Discipline

Does the Christian athlete have an advantage? Consider this... what character quality does every great athlete possess? Discipline. The ability to do the hard things, the little things, do them right, stick to it, persevere, etc. It’s the stand out feature that top sports people MUST have.

What does the Bible say on this? We’ve been given discipline... 2 Timothy 1.7 says, "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but one of power, love and discipline." The original Greek word here is only used once in the Bible- "sofronismon". It’s a unique word that can also be translated as "having soundness of mind, self control, moderation". And remember, we’ve been given this.

In the Galatians fruit of the Spirit list, self control is also mentioned. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace....self-control". Again, this is GIVEN to us, as a gift, a supernatural endowment.

One of the coolest sport motifs in the Bible, and there are several, is in 1 Corinthians 9.25, "Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable". Along the same lines 2 Peter 1.6 admonishes us to supply self-control among a list of other qualities that will render us useful & fruitful in God’s Kingdom.

So on the one hand we’ve been given an internal empowering, but in other passages we’re commanded to apply self-control/discipline. Like many things in the Christian life we’ve got promises to believe in, but also admonitions to give it our best effort.

How cool is it that we can step out in faith, believing that we’ve been given the gift of discipline and make sure we’re exercising it to the best of our ability?

So what do you think? Does the Christian athlete have an advantage? It’s up to you to exercise that faith muscle and unleash God’s discipline power!

Lance...really LiveStrong!!

So, the Lance firestorm seemingly has begun to reach its vertex. Yes, I’ve joined in on the discussions. We’ve talked about the arrogance & lack of accountability for doping control bodies (WADA, USADA, etc.). Discussed Lance’s obvious culpability and everyone else’s in the peleton at that point in history. How overconfident Lance has been and assured of his invincibility in the matter. Yet one conversation hasn’t taken place and in the eyes of the most essential viewpoint, it’s the most important.

I still remember listening to Lance’s first book (audio version) as I drove home with Arturo Kinch from a ski training camp in our Olympic preparation for the 2002 Winter Olympics. As we heard Lance’s story two things really struck me. The first was how incredible it was that he survived. Doctors only gave him a 4% chance of living. Of course we all know the story how he not only survived, but went on to win the world’s most physically challenging sporting contest....Le Tour, multiple times. The other thing that really struck me was how prideful and impervious Lance was to God’s good graciousness to him.

Lance’s story is a true hard luck to world conquerer tale. Yet along the way God gave him opportunities to submit to his creator, but in each instance-especially coming that close to death and given a second chance, Lance seemed to reject God’s touch in his life. There never seemed to be gratefulness for these moments or gratitude for being granted another opportunity at life. Even Lance’s foundation (that he’s no longer officially a part of due to the fall out), "LiveStrong" exudes feelings of independence and self reliance.

What could have been or will be the best possible outcome of all this? That he won’t be stripped of his 7 Tour victories (happened today)? That he won’t be required to return his Olympic medal or the millions of prize money earnings and sponsorship dollars? That the court of public opinion will still validate this once amazing hero? In my estimation none of these can compare to what God’s good plan could very well be for Lance...the breaking of his pride and finally humbly submitting to God.

Yes, all this could be the very best thing that ever happened to Lance Armstrong. God, in his goodness, knows that this is the only way to break through Lance Armstrong’s bulletproof pride. Of course, Jesus said it best when he stated, "what does it profit a man to gain the world but forfeit his soul?" 7 tour wins, amassing a worldly fortune and the adulation of millions doesn’t mean a thing when you stand before God on the day of judgement.

So right now I could easily imagine Lance shaking his fist at God and saying, "Why are you doing this to me?!!" God’s answer, "because I love you with an infinite love and I infinitely care about you and your soul...and that you’ll be all you can be and enter into my Kingdom."

Let’s pray for Lance, that he won’t burn up this most clear chance to reconcile with God.

Can an Athlete be Truly Humble?

This morning I was reading from Henry Scougal’s "The Life of God I the Soul of Man." He has some interesting thoughts on humility. I wonder if most people would imagine they don’t have a problem with being humble. Yet, Scougal makes some comments that make me realize how incomplete my own humility levels are (I know, some of you are thinking "Sellers you have every reason to be humble!).

