God, help me to care for the people you’ve put in my life.
You have been incredibly gracious, loving, loyal, forgiving, and soveriegn, guiding me and moving me.
And all I want is to surrender to You.
Unfortunately, if I was being honest, I would say that these incredible feature I have just described you as having have also made me complacent at times and unloving to others at times, not because of who You are, but because of who I am – selfish.
So with the same discipline that I must use to exercise or eat right or not waste my time, help me to love others.  Not only by the likeable qualities of kindness and peace, but also truth and faithfulness and courage.
Then, and only then, will I know what it is to be like Your Son, Jesus Christ.
And that’s what the people in my life need.

I thought of a lot of things.  I thought of the times my dad used to turn on the television on Sunday afternoons and we’d watch the Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish dominate everything that moved on the old parquet floor of the Boston Garden.  I thought of the times immediately after when I’d run outside, pretending I was their point guard Dennis Johnson (I was pretty short as a child) and dribbling through orange cones and chairs and anything else that could defend me.  I thought of the countless number of times that I would go out as a young teenager and practice my turn around jumper ala Larry Bird, or my baby hook ala Robert and Kevin (I had grown a bit at that point).  I thought of the Wheaties box I bought the first week I moved to Massachusetts – July 9, 1998 – with a commemorative picture of Bird on it.  I have yet to open it.

I also thought of the playoffs in 2002 when Pierce and Walker took the C’s to the semifinals, and I would sit in my pastor’s house and watch the games over chinese food and ice cream with Lonnie and Ruth Snell.  They almost did it then, but they definitely were not the best team, and typically in the NBA, the best team wins.  Ironically enough, that year Shaq and Koby were the leaders of the best team, the Lakers.
And then I thought about what Danny Ainge and Doc Rivers must have gone through last year.  The worst team in the league.  The joke – and they were a joke – of this great professional sports area.  To bring your team from that to win the world championship is a feat that not many people’s psyche would have allowed.  But quitting, losing, and ultimate defeat were words that were not even in the dictionary when Ainge pulled off the trades that would ultimately bring them to win it all.  Not just bringing in Allen and Garnett, but also Posey, House, and Brown, and still made them a team, something even this Celtics fan denied could happen in a year.
“Two years, maybe, but I’d give it three, and even then, the new “big three” will probably be showing their age too much to win a championship.”
And then last night happened, as the Celtics destroyed the Lakers in a fitting end to their dominant year, and as I sat with my friends, some old friends, some new, (A shout out to Jay, Al, Steve bramlett, Jon, and Ben inserted here) I thought about this moment,and I thought about what it takes to be a champion.
It takes a team, committed to something more than personal glory, committed to something more than a “me first” mentality, to show up on a regular basis, and admit in their action, I will do what it takes to accomplish the task at hand.
That’s what I want to be a part of, and the vision may be different for me (no trophies for this one), but the end result wil be so much more satisfying.  To see people connect into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.  And I love the team I get to accomplish this goal with.

What’s your Championship?

This post was written with Randy Elrod’s Watercooler Wednesday in mind.

This week, Fellowship Church continued the church (small c) wide series “One Prayer” with 1493 other churches and 849, 036 people (at last count).  We represent a small portion of that numerically, but I feel like our church is coming together to pray and to fellowship in ways that I could have never imagined.  I’m so excited about the direction of “the FC” and how our people are stepping to become part of the “One church” God wants us to be.

This week’s service is one I won’t forget for a long time, from beginning to end, as there just seemed to be a spirit of humility and unity in the entire room.  I can’t of course speak for everyone, but I’m just sharing my perception of the morning.  I spoke on my “one prayer” for the church-at-large – “God, make us lead.”  I thought I would share my outline with you in this post, in case you missed it or were interested.  Later I’ll share the podcast.

“Make us lead”

“Leadership is not reserved for those in position power. The leader is the one who cares most about the mission or endeavor.”- by someone.

