Track and Field Devotional 2.13.12

Respect

There is a basic respect that most people assent is to be given in general to all.  Unwritten rules, things like yielding a parking space to a car waiting for a spot with its blinker on, or giving up your bus seat for a pregnant woman, these situations are given respect almost all of the time.  There is another level of respect though that is earned, and this is the kind of respect that athletes seek to obtain.

Within the category of respect earned, there are two ways in which a person comes about being respected.  The first is through your accomplishments.  If Usain Bolt walked through the door tonight, he would be respected because of the fast times he has put up.  Coach Lee has names put on the back of our jerseys for those who go to the national meet; it is a badge of honor and having your name on the back of your singlet brings some respect.  The Hall of Honor athletes we inducted here at the school were paid respect not only for the accomplishments that they had while competing here at Warner, but also after they left the school.  It is a Hall of Honor because they have carried themselves in their life after school in a way worthy of respect.  Respect is not just an athletic accomplishment; it applies to the single parent working two jobs, or the father who works hard to provide for his kids, coaches the team on the weekends, and makes time to be home with his family.  This kind of respect is earned over time.

A second kind of earned respect comes from a person’s title or position.  If the President of the United States walked in, he would be respected.  Maybe you don’t agree with his politics, but he has a group around him that travel with him to make sure he is protected.  He is announced when he speaks, and is given the right of way in traffic.  I don’t know about you but the secret service is not taking me home tonight.  Other positions in need of respect include your boss at work, a coach, officials, and parents.  If these positions are not respected, your relationship with them is not healthy, or you are extremely vulnerable.  If you do not respect a meet official, you will be disqualified.  Disrespect your parents and you will lose privileges; disrespect your boss and you might get fired.  So all of this talk about respect leads us to the faith aspect.  What position does God hold and what has He done?

The Bible says God is the beginning and the end, there was no one before Him and there will be nobody after Him (Revelation 22:13).  He is also stated to be the Creator of all things that have been made (Romans 1:20).  He is the highest authority that you can have, above all other gods (Revelation 19:16).

As for what He has done:  God is at work restoring the world, He is restoring people to Himself through the sending of His Son Jesus to die on a cross for our sins so that we might be in relationship with Him. (John 3:16-17).  He is also the giver of every good thing (James 1:17).

As an athlete you know your opponent respects you when they take beating you seriously, when they prepare for you seriously, when they acknowledge that you are tough to beat.  If you take your faith seriously, you should respect God for who He is and what He has done, and your faith should be the biggest part of what you do and who you are.  I respect people who have given serious thought to what they believe and why they believe what they do.

Respect instills confidence in those who know they have earned it.  If you respect your teammates and they respect you, your performance will improve.  It’s one thing to go out and run in front of others, it is another thing to go out and perform in front of people who you know understand what you are about and how you came to be in this moment.  They appreciate what you are working toward and how far you have come, and they believe in you because they respect what you are trying to accomplish.  I pray that our respect for each other allows the entire team to raise their level of performance and that we would take what each person is about seriously.

Staff Devotional 2.13.12

Do You Remember?

This last weekend many people were remembering Whitney Houston, a great singer whose life ended abruptly.  Here at Warner Pacific we also remembered some people who have ended or are ending their college playing days.  On Saturday we had Senior Night to honor our graduating players and we also inducted our first Hall of Honor class in the school’s history.  God knows we have a tendency to forget things, and He warned Israel about that tendency as they prepared to enter the Promised Land through the words of Moses.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:5-9

We post plaques with stats, hang jerseys up, and banners on our walls and entryways to remember great sports accomplishments.  In the New Testament Jesus institutes The Lord’s Supper as a remembrance of Him.  (Luke 22:14-23, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26).  Many times Christians look at communion or The Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist or whatever your tradition calls it as a memorial service.  A memorial serves to remember what a person has done, much like people are doing with Whitney Houston.  But Christ’s work on the cross, His body and blood broken and shed for us is not just something that happened; it is a work that is still interceding for us right now at the right hand of God.  Christ rose from the dead and is our advocate in the present, the work of Christ on the cross continues to be active in the grace that it provides.  Our Hall of Honor inductees were chosen not just because of the work that they did as athletes while they were in school, but because they are still honorable people to this day.  We would not induct athletes into a Hall of Honor if they were not living a life consistent with what the school stands for, if we did it would be a Hall of Fame, not a Hall of Honor.

The last verse of the communion passage in 1 Corinthians ends with the phrase, “until He comes” which means this remembrance is to be done in light of Christ’s return.  There is a future hope attached to this practice, something we should look forward to with anticipation.  Imagine if our Hall of Honor inductees could come back and play for our teams today!  The first question would be how much they could contribute given that their athletic ability may have declined over the years, but what if they were able to come back in their prime?  This would be an exciting thing; you would have some great talent to add to the current rosters.  Well, we know that is not possible, but we also know that Christ is promised to return in all of His glory and splendor.  This is something to be celebrated in the practice of communion.  Christ’s work assured the victory over sin and death and the future coming of His kingdom. 

So we see that communion is not just a solemn memorial of Christ’s death on the cross, but a celebration of what He has done, is doing, and is going to do.  May we proclaim those aspects of the Lord’s work until He comes!

Women’s Basketball Devotional 2.11.12

Placement

 Every team seeks to find its place.  For some, it becomes clear sooner rather than later.  A tough start to the year may derail big dreams, or a hot start could increase expectations of what is possible.  Some teams will believe that they are not where they should be and fight to prove it to the rest of the league.  These things always work themselves out as the season comes to a close.  You will always have teams who like attention, teams like the New York Jets in football, or the Yankees in baseball.  Often times it is the team that gets hot at the right time who ends up finishing where they thought they could if things just came together when they needed to.

