Today was a good day.

My basketball team had their first game of the season against a team that could very well be the stiffest competition we will face. We’ve had just a few practices and in each practice we have worked on our offense and inbounds plays. In the last few we’ve discussed at length defensive positioning and rebounding. So guess what happened in the game today. Yep, seldom did we run any of the offensive play correctly. Yep, the guys were out of position more than in the proper position on defense. Not much different from our most recent practice. Guess what else? WE WON! That’s right, we won and we even came from behind to do it. It took a few time outs and reminders of what needed to happen and the kids kept battling, kept hustling and kept playing. After being down 10-5 midway through the game, we ended up on top 21-17.

I really appreciate the spirit of these youngsters. Even though they didn’t do everything right, they kept trying to do their best. They didn’t hang their heads or get down on themselves. They kept trying and it worked out in the end.

I hope I can remember their lesson for me. I know what I need to do but sometimes I can’t get it right. In the heat of battle, I forget what God has told me and mess up. The key for me is that I have to remember to keep trying, to be focused and to keep listening to the reminders from Him of what I should do. With time, my young team will get better at doing what they should do. With time, I surely hope I continue to draw closer to God and finally, in the end, celebrate victory in heaven.

I am coaching a 3rd and 4th grade boys basketball team and our first game is tomorrow. In every practice, we have drilled on an inbounds play and an offense. We have discussed where I want players taking shots from and where they should play on defense. At the end of practice last night, I let them play a brief 4 on 4 scrimmage and I was disappointed (but not surprised) by what happened. No one played defense where I told them to play, shots were flying from everywhere, layups weren’t done like we have practiced over and over and over. I wanted to pull my hair out watching these guys do the opposite of everything we have practiced for 4 weeks.

As I look back on my frustration, I wonder what God feels when he sees me doing the opposite of what He told me I should do. I wonder if He gets frustrated with me and wants to reach down, grab me by the ear and yell at me to do what He has told me to do.

My kids will play Saturday and next Thursday in practice, we’ll go back to working on the things we did wrong and work on getting it right. In the end, I know it’s just a game and nothing is really at stake.

I’m so grateful that God will be patient with me, work with me to fix what I’m doing wrong and help me do it right because the only thing that is truly important is at stake.

A few days ago, Pat Robertson was saying how God was punishing Ariel Sharon through health problems. Last night watching the news, they showed a clip from the trial of Dewayne Goodrich, a former Dallas Cowboy who ran over some people while driving drunk. He killed two and severly injured a third who is now permanently disabled. Last night during the clip, the man forgave Goodrich and in a follow up interview said he did it because he wanted to reflect God to Goodrich. Robertson professes to be a Christian while this man (I cannot remember his name) said he is Jewish. Who better reflects the price that was paid for my sins and my hope – the famous TV Christian or the simple man who now has to walk with a cane?

I’m thankful for this man, for his gesture and only wish it would get the international exposure that Pat Robertson got. More so, I’m thankful for a Lord who teaches us to forgive and to live in love instead of bitterness, anger and hatred. I’m thankful for a God who would allow His son to die so that I might live. I wish Pat Robertson would say it but I can only control what I do and with God’s help, I will do my best to reflect His glory by being forgiving, by being loving and by being compassionate.

That was fun! Last night as I paced through the living room and was constantly told to “sit down” I thought how funny it must be for someone looking in from the outside to see me moving around as if I was the coach. I talk to the TV, to the officials, to the coaches and to the announcers…and obviously it worked. Texas won! What an exciting moment for Mack and Vince and all the players. I stayed up long after the game watching ESPN and saw several of the players still celebrating on the field after most everyone had cleared out. It was fun to watch.

