They call it Mahomes magic

Over the 7 full years of the artistry that is the work of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, I have heard the phrase Mahomes Magic over and over from commentators and pundits. And I appreciate their descriptions of the left-handed sideline pass or the final run into the end zone in the Titans game or... and the list goes on.

Last week on Christmas Day I saw something that could only be described as artistry. The Chiefss were playing the Steelers and were succeeding in situational football. But one particular play characterised the artistry of the young man Mahomes and this photo shot by someone, maybe even there at the stadium showcases what I mean.

Patrick scrambled to his left and saw his running back, third down specialist Samaje Perine on the ground in Pittsburgh. He saw what no one else would ever see, a receiver looking away from the play, on the ground, and Patrick threw him the ball. And Perine looked up while the ball was in the air and reached out and caught it for a first down. 

I call it artistry because only an artist could see this. Imagine Michelangelo in Italy looking at a block of marble. And he sees inside that block the statue of King David. He begins chipping away at the marble and eventually, you and I can see only one thing, and we could never see it when it was a block; only when he stripped away the dross, the excess, did the artist reveal to us what he saw all along. That's art. That's the Michelangelo Magic. (I prefer to label it artistry)

Seeing what no one else sees is the work of an artist and a work of faith. In fact, the writer of the letter labelled in the Bible as the "Book of Hebrews" says, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

So yes, Mahomes is a man of faith. And Perine is a man of faith who cooperated with Mahomes on that play and many others in this season. 

When God says of you that he loves you and wants you to know him personally. When he seeks you and brings light to your darkness. When he sent his only son to bear your sins and to die to bring you to himself. When God does all this, you are like Perine, lying on the ground, eyes away from the play, eyes and hands and feet failing you, unable to get up, unable to carry on. When all this happens, what do you think God is trying to do with you? Is God looking at the block of marble and seeing only stone? Or is he looking underneath, seeing what he wants to make of you? 

Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 

Look up and live. 

Look up; the play isn't over.

Look up and see the hand of the Master Playmaker who wants to make us and our lives in his image. 

That's not magic; it's artistry by the Master Artist of Eternity. 

The results are in, or are they?

It was last Monday night, 4 November, my birthday. The Kansas City Chiefs football team was playing at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The rain had been falling in Kansas City all day. I had flown that morning from Sydney, and now, on arrival in England, I began to spend time with some of the other folks at the conference we were attending. Seventy Jews for Jesus leaders had gathered from around the globe. 

Actually,
I had left over 30 hours before. The double flights (one to California and the other to London) take about 24 hours in the air alone. 30 hours includes counting travel to and from the airport and layover time. Imagine the normal jet lag which hits most folks who fly 16,000 km. I’m a normal guy, so a bit of jet lag makes sense. 

My usual style of beating that jet lag includes a lot of walking or even exercise during the daytime on arrival. This allows the sun’s rays to shine on my arms’ skin, and the resultant natural melatonin released causes an adjustment in my body clock.  

But this is England in November, and the amount of sunshine was a bit limited. Combine that with the delight I had in seeing so many of my colleagues with whom I had not spent time in months caused its own energy to be released. No real sunshine. No real melatonin. No conquest of jet lag. 

The Chiefs’ game was to air at London time 1:15 AM on Tuesday the 5^th, and any person who wanted to be alert and participate in the conference which was scheduled to begin at 9:00 AM on the 5^th would hope for some good sleep. But I couldn’t wait for the results in the morning. After all, I’m a fan, and a fan must wear the team’s colours and cheer the team to victory in the moment, live. 

Tuesday the 5^th of November saw a substantial election take place in the US. As an American citizen who had voted by mail weeks before and who cared much about the campaign and its results, I wanted to know who won in local and national contests. The conference was terrific, and the time with colleagues was rich, but at 9:00 PM I had to go to bed. Tiredness won. I would have to see the results on waking that Wednesday morning. Perhaps it was the jet lag or maybe the energy of wanting to know the winners, but about 2 AM I awoke and thought I should check my computer for any updates. Needless to say, that was a mistake. The news was full of some states’ results. That caused me to sit up and watch for more. I couldn’t wait. The results were coming in; I wanted the play-by-play. And about 5 AM I lay back down. 

