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.