Sportscenter

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
-Matthew 5:4

I have this really bad habit. I will turn the television on and start watching a baseball game or Sportscenter, and then walk out of the room and leave my wife having to listen to Stuart Scott screaming on the TV. Let’s just say that it kind of gets on my wife’s nerves a little bit. I really do not do it on purpose, even though she sometimes questions my intent.

Well, it is amazing how God works sometimes. The other night, I am sitting there in my chair watching Sportscenter, disgusted at another Astros loss. So I decide I am going to go check my email to get my mind off of the unfortunate season that the Astros are having us all endure this year. And as you can guess, I leave the TV on for my “sports-crazed” wife to watch.

As I am sitting at the computer I hear my wife call from the other room, and I immediately think, “Oh crap, here it comes. I left it on Sportscenter…again.” But instead she hollers out a question that kind of throws me off guard. “What kind of cancer did that pitcher from Boston have?” I obviously wonder, “Who are you and what have you done with my wife?” I say, “I don’t know but I will definitely find out,” so I immediately started searching all of my frequently visited sports websites for the answer. I would have called the Boston Red Sox clubhouse if it meant having my wife interested in anything dealing with baseball. So of course, my master skills in navigating the World Wide Web produced the answer to her question. Then she asked, “Can you email that article to my work email?” I know what you are thinking, heaven to my ears. “Absolutely,” I quickly responded. Then she explained where this temporary personality switch was coming from. She was going to email the triumphant story to a friend who needed to hear about it.

My wife has a dear friend who is currently battling this demon that we call cancer. And the friend was struggling with the news that Tammy Faye Messner had finally lost her battle with the disease. There wasn’t a TV station that you could turn to that did not have images of the finality of Tammy Faye’s courageous battle, and you can understand why. What a battle it was. So rather than gripe about my leaving her least favorite TV show blaring from the television again, she discovered a way to help lift up a friend. Here is the deal, sometimes God can talk to us from places that we least expect, even Sportscenter. When you choose to become a follower, and you choose to walk through people’s struggles with them, and you choose to carry the light of Jesus through the darkest places, you have to keep your ears open. If my wife was not authentically invested in her friend and the struggles her friend has to live with, that story about the Boston Red Sox pitcher who had made a dramatic return to the big leagues would have sounded like any other baseball story. But when you truly invest in someone with the love that Christ calls us to, you are constantly searching for ways to bring comfort to them in their time of need. All I can hope for is that we may be the instruments of comfort for those who need it.

So now I have a reply to my wife when she asks me why I am watching Sportscenter for the third time in a row, I can just tell her that I just want to make sure that I did not miss something I was suppose to hear. Nah, that wouldn’t work.

Rows of Crosses

Well, we just got back from Washington D.C. It was an awesome experience for someone like me who really gets into history, and the stories that make up the foundation of our great country. Well, everything was awesome except for the flight over and the hotel; but that is another story. Frankly I’m not sure there is enough room here for me to explain everything that happened. But the important thing is we went, had fun, and made it back.

There was a part of the trip that really spoke to me. It was one of those moments that kind of just jumps out at you. It was a day after we walked roughly 6 miles looking at all of the monuments in DC (and there are a lot of monuments), and my wife’s feet were killing her. So we decided to take the mobile tour of Arlington Cemetery. This is one of the places that I had to go see. I have always been intrigued by and studied JFK’s presidency and everything that surrounded it. So one of the must see places in DC was the eternal flame at Kennedy’s grave. It was just an unbelievable moment for me, to read some of his words engraved in the marble surrounding his grave, and diving into the ideals that he was seeking for our country.

But this is not the part that spoke to me. That came while we were riding around the cemetery on the tour train. If you have never been to the Arlington Cemetery, everywhere you look there are rows and rows of crosses. These crosses are aligned in perfect formation for as far as you can see, and each one represents a soldier who represented our country in the military (most having died while in combat). And it just seemed to illustrate one of those Christian beliefs that some people tend to have a little trouble understanding and fully grasping.

See, I didn’t personally know any of those who were laid to rest. Only a few of them did I even know their story. Yet, there they lay. I was able to go to Washington D.C. and walk around the city and ride on the subway and write this blog because of those crosses that fill the grounds there in Arlington. These men and women paid the ultimate sacrifice so that I can enjoy the freedom that I do today, and I didn’t do anything to deserve it. It was not because of how nice I was to any of them, and I cannot do anything now to pay them back. It is a gift that they have already given; it is not something that I have to earn. The only thing I can really do is make sure that this amazing gift was not given in vain.

It all made sense. This amazing gift of grace that has been given by our Savior, it is not something that we can earn. There is no way for us to pay back what has been given to us. We just have to make sure that this gift was not given in vain. We have to do everything within our power to make sure we are living the life that we were called to live, that we are fulfilling the mission we were given by Jesus, that we are continuously spreading His Kingdom where Hell is on this earth. May we live in this freedom that we have been given, and may we do what we can to help others experience that same freedom.