Are you ready for some football?

 Welcome back to unseen.  Sorry for the delay.  This time the problem was not technical difficulties, but working like a dog.  I have several coworkers out sick, so the load has been heavy. 
     Football playoffs are winding to a conclusion and we had Thanksgiving day with lots and lots of football. In honor of this, today's post is about the lessons we can learn from the gridiron. It also honors my uncle, Greg Sherwood, who was an amazing coach.

Are you Ready For Some Football?

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 1 Cor. 9:25

In West Texas football is not a game.  It is a way of life.  My family lived it, too. My dad seldom missed a high school game in our town, unless it was to go to see my uncle coach a high school game in another town. Greg was a phenomenal coach, and his 23-year coaching record was 174-64-2. Coaching was not a job to him. It was a ministry. He used the time on the field to teach much more about life than he did about football. Nothing could get in the way of Dad getting to football games. One night he had left with my grandmother to go to a game, and my brother and I were home with Mom. The phone rang after they had been gone about 15 minutes, and this is the conversation that took place.

     DAD: “Stella, you need to bring me the other car. I am out by the pizza place.”

     MOM: “Why? What’s wrong?

     DAD: “Well, I am sitting here watching this one burn, and I have to get to the ballgame.”

      MOM: “OK, I’ll be there in 5 minutes.”

            There are spiritual lessons to be learned from football. In football there are two teams. Each team has an opponent, a coach, a goal and a group of cheerleaders. There are rules and there are rewards.  The same things are true in our Christian lives.

 We as believers are a team.  We must work together to win.  Many verses speak to this idea, but one that comes immediately to mind is Galatians 6:2. Bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. We definitely have an opponent, and he is not just playing. According to John 10:10, he comes to steal, kill and destroy.  In 1 Pet 5:8 he is described as a lion seeking whom he may devour.  We have a coach or a leader in God.  Our goal is to bring salvation, restoration and healing to others.(2 Cor. 5:18, Mark 16:15, James 5)  In Hebrews 11, the writer describes the great cloud of witnesses cheering us on.  Yes, there are rules to be followed. Some people get focused on the rules and forget the goal, and some people forget the rules and focus on the goal of eternal life. Think how this would work in football. Suppose one team decided they were going to get a touchdown regardless of how many people got hurt or run over. Another team might get so interested in following each rule to the letter that they never got around to scoring or found any joy in the game.  It takes a balance of both, in football and in life.  As a reward in football, a team will receive a trophy, a write up in the newspaper, and fame. As Christians, we are promised a crown of life. This is what we read in 1 Cor. 9:24-25

 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in     such a way as to get the prize.  Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

            God meets us where we are and teaches us from the things we understand.  Like Uncle Greg did with his players and coaches, take the lessons from the gridiron and use them every day. The most meaningful thing Greg ever did for me was to send me a telegram when I went to state track meet. It said, “We are all the same. We all have arms, legs, eyes, ears and a head. The difference is in the heart.”

Operation

Welcome to Unseen today.  Living unseen is difficult. For those in caregiver roles, it can be especially difficult.  We need help but are reluctant to accept it, either from God or others.  Read on for a lesson from the operating room.

Operation

Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

 

            A man is going in for an operation. The nurses start IVs and clean the incision site. The transport aides move the man onto the gurney and begin rolling him down the hall. His wife follows, holding his hand. They reach a pair of swinging doors and she kisses him and goes to the waiting room. Inside the operating room, the doctors and nurses perform a well-rehearsed symphony in the sterile environment. They move together with few words needed, each one doing his or her part to complete the operation efficiently and safely. In the waiting room, the wife prays and waits. She fidgets and paces. She drinks coffee and chews her nails. Finally she gets up and when someone runs out of the operating suite she pushes her way in. She comes up behind the doctor doing the surgery and says, “Do you need some help? I think the incision is too big. Are you sure those stiches are going to hold? They look a little long. You know, while you’re in there can you do some liposuction? Why are you taking so long?”

            What would you do if you were the doctor? You had gone to school for years. You had practiced your skills. Here was a woman coming into your sterile, safe environment, bringing germs, advice and demands. We would never do that, would we? Unless it is to God. Do you have a loved one that God is working on? Perhaps it is a stubborn teen or a family member or friend opening a heart to God. How hard is it to sit in the waiting room and let God do His job? God informed me that my job while He was working on my loved ones is to pray, sing praises and love them. I would much rather tell God how He should hurry and suggest things He could fix while He is at it.

