I am not a good football fan.  I usually start getting interested around the time of the playoffs.  I knew that the Indianpolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints started off their seasons in good form.  Many people around here are New Orleans Saints fans.  I grew up in Indianapolis.  Yesterday I had a big dilemna, who did I route for?  I have to route for Indy, that's my home city.  However, I think the story of the Saints is fascinating and encouraging.  The Saints won and I am happy for them. 

These athletes who played yesterday started preparing in the summer.  Well, they started preparing long before that, probably in football little leagues.  Most of their lives have been spent in preparation, in perfecting their performance on the football field.  Kind of reminds me of some Scriptures from the Bible like (Heb 6:10 NIV)  God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.(Heb 6:11 NIV)  We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure.(Heb 6:12 NIV)  We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

Here is what Dr. David Jeremiah says about diligence in his book Living with Confidence in a Chaotic World:

To give strenously of yourself.  Strenous is an athletic word.  It is demanding and sweat producing.  It means "to give all strenous activity toward."  Indeed it comes from the athletic world of intense concentration on the goal of becoming a champion.  Diligence is the picture of the sprinter coming around the bend toward the finish tape, exerting every muscle in his body, even when it seems like he has nothing left to give.  He has practiced for months and years, working on every tiny characteristic of his motion.  He has run countless miles, pushing his body toward faster finish times.  And now, as he runs the big race, he is evern more focused.  Just saying strenous seems to make us huff and puff.

To lavishly give of yourself.  Understanding what it means to strive strenously can include the idea of lavish extravagance.  In NT times, wealthy patrons loved sponsoring Greek plays.  Fierce competition ensued, as each patron tried to top his rivals in financing the latest and the greatest props, scenery, and performers.  When his friends viewed his lavish production, they'd have a new benchmark, and they'd be determined to set yet another.  These wealthy donors were "out lavishing" one another. 

The great age of the Greeks has passed, but the idea lives on.  The college bowl games, televised around New Year's, strenously try to out lavish one another in their glitzy halftime shows.  But they all pale in comparison to the Super Bowl, when tens of millions of dollars are spent on world class performers, fireworks, light shows, and whatever else will make the viewers say, "Wow!"  The official sponsors of the game spend budget busting sums to produce the TV commercial that will be most discussed around tomorrow's water cooler.  As for those who actually play the game, they hold nothing back, either.  They are strenous in their ferocity.  No one gives half of his effort during the biggest game of the season.

We see the same phenomenon every four years in the Olympic Games.  Many of the athletes compete with one another all through the year at other venues, and they know each other well.  But they save something extra for the world stage of the Olympics, and we love seeing strenous competition at its very best.

With all of that modern imagery in mind, think about what the Word of God asks us to do.  We are to be characterized by a strenuous diligence, lavishing all that we are, and all that we have, upon growing in Christ.  The Word tells us that we have all the tools when it comes to life and godliness.  Now it's up to us to pour it on as we make our lives the most exciting, adrenaline pumped, God glorifying testimonies of service that we can produce through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Chris Brundage says in a recent blog:  "After 15 years in ministry, I’ve begun to use the r-word.  I see a need to ration myself.  I have only limited energy and time.  Especially as an introvert, my tanks will run low."

I know how you feel Chris.  Lately some exciting things have been happening.  I am volunteering with hospice and I enjoy the ministry.  After several months, they are asking me to do more visits and work with more patients.  I have had to refuse to work with some because of limited energy and time.  But at least they value me enough to ask for my assistance.

At the beginning of 2010 I was approved to be a substitute teacher in the Concordia Parish Schools.  I enjoy the opportunity to play a small part in the life of this community.  I have had to refuse some assignments because of limited energy and time.  I have room to grow as a substitute but at least they value me enough to ask for my assistance.

The church here is starting to open up to me and my family.  The ministry is growing and expanding.  This past Sunday we had good attendance and a pleasant spirit in the church.  What a blessing to see some tangible results from the ministry!  I am humbled that they value me enough to ask for my help and prayers.

