PLAYING 60 MINUTES

College football season began last weekend. Although my beloved Detroit Tigers are still leading the American League's Central Division, creating the potential that MY baseball season could continue until almost November--I was eager for the college season to begin. (I usually give little energy to the pro football season until Thanksgiving--maybe because I root for the pitiful Cleveland Browns).

Twelve noon came on Saturday and my beloved Ohio State Buckeyes met the Navy Midshipmen in Columbus. Now Navy is no pushover--they have had multiple consecutive seasons of 8 plus wins--beaten Notre Dame more than once--and have played several bowl games in recent years. But the Buckeyes were rated no. 6 in the preseason polls (I actually thought that a bit generous) and by half time it looked pretty much like the Buckeyes would end up overpowering Navy. Until Coach Tressel decided to go for it on 4th and one instead of kicking a field goal that would put them three scores ahead. The kick failed. One the next play Navy went straight up the field and into the end zone. In fact, they pretty much had the Buckeyes in the palm of their hands when THEIR coach called a pass play for a 2 point conversion on the second touchdown after OSU's miscue and that was intercepted and returned for a two point conversion for the Buckeyes. The game was then out of reach and Tressell's boys slipped through.

They will have to play a whole lot better if they expect to beat Southern Cal next week in Columbus.

Afterwords Chris Spielman of ESPN said "Navy always plays 60 minutes." Unlike teams who get behind and surrender, Navy--typifying the dedication and determination of their branch of the service--give it everything even if the cause is lost. And sometimes that mean they snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

There's a lesson in there somewhere.

WORKING SMARTER

I published this yesterday on my devotional blog, THRIVING IN CHRIST. Thought the general public might find it interesting as well.

"Whatever you do in word or in deed, do it all in the name of the Lord ...." - Colossians 3:17

I am not always the most efficient worker. Sometimes it takes me twice as long to get something done as I think it should. Many years ago I decided to replace the faucet in our kitchen sink. It had been leaking, much to Dianne's annoyance. It didn't annoy all that much--but when she told me we were wasting money--that motivated me. As a homeowner with little money, I thought, "Go to Sears, buy a faucet, and put it in." So off to Sears I went.

The salesman assured me it would be a simple task. It would take me maybe 30-45 minutes to accomplish. Since I am not much of a handyman, I decided to wait until I had nothing better to do. So one night around nine o'clock I decided to tackle it. First problem, I had to find the wrench needed (I had everything else I needed in the kit.) Once that was located, I started to take off the old faucet, only to find that this required me to get under the sink to do so.

There I found that the depth of our sink did not accommodate my short-handled wrench. I needed a long-handled one. Since I did not own one I went next door to my neighbor's house. Dick WAS a handy man and he had almost every tool imaginable. He had the needed tool. By now I had easily killed the salesman's "30-45 minutes."

Dick followed me home. There I discovered that no amount of effort with new tool would budge the old faucet. "Let's just take the whole sink out," suggested Dick (now we were past the first hour of this project.) That made sense, so we started -- only to discover that the sink was anchored into the cabinetry. Whoever had put the sink in must have feared earthquakes or just had too much time on his hands. He had anchored it in MORE THAN 30 PLACES. Now we had to remove drawers, wedge ourselves into many small place (and did I tell you? Go in search of NEW TOOLS).

Finally, after three hours--we got the sink out, the old faucet removed, the new one replaced and the sink back in place (this time with perhaps a dozen anchor points). Guess what?

You guessed it--the new faucet leaked, as well.

After that I determined that you can work or you can work smarter. There is little satisfaction in work that requires a lot of effort and produces minimal results. And there's no merit in working faster if the job still isn't done right. It's not about the work--it's about the results.

Jesus reminds us that the best results for our work come when we work according to His purposes, following His plans,and doing it to help people honor Him. In the end that is the work that will be effective and whose results will be lasting.

Note: You can access this devotional blog by going to www.drstevesdevotional.blogspot.com This Sunday I am also preaching on this topic at the Church of God of Landisville.

CIVILITY IN CIVIL DISCOURSE

I am disturbed by the way we have racheted up public discussion over issues in our country to the level of harshness that creates even more hardened divisions at a time when a bipartisan approach has become critical to our nation's well-being. If you read the posting by one young man to my August 20 posting of McKnight's comments on
"Obamacare and Political Rhetoric," you will see that Christians (and Christian leaders) are held to a higher standard of attitude and behavior. (This, I might say, is a fair expectation--our Lord holds us to a higher standard.)

Three words from God's Word come to mind in all of this. One is Jesus' words in Matthew 5:16, "let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Just before that he says, "You are the salt of the earth" (salt, in Jesus' day was a preservative and a seasoning.) But I am also reminded that in serving those two functions, too mugh salt is destructive.