            I love and hate the verse in Isaiah that says, “Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31) I love it because it reminds me that God is faithful. I hate it because it is so hard to wait.  I am a good West Texas girl and was taught to pull myself up by my own bootstraps, even if I don’t have any boots. I have to rely not only on God, but on friends who bear each other’s burdens. The waiting room is a hard place to be.  If that is where you are, take courage. The Great Physician has your loved one in His mighty hands. If you are not there now, you probably have been and can bear someone’s burden.

 

 

Welcome to Unseen today. Pray for the return of the guest bloggers. This has been an up and down week in many aspects. I have dealt with some disappointments and decided that God and I were not communicating well. (Translation, he did not do what I wanted). Read on for what I learned.

Interpreter

The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. Rom 8:26

            I have a friend who is hard of hearing. Sometimes she does pretty well at understanding what people say to her. When she is close to them and there is not a lot of extra noise, she can usually get the message. However, if she is in a noisy environment or she can’t see the speaker well, she needs help. She has good coping and social skills and can usually “fake it” even when she misses the message. Because we have been together a lot, I can recognize the look of confusion and uncertainty underneath the proper social responses.  I have often interpreted for her. I translate what the speaker is saying into sign language for her. She can understand and be sure to get the message. This is very important when you are dealing with doctors or attending a seminar. I also interpret for her at church, which can be difficult because of the complex nature of sermons and the length. She enjoys the signed music, especially. I am able to interpret for her because I understand both what the speaker is saying and the language that she can use to make sense of it.

            We are all like my friend in some ways. We come to church and we know the right movements to make and the right words to say. We know when to sing and when and how to take communion, but when it comes to communicating with God we are at a loss. This can be true in talking to God and hearing from him. We may read the word or hear a sermon and on our own we cannot make sense of it. Also, when we pray we may be unable to think of what to say. I have sat in my “thinking chair” and said, “God I don’t have any idea what I need to ask for.”  For example, when my dad was so sick, there was a point where even though I believed God could heal him of the physical ailments, I didn’t know if it would be compassionate for him to be well but live with the confusion and loss he had experienced. Sometimes I have been so hurt that all I could do was to sit in His presence and cry. You know, not only is he OK with that, He has already provided the solution.

            Jesus tried to explain this to the apostles before He died. In John 14:26, He said, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” He does the same thing today for us.  He translates what we hear into a form that we can use to understand it. For me, one way he does this is through the use of analogies like this. Then in Rom 8:26, we read this: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”

            God loves us so much and wants to have relationship with us. He didn’t just say, “Find Me if you can!” He left us a map (the Bible) a guide (Jesus) and an interpreter (the Holy Spirit). Realize that we have these tools and use them. I can’t wait to see what treasures we will find when we get there, especially the treasure of being in the presence of the living God.

Evidence

Welcome to Unseen today. As difficult as it is to live unseen, it gives us a rare opportunity to be witnesses and a force for good. Read on for some thoughts on being a witness.

Evidence

Explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and {saying,} "This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ." Acts 17:5

    Lights flash. Sirens scream. The camera pans the area and than zooms in on the back of a jacket. CSI. I love to watch them solve baffling crimes based on evidence they collect. Suspects are caught and victims are avenged.

    What about our lives? What is the evidence that we have been with Jesus? Let me suggest a few things. See if you could be convicted. People are often convicted because they are placed at the scene. Are we found in the places Jesus would be? I don't just mean in church either. Jesus tells the story of the people who come before God. One group he dismisses, saying depart from me, and I never knew you. The other group he welcomes, making mentions of the times that fed him, visited him, and gave him a drink. "When did we do these things?"They questioned him and he said, "As much as you have done it to the least of those you have done it to me." If we are about the business of ministry to the least of these, we may be convicted of being with Jesus.

    Sometimes suspects are convicted because of clothes they have been wearing. What do we wear? In baptism we put on Christ. We also, according to Isaiah have received the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. To stand against the enemy we must put on the whole armor of God.

    Many time the crimes is solved by blood found at the scene. There is nothing more powerful than the blood of Jesus. When we are “washed in the blood”, as the old song says, we needed forgiveness. Once we received forgiveness, we are able to pass it on to others. Once we receive love, we are able to give it. Love and forgiveness are not natural and stand out, evidence of blood splatter in our lives.

    It is tempting to walk in fear and not show our faith. When we have been with God, though, it is evident. When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai, his face glowed. We need to stand against our fear and share Jesus. A lost world needs our conviction.

Cree's Tree

Welcome to unseen today. Living Unseen requires getting our resources from reliable sources, even in hard times. Read on to see a lesson from an unusual place.

