Let Not That Be Said of Me

"Most men die at 27...we just bury them at 72." -Mark Twain

JUST ORDINARY

Just ordinary…

 

She was just a rural teenager.

He was just a young carpenter.

Just people.

Just in love.

Their situation was just like millions before it.

But an angelic announcement made it more than just a betrothal.

More than just a conception.

 

It was just a census.

And they would arrive to the City of David just a little late.

The crowd in this small town, just outside of Jerusalem, was overflowing.

There just wasn’t any room.

It was just a stable, but it would do.

It was just big enough, and it was out of the cold.

 

It was just about time, but where would he lay?

This feeding trough was just about right. Fill it with hay.

We’ll just lay him there.

Crying, just like any baby, he was now in the world he had made.

Just two people, alone with God.

 

It was just a star. But it marked where He lay.

They were just shepherds, but they were his first guests.

The gifts brought from afar, an expression of just how precious this Child is.

Just a silent night…but a night that would divide kingdoms, and families, and history.

 

They were just 12 ordinary men.

She was just a Samaritan woman.

It was just five barley loaves and two fish.

 

It was just a tree.

They were just nails.

 

It is just bread and wine.

Just the ordinary made extraordinary.

-Jay Risner (12.09)

FRIDAYS ARE FOR FACIAL HAIR

Sexual assault is not funny...it's deplorable and disgusting. But this pic is outrageously funny.

From Ray Ortlund (Christ is Deeper Still Blog at TGC)

George Marsden, in his Jonathan Edwards: A Life, refers to Edwards’ belief in “the great end of creation, God’s redemptive love” (page 479).  He sums up Edwards’ thought this way:

“God’s trinitarian essence is love.  God’s purpose in creating a universe in which sin is permitted must be to communicate that love to creatures.  The highest or most beautiful love is sacrificial love for the undeserving” (page 505).

If Edwards is right, and he is, then sacrificial love for undeserving people is not a problem for pastoral ministry; it is even more than an opportunity for pastoral ministry.  Sacrificial love for undeserving people is the reason why the universe exists.

“To the praise of the glory of his grace.”

Weekend Update

This guy should win the Heisman Trophy. No question:

I Will Go Here Someday

On my top five places to visit:

100 days in Glacier National Park - The Big Picture - Boston.com

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What's a Sport?

NPR has an article on their website today that made me revisit my thoughts on the question above.

So, what's a sport?

Generally speaking a sport is any athletic activity that involves the following: objective rules and scoring, a field or court of play with relatively fixed dimensions, equal-opposing sides (individual or team) whose strategies directly impact the progress/scoring of the other team, a certain level of spectator freedom, and an understood winner and loser determined by the aforementioned objective scoring system.

For example:

• Basketball is a sport. Two opposing sides, objective rules and scoring, a court, a time clock that declares that whoever is in the lead at its expiration is declared victor.
• Football is therefore a sport...as is soccer, hockey, tennis (though lack of crowd liberty almost gets tennis in trouble), volleyball, rugby, et al.
  

So what is not a sport?

• Golf - Golf is a game. It's played against courses that are without fixed dimensions. Though it's scoring system is objective, scoring is not done against an opponent--nobody is allowed to guard the cup or tries to block the ball. Plus, golf's spectators are not allowed to cheer with any measure of freedom. (Bowling is also a game. Though bowling does have fixed dimensions and objective scoring, none of us would ever be comfortable calling it a sport. If bowling had a goalie I might consider it a sport.)
• Gymnastics, figure skating, diving, skateboarding, etc - These are not sports either. These are competitions. No doubt these activities require athleticism, but because of their subjective scoring systems they cannot qualify as a sport. 
• NASCAR and Horse Racing - These are races. And since they are largely decided by something other than the human element (car and animal) they don't meet the criteria to be a sport. 
• Swimming, Track and Field  - These are timed events. There is no fixed scoring system. (except when determining team achievement), but even with that the athletes are not ever opposing one another. They could perform all their events individually and a winner could be determined with the exact same criteria (the clock). Not sports.
• Boxing - Boxing is often called a science, and for good reason. I am leery to call it a sport for the fact that most bouts are determined by a subjective scoring system. If every fight were determined by knockout or TKO it would be a sport. Therefore boxing is also a competition...but I'm not settled on this. Maybe we could call it a fight.
• Baseball - Baseball is a pastime. It defies category. I quote John Kruk, "I'm not an athlete...I'm a baseball player."

Thoughts???