The other is Paul's words in Ephesians 4.15 "speak the truth in love." Third are the words of Peter's admonition in I Peter 3.16 about sharing the essentials of our faith and values "with gentleness and respect." The words speak very clearly against the acidity and sometimes outright hatred in the way people engage in civil discourse in America today and are particularly incumbent upon Christians.

BLOGGING

There's a certain arrogance to blogging. You make the assumption that someone out in the world is ready for and in need of your pontifications on some earth-shattering topic. Or maybe there's some insanity because you are positioning yourself for someone to ridicule your ignorance or attack your cherished beliefs. There's some self-promotion because you want people to think you are an expert on something no matter how esoteric or mundane.

But some of us blog because of our creative urges. I, for one, am at my best when I am using the intellect and imagination God has given to help communicate an idea, or paint a picture of life, or bring energy and focus to a vision. When I step out of my every day stuff,I draw myself from the mere maintenance of life to the deepening of my soul. I begin to identify possibilities instead of simply getting projects completed. I see the beauty in God's design of my world and my life painted in rich colors of the heart rather than the grayscale of daily existence.

It is the same simple joy that writers both profound and anonymous have found in their craft. Writing (and hence blogging) is one of the ways we live life to the max.

A VERY POOR ROUND OF GOLF

I played my worst round of golf in more than a year last Friday. It was on a course I really like with some very good friends. But the golf was a mess. I won't tell you my score except that I had six triple bogies on the front nine and my best scores of the day were two bogies on par three's. Normally I am a pretty fair putter, but ran a string of three puts that made me wonder if I even know how to read a line to the hole. This summer I've finally started hitting the fairway on my tee shots (long a bane to my golfing existence) but I found maybe four fairways of the eighteen that I stepped onto. And this summer I finally learned how to hit out of sand trap (after only 30 years), but today ... well, you have a pretty good idea.

Why do I play golf? Because I ENJOY IT. It only takes sinking a 50 foot putt (which I have done on more than one occasion) or dropping one on the green next to pin to have a chance at par to get me back on the course. Some of us take a lot of pleasure out of very small things.

So despite my bad round (and there have been a couple in the last month), I will return to the course with good friends (oh yes, that's my strongest reason for playing golf--the good friends I have been able to spend some quality time with, times THEY particularly enjoy because they can generally count on at least beating me.

Are we having fun yet?

OBAMACARE AND POLITICAL RHETORIC

One of the blogs I read regularly is called JESUS CREED by Scot McKnight, a New Testament scholar with impecible evangelical credentials and thoughtful reflections. His posting yesterday I thought was worth passing on for your prayerful consideration.

Posted: 19 Aug 2009 03:49 AM PDT

The recent inflagration in rhetoric, comparing Obama to socialism or Hitler and the like, is a lazy, morally inexcusable way of getting an emotional response and often carried off in the absence of concrete evidence or knowledge of actual policy.

But it works, and so both sides have tried it -- from Nancy Pelosi to Rush and Sean Hannity. The issue for us is what kind of rhetoric Christians should use in public discourse.

Example: Is it accurate and non-distorting (or inaccurate and distorting) to say Obamacare is socialism?

When done well, apocalyptic rhetoric has an important place in American politics. Apocalyptic and politics are friends. We should not blame this on Republicans though; the Democrats were full of it during the Bush and Reagan years. It's the way our politicians and whistle-blowers like to warn. But it has moral limits and we need to know them. It has a power and an intent, and we need to know them too.

What might surprise the Democrats is that, in our own history of public rhetoric about politics and religion, we have seen a regular use of the jeremiad, the threat that if we don't change, God will judge us or our country will fall apart. Sometimes political rhetoric gets ratcheted up with apocalyptic warnings, by both sides in American history. I read a collection of essays by American historians, and I reviewed some it on this blog (Prophesies of Godlessness), and it really surprised me how often the language became apocalyptic -- including Jefferson and Emerson -- when their major ideas got involved. The Puritans and their opponents had the same form of rhetoric.

The Democrats famously resorted to this under Reagan and then again under Bush, and now the Republicans are resorting to it and Palin's "death panels" was a good example. So, let's not get all bent out of shape about it. Instead, let's learn how to use rhetoric wisely as Christians. A few thoughts:

I have to admit that (1) I have begun to resent this sort of language in public discourse today because it is so common and so extreme that it is losing its force. It's becoming a bit like shock talk instead of genuine rhetorical persuasion. (2) But, let's admit this: the prophets of ancient Israel through Revelation used extreme rhetoric often. (3) I have become convinced apocalyptic rhetoric is a form of "ultimate warning" rather than genuine expectation.

What most of it means, then, is "our country's future hangs in the balance and, if we make the wrong decision here, something irreversibly bad may happen."

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CHURCH OF GOD OF LANDISVILLE

Learn more about the Church of God Landisville by going to our blog NEWSBREAK FROM CHURCH OF GOD OF LANDISVILLE which is accessible at www.coglandisvillenews.blogspot.com or by going to our website at www.coglandisville.org