Cree’s Tree

He will bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. Is 61:3

The Texas Panhandle is a desolate place in many ways. The first settlers said that there was no way that trees could grow there.  Houses were usually dugouts or sod houses called soddies. The stereotype that Texans are bullheaded has its roots in fact. In 1888, a settler named Thomas Cree and his wife came to West Texas after working on the railroad. Since there were no trees for wood, they built a dugout. His wife wanted a tree, so he drove 35 miles in a wagon to get a sapling. He decided that for her sake he would get a tree to survive, by George. He watered it from a lake he dug from a buffalo wallow and it lived for many years, through blizzards and droughts. Although it has since died, in 1963 the governor dedicated a historical marker there, celebrating the first tree in the Panhandle. What was the secret of Cree’s Tree, as it is known? In a word, roots. What the early settlers did not know is that deep under the prairie grasses and dust ran an underground river. It is known as the Ogallala Aquifer, which I still find fun to say out loud.

The Bible has a lot to say about trees. In Psalms 1, we read this about the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord;

He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Psalms 1:3.

Isaiah says that we are the trees of righteousness planted by the Lord for the display of His splendor. (61:3) The parable of the sower compares different types of soil that seeds grow in the seed that fell in the shallow soil grew up quickly but because it did not have deep roots, it died quickly too. The seed that fell on the good soil took root, grew strong and multiplied thirty, sixty, or even a hundredfold.

I have mentioned before that I grew up in a family “well-versed” in the word of God. (Pun intended.) From my earliest days I was taught stories and memory verses. They took root and my faith has held trough the wind storms and drought in my life. This is what I hope for you. Water your seeds of faith with prayer, study and fellowship. Take heart when God prunes off dead leaves in your life. Take joy in being a tree of righteousness created to display God’s splendor.

               

Friendship

Welcome to Unseen today. Today's post is a two-for-one. A very dear friend of mine died this last week. He was Unseen, suffering from chronic illness and depression, and was one of my earliest supporters. Friendship is critical in living unseen, but it is hard to let ourselves be vulnerable. I have included a story about two friends who were priceless, and also a tribute to my friend.

Two of a Kind

Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God through Christ has forgiven you. Eph. 4:32

            I had two precious little aunts. They were roommates in college and never lived more than a mile apart after that. They used to sing together on the radio in the days of the Stamps Baxter Quartet.  They were as different as chalk and cheese, but they loved each other dearly. Lita owned a variety store for many years and had a passion for Christian education, music and loving people. She never had children so she borrowed everyone else’s. If you were in Dallas and needed a place to stay for the night, the weekend, the summer or the semester, Lita’s house was always open. Mildred was an accountant and just as passionate. She had a glass eye because of an accident. One weekend she and Lita were staying with my grandparents in Amarillo. I was about 7 or 8. I had gone into her bedroom to look for something. I don’t remember what I was looking for, but I remember what I found. THE GLASS EYE! It was sitting in a bowl on the nightstand. I never again went in a room where she was sleeping. 

            When Lita and Mildred were in their 50’s, they decided to help take care of a widower at their church. Mildred thought he would be a great match for Lita and did her best to arrange it. Unfortunately, Lita had been left at the altar when she was 18 and wasn’t interested in being matched again. Despite Mildred’s best efforts, Claude fell in love with her and not Lita. They were married 19 years before he died.

            Too much togetherness brings trouble. Lita and Mildred would come to Austin for Thanksgiving. They often got lost and would come in fussing at each other about whose fault it was. There was one surefire way to stop any argument between them. Someone would say, “Come on. Let’s hear you two sing.” They would put their arms around each other and by the end of the song they had forgotten they were ever mad. How much we can learn from them.

            It is easy for us to get offended. It may be something as simple as arguing over whose fault it is that we got lost. Offenses and fights start with the littlest things.  Unfortunately, if we have not learned the secret of forgiveness, we can let them fester and grow into disagreements that sever relationships. How many arguments do you have with your family members that you later realized were silly? Two that stand out in my family were about leaving twist ties off of the bread bag and cutting butter off at a 45 degree angle instead of straight.  It is unfortunately easier to get offended and upset by someone you love because you care about what they think.  If a stranger took me to task about twist ties I would just think they had gone round the bend.  It is not just individuals that are at risk either. I have known of churches that split because of disagreements over the color of the carpet installed or which songbook was the “right” one.  Knowing how vital fellowship is to our spiritual survival, how sad that it is so often broken over trivial issues.  The enemy uses strife and dissension to his great advantage.  If we are busy fighting each other, we don’t have the energy left to fight him. 
            As we see in Ephesians 4:32, we need to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, “If you are bringing your gift to the altar and remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift at the altar and go be reconciled.” The book of Proverbs is full of advice on dealing with resentment and strife, including Prov. 17:1, which says, “Better is a crust of bread with contentment than great feasting with strife.”  Since there are so many verses about this issue, God knew that it is a big issue for us. The secret that Lita and Mildred found was the idea that God, through Christ, has forgiven us.  That makes all the difference in being able to forgive each other. Sometimes I can picture Jesus walking up to them in heaven, putting His arms around them and saying, “Come on! Let’s hear you two sing.”