Our mission – “To lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

How do I make other people want to lead?  Dont teach them bullet points, or that it’s cool to lead, teach them to care with all their hearts about “Leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.”

As a church, what I want for us is to be successful at our mission, “to LEAD”

To lead is to care.  This is not about personality!

If you don’t “care” about your (Family, job, time, finances) someone will “care” (lead) for you.

My testimony – Good kid.  Went to Christian school, Christian college, bought Christian t-shirts, and I didn’t care.

The story of Samson, the judge who God had a purpose for, but didn’t care.

Hebrews 12:1a - 

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith,

Sexual sin
Pride
greed,
gossip

And then there are the things that probably aren’t sin, but just hold us up.  What are those things in your life?

“sin takes you farther than you want to go, keeps you longer than you want to stay, and costs more than you want to pay.”

 “And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”

 Hupomones – “the characteristic of a person who is not swerved from his or her deliberate purpose and his or her loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.”

I’m afraid for some the hardships are too hard and the discipline it takes to follow Christ is too great, and so we’re not willing.

Hebrews 12:5-11
“No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening!”
We have to be willing to overcome. Willing to go through adversity. (email 1)

Usually what we do is complain, gossip, and worry. 

“People become our heroes because they fight through things and overcome circumstances, not because they’re glorious.”

Become somebodys hero!

and here’s how we do that (run with endurance), the writer of Hebrews says,
“by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish.”

 So this is how the author finishes the thought in Hebrews 12:12,13

 12 So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. 13 Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those follow you, the weak and lame, will not fall but become strong.

Because what you do will be effects those people who follow you – your kids, your friends, your loved ones.

1.  Heroes seem to be in the right place at the right time.
2.  Heroes fight through adversity.
3.  Heroes don’t have to tell everyone what they did.
4.   Heroes work on it, or they stop becoming heroes

 Become somebodys hero!

 Here’s what this looks like for the church - creating environments for people that are relevant and focused for people to connect and grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

How you can be a part:
Do what you can do.
Build real community in the life of your church.  (why I believe in small groups)
care about the mission.

I wonder sometimes if the reason we don’t get excited about following Jesus is because we haven’t really seen Him resurrected.  We cry when we watch movies like “The Passion” and the thought of someone giving their life for us astounds and encourages us to live decent lives, but I wonder if sometimes we stop there.

I’ve heard it questioned several times this year about why Christmas gets more celebrating (at least a month, every year more) than Easter does, but Christmas is of course a token holiday, representing (religiously) the birth and the life of Jesus.  Nobody has problems with his life, or even His death and everyone might believe that it was necessary.

It’s the Sunday thing that we have difficulty with, therefore we hesitate to follow Him with our whole hearts.  It’s the saying out loud that someone who lived in this world, who talked to real people, and who did some great things and gave some great speeches, then had the power to get up after His gruesome death and walk the earth some more, then be taken up to heaven.

I wonder whether our minds really wrap around that one very well, because of our imperialistic approach to the world today.

I’m hardly one to talk.  I hate when people overdue the spiritual stuff.  The term “God is so good” just might apply to things like you finding your contact on the floor or being able to figure out which color of shirt to wear to the office today, but somehow I’ve felt that saying it out loud every two seconds waters it down to the point of absurd piety.

But in order to really become a Christ follower, someone who doesn’t just talk game, but lives it, there must be a sincere belief that Easter isn’t just a respectful holiday where “I should probably go to church”, but it should represent a belief I have that Jesus lived on this earth, gave his life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world,and then rose again on the third day as a testimony to his deity, making Him my Savior.

This Easter, I challenge you to wrestle with that thought which the apostles in Scripture call the Good News.  Grapple with the fact that Jesus is indeed alive and is our “mediator between God and us”.  Launch into a belief that his victory over death gives you and me new life, and that is a celebration worth having.

Until next time…