Randy Greenwald

Concerning Life as It Is Supposed to Be

Sports and God

As I get ready to travel to St. Petersburg to attend the first game of the American League Division Series between the Texas Rangers and the Tampa Bay Rays (look for me in right field with my three sons), I was struck by this excellent post by my good friend and former colleague and all-around wise guy (in the BEST sense of that) Geoff Henderson. If you like sports, this is a must read. A snippet here:

If I love Cade more than football, I’ll not neglect playing with Cade, and at times have to press pause and watch the game later or not at all. If I love football more than Cade, I’ll let him see the lingering frustration of a tough loss, even if it is more subtle than flipping a bird, because my lifeline has been cut. If I love Cade more than football, I’ll teach him how it can be a fun hobby which helps connect me with both Christians and non-Christians. If I love football more than Cade, football will be all I talk about or think about during the week.

Oddly, shortly after reading Geoff’s post, I ran across this from the religion editor of the Orlando Sentinel.

I’m beginning to think that God is trying to tell me something.

That led then to what looks like a fascinating book, of interest to some reading this blog:

God and Football: Faith and Fanaticism in the SEC

Okay. Enough of that. Off to the game.

Repentance

I’m too busy to blog myself right now, and so I am ‘inviting’ Dr. John Frame to do my blogging for me this morning.

All Christians confess in at least a theoretical way that repentance is important. We believe that all are sinners. Practically, however, we find it difficult to admit — whether to others, to ourselves, or to God — that we have personally done wrong and need to change.

“When someone criticizes our behavior, our first instinct is, too often, to defend ourselves. Although we confess in general terms that we have sinned, we don’t want anyone to think that we have sinned in any specific way. That attitude is even more prominent among people in authority. For them, the stakes are higher.

“For a prominent person, to admit to sin is to endanger the status that one may have carefully nurtured for a long time. So when a Christian leader freely admits sin and asks for forgiveness, many of us find that strange. It is impressive, however, not only because of its rarity, but also because of its profoundly biblical character. It marks people who aim to lead as servants, rather than as masters (Matthew 20:25-28).”

[John Frame, The Doctrine of the Christian Life, pages 331-332.]

Bullies at the Table

In a nearby community, recently, a father was walking his daughter, who has cerebral palsy, to the bus stop for school when in tears she confessed to him how others on the bus treated her. Admittedly not handling the situation in a proper way, he stormed on to the bus issuing profanity laden threats to the other students and the driver of the bus. He was arrested and later apologized for behavior that most of us fully understand.

Today, a woman from a nearby church issued a grace filled statement reflecting not only a deep understanding of the situation, but also a knowledge of the Gospel that brings both bullies and the tormented together.

“I am comforted by the thought that one day, those of us who’ve come to realize our need for Him will sit together at the Master’s table—those who have been bullied and those who were the bullies.”

The whole is printed below:

All month, I have been following the story of James Jones, the Florida dad who was compelled to stand-up for his teenage daughter who lives with cerebral palsy. Running on emotion and leaving his logic behind, he stormed onto a Seminole County school bus to confront the kids who were bullying his daughter.

It’s so sad and frustrating to see kids who are different being bullied today. I understand this better than most. I have Cerebral Palsy. I was teased and bullied all through school. As a small child, kids compared me to the Weebles from a toy commercial during the early 70s. “Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down.” Thirty-five years later, and I still feel as if people are going to sing that song to me when I enter a room.

As a student high school, it was so much worse—with kids breaking the equipment I needed to be successful. My sophomore year, three different tape recorders were destroyed. The last straw for my mom was when I came home in tears because the boys were throwing one-inch nuts and bolts at my head. When my mom went to speak to the teacher, he said he would not have the problem if I were not in the class! The following year, I went to private high school, where I was on the homecoming court and was prom queen! Ok, so my graduating class was small.