Many parents fight to get their kids to the best schools for education, or maybe even for athletics, they are willing to go to great lengths to get their children placed in the best possible situation.  No one can blame parents for wanting the best for their kids, it is the parent’s job to advocate for their children until they learn to advocate for themselves.  Even as adults, we succeed greatly when we have an advocate clearing the way for us.  It might be a coach or a scout, a boss, a spouse, or a wingman/wingette.  I have supporters who advocate for the ministry here through their giving and allow me to be here doing ministry with you.

Jesus had someone who set things up for His ministry as well, a man named John the Baptist.  John provided a baptism with a message to repent of sin for the kingdom of God was coming!  He also warned that while he baptized with water, the one he was advocating for would baptize with the Holy Spirit and would separate those who belong to Him from those who do not (Matthew 3:1-12).  After all, Jesus is the advocate between us and God.  He is the one who intercedes for us as only He can.  In turn, those who believe in Christ advocate for their faith with others by sharing what they have experienced through being in relationship with Him.  John gets to have a cool role in all of this, but he doesn’t let it go to his head, he knows his part.  In the book of John (author is a different one), John is quoted as saying to his disciples, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)  John is referring to the rise in popularity of Jesus.  John doesn’t seek out his own glory and yet Jesus says, “I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John.  Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he (Luke 7:28).”  Jesus boosts John up and at the same time gives perspective on where he stands. 

While Jesus is attending a wedding feast he shares a parable about honor:

“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.  But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:7-11)

This is the classic desire to “fly under the radar” or “claim the under dog role” that teams like to adopt.  If you want to advocate for someone, advocate for each other on and off the court and the result will speak for itself.  Who in your life is your best advocate?  Who in your life do you advocate for?  I pray that your approach to the game will not change even as your success is recognized by others.

Women’s Basketball Devotional 2.10.12

Live In The Moment

Many people will tell you that women multi-task better than men, while this is a stereotype; experience tends to confirm it true more often than not.  In general, men’s brains compartmentalize things more than women’s brains; everything tends to be connected in some way for women.  Obviously there are benefits to both tendencies given particular circumstances.  On a recent trip with my family, I was busy packing the car up with all of my son’s toys, our clothes, and a cooler all while trying to get the house ready for our departure while my wife took care of our son.  I thought I would try to charge my wife’s electric toothbrush as long as possible while I did everything else, but when we arrived at our destination five hours later, sadly I realized I had forgotten our entire toiletries bag, including that now super charged toothbrush.  Not my best moment for multi-tasking!

Staff Devotional 2.6.12

Awesome

This past weekend I traveled with my family to Leavenworth, Washington in the vehicle that was not stolen from our driveway and coincidentally we were in a two week promotional period for satellite radio.  As we drove up north I was listening to songs from the 80’s and 90’s, songs I grew up listening to-lots of great memories.  It was interesting for me to really hear the words to the songs with my 20-month old son in the back seat though, words I never paid attention to before.  When I was younger the lyrics in the song didn’t seem to bother me, now with younger ears hearing them I became really aware of what those words implied.

One of the words that was used a lot in the 80’s and probably too much was “awesome”.  I hear people use that word for things that they really like, or when they are in amazement, but I don’t think they really mean something is awesome most of the time. 

Track Devotional 1.30.12

Time of Your Life

I was talking to Cameron Hamilton, one of our track athletes recently and I noticed he had shaved his head for the season.  He says it makes him faster, or at least, he feels faster.  For a sprinter, the difference between first and second place could be a hair.  The more seconds you can shave off the better.  Perspective on time differs from one event to another.  A sprinter thinks that 8 seconds is really fast, while a rodeo cowboy will tell you it can feel like an eternity.   

First and Ten

For the purpose of raising support, we have found it necessary to give people many different opportunities to join our team financially and to keep it on the minds of those considering such a commitment.  Last month we sent out e-mails about High Five Partners, those who would give $5 per month and how much that could actually make an impact on our overall support.  In light of the upcoming Super Bowl this week, we came up with the idea of First and Ten: $10 every first of the month, or a total of $120 for the year. WarnerPacificCollegedoes not have a football team, but the idea is that your gift each month can keep the chains moving on our ten service goals for the year. 

The need atWarnerPacificCollege: To educate an urban college athletic department on the relevance of God’s word, illustrate a relationship with Christ, and encourage a generation to express their faith in the community.  The financial need: $40,000

The (Chaplaincy)vision at Warner: Build relationships through strategic opportunities in the academic and athletic structure of the college and provide spiritual wisdom, guidance, truth, and support.  The financial vision: commitments equal to a fully funded budget by year-end (Dec. 2012).

The  (Chaplaincy) mission at WPC: Share the gospel in an urban setting with students who have varying degrees of spiritual background.  Mentor young college athletes and prepare them to share their growth in the community.  Financially: 80% of the budget raised by June 1^st with other benchmarks to follow.

Our ten service goals:

• To serve alongside teams as they fulfill their mandatory service hours in various projects in the community.
• Provide one-on-one mentoring for student athletes on academic probation, judicial assignment, or personal desire.
• Deliver team based devotions for each sports program throughout their season.
• Facilitate one Bible study/small group each for male and female athletes on campus.
• Help athletes put together and deliver a testimony.
• Provide student athletes with a venue to share their experience in community and through the media at large (i.e. internet).
• Communicate with athletes that are injured and provide prayer support.
• Create a weekly staff devotional that all coaches can participate in directly or indirectly.
• Stay in contact and develop relationship with each head coach.
• Be responsible with bringing the funds in to keep the ministry and family at budget.

As of this posting, we need about 44 people to commit to the First and Ten Plan by June in order to make our goal.

Thank you for your prayers and support, we look forward to partnering with those that God has blessed with the desire and ability to provide.