Archive
42 Days and Counting
I’m at the lake today, so this will short and sweet so I can get back to doing what I’m doing today. If I was going write a long blogpost today, I would mention that it’s 42 days until UT kicks off against Montana.
I would also mention the UT recruiting hall this week.
The self-imposed probation and sanctions.
The lack of an athletic director.
Two first place votes by the media???
Three members of the All-SEC teams.
But this is not a long blog post today, so you are free to move on.
Follow Friday Deuceology Style: David Weiner
Today I’m highlighting someone who you probably won’t interact with on the internet. He doesn’t have a blog. He has a Twitter account, but I think he got bored with it pretty quick and doesn’t really use it anymore. I recently saw that he is on Facebook, but I don’t think he uses it much either. He reads my blog and occasionally comments. Who is he? My friend, David Weiner, that’s who.
What can I say about David? There are a lot of neat things about him that can be said.
Ethnically, he is a Jew. He’s the only Jewish person I know, so that leads to some interesting conversation from time to time.
He is a follower of Christ, so he is my brother in the Lord.
He has one of the most interesting testimonies about how he came to know the Lord. He didn’t walk an aisle. He didn’t “ask Jesus into his heart”. He didn’t have a Damascus Road experience. He simply realized that what the Bible said about Jesus was true and believed.
Before they were married, his wife was used by the Lord and played a vital role in sharing Christ with him.
David is in his mid-sixties and has been married to his wife about as long as I have been married to mine.
David is probably more committed to the word of God than anyone I know.
One of my favorite things each day is to look at the walking trail in the little town we live in and see if David and his wife are walking their dog.
Most of you will never meet David. If you do or already know him, you should “follow” him.
140 Words (or less) About What You Expect From God
It’s Twitterific Thursday, where I write 140 words or less about one subject.
I don’t know what you expect from God. Maybe your expectations are high. Maybe they’re low. However, I’m going to list some things that you should not expect from God.
Being told to build an ark.
Dreams about seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.
A burning bush experience.
A sea to part.
Walls of a city falling.
The sun to stand still.
A fleece being wet or dry to guide you.
An unending supply of oil and flour.
A chariot of fire showing up to take you to heaven.
A big fish to swallow and drop you where you are supposed to go.
Those are just some things He’s done in the past. He’s never done them since. Your experience will probably be different.
What might He do through you?
Adam and Eve and Andrew
My son, Andrew, went to camp this week. This was the first time he really has spent a week away from us. Needless to say, he struggled some as the time to leave came (his mom and dad struggled a bit too).
It seems that the main reason he struggled was because he wasn’t going to be able to talk to us each night. He wanted to be able to speak to us, tell us he loved us and hear that we loved him. He wasn’t supposed to have a cell phone with him, but on the way he realized that his cell phone had service and he would at least be able to text us if he was sneaky about it. Unfortunately, this plan did not work well because his cell phone lost power. The last text his mom got said, “Phone dead.” It broke my wife’s heart and I can only imagine at this point how Andrew felt. His lifeline, his connection to us was lost. He was all alone. We were gone. He was on his own.
As I thought about this, I wondered if that was the way Adam and Eve felt after the fall? They had always been connected to God. They never felt apart from Him. He was their lifeline. They did not understand loneliness. They did not understand being separated from God at all.
What did they feel? Did they feel separation anxiety? Did they suddenly feel alone. What was it like for them? Did they feel anything like Andrew felt as he left for camp? Did they feel like Andrew did when his cell phone lost power? How did Adam and Eve feel after the fall?
How about you? Have you ever felt separated from God and alone? Do you now?
Clear Eyes…Full Hearts….Can’t Lose
Perhaps you watched the final episode of Friday Night Lights last week. I didn’t. I watched a few months ago on DirecTV, so I had already seen the ending. It might have been the best ending to a TV program I’ve ever seen.
One of the constants of the show was the coach, Eric Taylor, motivating his team before each game by reciting, “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.” Many have Tweeted it over the past few days as they have said farewell to the Friday Night Lights.
I ran across something similar as I was reading the Bible recently. Jesus was teaching his followers during what we call the Sermon on the Mount. Here is what reminded me of what Eric Taylor led his team to say:
“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.” –Matthew 6:22
Doesn’t that sound like what Eric Taylor said. Was he paraphrasing Jesus? Were the writers of the show tapping into the Bible for Eric Taylor’s motivational speeches? We may never know.
What we do know is that Jesus said that if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. I take that to include your heart. Here is what He seems to be saying: “If you follow me, your eyes will be clear and your hearts will be full.”
So, what happens we follow Christ and look to Him? Clear eyes.
What happens if we follow Christ and look to Him? Full hearts.
And while He doesn’t say it here, what happens if we follow Christ and look to Him? Can’t lose.
Clear eyes!!! Full hearts!!! Can’t lose!!!
Do yo have clear eyes? Do you have a full heart? Do you want to be in a can’t lose situation?
Anchors For Dreams
I’ve been taking Mondays to talk about dreams. If you’ve noticed, I believe that for believers in Christ, our dreams come from God. So, once you believe that He has given you a dream, how do you make that dream a reality? I think something you need are anchors for those dreams. They will keep you grounded and not just float away in any direction with the dream. Below are the anchors I have for my dream(s). Yours may be different, but I hope that mine will give you some ideas.
