MY DAD

My dad is very sick with cancer and other complications. I have found a flight for next week and will be leaving on Monday to go be with him for a couple of weeks. Due to this I am suspending my blogging for the next few weeks. I am apologize to those of you who read my blog regularly. I will get back on schedule when I get back from Texas. Thanks for your patience and your prayers.

Jack

755 THE NATURAL RECORD; NO CHEMICALS ADDED

Late last year J. P. Hayes was in the preliminary round of the PGA “Q School” qualifying tournament. This is a grueling process where the top players go on to the final round and then the top 25 are given their tour card to play on the PGA tour for 2009. He was in great shape to move to the final round a few weeks later. Only then did he realize that he not only used a different ball on the 12^th hole of the first round, for which he assessed himself a two shot penalty, but also that the ball was illegal for use in PGA tour events. No one knew. Not even his caddy. He was in the clear. But he knew. He called the tournament officials and disqualified himself for using a nonconforming ball in the tournament. In doing so he lost potentially millions of dollars in prize money and endorsement. He did not however lose his self respect and the respect of golfers around the world. This is not a new phenomenon in golf. Bobby Jones called a 1 stroke penalty against himself in the 1925 US Open. That stroke ended up sending him to a playoff which he lost. When praised for his honesty and sportsmanship Jones replied, “You might as well praise me for not robbing banks.”

Such honesty and integrity have made the game of golf what it is today. Whether you like it or not, golf is the only sport where it is not ok to lie until you get caught. Soccer players dive, tennis players argue with the linesmen, and football linemen devise new ways to hold their opponents without getting caught. It is all a sad commentary on our “ends justifies the means” culture in sports today. It is sad because our children watch their heroes and imitate their actions. “I love me some me,” says Terrell Owens. We wonder why our kids do not understand the importance of teamwork and fairness. Charles Barkley said years ago that he was not a role model for anyone’s kids. He was trying to elude that responsibility and put the onus back on parents. I understand what he was trying to do but now that he has had his own gambling and alcohol problems maybe he would admit that he has more influence than he formerly realized. Recently Michael Phelps was caught smoking pot. Now he is contrite and asking for forgiveness. What about the kids who see that picture of him sucking on a bong and go out and do the same thing? He has his millions already. What about the lives that will be ruined that follow his example? They have no millions to fall back on.

Today a sports figure is counted a hero if they admit their fault. Just this week Alex Rodriguez admitted his use of steroids when he was with the Texas Rangers in 2001 through 2003. He did so only after being caught. What kind of integrity and strength does it take to admit you’re wrong after you have been caught? Years ago Ervin Johnson was hailed as a courageous hero after he made public his medical condition. The fact that he was promiscuous and irresponsible was not even brought up. He admitted his lack of discipline and integrity only after it was going to become public anyway. Is this really a hero? John McEnroe used to argue calls on the tennis court, not because they were incorrect but because that gave him an edge. He was able to rest, keep his opponent off guard, break his opponent’s momentum, and change the focus of the match. None of this is within the spirit of the rules of tennis.

When I was a kid, I idolized baseball players. I slept with my glove in the bed with me. I memorized the stats on baseball cards and read books about the greats of the game. Now we have Alex Rodriguez, who is only the latest in a long line of shame, who have tarnished the great game that I used to love. Andy Petit, Jason Giambi, Raphael Palmeiro, and soon Miguel Tejada are just a few of the players to come contritely before the public and admit their guilt. They did this only AFTER they were caught. Even Pete Rose admitted his guilt of gambling on baseball. This finally occurred years later when he wanted publicity to sell his latest book. What kind of guts does all of this take? I’ll tell you what kind. NONE. It takes no guts to ask for leniency and forgiveness after you have been caught cheating. We would not consider such a request in academics or the business world, but we are supposed to accept it from the sports world. I grew up with a simply childish saying as I played sports: “Cheaters never win and winners never cheat.” You can call me naive but I believe that even today. Does that mean that we cannot forgive? Of course not. Does it mean that sports figures can never make a mistake? Of course not. It just means that when they do, there should be consequences. Those consequences should be fair and consistent. We should not hold up as heroic feats of integrity, admitting what you have already been caught at doing.

I remember as a kid, watching Hank Aaron hit his 715^th homerun to pass Babe Ruth for the all time lead in homeruns. Aaron, who started his career in the Negro Leagues and dealt with the ugliness of the racism of the time, handled himself with class and dignity. In 1974 as I watched him round those bases in that famous homerun trot, I felt that I had witnessed something special and historical. Hank Aaron is a true baseball hero. Barry Bonds, who recently passed Aaron’s milestone of 755 homeruns, is mired in controversy over his continued denials of his use of performance enhancing drugs (cheating). Mr. Bonds may end up in jail after all has been said and done. Do Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez, et al belong in the hall of fame? Should their records stand? I think the Olympics have it right. If a person is caught cheating, their records are expunged and their medals are returned. In the Olympics, if a person on a team is caught cheating, the whole team is disqualified. If other sports took this hard line, things would change. If it meant that championships and records were going to be lost, you can bet that the players themselves would make sure that no one on their team cheated.