Tribute

My heart is heavy with the loss of one that I held dear,

One that I could laugh with and also shed a tear.

He said I was God's precious child and I shoul never fear

And though he's gone I know that this one thing is clear

 

His voice that had been silent is lifted up in praise

With all the saints and angels, a glorious song they raise

On legs, now strong and whole again he's walking streets of gold

Clear eyes are filled with wonders which here cannot be told.

 

God captured him with stubborn love and saved him by His grace

And now he can at last see his saviour face to face

He would not want my heart to break but rather look ahead

To that day I will join him and my loved ones, alive, not dead.

Flyaway

Welcome to Unseen. When we live unseen, either as caregivers or as people with chronic conditions, we are in special need of the traits discussed today -, strength, balance and courage. Read on for today's insights.

Flyaway

 

 Exd 15:2 The LORD [is] my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He [is] my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and I will exalt Him.

 

The Olympics were a thrill to watch. People enjoyed the Fab Five and the way they bounced and twisted their way to gold medals.  I also love to watch my teenager compete in gymnastics. He has come a long way in a short time.  It takes three things to excel in gymnastics – strength, balance and courage. It requires tremendous upper body strength to support your weight, and even more to support your weight while twisting and turning. Balance is a key part in all the events. As exciting as the flips and handsprings are to watch, the slow, deliberate moves are just as impressive. Balance beam comes to mind, of course, with girls executing intricate moves on a surface less than 4 inches wide.  When it comes down to it, all the strength and balance in the world are useless without the courage to put them to work.  My son says that he is completely capable of doing a handstand on the parallel bars but that it is terrifying to look down and see the floor six feet away.  There is one particular move on the high bar called a flyaway. This move involves working up momentum by swinging and then letting go of a perfectly good bar to go hurtling through the air backwards. I confess that I watch through parted fingers while holding my breath. Fortunately for the athletes, and the parents, there are coaches, spotters and mats to increase safety.

In life we also need strength, balance and courage to be successful. In West Texas we are notorious for “pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps”. We are self-reliant which makes it hard to rely on God.  God understood this and addressed it. The word strength is mentioned 230 times in the Bible. God does not endorse bootstrap pulling. Many of the verses follow this theme;

 Psa 18:2 The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Exd 15:2 The LORD [is] my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He [is] my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and I will exalt Him.

2Cr 12:10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

It is actually a little scary to get our strength from God either because we feel unworthy or because we have to let go of control. It is much more effective than relying on ourselves, though.
             
                Jesus is our example when it comes to balance. In Luke 2:52 we are told he grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and Man.  When things got chaotic in his ministry, He was able to go and be alone with God. I am not sure if it is a function of our society or just our human nature, but balance is so difficult to find. We have to make the effort, though.
                Courage is where I often fall short.  Peter gets a bad rap, but he is the only disciple who got out of the boat and walked on the water. Many times when God asks me to do something, I am afraid to start. I may be afraid that I will fail and I may be afraid that I will succeed.  A good example is when I started writing in earnest.  I have mentioned before that I had seven really good reasons that I should not  or could not write a book and almost as many why I couldn’t write a blog.  Yet here we are, 3 years and two books later. Honestly much harder than letting God take care of my stuff is letting God take care of my loved ones’ stuff. Just like I watch the flyaway stunt with parted fingers and held breath, I watch my sons take flight in their lives the same way. What if they fall? What if they can’t get up? What if they don’t need me anymore? Well, they have fallen some. I watched my older son fall hard into addiction and rage, but God was faithful and caught him in the safety mat of grace and the Holy Spirit. My younger son has had different and less visible struggles, but God has been faithful to him too.
                Let God and His joy be your strength. Keep your life balanced as much as you can and have the courage to let go of your perfectly good bar. You can trust God to keep you and your loved ones safe in His grace and love.