I got an email from a friend yesterday, someone who helped raise me in some respects, encouraging me and saying some nice things about me. It really made me feel good and reminded me how important, how uplifting a kind word can be. I started thinking about all the people I needed to share a kind word with more often and thought of how often the people closest to me are some of the last ones I encourage. My wife would be forefront on that list. We work together to raise kids, build a home and do all the things we need to do and I take for granted she is always there, always working. Like everyone else, we have our moments where we don’t see eye to eye but we’ve been able to move past those times and stay focused on what is important. She is so important to my life and I need to lift her up more often. Much the same for my children. They make me laugh, they make me cry and they remind me that life is not about me but about helping others. My boss, my friends, Elders at the church, teachers…there are so many that would benefit from a “thank you” and a little encouragement.

I hope I don’t forget yesterday’s email as I try to do better thanking others (even if it’s just buying them a Diet Coke in the morning!). Most of all, I don’t want to forget to thank God for His gift and His mercy. He has the words to encourage me daily and I need to always be lifting Him up and glorifying Him.

Tonight is the night. The Longhorns will defeat USC for the national title and watch Vince Young run off to fame and fortune in the NFL. It should be a great game and I hope it will be like the other bowl games have been – close and exciting. USC is a great team with several good athletes. The fate of Texas pretty well rests on Vince Young’s feet. I have faith though and the Tivo is set.

I watched Boyd take on Paradise last night in basketball. It was another close game that shouldn’t have been and Boyd ended up losing after being up 16-2 in the 1st quarter. The two are big rivals and it was a physical game. Two of Boyd’s best players fouled out late in the game but I think coaching decisions are what did them in.

The bleachers are the best place to coach from. No one yells at you, no parents wait for you after the game to complain about how little Junior was treated, you get to forget the losses and remember the victories. It’s an awesome place to coach. I know other people like that and I see them in everyday life. They would run a business a lot better than the people doing it. They would run the schools much better than the people doing it. They would make the church a better church than the people involved. Yet they never engage. They never step up to take responsibility at work, in the schools or at church.

In the past, these people have caused me a great deal of frustration. Today, not so much because in the end, they will be accountable for what they did or didn’t do just as I will and the one thing I don’t want on my resume is that I spent too much time being frustrated over people who complain so that I became a complainer about complainers instead of a worker for God.

I suppose I will always coach basketball games from the bleachers. It’s a fun hobby and I’m pretty sure my decisions would have left each time I bleacher-coached undefeated. Yet, I hope I never become a bleacher-coach with the Lord’s work. I hope I am engaged, active and vibrant in trying to live my life doing His will. I don’t want to be a spectator of heaven, I want to be fully involved.

The Rose Bowl is getting closer. I’m excited because I’ve always been a Texas Longhorn fan even though I didn’t go there. My cousin attended and played football for a couple of years and it was awesome having good tickets to big games. My first date with my wife was to a Texas game. I’m sure it was the best time she’s ever had. 🙂

So who’s idea was it to have the Rose Bowl on a Wednesday? That led me to my next thought that Tivo must have been invented by a Christian who was missing too many Sunday afternoon football games.

I have no real purpose for writing today, no underlying theme to my story other than to wish you a great day and hope that you will be blessed and will bless others.

As I limp into my 41st year with hurting knees and an arthritic back (I hear melodrama can be good for a story), I wonder what the new year will bring. I know my kids will become a year older (which scares me to death), I know there will be ups and downs at work, I am planning on traveling to Brazil and I hope to grow stronger in the Lord. The older I get, the more I learn and the more at peace I become with faith. I used to have more doubts and more questions but today I believe God exists more than ever and certainly have a better understanding of His love and mercy on me.

I also know Satan is alive and working. At times, I feel like Satan is in my face all the time. I don’t talk about Satan much because I rather ignore him or deny that he is real than face the truth that he wants in, he wants to take over my heart and my mind. Our study yesterday morning in 2 Corinthians reminded me that Satan is very real and very sneaky. He divides us when we should pull together, he makes us think of ourselves when we should think of others, he makes us feel hurt and pain when others around us know more hurt and pain but we ignore them while he tells us they are just selfish.

