Watch TV

This week’s encouragement is simple. Watch TV. I mean it. I don’t just mean sit down and veg out with any ol’ program. I mean tune in and turn on to the spectacle that is college basketball’s NCAA tournament.

There is no doubt in my mind that you have filled out your brackets, monitored Davidson’s challenge to Maryland this afternoon, and predicted the 5/12 upset of the tourney (Go ODU! Who is up by one at the half by the way). If you haven’t spent the time, why haven't you?

You might rebut with:
1) “Scott, it is just too foolish of me to waste so much precious time.”
2) “My team isn’t even in the tourney.” (Sorry Clemson, State, & WFU)
3) “I don’t even like sports, anyhow.”

Well, I say, “Hogwash!” to all of these excuses. The NCAA isn’t about sports anyway. It’s about possibilities.

Who would have predicted last year that GW, an 11th seed, would wind up in the final four? No one! Who would have predicted Florida to win it last year? Nobody! (And they are not going to win it this year as a 1 seed.) The NCAA Tournament is all about the opportunities that we have in life and what we do with them. Anything is possible, and that’s why we watch because we are drawn into the idea that anything is possible.

If you are like me, you will always be tempted to settle for an ordinary life. However, this is not what the Scriptures tell us. They tell us that when we receive Christ in our lives everything changes. We become whole, full with life, caught up in kingdom of possibilities never before imagined. Followers of Christ get to join God’s mission of extending forgiveness, healing the broken, and loving the unlovable. This is no ordinary life. It is full of possibilities that have God at the center. You say, “No”? Check out what Jesus had to say to a man who questioned whether or not he could heal his son of a demon possession.

“But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us!”
And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.”
(Mark 9:22-23, NIV)

Now the NCAA Tournament is nothing compared with God’s work, but if you need help sparking that possibility in your own life, check it out. God might use it to help dislodge that disbelief yet.

Dealing with Blemishes

For the last couple of weeks I have been thinking about my conversion to Christ. I am not talking about the story of my start to the Christian faith. I am talking about the total transformation of my life into God’s image. It might seem strange to you (quite frankly, it seems strange to me, too), but I have been sensing the Spirit asking me, “So Scott, how’s it going with your conversion?”

The question pops up at random times. I am not necessarily doing anything overtly spiritual – just picking up items at the store or driving down the road in the transit of life. Yet, the question keeps popping up, “Scott, how’s it going with your conversion?”

Today I read these words from Paul’s letter to the Colossians:

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.

Again the question came to me, “Scott, how’s it going with your conversion?” As I read these words again, it hit me that I think I am more comfortable living as an alien to God than I am as living as one reconciled to him. Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that I am reconciled to God through Christ, but I am not sure that I completely understand how to live “holy... without blemish and free from accusation.” Somehow my blemishes still show up and the accusations continue to fly at me. The encouragement that Paul gives to the Colossians is “if you continue in your faith.”

I think this is what the Spirit is trying to get at in the question that keeps popping up. “Are you continuing in your faith, or are you letting the gospel be uprooted in your life by all the accusations?”

It may seem strange, but what if we said to each other, “How is it going with your conversion,” rather than simply, “How’s it going,” when we greeted each other? In a small way, could this be a helpful way to remind each other of the power of God’s reconciling grace in our lives?

Pray with me that the Spirit would mark our community by the gospel – holy, without blemish and free from accusation.