What we do in life echoes in eternity

A senior Coug will play his final game in the Crimson and Grey today.  There won't be epic stories told of his heroics and other-worldly ability, he hasn't rewritten the record books, and those on the outside might not remember him long from now.  But those who had the incredible pleasure to play with him, or were highly invested in Cougar football for the past 5 seasons will remember him.

As a life long and highly devoted Coug, who is often told that he has too much Cougar gear (not possible for the record), and some one who had devoted himself to personifying what "Cougar Pride," means I can honestly say that there is no Cougar who could represents what it means to be a Cougar than Marshall Lobbestael. I cannot think of a better guy to get to start this game.  His final game, his last chance to beat the hated Huskies.

The ultimate competitor who I battled against in high school, and then played with at WSU, knew exactly how to exhibit his competitiveness.  He never used it to tear people down, only to build people up, encourage others, and motivate them to be better than they were.  Constantly pushing people to train harder, work longer, study harder, and never give up.

No player may have gone through more in a football career; injuries, staring games young and winning, being replaced, sacked a record number of times, starting again, being replaced, starting, being replaced, starting, being replaced.  Losing more than  anyone should be able to stand.  Yet he stood firm, he kept fighting the good fight, and he ran the race in such a way.

A brother in Christ, who came to know the Lord in college, and used his infectious personality and his situation allow him to share who Christ is with teammates and friends. Never allowing his situation to dictate his actions or reactions, he stayed steady stayed focused, and stayed all about Cougar Pride.  He stayed about the team, always the first to give praise and show excitement for his fellow quarter backs when they started, and played well.  He was always the first to bring in the rookies, show them the ropes and teach them what it meant to be a Cougar.

He may not reset the records, and he won't go down as the greatest qb to come out of a school known as Quarterback U. But "The Lobbster," as he is affectionately known will go down by those who played with him as one of the greatest Cougars; who embodied Cougar spirit, Cougar pride and Cougar heart more.  A man who I will forever feel honored to call a teammate, a brother-in-christ, and a Coug!

Thank you Marsh for being the man that you are, and being instrumental in helping change the culture of the program and its direction.

Once a Coug always a Coug.  Go Cougs!

I love sports, I really do.  There are so many great things that come from sports, it can develop work ethic, teamwork, morals, character and a positive attitude.  However, at no point should sports become more valuable or important than an individual.  Unfortunately this happens all the time.  People put more value on the success or failure of a team, on winning, and fail to focus on the people who play the sports.  We place sports, and the iconic figures of the sports on pedestals and let them be people who we scoff at otherwise.  The value of win is more important than the cost to people.  This article shows this mentality that has permeated the sports culture in this world.  And not just the sports culture but culture in general.

People are the most valuable component of God's creation, each of us is wonderful and uniquely made, a master piece knitted together by God in the womb.  Yet we treat people like pond scum.  We stink and we bite, and we treat people terribly.  Its sad.  If only we could see people as God see's people and treat them as he calls us to.   Love your neighbor as yourself.  Love people with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.  If there was just one person involved in this story at any point, how different could this girls life story be?

 

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."
-Matthew 5:3

The Bible is one story, one meta-narrative, that is told through so many different lenses and mediums, and people.  A testimony to the power of God, that no matter who is in the story it still reveals the unity, love and redemption of Christ. It never contradicts itself, and when you get down to the deeper meanings of what it says it actually backs it self up, everything is connected.  It's fascinating.

Most philosopher's are external processor's, that is, in order to wrap our minds around ideas we must talk about it, have discussion, dialogue.  This is why philosopher's write and talk so much.  Not because we think so highly of ourselves, but in order to think things through we can't just meditate on it.   i honestly believe that this is one of the best ways to learn and everyone can benefit from this type of interaction.

One of the best examples of this external processing took place for me during M.I.T. (Minister's in Training) class on Thursday.  We were learning about Jesus' sermon on the mount specifically the end of Matthew 6 and the beginning of Matthew 7.  The very end of the class we got to where Jesus says "do not give dogs what is sacred, do not cast your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces"  Not an easy passage to understand, especially when you read all of what he has said leading up to this point.  Aaron explained his interpretation this way,  do not cast your cares on those that cannot handle it.  Be careful not to expose what is sacred (our pain) to those who will try to destroy us with it.  i absolutely believe Aaron's view is spot on. But it raises so many other questions that needed to be wrestled through.

"How do we reconcile this, with the idea that we are 'more than conquerer's in christ'?"  Devon asked,  (great question).   It was a question i had but didn't realize it yet, but external processing kicked in and the threads started to come together.  Because even if we are careful with our deficiencies and pains we will still get hurt.  When you invest in relationship as God calls us to "love your neighbor as your self," people will tear us to shreds, they will bite us and hurt us, it's the fact of life.  And when we minimize this risk, we minimize the reward.  But we need to have discernment with whom we share our cares and deficiencies with, and when people share theirs with us we cannot judge them, because when we judge people we make a value statement about them and, "when you make a value statement about someone you miss their pain," (Aaron Couch).