Not wanting to miss out. 

Sense and sensibility didn’t win on either overnight. Sleep is a natural and normal part of an animal’s day, and I finally caught up on my normal sleep the night of the 6^th. 

Oh, the Chiefs won their football match in overtime, no doubt caused in part by my horizontal cheering.

But now you might be wondering why I’m sharing these two episodes of not wanting to miss out with you.

Let me take you back further than last Monday. To a Friday about 2,000 years ago. It was in Jerusalem. A group of Jewish men and women were almost in shock. Their candidate for rank had lost. He was their hero, their leader, their teacher. Many fancied him to be the messiah, and messiah meant something different then. The shock that  hit these close followers of his took place just after a final meal together the night before. It was an annual feast, the feast of Passover. The whole Jewish world made pilgrimage to Jerusalem for this event, some stayed on for 7 full weeks for the next holiday. The city was abuzz with multilayers of activity. Lambs bought and sold, slaughtered and eaten. 

The folks who had that meal with their guy were surprised in just a short time. They left the upper room where they had celebrated Passover, and went to a nearby garden. It was there their guy (his name was Yeshua) was arrested. What? What did he do wrong? 

They were disoriented and surprised and angry. One of the followers (later they call them disciples or even apostles) named Peter took a sword and whacked the ear of the servant of the high priest. Yeshua, even during his troubles, reached out and put the ear back on Malchus’ head, healing him at once. Who does that?

The disciples were in shock; their guy was taken into custody. What did they do? They hid and stayed in hiding for days. Yeshua was given a death sentence. Wait a minute! Messiahs don’t lose; they don’t die, at least not before taking out Rome or whoever is ruining our Jewish lives.

 The trial took place after the arrest. They declared him worthy of death and the sentence was issued. A man named Simon carried the execution wood for Yeshua. The Romans put nails in Yeshua’s wrists to secure him to the pole, between two other criminals. He died. They all three died. And were buried.

That must be the end of the story. Who would wait for any further results then? That’s the end. No more hope. No more wishing. It’s over. 

The executioners put a big stone in front of the cave in which Yeshua was buried. They sealed it with a caulk agent and set two Roman military guards to ensure no one disturbed the burial site. 

The results were in. Hopelessness. Failure. Dejection. Again our religion failed us. 

Then Saturday and then Sunday and some women went back to the tomb hoping to freshen up the area with spices. They ran back to the gathering of the followers and told what they had seen. Peter and John ran to the tomb and found it just as the women had reported, but they didn’t find Yeshua. More disorientation, and now what?

Just hours later Yeshua himself appeared with the followers back in the upper room where they had hidden themselves. He presented himself alive; he ate with them; he showed them his hands and feet; they knew it was he! Alive!

Now, new results were in. The play-by-play was being rewritten right before their eyes. Now a brand new overtime began! 

A New Episode. A New Life. If you receive it. 

 

Disappointment

I imagine we all have suffered this sometimes-crippling emotion. We anticipate something or long for it, or dream of it, put our time and energy into investing to make it happen, and for whatever reasons, it just doesn't happen. Johnny was supposed to call Sylvia back and he didn't do so. The boss told me he was going to give me a raise, and that never eventuated. Millicent promised her neighbor Maurice she would watch his plants and water and care for them while he was away on holiday, and she forgot. Several of the plants died. As a result, Sylvia, and I and Maurice all experienced disappointment. 

Psychology Today said in 2012 after love and regret it's the 3rd most commonly experienced emotion. According to the old adage, “disappointment is expectation divided by reality.” I visited the PT website to find some significant advice and some well-worn chronology to the emotion and consequences of disappointment. And I was not disappointed.  The trail is wide and the content well worth the read. It's endless, as well, which could be wearying for the casual wanderer into such a journey. Start here. Especially read this one by blogger Melanie Greenberg. 

For instance, Jim Taylor (teaches at USF, Ph.D.) writes "Disappointment is a normal, though difficult, part of growing up. Your children will inevitably experience disappointment in school, sports, the arts, and in their social lives. How your children learn to respond to disappointment will determine its impact on their future achievement and happiness." 

