Archive for January, 2013

Another National Title for BAMA

“We won!” — as if I had anything to do with it, other than my strong wishes and yelling at the television.  I “feel” like I had some impact.  But if they lose, “they” lost it.  Alabama, my team, on January 7 won the national college football title casting away past demons of loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, a team with a great heritage.  The score of 42 to 14 was surprising at least to me.  I expected something like 21 to 17 or 17 to 13.  It caught a lot of people by surprise.

At my house, we had about 18 people, family and good friends, who all rooted for Alabama.  But the main thing was using the game as a time for a party.  Everyone there was a Christian.  Before the game, we prayed a blessing on the great food spread and asked God’s favor for our fellowship.  And if our team had lost, we would have been extremely disappointed…BUT we would not have pouted long. Football is a game.  I know it is big business, even at the college level.  But there are things in life a lot more important than football.  Football can give discipline to the players.  It can keep them off the streets and maybe keep some fans off the streets.  The hold of football on our culture, however, seems to be something deeply ingrained in us.  It holds great attraction and at times can distract us from other things.  We must be careful not to let it consume us while we partake of the joy that it brings, a joy that nonetheless can never match the joy of knowing and serving Christ, who died to take away our sins.

Glory to God in the Highest

Here is a picture taken at my home a couple of days after Christmas.  My son David and his family (wife Brielle and daughter Ella) came up on Dec 27 to spend some time with my wife Cindy and I and others who had gathered.  Here I am reading the Christmas story from Luke 2 for my extended family.  Sitting next to me helping me hold the Bible is my two-year old granddaughter Ella.  Such moments are beyond special.  Ella is about the age that the oldest of the little boys in Bethlehem were when Herod’s evil henchmen came to destroy their lives.  But Jesus escaped, having gone down to Egypt.  Later he escaped the hold of death in the grave on Resurrection Day.  He came into the world as a babe, left as a glorified and resurrected Savior, and is returning as a Warrior Lamb to make all things right.  It is such truth that makes moments with my granddaughter as I read the Bible really special.  Glory to God in the Highest.

Frigid Winter Has Arrived

Many here in northeast Pennsylvania say they are happy to have four seasons of weather and would not want things to be like the South where I originally come from (Alabama).   When it snowed during my childhood, it was nice, but it was nicer that it would go away in just a few days!!  Here in northeast Pennsylvania, the snow comes and often stays on the ground for several months.  The temperature stays at or below freezing enough to make this happen.   I prefer it warmer so I have said that snow looks pretty on a postcard, not in real life.  So I have provided a winter freeze picture of ice on the rhododendrons just off the front porch of my house — taken a couple of days ago.