Run in such a way as to win the prize… with excellence!

If you’re a gold-medal winning swimmer, gymnast, decathlete, whatever… You train, you practice, you prepare, you do your best on practice day so that you can win whatever you’re capable of… hopefully the “big prize”… Then when you’re standing on that platform, the whole world says “well done”. What a great image Paul gave us of our own spiritual preparation in all the things we do for God. Our best, nothing less.

I have quite a number of friends who play on worship teams with me at Tri-County Church who do this. One guy in particular comes to mind on this… he sinks a lot of his time (and money, for gear) into his excellent guitar playing (and then he’s super generous with stuff he’s no longer needing and super generous with his time… a “hilarious” giver if there ever was one) and whenever I have him playing on stage next to me, I particularly know that he’s going to give the best that he can to the job at hand and is going to sound amazing. He’s not the only one I’m glad to say! A lot of the other musicians who serve with me do the same thing, and when I’m leading worship on stage next to musicians who’ve spent a lot of time preparing, it’s a joy.

Thanks to all of you who work so hard on this. Well done, good and faithful servants.

Just happy to be there.

It seems 8 is no longer the Chinese lucky number… It’s Michael’s lucky number. Sure, it’s really cool to see Michael Phelps mother be so proud of her amazing son, the “greatest Olympian ever”. But what I really loved was watching the faces of family who were there to see their kids compete on the world stage, even though they had no hope of winning gold or even a medal. Here’s to the real heroes! The ones who finished the race that they were hopelessly outmatched in, and whose families were just as proud of them as Michael’s mom.

Right priorities, right attitude

I’m just reading in the paper about the induction into the Football Hall of Fame of two of my favorite all-time Redskins, Art Monk and Darrell Green. What a couple of class acts. Darrell Green is maybe my all-time favorite sports figure. He was great for a long long time, and is a great father and great guy, too. He was talking about how he almost named his son Darrell Green Jr., but changed his mind just before he was born. Green says his son is “his own man”, and then he said the kind of thing that all sons should get to hear their father say. He said “I’m more proud of my son being my son than I am being in the Hall of Fame.” Wow. Fathers… let your kids catch you saying how proud you are of them some time! (Mothers, you can do that, too…)

Love The Least

This past weekend at Tri-County Church, I had the honor of preaching about the ways God asks us to love His children. You can listen here if you like. Isaiah tells us about love being the best way to serve God. Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms how much the poor and unfortunate mean to Him. When we serve them, we serve him. When we love them, we love Him. James tells us how important it is that we love them.

Here are some great resources for your pursuit of loving the least. First, a couple of books that I think are great on this topic.

Brian McLaren – “Everything Must Change”

Francis Chan – “Crazy Love” (This one is also currently available at our resource center here at TCC, if you are an attender.)

And here’s some great serving opportunities.

If you don’t do it yet, consider sponsoring a child (or two) through an agency like Compassion International or keeping a child in Africa on their anti-retroviral drugs at Keep a Child Alive. Or maybe do both!

Consider helping out at Abba’s Coffeehouse.

If you are part of our Tri-County family, you can help out with “Helping Hands” by clicking this link and filling out the form. (Don’t forget to check off “Helping Hands”.)

While you’re at it, be sure to pray for these folks as they do what they do, and find some new great way today to serve that person near you, whether family, friend, or neighbor, or just somebody you pass on the way.