I say this all to say this has gone on for decades. Sadly, it’s what kids do. What I’ve come to realize is that God is bigger than people and holds each of us in the palm of His hand. I wish it were different and that we would all see the value of people for who they are.

We’re all sinners in need of a Savior. I am comforted by the thought that one day, those of us who’ve come to realize our need for Him will sit together at the Master’s table—those who have been bullied and those who were the bullies. The Master loves us equally, and that is more than I can fathom.

Acting and Preaching

Here is an interesting observation from one whose interest and experience has included the stage (including a college degree in acting):

“I think [preaching] is probably a lot like acting. When someone asks me, ‘How did you memorize all those lines?’ I come away feeling like I must not have done a good job. They focused on the craft, not on the message. I think it was David Mamet (an American playwright) who said that if an audience comes away from a show talking about their lives and NOT about how the actor performed the role, then you know the actor did a good job.”

So, she goes on to point out, when after a sermon people spend the time talking about the impact of the message in their personal lives, the preacher has done what he set out to do.

That is a high challenge.

[Thanks and credit to Eva.]

A Reminder

The new poster hanging on my wall:

Screen shot 2010-09-22 at 8.36.58 AM.png

(Inspired in a curious and indirect kind of way by this.)

On the Reading Desk: Practice

Yesterday, I outlined my goals for reading – the “whys” behind what I do. Below are the books which currently fill out that outline.

Personal:

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, referred to already here.

The History of the Medieval World by Susan Wise Bauer.

Professional:

At this point I have tried to link several works which have been sitting on my shelf into something of a ‘Christian Life’ theme. Some will see the threads connecting these works. Thus far, this has been very fruitful.

Theology: The Doctrine of the Christian Life by John Frame.

Practical: Surprised by Hope and After You Believe, both by N. T. Wright.

Professional: God’s Empowering Presence by Gordon Fee and Dynamics of Spiritual Life by Richard Lovelace.

Historical: Calvin by Bruce Gordon.

My categories can be critiqued, but this is just a snapshot and a snapshot does not always catch things perfectly arrayed. I hope to be able to say something about each of these works as the days progress.

It is safe to say that I do not read enough. However, without the plan I have, I would read far less, and be that much more deprived. I’m grateful for then, the encouragement to set forth a plan.

Quiet Inspiration

Barb and I were blessed in college to have as our model of pastor and wife Willard E. (Mike) and Betty Michael. Pastor Mike and Betty loved us and shepherded us in ways we did not even realize then. It was while listening to Pastor Mike preach that I first learned what preaching was to be. It was the open door to their home that taught us, a couple not yet married, what an open and safe home could be like.

One day Pastor Mike and Betty invited Barb and I, an engaged couple soon to be married, to their house for dinner. Joining us for dinner was a couple from Colorado, Dr. and Mrs. Vernon Grounds. Dr. Grounds had been Pastor Mike’s teacher and mentor. Why Pastor Mike felt that WE should meet this couple, I cannot say. What transpired during that dinner is a distant memory. What I do remember clearly is that I left there with a twist on Henry David Thoreau’s assessment that ‘all men lead lives of quiet desperation’. Here was a man who stunned me with what I called his life of ‘quiet inspiration’.

Perhaps that is what Pastor Mike wanted us to gain from that evening.

Shortly thereafter, Barb and I were married. Surprisingly, and thoughtfully, there was in the stack of gifts a book entitled quaintly The Bride’s Book of Ideas: A Guide to Christian Homemaking. Attached to the gift was a card, which we have saved, wishing us great blessing in our marriage.

It was signed by Vernon and Ann Grounds. Photo on 2010-09-21 at 17.13.jpg

Dr. Grounds passed away last week at the age of 96. As I read testimonies about him from men I greatly respect here and here, I’m humbled to think that God granted to me, a nobody with no Christian pedigree, no evangelical connections, no special promise, an evening with a person of such character. And in the short time we had together I sensed what these men knew from long experience. What privilege God granted Barb and I.

