Wow! What a week!
Last week, I attended the Desiring God Ministries' Conference for Pastors in Minneapolis. Monday through Wednesday found me worshiping with maybe 2,000+ pastors, listening to some great messages regarding men, ministry and masculinity, and fellowshipping with old friends and making a few new acquaintances. All in all, a very blessed time. I hope to blog a bit more about some of the message: recap, summarize and think out loud what it means for me and for Cornerstone EFC.
I'll let my mind jump and wander a bit today; after all, it's Monday and yesterday was a delightfully long Lord's Day. We had many visitors to our little flock at Cornerstone. I could tell they were guests, not only because they were new faces, but they showed up early! One of the families had four young children (my guess? ages 8 and under) and they still were early! We have families with only one young child who can't get there until things have been going for about 15 minutes. What is it within us that thinks tardiness is not a sin, that it does not show a measure of disrespect for God, let alone the others around them who are teaching, learning or worshiping? I don't want to chastise anyone in particular; I just wish I could take a hypodermic needle filled with punctuality and inject it into people. Sigh!
The SuperBowl was held yesterday. Did you know that? I was initially inclined not to watch it this year. For as much as the NFL proclaims parity and that on any given Sunday one team could beat any other team, this year's SuperBowl seemed to have "Been There, Done That" written all over it. Now, if the 49ers and the Ravens would have made it in, not only would you have had two teams who hadn't been there in a while, but to have the two Harbaugh brothers going against one another would have been the story over the past two weeks. However, I did sit down with wife and son and watch the second half (we were visiting with out-of-town guests at Caribou and missed the halftime show featuring Madonna; drat! I'm sure my cultural-awareness points dropped by at least 0.000000000002% by not catching that; oh well).
Near the end of the game, when the Giants, then trailing by two points, were near the goal line, Al Michaels and Chris Collingsworth, whom I would normally give great credit to for their knowledge of the game, seemed to come completely unglued. With under two minutes and the Giants looking like they would score in some manner––touchdown or field goal––they were both advocating the philosophy that it would be better if the Giants didn't score a touchdown, even if the field opened itself up and beckoned them come on in, simply in order to run the clock down. Then, low and behold, this very opportunity presented itself. Bill Belichick, normally one of the keenest minds in football coaching ever was obviously tuned into Michaels and Collingsworth and told his defense, don't tackle the running back, open up a hole the city of Indianapolis could drive through and let them score a touchdown so we have some time left on the clock. The ball carrier almost appeared to want to sit down on the 1-foot line at that point, but just couldn't help himself and fell backwards into the end zone. At which point, the entire NY Giants offense raced toward the end zone to celebrate the game-winning touchdown with said running back––NOT! Did you see them? They almost appeared disappointed that he had scored!
These guys are raised from an early age to either score at every single available opportunity in any way possible or to stop the other team from scoring on any available opportunity in any way possible. No wonder, what had been a really good game looked so surreal for a few moments. Sure, a few seconds on the game clock later, New York was celebrating another marvelous, come-from-behind win over New England (how many times has this happened now and yet New York still never knows, in mid-season if it wants to keeps its coach, Tom Coughlin around?). But did it ever look weird. Considering that I had no intention of watching the game, those final few moments totally engaged me.
Well, enough about such things. Tomorrow, I'll have put all that aside and will be back to more serious and weighty issues––or not. You never can tell what random thought will fly out of this cluttered mind.
See ya!