Ever feel slighted by someone? Not respected? Treated short of the esteem we feel we deserve? Likely we all do at times. But check out this quote, "the humble person hath the advantage when he is despised, that none can think more meanly of him than he doth of himself; and therefore he is not troubled at the matter, but can easily bear those reproaches which wound the other to the soul." Wow! I like that. When accused by someone of some perceived shortfall your response can truly be.... "if they only really knew..." The humble knows they’ve got a lot of issues that need changing ("& thanks for the help in pointing them out!").

Maybe this can be a good barometer of our humility quotient.... how easily does criticism roll off your back?


More significantly, humility brings us joy. Scougal states that the greatest satisfaction and sweetness come when at the "lowest prostration of their souls before God, having a deep sense of the divine majesty and glory, they sink to the bottom of their beings, and vanish and disappear in the presence of God."   Cool.   True humility is when we begin to understand our place in relation to the majesty of God. In fact Scougal says it’s impossible to express the great pleasure and delight we experience in this.

I can’t help but compare this to those competitions when everything falls into place and you’re in that psychological bubble where everything feels easy, fun and energizing. In these instances you totally lose yourself. There’s no thoughts about how you look or what others think of you. It’s just pure enjoyment of the present moment. Connecting with God intimately has the same effect. There’s such joy in that moment that its inconceivable to have any thoughts of yourself. They just get swallowed up in Christ’s gloriousness.

One more... Wanna truly be at peace with yourself and others? Then listen to this, "the proud and arrogant person is a trouble to all that converse with him, but most of all unto himself : every thing is enough to vex him; but scarce anything sufficient to content and please him."

I can’t help but feel that so much of our sport pursuits (or any pursuit for that matter) are aimed at propping up the ego...the self. The Christian is to surrender self. But this task is impossible to do on it’s own unless you lose yourself in joyfully revelling in the perfections of Christ. When you do as described by Scougal, then the self naturally and even unconsciously dissolves in His jubilant glory.

I gotta-wanna pray more!

A GOOD GOD AND AVALANCHES

It’s so true that those who want to believe in God find reasons to do so (and there are many); while on the other hand those that don’t want to believe also find reasons not to do so. Ravi Zacharious calls it "a will in search of a reason." Probably the most common excuse for not believing and following God is the age old, "How can a good, all powerful God allow suffering?" Somehow people think they’ve got us believers stuck on this one and for them a way out. Kind of their own personal loophole.

But it’s not as if no one has ever thought about this faith-philosophical dilemma before. It’s a curious fact that professional philosophers, the guys getting paid to think logically, have no problem with evil and suffering and a good, all-powerful God.....even those that don’t believe He exists! They simply reason that this good, all powerful God, that could stop evil from happening, allows it because He has a good reason to.

Interesting that those not sure of this God’s existence clearly see this, how much more those of us that kinda know Him. Know a bit about His ways, His character, His omnipotence...shouldn’t be a problem with us either.

This winter I had an experience that brings some of this home. While backcountry skiing at Roger’s Pass we had some close calls with avalanches. With some Nat’l and Int’l xc and biathlon skiers and two locals and teammates of mine from the Canadian Nat’l Ski Mountaineering team (brought them along to show us the good powder stashes) we embarked on a mission to ski the newly fallen 30+ cm’s of Kootenay pow. While ascending a soon to be steepening slope we heard a couple of whumps, the tell-tale sign you’re about to see a snow pack failure, which we did on the second of those whumps. The snow started sliding and we high tailed it out of there barely avoiding getting caught in the not too extreme avalanche.

With this experience we decided to change our plans and go over to Cheeops mountain. As we ascended the backside, we noticed a party heading up ahead of us and preparing to drop into a very steep, long couloir. With the new snow and high avi rating, perhaps a precarious move. Our line down the mountain was steep, but not crazy. A couple of us mentioned to our hosts that we’d noticed the overhanging cornices that were the size of several large homes just above us. We dropped in and experienced some of the most wonderful powder skiing ever.

Just as we finished our descent the unthinkable happened. I’ll never forget the sound as the steeper couloir that the other skiers were skiing suddenly slid. It was huge. A massive powder cloud signalled that it was time to spring into action and switch our avalanche beacons into "find" mode. It turned out only one of their party was caught in the slide and he ended up on top of the snow, but man, he went for a 2000' ride. One of his skis was totally lost. One elbow was really scraped open by some rocks he hit. Fortunately his un-helmeted head didn’t hit those rocks. Back in the parking lot he was so shaken. He commented how his season was over (I guess he didn’t want to have to ski on 1 ski).

