awake!”

Really? How many times have I fallen asleep, dropped the ball, or let Jesus down? Too many to count. How many times have I read the passage of Peter’s trifecta denial of Christ on the night He needed Him most and thought to myself: How could he? I would never abandon my Lord. And yet, I wish it were only three times like Peter. And look at all He accomplished for Christ after the Resurrection. He lived up to Christ’s restoration and carried the banner of faith unto the death of a martyr.

Now the rub. My sin and yours put Jesus on that Cross and yet, He didn’t flinch, defend, or deny. He was faithful to the end. He was an innocent lamb led to the slaughter. Driven by God’s love He did for humanity what we are incapable of doing for ourselves. He bought our freedom from sin.

As I reflect on all of this, I realize how desperate I am for Easter! We are all desperate for it. Easter grace is Jesus restoring Peter not once, but three times! (John 21)

We enter Holy Week on Sunday (4/1) and as much as I’m looking forward to its climax on Easter Sunday, I realize how much I need to dig into the Passion narratives of the Gospels and soak up every moment of that week, even the horror of that no Good Friday. I need to be reminded that one moment His followers hailed Him as King, but by weeks end they were nowhere to be found and worse, yelling, “Crucify!" I need to stand at the foot of the Cross like the Roman soldier and declare, “Truly this was the son of God." I need and want to go through that week with a longing in my heart for grace, the grace of Easter. So I remain, a flawed, imperfect trophy of God’s grace through Christ heading into the most Holy Week, but feeling like the most unholy of people.

March Madness Baby!

It’s March Madness! The time of year when people from Kansas to Kentucky, and Tobacco Road to the East and West fill out their brackets and stay glued to college basketball. Over the next few weeks we will see the highs and lows of tournament play. Digger, Herbert, Bilas, Vitale, Lunardi, Timmy B., and Raftery will keep us appraised of the latest movers and shakers. From Cinderella’s to the big guns it’s all there.

For those of us who grew up in basketball states it doesn’t get any better. For us this is a major bowl, the World Series and a Super Bowl all rolled into one. For every kid like me, who grew up playing basketball on a grass court with a backboard on the side of the house, to kids playing in city parks, or taking shots at a goal on the back of a barn, this is what it’s all about.

Can’t wait until the Final Four and CBS’ finale music and video tribute, “One Shining Moment”. Good luck to your team and remember, on any given night it can happen. Let’s be humble winners and gracious losers. All right where’s the remote control?

Okay so I’m going with UNC, KY, OSU and Michigan State to the Final Four. We will see how long that lasts and I will probably regret not taking Mizzou, or Kansas! Go Cats.

Don't Mess With Her Cubs!

(Photo by Pam Spaulding, The Louisville Courier Journal 3/6)

There is nothing like the tenacious love of a mother. Not even Mother Nature can trump the protective love of a mother looking out for her cubs. Consider the story of mother and two-time tornado survivor, Stephanie Decker. Peter Smith of the Louisville Courier Journal writes:

Stephanie Decker, the Clark County mother who lost parts of both of her legs when she shielded her children Friday from the tornado debris that had been her house, said Tuesday she was determined “to take the hit and not my daughter or my son.” Decker described her extraordinary ordeal in vivid detail in a University Hospital press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

She had huddled with her two children in her family’s basement on Henryville-Otisco Road in an outlying area of Henryville during Friday’s massive tornado outbreak.

She was reluctant to call herself a hero, but her husband, Joe Decker, didn’t hesitate. Because of her, “I’ve got my kids,” he said. As if on cue, her son Dominic, 8, and daughter Reese, 5, entered the small conference room where their mother was meeting the press. Reese jumped into her father’s arms, and Dominic held on to his mother’s arm.

Sporting a white Harley Davidson cap, her legs covered with blankets, Stephanie Decker was in good spirits and joked with reporters about how quiet they were before the press conference formally began.

She described two tornadoes — or the same one doubling back — striking the home. As the first approached, she wrapped son Dominic, 8, and daughter Reese, 5, in a comforter.

“It was loud and it kept getting louder,” she said of the first tornado. The house began shaking, debris began caving in and she held her children tight to protect them, she said.

She said a large steel beam landed on her. “I didn’t know I was really hurt until it had stopped,” she said. She made sure both children were unhurt, then saw she had extensive leg injuries and was bleeding heavily; she put the beam back on her leg to staunch the bleeding.

Then a second tornado hit. The memory is “all slow-motion” she said, with bricks and other debris raining on her. After the tornado cleared, she assured her children that “I loved them and I was going to make it.”

Her son ran for help and a neighbor got Reese out of the debris but was unable to get Stephanie out, so they ran for more help.

What a sacrificial act! During Lent this mother's heroic act of self-sacrifice reminds us of another one made for all humanity long ago:

⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of aservant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)

May God help us to be as selfless!

One of the greatest joys of pastoral ministry is going to the hospital for the birth of a child. Much of our time in hospitals is for illness, surgery, and times of uncertainty/pain for families. Some ministers don't enjoy hospital ministry and that's okay. It's just not their sweet spot, but they still do it. I've always enjoyed hospital ministry. I think it comes natural to me because I'm a PK and a nurse's child. It has been a very rewarding part of pastoral ministry for me over the years. I've learned a great deal from patients and medical professionals. It has also been humbling to think that people would allow you to share some of the most intimate, challenging and even uncertain moments of their life with you!

On Monday, these precious treasures from heaven were born to Eric and Dawn, members of our church. Madeline is on the left and big brother (by two minutes) Miles is on the right. For months we have been praying for their arrival and especially for Dawn's health. We give praise to God for a healthy birth and babies! They reek of heaven and the breath of God. What a fragrant smell to those of us so far removed, but longing to return. TGBTG!