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.

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!

 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.

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!

There are times in our life where we can ruin what is right in front of us by trying to read into it too much.  It’s great to think about the future and make plans, but relationships are probably best enjoyed in the moment.  If you get thinking too far ahead of where the relationship is in the moment, you may not actually be present for the person, or might try to influence things in a direction they aren’t really going.  Some hosts worry so much about entertaining people and making them feel at home that they never actually are able to sit down and spend time talking with their guests.  Two women named Mary and Martha have an interesting visit with Jesus recorded in the book of Luke:

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village.  And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.  And she had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to His teaching.  But Martha was distracted with much serving.  And she went up to Him and said, “Lord do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?  Tell her then to help me.”  But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.  Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)

This is an example where being able to focus on one thing trumped everything else.  In another passage of Scripture, a woman named Mary (who has a sister named Martha) is having dinner with Jesus in Bethany and has some forward thinking in mind that others fail to see (Mark 14:4-9).  Mary broke a jar of very expensive perfume and poured it on Jesus.  The disciples thought it a waste to not sell the perfume and give the money to the poor.  Jesus told them to leave her alone and stated that they will always have the poor with them, but they will not always have Him.  He goes on to state that this served to anoint His body for burial.  While Mary’s act was for an event yet to come, it was taking advantage of the opportunity she had in the moment to do something special that would be remembered.  The disciples missed it entirely but would later write about the event (Matthew 26:6-13, John 12:1-8).

With athletics, many writers and media members are always speculating on what is going to happen, whether it is draft picks that will make it in the pros, which team is going to win, or whether or not a player will end up in the hall of fame.  Why can’t we just enjoy the players and the games as they are happening?  Tonight, I look forward to watching you play one game, not four!  I will enjoy the effort and energy that you put into the performance for tonight’s game in front of your family, friends, students, and alumni.  I pray that for the next few hours you can put everything else aside, and focus on playing your best basketball game as a team regardless of who the opponent is or what other things you might be tempted to think about.

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.  The word implies something or someone that has you in awe.  As a coach, you recruit players, sometimes you are after a very special player that has a lot of talent.  You can’t be in awe of that player’s talent or you will not be able to coach that player affectively.  One of my mentors is a chaplain for the University of Washington basketball team.  He told me that if I wanted to work with athletes that I could not be a classic fan, that I had to interact and treat the athletes as I would anyone else I was sharing God with.  Even the greatest athletes have a real need for God, if you are in awe of them, you will not be doing your job in reaching them for Christ and helping them grow.

When the word awesome is used in the Bible it is often accompanied by fear.  An angel of the Lord appears to Samson’s mother in the book of Judges (Judges 13:3-7).  The woman did not think to ask where the angel had come from or the angel’s name, she just knew that it was “very awesome”.  Again in the book of Genesis we find Jacob falling asleep and the Lord appearing to him in a dream.  When Jacob wakes up he was afraid and asked rhetorically, “How awesome is this place?” (Genesis 28:10-17).  He would call that place Bethel or House of the Lord.  When I was out skiing this past weekend at Stevens Pass, I looked at the mountain, the great snow, the warm sunshine that particular day and thought, this is an awesome experience.  The snow doesn’t stay the same consistency, the weather pattern changes, and the number of people can make the experience different too.  The experience though was a combination of good things that God created and I was happy to be enjoying what God had created. 

We attribute awesome things to experiences, but those experiences are made possible by God the creator of every good thing.  So in truth only God is awesome!  We do well to choose our words carefully so that they mean something when we say them, and we do even better to recognize where awesome comes from.  People are drawn in by things that amaze and inspire them; we should seek to help people see where those things come from so that they can experience that feeling more and more.

One day everyone will recognize just how awesome God is, even those who do not believe in Him.  We are told in Romans that all people will come before the judgment seat of God and every knee will bow and every tongue confess to Him (Romans 14:10-12).  It will literally be awesome.