Protection is important

So.... I saw the highlights from Green Bay's NFL win over the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving. Late in the first quarter, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw a 68 yard pass to Donald Driver, setting up a touchdown.

watch highlights here: (the play is at 00:24)

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/09000d5d81484e1f/Packers-vs-Lions-highlights

I noticed that Aaron Rodgers had ages of time to pass. To me, it seemed that he had enough time to drop back, eat a sandwich, grab a bottle of water, and then throw. Any quarterback can make a big play if they are given enough time. I replayed it, and counted, and A-Rod had eight entire seconds before the first Lions defender came close to him. In my opinion, that long pass belonged to the Packers offensive linemen as much as to the other members of the team.
(sidenote, I DO realize that the Lion's defense kinda stinks, and that the Packers offensive line has been less than stellar this season, but it was a good example.)

Human nature makes us pay attention to those who get glory; the quarterback, a star wide receiver, or the kicker who kicks a 53- yard field goal to win the game.
However, the glory belongs to every member of the team; the linemen and the fullback who blocked, the guy who snapped for the field goal.
I've heard it said that it's hard to throw a touchdown pass when you're lying on the ground with a three hundred pound defender on top of you, and I believe it.

A coach once said that the worst thing America has done to the game of football was to start putting the player's names on the back of their jerseys. On the field, it doesn't matter whether you're Peyton Manning, or his left guard. All that matters is that they're both Colts.

As my own Coach Provan has said many times, "It takes eleven men to win a football game. you won't win if one man isn't doing his job."

The application of this in our Christian walk? All parts of the ministry are important. For every Billy Graham, there are thousands of men who prepare for the crusade. Not all of us can be pastors, missionaries, or lead the worship at church. Those who watch the young children, pray for the missionaries, or prepare the fellowship meal are just as important.

There are no names on our jerseys, other than the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let's get out on the field of battle, and win the world for him!

Rebellious Characters

At the moment, I am participating in NANOWRIMO, as I mentioned earlier.

Yesterday, I reached a point where I needed to write an action scene, but my characters didn't want to. As other writer's of fiction know, your characters will take on a life of their own, and sometimes, they just want to spend it doing nothing.
No, they do not want to leap off the couch and go rescue someone, they just want to sit around. And they won't even talk while they sit around. (which would at least help with the word count)

Anyway, as I sat and tried to write, my main character wouldn't cooperate. I had a plan for the novel, but he didn't want to help. I needed him to rescue a minor character from a painful death of torment, yet he wouldn't do anything.

In my frustration, a thought crossed my mind. maybe this is how our God feels. He created us, and breathed life into us, yet we refuse to obey, much less even talk to him.
I created my characters, without me, they would not even exist, yet they refuse to. I could destroy them with a stroke of my pen or a word typed on my laptop, but I don't. I love them so much that I don't delete my file and instantly kill them, I let them live on.
They rebel against me, and my plan for their lives, yet I let them live through my love.

Our God created and sustains us, yet we rebel against him. We disobey his commands, refuse to talk to him, and do not return the love he shows us. He could kill us all with a word, yet he continues to love us.

Let us not be rebellious characters in the Great Story God is writing. We need to listen to his instructions, follow his commands, and return the love he shows us by letting us live on.

~ The Two Young Men

(P.S, The original Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley is a great allegory with a similar theme. The creation rebels against the very hand that made him.)

Running to the Light

I apologize for the lack of recent posts. Things have been very busy here. With both of us participating in NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month), where you have to write 50k words onto your novel during the month of November, we've been spending almost all our time writing novels, not blog posts.


Anyway, on occasion we listen to a band named Runrig. It is a six-piece Celtic Rock band, founded in 1973. It's music is typically rock oriented, while the lyrics are drawn from folk roots.

My favorite of their many songs is one called Running to the Light






The lyrics:

Running round the sacred mountain
The rushing stream
Feel the power
In everything
By the water. where the air is clear
Surrender everything

Old hearts grow younger again
They promise bring
The greenest. plants are tender
They're full of sap in spring
Empty the places of the mind
Running to the light
Running to the light

Those who stride too far too soon
Will not hold pace
Only the calm
Will win the race
Through the forest, the sea of mountain pine
Surrender everything

Only those who
Greatness see in little things
Worthy are the simple
They're happy in their ways
Self will wither out of sight
Running to the light
Running to the light

Arise soul
Soar above the singing river
Go lying down
Into the ground
Quickened by the stream
When all is said and done
The race moves on

Running, running



To me, the song speaks of the last moments before someone's death. When a dear family friend died in an accident, this song meant a lot. Though death is the end of our life on earth, to those of us who believe, it is merely the beginning of a new life, in which there will be no pain, no sorrow, no suffering, and no death.

1 Corinthians 9:24 says "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it." (NKJV).

Our life is a competition, a battle, and Paul describes it as a race. We cannot let death halt us. Though we die, the race goes on. "Quickened by the stream // When all is said and done // The race goes on"

A note: Laurel Clark, an astronaut on the US Space Shuttle Columbia was a great fan of Runrig, and brought two CDs to space with her, including "The Stamping Ground". Running to the Light was used as the wake up call for the seven astronauts who would later die in a tragic accident on re-entry over Texas.


So, brothers and sisters, let us run our race in a manner that we may obtain the prize

~The Two Young Men