Admirable

In this Thinksgiving week challenge that I gave us in my post last week (The Thinksgiving Week Challenge), the day I had the hardest finding an example verse for was the word "admirable."  If we are to think on things that are admirable, where is that in the Bible?  The Philippians 4:8 verse is the only place I found the word "admirable."  Surely there was admiration going on, especially of Jesus, but it does not use that word.

That is why I went with the word "marvel" and used the example in Matthew 15:31 that the crowd observing Jesus "marveled" at his works of healing.  We don't do enough marveling or admiring today, especially of Jesus.  Anger, criticism and judgment are much easier and much more prevalent.  When we think on those negative things, we do negative things.

Years ago I heard a story about a college football game where the coach had to make a tough decision.  The starting quarterback went down with an injury.  The back up was sick with the flu and not suited up.  The only quarterback left on the team was a freshman who had never taken a snap.  On top of all that, the opposing team had just downed a punt inside the five yard line.

So the coach called the freshman over and told him to go no huddle on offense and to hand the ball off on two successive plays to the running back, then on the third play to surprise the opposing team by punting the ball.  The coach knew the freshman had been a punter as well as quarterback in high school.  The freshman went into the game angry that the coach only trusted him to hand off and to punt, he knew he could do more than that.  His ego was bruised and he was steaming that his coach only wanted him to get the team out of trouble but he did what he was told.

The first handoff went for a minimal gain, but on the second running play, the running back took the ball and broke through the defense and down the field all the way to the opponents two yard line.  The freshman hurried his team to the line of scrimmage and just as he had been told, he punted it on the third play.  Of course the ball went through the end zone resulting in a touchback so that the other team got the ball on the 20 yard line.

When the quarterback got back to the sideline, the coached yelled at him, "What were you thinking?"  To which the freshman shot back, "That we have the dumbest coach in the country to call those plays!"

When we think negatively, we feel negative things and we act negatively - and it is all completely natural to us.  What happens when we learn to admire?   When we learn to marvel, especially at the things Jesus is doing?  Today, let's try to find out.  This may the be best way to turn "Thinksgiving" into "Thanksgiving."

for the journey...
Tim