This brings up a prayer request for me.  I need time to recharge my batteries.  I need time for rest to regain some strength.  Chris goes on in his article and it best sums it up for me:

"The word husband, in addition to being a noun, is a little used verb meaning “to manage prudently and economically.”  As a preacher I must husband my own energies.  When I attend to the needs of others, energy seeps out of me.  I become like Jesus in the crowd that day… someone touched his cloak, and he knew that power had gone out of him.  Power goes out of me, and there is only so much of it.  It’s like a cell phone battery that will need to be recharged.

It’s not only taking care of needs.  It’s also being aware of them.  'He has just lost his wife.  She lives alone.  She has cancer.  He worries about his wife’s illness.'  I carry these concerns around with me, and when too many of them accumulate, the sadness and anxiety linger.  The need for self-care marks anyone in a helping profession.  Fatigue sets in.  I’m only more aware of it than ever lately.  Maybe it’s a function too of how much I love my congregation.  They are precious to me, and when they hurt I live with the hurting too.

So I’m thinking about pastoral care rationing today.  I must ration myself. "

The youth group went to watch the movie To Save a Life on Sunday night.  I thank the youth sponsors for getting this trip together. 

I went with them to see the movie.  I must say that it is worth it.  It took me back to a time and place when I was in high school.  Many of the scenes I related to easily.  In high school I was socially inept.  I was a loner and was definitely not in "the inner circle."  Looking back, a lot of this was my own insecurities and my own fears.  Around my senior year in high school, I began to break out of the "funk" I was in and started to reach out.  This continued into college.  The Lord has taken a shy and insecure boy and made him into the man I am today.  Not that I don't have room for improvement, but the Lord has done more than I can ever imagine or dream for me from where I was in high school.  I believe the Lord can do the same for you!!!

Today In a large gathering, I want to find those who are not connected, those who are on the sidelines and talk with them and get to know them better. I was a loner as a teenager and I appreciated those who tried to reach out to me and include me in the group. The church youth group and especially the Bible Bowl team made a lot of difference in my life.  Without my home church and the people who reached out to me, I don't know where I would be.  I pray that the Lord can take our youth group and reach out to those who are "the least of these." 

I am excited about my old youth minister, Richard Clark, and an elder from my home church coming this week.  They are coming to encourage me and to give some helps.  I am thankful for people like them who reach out to the "least of these."  I pray that I will do the same for others.

Here is the movie's web site:  http://tosavealifemovie.com/

After 11 years of marriage, I can say that I love my wife more deeply today than I ever have.  I pray that sentiment grows more real as long as I am blessed to be married to this phenomenal woman. 

Solomon said in (Prov 5:18 NIV)  "May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth."  This verse says that husbands have a choice to see and treat their wives as a blessing.  Regardless of the circumstances (Crystal is sick today), I can choose to rejoice in the wife of my youth. 

A recent devotional I read said this:  "Husbands, remember when you first laid eyes on your wife- how beautiful she was?  Happy wives have husbands who keep seeing them as beautiful." 

This upcoming Sunday I am speaking about the woman who anointed Jesus' feet with an expensive jar of perfume.  We should not be cheap in our love of the Lord.  We should not be afraid to be extravagant when it comes to our Master and Savior. 

If we are doing that with our Lord, shouldn't that rub off in our relationship with our wives.  I remember going with my friend Jay Hardison to buy something for his wife.  We went to several places and finally Jay decided on some earrings.  They were expensive and Jay was hesitant to buy them because of the price.  I told him, "Oh, go ahead and do it.  You love her!"  This past year I did something similar.  I bought my wife some wind chimes.  She scolded me because of the price of the wind chimes but I think she loved my gift. 

How about you?  When was the last time you did something extravagant for your wife? 

By the way, this is your Valentines Day reminder!?!  It is only 3 weeks away! 

Here is a quote from Neil Anderson that reaffirms what I have been thinking:

No one denies that people can do incredible emotional and physical harm to each other. But we should not give another human being the right to determine who we are. We are children of God, and only He has the right to decide who we are - and who we are meant to become. The fear of man will compromise our witness, and we will end up trying to please others and fail to please God. Paul said, 'If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ' (Gal. 1:10).