While I thought about Satan during worship, the song leader led The Joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord will be my strength. He will uphold me all of my days. I am surrounded by mercy and grace. The joy of the Lord is my strength. I want to live in the joy of the Lord. I want to live in thanks and praise to Him. I know Satan will try to pull me down and he will win sometimes but I know that my focus must be in the joy of the Lord, in knowing Him and with Him I will defeat Satan.

I hope the joy of the Lord will be your strength.

It’s Tiger Woods birthday. He must be worth $100 million and he’s turning 30. It’s LeBron James birthday and he is worth at least $100 million and he’s turning 21. So, does that mean if your birthday is on December 30 you must have a lot of money? Well, I’m here as living proof that it does not mean that. Today is my birthday and after double checking my bank account, I officially do not have lots of money. But, I do have plenty. I have an incredible family that God has blessed me with, good friends and pretty decent health (OK, the arthritis in my back is making me feel a year older). I don’t know how Tiger and LeBron feel today but I am feeling very content. I can wish that I had a little more money and less debt, a little bigger house and a newer car, a 4 wheeler, a vacation home…oh, I could go on and on. Yet I look at the world and I see people on the news watching their children starve, living without a house, without food, without medical care or knowing that a bomb or gunfire could very well take their life at any moment. I have so much and I know all that I have means nothing.

I also see people who don’t know God, who don’t believe in Heaven and Hell, who think we just come back as something else or believe we just die and that’s it. I see people who believe in a different God, who don’t understand or believe the price that has been paid for our salvation. I am praying today for these people. I hope they will open their hearts to God.

Today is my birthday and I know I have more than I need in earthly goods. I am blessed with what I have. Yet none of that is really important when I reflect on all that I have through Christ. I have so much more than I deserve. I surely haven’t earned His grace but I receive it freely.

I’m a year older and for the first time actually feeling a year older. Even though I may hurt a little more and move a little slower, I’m alright because I am content with all I have and I am overwhelmed by the gift God has given me.

As the end of the year approaches, I often think about the good and bad things that happened during the year. Too often, I glance over the good things instead of savoring them and think more about the bad. Then the questions flood in of why and how did it happen and what should I have done.
I want to try and be different this year. I want to savor the good moments. I want to think about them, remember how and why they happened and see if I can duplicate or improve on them. I want to enjoy the happiness and smiles the memories bring back. I will also spend a little time on the not-so-good things and spend time in prayer. I will ask God to help me improve, to learn from my mistakes, to move on and not linger on them and, I will ask God to help me eyes fixed on Heaven, not on the past.
As my children grow and they wrestle with their insecurities, I see now more than ever the need to focus on the future, to put my trust in what can happen and not what did happen. I will look try to remember the lessons of the past while looking forward.
It’s nothing new. Our God is like that. His Word reminds of mistakes of the past but His eyes are on our future. He makes us new everyday. He forgives the past and throws it away prompting us to only think of Heaven, to focus on the life we can have because of His son.
That’s my goal for 2006, to look to the future, to look to Heaven, to focus on the gift I have through Jesus.

I have a tradition of watching a basketball tournament after Christmas each year. Since 1988, I have been attending this 3 day tournament, sometimes all day for 3 days and other times I’ve only seen a few games. Yesterday, I watched games from 11:30 until 9:00 with my son. The tournament was recently ranked by Sports Illustrated as one of the top 5 Christmas tournaments in the country so I get to see some good (and not so good) basketball being played. This year, for the first time since I’ve been going, Robert Hughes wasn’t coaching the Dunbar Wildcats, wasn’t scowling at bad pass or stomping his foot at a bad foul. Robert Hughes retired last year as the winningest high school basketball coach in history so I was able to watch quite a bit of history being made of the past several years. I’ve seen his teams defeat the #1 team in the nation a few years ago and I’ve seen eventual state champions and one NBA player from his team. It’s been a fun time but it has come to an end, at least with Robert Hughes, Sr. coaching. Now, Robert Hughes, Jr. has taken over. What a role to play. What shoes to fill. I hope Junior does well though it isn’t likely to see him do as well as his father. Still, I hope he is successful and his Flying Wildcats are just as entertaining as ever.