Thanks to Mr. Hayes, I am going to be watching a whole lot more golf and a whole lot less baseball. When J. P. Hayes does get to the PGA tour (and he will because he is a great golfer) he has a big fan in me waiting for him. I say that the real homerun record belongs to Hank Aaron at 755 homeruns. 755 the natural record; no chemicals added.

THE BOTTOM LINE OF BEING A DISCIPLE

Do you remember being in love? I’m talking about the crazy goofy silly “in love.” The kind where you do not want to be the first to hang up the phone or the one who finally ends the date. What do you do in those times? You do things for the other person that you love because you are walking “in love.” Therefore everything you do is motivated by and colored by that love. They are not things that you are trained to do. You simply do them because you are in love. Unfortunately those intense feelings wear off. They have to or we would not be able to function correctly. What should not wear off are the actions that love induces. Those actions continue to build the love over time until it is greater than you ever could have imagined when you were “in love.”

Remember when you first got saved? When you realized what a sinful person you were and how wonderful and gracious God is? You did not need someone to tell you to pray. You just prayed; all the time. You did not need a class on the importance of Bible study. You carried it with you and read it every time you go the chance. You were at the church every time the doors were opened. You looked for opportunities to share your faith with others. Why? Because you had the zeal of the newly converted. You loved God so much and you were so grateful to Him for what He did for you. Over time those feelings fade as we spend more time as a disciple of Christ. Unfortunately too many of us have accepted as normal the diminishing actions as the feelings diminish.

Once I met a Pastor who was lamenting this very phenomenon in his church. He led a church that was had a preponderance of retired folks. The church was in a wonderful location and had great potential for reaching their urban community with the Gospel. The Pastor shared that the vast majority of the ministry was actually carried out by the younger families in the church. These families often had little time due to the raising of young children and working to make a living. So most of the work was done by those who were least equipped to do it. The older folks in the church had no interest in teaching Sunday School, being Deacons and Elders, leading in outreach, or even participating in many of the ministries of the church.

“I’ve done my time. Let someone else do it,” was their sentiment when asked by the Pastor or others to be a part of the ministry of that church. Even though they had the time, money, wisdom, and resources they were unwilling to use those because they had lost their vision of being a disciple.

Paul told the church at Colossae that they should continue to do the works that they did when they first came to know Christ:

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6-7)

Galatians 3:11 also says that the just shall live by faith. Therefore, if we are going to be disciples, we need to continue in those things that were a part of our lives as we walked in faith as a new believer. Jesus is our life source. He is the one that guides our steps and builds our faith. We have to be committed to the actions of a disciple that build our faith so that it can be firmly root and built up in Him.

How do you build a muscle? Do you go to the gym once a week and reflect on your past glories as you go through the motions of working out? That is a feeble attempt and yields poor results. No, when you want to build a muscle you work it every day. You begin to eat correctly so that you allow into your life the things that build the muscle and avoid those things that hamper such growth. Though you often cannot see the progress, each day your muscle becomes stronger and stronger, bigger and bigger. Do you always WANT to go to the gym? No way! But you go anyway because you are committed to building that muscle. Over time your efforts pay off. There are no short cuts and no easy fixes, just hard work over a long period of time.

That is a picture of discipleship. So many of us have convinced ourselves that as long as we show up at church on Sunday we are walking in faith. Not true. We have to incorporate the things of God in our lives daily (Luke 9:23). We have to allow in the things that build our faith and avoid those that hamper its growth. We also have to exercise our faith. That means that we are not just people who believe who happen to do some things. It means that we are people who do everything we do “by faith.” As we exercise our faith, our faith grows and we begin to be the disciples that God wants us to be.

As a man who has been married for over twenty years, I remember what it was like to be “in love.” Though it was wonderful, I would not trade it for the loving, intimate relationship that I have with my wife now. I hope I never get to the point where I accept that it is ok for me not to do those things that I did for her when we were on that emotional high. Why? Because I love her. I also remember what it was like to be a new Christian at the age of twenty five. I am going to work hard to make sure that I do not get to the point where I accept that it is ok for me not to do those things I did when I first got saved. If I am going to be the disciple that He wants me to be, then as I received my Lord Jesus Christ, I must also walk in Him. That is the bottom line of being a disciple.