- God and Christ. I don’t differentiate between these. I try to measure all of my dreams by what will honor and glorify God and His Son.
- Family. If my family can’t behind my dream, then I need to rethink it.
- Work. Unless my dream can take the place of my day job, I must give my all to my day job so I can pursue my dream.
- Church. I want to share my dream with those in my church so they can pray and support me.
- Finances. I must be a good steward of my finances so tha I can pursue my dream.
- Personal Growth. I will seek to grow in the area of my dream so that I can excel and pursue it with skill
- Time. It takes time to pursue a dream. I may have to sacrifice time for some things in order to pursue it.
- Health. I cannot pursue my dream to the detriment of my health.
- Recreation. Sometimes I need to take a break from my dream, in order to be more creative in pursuit of my dream.
Those are the anchors that I have established in order to pursue my dream. They are there to keep me and my dream from just drifting away. You may have others. Don’t limit yourself to mine.
Do you have anchors for your dreams? What are they?
No Beast of Burden
Just in case you wondered, of course I got the title to today’s blog from the Stones. I’m not going to avoid it. I’m going to embrace it. After all, it’s one of the great songs by the world’s greatest rock and roll band. Period.
Maybe you’ve felt like what Mick sang about, though. Maybe you’ve felt like a beast of burden. You haven’t had a physical burden placed upon you by anyone , but you know all about emotional burdens that people put on you. You know all about spiritual burdens that people put on you. And you know all about the burdens that other put on you in the name of Jesus. And what are the results?
You’re tired. You’re weary. You’re exhausted. You don’t know where to turn. You’re looking for an out. What do you want?
You want what Christ says He will give you. Why? Becasue He say, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” He is gentle and will give you rest. His yoke is easy. His burden is light.
You approach cautiously. You’ve heard that there are commandments. And yes, there are. Fortunately for you, though, these are different commandments. His commandment is to love. That’s it. Love. Love God. Love your brother. Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. Love. And He makes you a promise. He promises you that this commandment is not burdensome. This one will not weigh you down. This one will not be a burden. A light burden that is not burdensome.
You’ll never be His beast of burden.
You’re no beast of burden.
Have you ever felt weary and tired from the burdens other try to place on you? Do you now? Do you know Christ?
49 Days and Counting
It’s 49 days until Tennessee football. If you’re a UT fan, you’re getting more excited each day. Here are some things for us to think about over the next few days.
SEC Media Days
SEC media days begins next week. Tennessee will be up Thursday. What do I expect? The normal downplaying of talent and lots of coach speak. No one from UT will say anything controversial. This year it will be broadcast on ESPNU, so the DVR will be set and I will check out what Coach Dooley and company have to say later that night.
Athletic Director Search
The athletic director search took a turn for the worst this week. Somehow UT had interviewed and was set to announce Georgia Tech’s AD as their new AD. Word surfaced about Georgia Tech’s probation and voila….UT is now going in another direction. Why is this happening? I believe that it begins at the top. The leadership at UT is terrible. Jimmy Cheek doesn’t know what he is doing. I hope that they do the right thing at this point and promote David Blackburn to the post.
Recruiting
Much is being made of Tennessee’s lack of commitments in recruiting. I’m not sure how many would satisfy people at this point. Also, if they had several commitments, would fans find something else to bellyache about? Right now there are two commitments. Alex Bullard will count toward this class. Add in Eddrick Loften and/or Geraldo Orta and you have four or five that will count toward the numbers this coming year. Tennessee will only have around 20 spots, so that leave 14 or 15 remaining. Is the possiblity of some sanctions hurting Tennessee? Possibly. But I don’t think it’s time to worry yet. I believe the next month will show some commitments to UT and they will be quality commitments.
Follow Friday Deuceology Style: Chad Jones aka @RandomlyChad
This week’s Follow Friday introduces some of you to someone I have recently discovered on Twitter and in the Blogosphere. On Twitter you can find that Chad Jones is @RandomlyChad. If you are looking for his blog, you can find him at his Randomly Chad blog. Read it. He is just randomly being who Jesus made him to be.
One of the things I have learned about Chad is that he is an introvert. Not just any introvert, like I am. He is a serious introvert. Why is that a big deal? He is transparent in his blogging about it. He admits to some of the struggles this has caused in his life. Chad has also mentioned how his wife is an introvert. This presents them additional challenges as their daughter seems to be an extrovert. I can imagine that this causes a bit of “excitement” in their household.
Chad and I are both fans of George R.R. Martin’s work. Chad is currently reading the Game of Thrones series. I have read several of the Wild Cards series. I’m thinking about giving Games a go, mostly based on Chad’s recommendation.
Something I like about Chad is that he is cares about his friends. A fellow blogger was recently experiencing some trouble and he displayed his concern. To my knowledge, Chad has never met this other blogger, but there he was wondering if his friend was o.k. despite being several states away.
Most importantly in what I can say about Chad is that he is a follower of Christ. I’m sure that he and I don’t agree on everything within the body of Christ. However, I believe that he and I could have an intelligent, loving discussion about our differences because we have the same Lord and Savior.
If you have a chance, take a look at Chad’s blog. Follow him on Twitter. He will become a great friend to you.