I really liked that comment. Watching my own kids fail at times, or remembering when I failed as a child, and now as an adult, when I fail again, what I do with that failure and the commensurate emotion of disappointment will impact what happens next and certainly how I feel about what happens next.

Both Beverly Flaxington and DW Rainey (Rainey, D. W., Larsen, J., & Yost, J. H. (2009). Disappointment theory and disappointment among baseball fans. Journal of Sport Behavior, 32(3), ) comment on longevity of disappoinments helping people to handle them. They both use sports imagery. And indicate that a losing team, which always loses, doesn't disappoint long-time fans. Why? The fans are used to losing. Obviously then their expectations are lowered, and when they lose the Big Game, a shrug of the shoulders is common rather than tearing one's hair out. 

What prompted my thinking about this topic today? Perhaps it's the loss of the Kansas University Jayhawks to the West Virginia Mountaineers. After all WVU had started the conference season at 0 and 5, meaning their fans were getting used to losing, having lost all five of their matches against Big 12 opponents. And perhaps because Kansas is a perennial winner of the conference championships, and I'm an alumnus of this hallowed basketball icon. 

Losses happen; no team ever finshes the season without a loss. But my expectations were so high on today's game, with a Hall of Fame coach in Bill Self, and some pretty good players on the court, well, it just seemed a good time to win another road game. But I felt disappointed when the Jayhawks lost. 

What else prompted my thinking about this topic today? I'm worried about the Kansas City Chiefs dropping teh ball like the Jayhawks did. It is their first time in the Conference championship game (vs the New England Patriots) in deccades. Expectations are high; worries join them. Will the Chiefs perform well in the cold and snow? Will the offense catch those passes from phenom Patrick Mahomes? Will the defnese show up like they did last week against the Indianapolis Colts? Time and ESPN here in Sydney will tell. 

What else? I suppose my own personal commitments to serve people and particularly to love my wife and children are often met with disappointments. I let them down. I plan to take out the rubbish, or to bring in the laundry, or help put away the dishes, but sometimes I forget, or the phone rings and I drop the ball.

The words of the Prayer Book (Anglican) remind me, "we have gone our own way, not loving you as we ought, nor loving our neighbors as ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed and in what we have failed to do." Weekly to pray this might most make anyone feel disappointed, but if you know yourself and your own sinful tendency, this regular confession of sin is actually a disappointment-preventative. I know myself. I know I will not perform perfectly. I know I will disappoint others. I know God knows who I am and He appreciates my confessing my sins, and my failures and I can again hear clear words of pardon and hope in what comes next.

Perhaps the studies of Flaxington and Rainey should help me understand myself. Not to excuse me, nor to cause me to stop trying to be better, but to forgive my failures that much quicker. And to forgive the Jayhawks or the Kansas City Royals or whoever. 

PT's advice is 6 strategies when you are disappointed:

"1. Revise expectations: Try a bit of “retroactive pessimism.” Social psychologists have identified what they call a “hindsight bias” in which you can limit their disappointment by revising the high expectations you once had for winning. Tell yourself you didn’t really expect to win, and as time goes by, the new memory will replace the painful, original memory.

2. Increase your disappointment tolerance. There’s no reason that people low in disappointment tolerance have to remain that way forever. Don’t let disappointment breed pessimism because if you do, you’re likely to set yourself up for even more disappointment in the future.

3. Don’t let disappointment skew economic decisions. When feeling disappointed, a person is more likely to sell at a loss. If your favorite sports team lost the championship, don’t rush to dump your treasure chest full of memorabilia onto eBay.

4. Assess a person’s role in personal disappointments. People can control many of the outcomes in their personal lives. If someone’s expectations in love and work chronically fail to materialize, make an honest appraisal of what needs to be changed.

5. Control identification with a losing cause. The sports fans who feel the most let down are the ones who identify most strongly with their teams. There’s nothing wrong with being loyal, but if it impairs a person’s daily happiness, he or she needs to find other ways to boost their spirits.

6. Use humor to boost the disappointment emotion. Loyal sports fans who retain their loyalty despite years of disappointing outcomes almost seem to relish their identification with the underdog. Perhaps by joining the ranks of fellow sufferers, a person can find solace in self-deprecating humor. Laughter is truly one of the best coping strategies for dealing with disappointments, and offsets the consequences of faulty pessimism-based decisions."

