Pat Summerall's Best Call

In all the tumult this week of the Boston Marathon Bombing and the manhunt for the suspects, in all the chaos and loss surrounding the West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion perhaps it was easy to miss that sports broadcasting lost a giant.  Pat Summerall, who called 16 Super Bowls, died this week at age 82.  His broadcast career began in 1962 and lasted until 2002.  He worked 21 years beside John Madden.

Pat Summerall made his biggest call though when he admitted that he was an alcoholic. Throwing up blood at 4:00 am while he was covering the 1994 Masters Golf Tournament coupled with the intervention of friends helped him to decide he did not want to live that way anymore.  He said that the five weeks he spent at the Betty Ford Clinic saved his life.  But he was still searching for more.  A conversation with coach Tom Landry led him to Dallas Cowboys chaplain John Weber who in turn led Pat to Jesus Christ.  At 69, Pat Summerall called on Christ to truly change him - that was his best call.  After his baptism, he said he felt like a 40 pound weight had been lifted off his back.

Can it be possible for people to really change after a life time of developing dark habits?  Summerall would say so.  This Sunday we will look at how Jesus can bring us light at dark moments.  We all have had to face some darkness this week.  Let's spend some time looking into the light.

For the journey...

Tim

A Tractor Accident

A story of a tractor accident really touched me this week.  I have included a link to it below. The accident described there (a tractor flipping over backwards) is a common one with older, smaller tractors.  I have personally known it to happen with several people - a man in my community, a cousin on my father's tractor - it can have deadly results if you are not quick to respond.  The man I just mentioned died, my cousin jumped and lived.  The same accident almost happened to me on the same tractor that my cousin flipped.  I still credit God with helping me get my foot on the clutch just in time.

God does work in our problems and pains to reveal himself in this world.  That is a hard truth for us to realize because we so often think - unthinkingly - that God is here to reward us.  Yes, he does reward us, here and in heaven, but often his greatest work is revealing himself.  The man in my community who died in the tractor accident was not being punished.  My cousin was not being rewarded.  I was not "good" enough to be spared from an accident.  God works to reveal himself.

It is the same truth that we will look at Sunday in Jesus coming to the pools of Bethesda and healing a man who had suffered for 38 years.  It was not a reward for his suffering so long.  It was a revelation for all of us who suffer.  He is still the same Jesus capable of changing our lives in an instant.

Let me encourage you to watch the news report from the link below, it will not take long.  I don't know if this family really knows God or not.  But listen for what the older sister says about what she told herself repeatedly as she attempted to lift a 3,000 pound tractor.  Watch carefully, it is just a brief mention, but may point to a more power meaning.  Look at how it seems God revealed himself in this situation.  And then ask yourself, "How is he revealing himself to me?"

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2013/04/10/dnt-or-daughter-lift-tractor-off-dad.kgw

For the journey...

Tim

Lithotripsy

This week, I had lithotripsy on a kidney stone.  Thank the Lord, it has gone very well.  For those of you not familiar with this treatment, it is a procedure where something like sound waves are targeted on your kidney stone to smash it up into small pieces that can then be passed out of the body.  That is just what happened.  It was a pretty remarkable experience - except I slept through it all.

Don't get me wrong, I would not want to be awake through it.  I have something like bruises on my back where these waves entered my body.  I don't think it would be enjoyable to go through awake, but it is still pretty remarkable that something unseen can enter your body and break apart something that is solid and jagged and painful and make it all go away.

As I thought about these sonic waves, I was reminded at how powerful sound can be - particularly the sound of the voice of the Lord in Psalm 29:

The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters. 

The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. 
 The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning. The voice of the Lord shakes the desert; the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests bare.  And in his temple all cry, “Glory!”    The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.  Psalm 29 (selected verses).

The Psalmist imagined the power of the voice of God before anything was known about sound waves or sonic waves or lithotripsy .  Yet an even more powerful voice was yet to come.

By the power of his voice Jesus calmed a storm.  By the power of his voice he made the demon possessed whole again.  By the power of his voice he called Lazarus back from the dead to life again.  I wonder if you could somehow measure and chart the power of those sound waves of the voice of Jesus, what would they look like?  No instrument in this world can measure that, i know.  Yet, he often speaks to our souls in a "still, small voice."  His voice still has all the power that it ever has and he wants to speak to you and me.  We live in amazing times, but more importantly, we have an amazing God.

When did he last speak to you?

For the journey...

Tim