Let the following paragraph set the tone, and then read these testimonies for yourselves. Consider the men and women God has placed in your life and long, aspire, endeavor, to be like them.

Vernon Grounds earned his Ph.D. in psychology. He was a certified scholar. But he rarely felt the need to refer to himself as Dr. Grounds. I cannot remember seeing him write the letters Ph.D. after his name as so many scholars are wont to do. That was not where he wished to make his impression. How can it be better said than simply that he was just Vernon, LOP … lover of people.

[Note: for some helpful thoughts on the desire to ‘imitate another’, read here.]

On the Reading Desk: Theory

In general I like to be reading several books at once. My reading can be broken up into two general groups, ‘personal’ and ‘professional,’ but being a pastor the two cannot be so easily divided as perhaps they might be if I were, say, a civil engineer. Often what I read on the personal side has profound implications for what I believe, preach, or teach, and what I read on the professional side moves me and effects how I live my personal life. It’s a wonderful place to be.

I think it important to separate what I’m calling here my professional reading from my labor to produce sermons and classes. They may overlap, but the reading I’m speaking of here is reading that is designed primarily to feed me spiritually and professionally. That sounds on the one hand a selfish thing. But for a church to have a pastor who himself is spiritually deprived and whose vision is limited by the trials and struggles of his own situation is never good. It is a wise church that encourages its pastor to invest time in his own growth and maturity.

The temptation will be for a pastor to read what is currently creating a stir. Sometimes the stir is so great that I give in, but generally I let the fads pass. Rather, I try to steer my reading in four directions, listed here in no order of priority:

1. Professional

2. Practical

3. Historical

4. Theological

There is much written that is designed to help pastors do the varied tasks that are before them. Topics may concern preaching or counseling or leadership or the nature of the church. One could be consumed and read nothing but these things. Or one could think one is above all of that and neglect what is helpful. Neither option is good.

Secondly, I am of a reflective and contemplative nature. It is important that I read works which direct my thinking toward the practical nature of the Christian life – books on marriage, on sanctification, on evangelism, on idolatry, or the like.

Thirdly, there is much to be learned from the saints who have come before us. General history or biography are important in keeping me grounded with a well rounded sense of where we have come from.

And fourthly, it can be too easy for a pastor to narrow his reading to his own area of theological interest. To counter that, I always have some work of general theology on the list to be worked through.

And I should add, I will now and then read something that just seems fun, or which seems aimed at a hole in my heart. Appetite can lead to wonderfully nourishing meals.

This is my thinking. Tomorrow, specifics.

iPhone Auto-Corrections

Before I had an iPhone, I had read this David Pogue column with some amusement.

Now that I have an iPhone, the amusement is very real.

This morning my wife texted me with a comment about my son whose initials are CJG. Her sentence began, “VHF….”

I was momentarily puzzled, as my older son should have been when I texted him during a recent Rays-Yankees game with a comment about Derek Jeter. The sentence began, “Heterosexual….”

I’m not making this up.

And then yesterday, watching former Rays pitcher Scott Kazmir (nickname ‘Kaz’) load the bases for the Rays, I hopefully (misplaced, as the Rays failed to capitalize) texted my son, “Kaz’s being Kaz” which he would have understood had he not received this message:

“Nazi’s being Kaz.”

As Olive Sees It

“Sometimes, like now, Olive had a sense of just how desperately hard every person in the world was working to get what they needed. For most, it was a sense of safety, in the sea of terror that life increasingly became. People thought love would do it, and maybe it did. But even if, thinking of the smoking Ann, it took three different kids with three different fathers, it was never enough, was it?”

(from Elizabeth Strout’s 2008 Pulitzer Prize winning novel Olive Kitteridge, page 211)

But there is another way.

“In you, O LORD, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame! In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me, and save me! Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.”

(Psalm 71:1-3)

To understand these two worlds and to bring them together is why I preach.

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