Consider this from the Gospel of John, "But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man." (2.24-25)

I suppose this was a preventative Yeshua used in relation to humanity. After all, in just a couple more years He would be dobbed in to the governmental leaders and crucified for crimes He didn't commit. Was He disappointed? Nope; He knew both His mission and humanity's natural responses.

My hope for you in 2019, set goals, sure. Set standards of behavior and love and morality and activities. And set up a way to forgive yourself if you don't reach or maintain those standards. Hurdles on a cinder track make for a great addition to a race, and falling on those hurdles slows a runner down, sometimes to the point of loss. And losses can be disappointing, .So, put into your life hands that lift you up after you hit the hurdles. Yeshua is the most obvious choice. His forgiveness is eternal and life-changing. And He won't disappoint!

Romans 5:5. "hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

What really matters? Football, stock market, and mother

The advertising campaign for Godzilla (about 15 years ago) said, "Size does matter." The great monster could take out a whole city if it wanted, they alleged. The Hollywood crowd and the public were not too keen on their slogan and even less on the movie. Flop.

Others talk about education that matters or costs involved in a significant trade. The big slogan in some circles last year was "Black lives matter." Students in Australia just now are sitting their high school exams and many are alleging that "test results don't matter." 

Last night I was in Kansas City, and the team I've cheered for since about 1962, the Kansas City Chiefs, were in a tight battle with the Oakland Raiders on Thursday Night Football. I hoped my friend with whom I'm staying would record the game at his home so I could give myself to other matters as I was speaking at an evangelists' fellowship at IHOP. In fact, I didn't even think about the game, although I mentioned it once during my talk. There's a time for everything, and last night was the time to be in the moment with the people at the fellowship.

The pastor in charge of the KCEF and I went out to dinner after the meeting, and at the restaurant were several televisions broadcasting the game, but we didn't engage with it at all, but rather stayed in very good deep conversation about our lives in Messiah. 

I returned to my friend's home and it was already late. I didn't know how to use his three remote controls to find the recording. After several attempts, I gave up. I lay back. I slept. Then this morning I awoke and gave it a go one more time. Hooray. I sorted it all out and found the recording on his DVR. He missed the opening quarter of the game and almost all the fourth quarter, but what I saw was pretty good. At the end of the recording, I was disappointed as the Chiefs were ahead, but I didn't know the final result. 

Then the newspaper arrived and I found out that our team had lost in the last few seconds of the game. Oh, no! Disappointment again!

I got online and read a bit more of the results and a bit of sadness hit me. Even so, I have a life to live, so how do I put this in perspective?

Some would say, "Don't care about football." Others will live in the continual rehashing of the game and be armchair quarterbacks re-analyzing each decision and chiding the coach or specific players for their failures which caused the loss. My question remains this morning... what really matters?
Yesterday I watched the news as the stock market went over 23,000 for the first time ever and stock analysts were talking about why this happened. Then United Airlines stock took a serious hit and fell 12% in a day and the talking heads had their opinions about such and I wondered, "What does all this really matter?" 

Matter. Substance. Stuff. One dictionary described 'matter' as coming from the 12th to 13th century in the Old French word matere which in turn came from the Latin materia “matter, substance”, from mater “mother”. WHAT? If Mother is the root of what matters, how does that work?

Some would say I ponder too much. Maybe my own mother would say so. Still, consideration of this idea, what matters, or things that don't matter, is all about perspective and orientation. King David put things into good order as he realigned the roles of the Levites in Bible days. In 1 Chronicles in the Bible, we read this:

Now David built houses for himself in the city of David; and he prepared a place for the ark of God, and pitched a tent for it. Then David said, “^aNo one is to carry the ark of God but the Levites; for the Lord chose them to carry the ark of God, and to minister to Him forever.” And David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had prepared for it. Then David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab, and said to them, “You are the heads of the fathers’ households of the Levites; consecrate yourselves both you and your relatives, that you may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel, to the place that I have prepared for it.  Because you did not carry it at the first, the Lord our God made an outburst on us, for we did not seek Him according to the ordinance.” So the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel. and the sons of the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders, with the poles thereon as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord. 