After our first run, just before this all happened we had decided to do another lap. Perhaps we were pushing the envelope, after all, the avi rating was high and we’d had a really good run, it should have been time to go home. However, when the avalanche happened we were all so shaken up we decided to call it a day. We skied out and down the valley with our legs still quaking from the event.

Three days later I thought I’d check the online avalanche report for the Roger’s Pass area and see if this incident was reported. It was, but as I read on the hair started standing up on my neck. The report also described the next chute over-the one we were on. It described how very large cornices gave way and set off a sizable avalanche over very fresh recently laid down ski tracks (ours). The cornice broke off into several smaller sections, but still the size of cars and they rolled all the way down to the valley floor.

Whoa! As I mentioned, our plans were to do another lap. We could have easily been in that steep slope when it all came crashing down. It seems that our new shaken up single skied friend might have saved our lives by taking that ride. Because of that we changed our plans and stayed off the mountain.

Now, if you were to ask him-actually he may have been asking himself, "how could a good God allow his suffering?" After all, he lost a ski (and some skin). Perhaps God had a much greater purpose in that lone skier’s suffering...to save the lives of 6 other skiers.

The funny thing is, if I hadn’t gone back several days later and checked the avi report none of us in our party would have had any clue how close we came to disaster. We would have been totally oblivious to what could have happened.

I sure am glad that our good, all-knowing, all-powerful God isn’t oblivious to the goings on in His Creation and with His children. Most of the time we’ll never see or know the reason why God allows some of the things He does. I guess that’s where faith comes in.

A true Hero

What is a hero? Who are yours? What does it take to be a hero? Saving a life? Maybe saving several lives.... How about saving between 1 and 3 billion lives. What?! Is that a typo? An overstatement? If there was someone that did this, then wouldn’t they be the greatest hero in the history of the world? Well, there is someone who has been credited with saving the lives of 1-3 billion people. That person is Norman Borglaug. If you haven’t heard of him don’t feel bad. I hadn’t either until just recently and he went to the same college of agriculture at the University of MN that I attended. We took classes in some of the same halls (the old ones for me!).

Norman Borglaug was a 3^rd generation Norwegian immigrant farmer that invested his life fully on the conviction that it is a moral outrage that any human should have to go to bed hungry. And this strong belief drove him to invest his life in ensuring that people would not be without food.

Borglaug was a quiet man, but he had a heart that was very determined. This trait actually opened up doors for him as people recognized this and gave him a chance when others wouldn’t and probably shouldn’t have. Besides being called the "father of modern agriculture" a.k.a. the "Green Revolution", in his early days Borglaug was an athlete. Actually, a hall of fame wrestler at the U of MN. As often is the case, his sport life played a part in the character and man that he eventually became. His high school wrestling coach, a former Olympic alternate and the principle of Borglaug’s school, had said, "Give the best that God gave you. If you don’t do that, don’t bother to compete." Norman Borglaug’s life exemplified this creed.

Originally he didn’t qualify academically for University studies, so he spent a year in the newly formed "General College" at the U of MN. The 1 room farm house school that he spent most of his education in didn’t really prepare him for the rigours of academic life. But what he lacked in formal training, he made up for in raw determination. This was also his style of wrestling. He only had 1 year of wrestling experience when he entered the U of MN, but his heart provided for whatever was lacking in technical ability and experience (Borglaug became a U of MN hall of fame wrestler).

Upon graduation he went on to pursue grad studies and became passionate about eliminating world hunger. His first stop was Mexico on a US program to turn this countries desperate food shortage problem around. They were quite successful, developing hybrids of grains that tripled the country’s yield and turned them into an exporter of wheat rather than an importer.

From there they went to the subcontinent of India and Pakistan where a looming food crises of epic proportions threatened to kill millions upon millions of people. Their newly developed grain varieties were surprisingly successful and enabled these countries to also no longer be dependant upon western nations to feed them as their yields tripled.

Other countries such as China benefited from these new high yielding and disease resistant varieties. In the 1960's book, "The Population Bomb" an accurate portrayal was presented warning of a looming world disaster whereby 100's of millions of people would starve to death as the world’s population by 1980 would vastly outstrip its ability to produce enough food for everyone. Fortunately this never happened as the authors didn’t take into account the heroic efforts of Norman Borglaug and his associates. Historians have said that it’s quite possible that indeed, 1-3 billion lives have been saved by these grain hybrids and innovative farming techniques.

Of course as with any great story there has been controversy and critics. Many of the modern agricultural techniques introduced by Borglaug have resulted in food that may not be as rich in vitamins and minerals. Perhaps due to the use of chemical fertilizers and not allowing land to be adequately fallowed (as per the Sabbath laws in the Old Testament). Because of this there has been a movement that has greatly resisted the introduction of life saving agricultural practices into Africa. A fight that Borglaug fought until his recent death.

In truth, Norman Borlaug acknowledged that there was much more work to be done. As for me I’d gladly sacrifice some nutrients in my food with the knowledge that a) I can take supplements to make up for it b) the knowledge that 1-3 billion people don’t have to die of starvation because of our modern capacity to increase produce yields.

When I first learned of this amazing man and this wonderful story I felt a little convicted. After all, as previously mentioned, I attended the same University, sat in the same classrooms, even competed athletically for the same University...but what have I accomplished with my life? Granted, it’s hard to compete with saving billions, but still, have I invested (and am continuing to invest) my life wisely?

How does one measure success in life?

A topic for a future blog!

Dr Laura and those Crazy Old Testament Bible Laws

Several years ago, when ``Dr`` Laura Schlesinger was quite popular, there was a mocking rebuttal dealing with her stance on sexual preference. It referred to various obscure and seemingly quite strange segments of the Old Testament law apparently trying to demonstrate how out of touch and ridiculous the Bible is in giving direction to moral issues in this supposed day of enlightenment (actually the article is kinda humorous in a twisted way).

Yet, far from really making any kind of relevant point about freeing us from the moral shackles of traditional thinking, it mostly just pointed out the need for a better understanding of how to properly interpret the Bible. I’m sure that there are many who celebrate and press the "like" button on their Facebook page and are thinking, "Oh yeah, I thought there was a good reason why I didn’t buy into that God stuff." But I find this is kind of sad because it often seems that those who really need some life direction from a reliable source are the very ones that in denying the Bible forfeit great quantities of hope, encouragement and guidance. In any case, what follows is my attempt to make some sense of these strange Bible passages that some feel excuse us from looking into the Bible as a reliable source for direction in life and a moral compass.

The afore mentioned article takes all their laws from the book of Leviticus, which is where God gave His "Law" to His people, the Jews. God, the Creator, called out of all the nations a select people group that He wanted to be His special possession and for them to be different. This was to demonstrate and proclaim to the rest of the world what it looks like to have a covenant relationship between God and His people. Most likely even they did not understand the reasoning behind all those laws, but by respecting them they were honouring their Creator who should have a right to dictate how His creation acts.

Now, understand we sit 3,500 years later and within a culture that is worlds apart from those that received those laws. Maybe some of them would have made more sense if we understood the cultural situation. For instance, the writer of the article mentioned the law in Lev19:27 that forbade shaving your head in such a way that left just a crown of hair on top (sounds like a pretty ugly haircut to me). This was a practice the brutal pagan religions around them had (the ones that sacrificed their children into fires). I remember 25 years ago a group of extreme hateful racists shaved off all their hair and called themselves "skinheads" as a way to identify themselves. Today that particular hairstyle doesn’t say anything about any extremist views, it’s just a convenient style that middle aged guys like me are kinda forced to wear due to our baldness! When you think of it that way maybe this strange haircut law does make sense. 25 years ago I wouldn’t dare be a skinhead, it wasn’t who I was or what I believed in. Same thing for the Israelites 3,500 years ago too.

So how do you interpret these curious Bible Old Testament laws? Some of them sound somewhat reasonable, like a few of the 10 commandments. Things like not lying, stealing or committing adultery sound like good advice. And that one about murder....probably definitely keep that one. As it turns out the second half of the Bible (the New Testament) gives us a lot of direction.

As an example, the article’s author mentioned the prohibition on eating shellfish (Lev. 11), yet 1,500 years later Jesus taught that the O.T. dietary rules didn’t even apply anymore (Mark 7). He said it’s far more important what’s in the heart than what’s in the stomach. Hey, that sounds pretty wise!

Later, after Jesus was off the scene, His followers had to address these very questions about the laws. This new way of believing in God, through Jesus, was becoming quite popular beyond the Jewish nation (and really those laws were just meant for Jewish followers of God) so they had to sort out what these new gentile believers should continue to adhere to. In fact they had a big council meeting to prayerfully sort through this question. The answer is found in Acts 15.10 "Now why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither we or our fathers nor we have been able to bear?"

Paul, who was in on this council and a leader in the situation, later wrote...

Rom. 8.2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death (referring to the O.T. law)
　

Rom. 10.4 For Christ is the end of the law, that everyone who has faith may be justified (in Jesus, not by keeping O.T. rules)

To keep us from having a moral free for all, perhaps we should look at the O.T. laws that are affirmed in the New testament. Because there’s still a lot of wisdom in there and most importantly the book points us to an eternal love relationship with someone that totally loves us and has given us so much.

So you may now ask, "So what DO you believe about sexual preference?" Well, I’m not going to tell you. At least not here. I’ll save that for a future blog entry, but let me tell you this....my answer will probably surprise you.

"Best Bible Study Ever"....

"Best Bible Study Ever".... or so one of my sport-faith biathletes exclaimed. Actually I kind of thought it was humorous and ironic. The study was simply a series of questions, most pertaining to finding purpose and meaning. Here’s some of them: "what makes you happy? What does your soul crave? In what ways do you think this craving affects your life?.....your time, $, relationships, etc.? Do you think people in general long to have their lives count in making a positive difference around them?" I guess it wasn’t so much the questions themselves but more in the fact that myself and their teammates were listening intently as they shared and bared what really was in the deepest part of their soul.

One of the lessons I wanted my ski and gun toting cadre to grasp is that people yearn to be listened to. So many evangelistic attempts fail because no one likes to be told they’re wrong and need to change. Perhaps even the major offense to Jesus’ claim to be the only way to the Father is the verdict of sin the gospel message brings. Again, no one like to be told they’re wrong....or sinful. So if my biathlon friends, or all of us, asked some decent, relevant questions and listened...really listened, I mean really listened, then maybe we could help our friends actually come to some decent God conclusions on their own.

Are You a Nimrod?

Ever been called a "Nimrod"? It’s not exactly a flattering complement. But we get the name Nimrod from the Bible. In fact Nimrod is said to have been a mighty hunter. That doesn’t sound too bad. Maybe a lot of athletes could relate to that... "a mighty hunter". If Nimrod were alive today perhaps he’d be a sprinter, decathlete, bobsled pusher or linebacker...a true stud!

Nimrod was the great grandson of Noah and resided in Shinar, current day Babylon. He organized the building of the tower of Babel. You may recall that. It wasn’t such a high time in the history of God’s people. So yeah, maybe Nimrod wasn’t such a sterling character. In fact one historical source said the hunting prey Nimrod pursued was human!

Ancient historian, Flavius Josephus writing 2000 years ago, "Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God...a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it was through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness."

Wow! We have additional information about Nimrod that dates as far back as 7000B.C. from a record found in a story written on clay tablets (Gilgamesh Epic). Turns out that the name "Nimrod" in the Hebrew language means "rebel"...and apparently that’s exactly what Nimrod was-a rebel to God, and he strongly led people away from God.

Look what Josephus wrote about Nimrod, it could be the byline on many a current athlete’s facebook page. "Believe", "Courage".......... "just do it!" "If the mind can conceive it, the body can achieve it." Maybe we should take a second look at our driving psychology’s. They seem more like lines out of Nimrod’s repertoire than what we’d find in the Bible.

I guess the bottom line is, are we trusting in ourselves and living independantly of God and His resources, or is our  faith and confidence and ultimately the object of our worship iin God?

Ps. 2 says, "Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth Worship the LORD with reverence, and rejoice with trembling...how blessed are those who take refuge in Him."

read this from a sermon of J. Edwards yesterday-

"Consider how you yourselves are ready to resent it, when any of your neighbours seem to slight you and to make no account of it, but to treat you as if you were good for nothing, or not worth minding

But if it be such a crime to despise you and set you at nought, what is it to set at nought the eternal infinitely glorious Son of God, in comparison with whom you and all nations are nothing, and less than nothing... You dislike it much to be contemned by your equals...What a crime is it then for a vile, sinful worm, to set at nought him who is the brightness of the glory of the King of kings!"

 

Did you follow this? All of us get treated at times less than we'd like. whether we're overlooked, dis-respected, not acknowledged, etc. Essentially what Edwards is saying is, if you feel this way-a finite, fallible human... how much more does God? Who's infinitely perfect, good and all worthy of total esteem, honoring and praiseworthy?

Do you think God gets overlooked? By those whom He created? By those whom He formed and made for Himself and His glory. That's what 43.7 is all about. Isaiah 43.7    There it says, "everyone who belongs to me, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed-yes, whom I made!"

We're all made for Him.