This is how i reconcile these things, at least this is where i am at right now.  This is not inspired so take it as you chose.  Jesus starts his sermon on the mount with the 7 most paradoxical statements in the Bible, and presents what i believe is a theme running through out, following God, and living in his Kingdom is paradoxical at least to us. The first two statements tell us; "blessed the poor in spirit, because of them the Kingdom of Heaven is," and "blessed those who mourn, for they will be comforted"  A few quick notes,  poor in spirit, is the greek word anas meaning utterly destitute; comforted is translated from the greek word paraklete which is the same word used to describe the Holy Spirit, and means some one who comes along side.  Finally, blessed is the greek word markioi, which is best translated as internally happiness.

Often times we get to a place where we have been hurt so bad by people that there seems to be no way out, we feel broken and completely defeated.  During these times Jesus tells us we are happy, because we are the Kingdom of Heaven.  Also during these times we will be mourning, and again we are happy because we will be comforted.  But we can only be comforted when people choose to journey along side us.  Back to more than conquers.  So we are told that "we are more than conquerors through him who loved us," The inclusion of the fact that it is through him who loved us is of high importance in my mind.  The ability to be more than conquerors comes through love, which means we will conqueror through love, and when love is used its more than conquering, its freeing.  When we share God's love, his redemptive story with people we free them from the bonds of slavery to live in the Kingdom of Heaven. When we choose to be poor in spirit (yes it is a choice - "take up your cross daily and follow me), we choose God's love for people we represent the Kingdom of Heaven.  Because of us the Kingdom of Heaven exists.

So we are more than conquerors because even when people hurt us, and they will, and the world says seek vengeance and revenge and justice we are to love them as Christ loved the church. We are to forgive them, and by doing so we help to free them to God's love, God's story, and the beauty that comes from following the God of the universe.

"This is a profound mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the Church."
-Ephesians 5:32


P.S. Thanks for the inspiration Devon! :)

We live in a world marred by mediocrity, a world content on complacency, a world saturated by stagnancy.  Our culture is permeated by the putrid pithy sayings "i'm only human," "i did my best," "what else do you expect from me?"  Our culture stinks of rotten staleness, false advancement, and steadfast hypocrisy.   And we love it!  We breed it! We foster it! WE EXPLOIT IT!

As a follower of Christ it disgusts me, because i am to blame, i feed into this culture, i "thrive in it".  And if you call yourself a Christ follower a "Christian," then you should be just as abhorred by the state of our culture and the part we all play in it.  It is time for a change, a radical change, a rebelution.  These thoughts stem from a book i am reading "Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations" by Alex and Brett Harris.  They are 19, the book is fantastic. Read it. Now.  It geared towards teens, but is applicable to all. Read it.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 12:30 "Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me."  This isn't a metaphor, or figurative speech, it is the truth, it is how we are called to live.  With God, in his will.  And guess what?  Jesus was a rebelutionary, he came to radically alter the way we live, think and act.  He came bringing the good news, the Gospel,  Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is here.  The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand it is now.  The Gospel is not just salvation, salvation is merely the entry way, the door way, the Gospel is ultimately about Kingdom Living.

Jesus challenged us not to become complacent and apathetic,  Kingdom Living is living out the Commandments that God has given us.  Why do we live out these commandments?  1 John 5:3 "This is love for God: to obey his commands, and his commands are not burdensome."  The question that we have to ask ourselves is are we known for what we do? or what we don't do?  Jesus was known for what he did. Those who change this world are know for what they do.  Why? because it cuts across the grain, it goes against the patterns of this world.  It's rebelutionary. Is following Christ about avoiding the "bad-stuff", or is it about doing "good, hard stuff" for God?  The answer is clear and Psalm 1:1 reiterates it.

Our charge is to make disciples of all the nations, as we are going.  As we are living life we are to make disciples.  You cannot make disciples by living within the patterns of this world. We cannot make disciples by following a cookie cutter pattern for how to live rebelutionary, how to live Kingdom Minded.  Ephesians 2:8-10 makes this evident - "God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." We are wonderfully and fearfully made unique,  none of us will follow the same path, you cannot live your life vicariously through someone else.  


Doing hard things, that is going against the cultural standards, to do rebelutionary things means doing things that cause you individual to grow and be stretched.  We must be committed to growth because that will kill complacency.  We must be committed to a constant unique battle for growth, and doing things that challenge us.  We must not accept the low expectations the world has for us.  This is the only way to live for God.  The only way to live in order to truly change the world.

Whether they want to accept it or not, professional athletes are Role Models.  The more that they accept it the more they can truly make a difference in this world.  It is good to see that these three were willing to step into that role boldly.

The young boy is also a hero and hopefully an inspiration to kids all over the US and world.  Bullying is a huge problem and we need to battle back against it.  Especially as Christians, because we cannot truly love God unless we love people.  "For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." - Galatians 5:14