So it was David, with the elders of Israel and the captains over thousands, who went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed-edom with joy. 

Now David was clothed with a robe of fine linen with all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and the singers and Chenaniah the leader of the singing with the singers. David also wore an ephod of linen. Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting, and with sound of the horn, with trumpets, with loud-sounding cymbals, with harps and lyres. 

It happened when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and making merry; and she despised him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of God and placed it inside the tent which David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. When David had finished offering the burnt offering and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord. And he distributed to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread and a portion of meat and a raisin cake. (chapter 15 verses 1- chapter 16.3)

Matter. What mattered to King David was not the applause of the people nor even of his wife. He wanted to fix a mistake from the past, and he chose to seek God first this time. He wanted to get things right. And get what matters to the top of his 'to do' list.

Yeshua said something about this also. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

What were the 'these things?" They were lesser in significance to the Messiah. He spoke about them earlier with "Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’"

The stuff, the matter that fills the advertising budgets of the televisions and the newspapers are what we will eat, drink or wear. Yeshua said, "They don't matter." What he meant was "Put them in an order of importance." Care about the stock market; care about your football team, even care about your mother. But worry... not a good idea.

What really matters, most of all, is to seek God first thing today and tomorrow and each day of your life. Remember Him. Ponder Him. What is God saying and doing in your life just now? What is He saying to the world? What does He want for us and our mishpochah? 

That, dear reader, is the key to abundant life. What really matters is the pleasure of God. Enjoy Him today. He won't disappoint you like the airline stock or the 11 men and the coach on the field. Even your mother will fail you at times. But God will never disappoint you if you seek Him. And know Him. And love Him. 

Thank God it's Friday. 

Pride comes before a fall

The book of Proverbs says, "Pride goes before a fall." (16.18) An online dictionary 'translates' this to "said to emphasize that if you are too confident about your abilities, something bad will happen that shows that you are not as good as you think." That pronouncement makes sense to anyone who was running first and ended dead last. It makes sense to those who watched Steven Bradbury win the Olympic gold medal in 2002 in the 1,000-metre speed skating event. But making sense doesn't always translate to owning something.

I really liked Alex Smith's comments after Thursday night's victory of the Kansas City Chiefs over the almost-never-lose-at-home New England Patriots at Foxboro. Tom Brady led the opening drive for the Pats into the Chiefs' end zone without so much as a drop of sweat. After a fumble by the Chiefs on the next play, Brady had the Pats down at the Chiefs' goal again. But some serious defence and some good continuing work by special teams and both sides of the ball, and the Chiefs ended up winning 42 to 27. BJ Kissel, Chiefs' reporter, wrote this, "Despite the impressive victory, which moving forward will probably earn the Chiefs much more respect nationally, Smith isn’t making it any more than what it is in the bigger picture.

“I think you have to be able to handle defeat, as well as victory, the right way, and I think each can deter you because you put a lot of emotion into it,” Smith said. “You certainly get this victory, but you can’t forget that it’s 1-of-16, right? You’ve got to keep that same mentality week in and week out – the attention-to-detail mentality.

“Just because you do it one night, doesn’t mean it will just carry over. You have to find a way to beat the next opponent and the unique challenge they present.”

I really liked Smith's comments. It's a humility that doesn't look like most of the showboating of most of the NFL players. Think about how often the split end catches a pretty easy touchdown pass and goes into all kinds of antics. It's usually embarrassing or at least annoying to those of us at home who simply want to watch football, and not showboats. But Smith isn't in that category. His humility shows. And it's contagious. At least, we hope it catches.

I need to learn what Alex lives. My sins and failures are my own doing and most of the time I could have done better. I know better, but my pride, arrogance, and self-vaunting trip me into thinking I'm doing better than I really am. The Apostle Paul knew this well and warned the Corinthian believers, saying, "Let him who thinks he stands take heed, so that he does not fall." (1 Cor. 10.12). Why don't I listen to that? Why do I follow the show offs in the end zone, rather than the leader who really knows how to lead? I'll work on this. And I encourage you to do the same. Let's meet at the bottom. Humility is its own reward. And maybe a victory or two as well. Not a bad result, you know?