On Sunday I preached on James 4 and encouraged our Bridge congregation to be the utmost examples of humility, so far as to embarrass yourselves in today's culture by not drinking alcohol if you're under age...even if it's cool, or to go spend your Saturday building a house with Habitat instead of at the country club. It was a cool time for me to preach this, but it was driven home today in the car.
Heading back from a meeting in Richardson I was in a rare "I don't want to listen to music" mood and has ESPN radio on with "The Michael Irvin Show." Normally I think of Irvin as pompous and arrogant, but I'll admit this is from his days as a Dallas Cowboy. However, Irvin and his co-host were discussing how college football players seeking to be drafted by the NFL were doing awful on the Wanderlich test that measures quick thinking and ability to learn. Irvin was mentioning that players ought to get coaches for this, as preparation is the key, and definitely touted himself as an authority on such matters.
His co-host quickly and sarcastically replied, "Michael, you just know everything don't you?" To which Michael Irvin replied, "I didn't know not to go into that hotel room."
For those not up on Cowboy history, Irvin was famously caught in a hotel room in Dallas with several prostitutes and a large quantity of cocaine...quite the humiliation on an otherwise brilliant NFL career. But now, he is bringing it back up for the sake of educating young athletes to avoid the pitfalls of fame. He even wisely said, "I knew how to be the worst of me, now I've got to work everyday to be the best of me."
Christians...listen up to that.
I never imagined that a former NFL star could teach me about humility, but Irvin did that today. We're all striving towards God's perfection, or at least should be, but when we make mistakes we ought not to constantly and forever beat up ourselves thinking that we should be perfect in all ways. Instead, we realize our fallen nature, let God pick us up, go to God for inspiration to be the best of ourselves...now that we know what the worst looks like.
As we journey towards Easter, and even our "Sexual Revolution" sermon series, I think it's important that we recognize the worst of ourselves and not get caught up in it. Not repeating it, not dwelling on it. Instead, we openly lay ourselves before God every day and every night and let God show us what the best of us is and seek that with all our hearts...no matter the humiliation that might occur. It's for God...who can be against it?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment