Tale of 1914 Christmas Day Truce Is Inspiring, Though Hard to Believe

[This famous scene took place 100 years ago today, on Christmas, 1914.]

By Rob Hughes  Dec. 23, 2014

LONDON — The Christmas Truce, when British and German soldiers were said to have suddenly stopped fighting on the Western Front for a few hours on Christmas Day 1914, is written in history.

What started with the singing of “Stille Nacht” on the German side, followed by a response of “Silent Night,” was said to have included an impromptu soccer game on the No Man’s Land between the opposing trenches.

“We all grew up with the story of soldiers from both sides putting down their arms on Christmas Day when gunfire gave way to gifts,” Prince William said at a ceremony in England two weeks ago to unveil a memorial to the event.

“Football,” the prince continued, “has the power to bring people together and break down barriers. It is vital that 100 years on, we keep the Christmas Truce story alive. It remains wholly relevant today as a message of hope and humanity, even in the bleakest of times.”

Hope and humanity and perhaps, ultimately, futility.

Soccer is a remarkable game that crosses boundaries around this world. But whatever took place on that day a century ago did not stop the carnage that took an estimated 16 million lives, nor did it break down barriers to prevent wars today.

“Sport, not war” has to be among the most contrite of phrases.

The sculpture unveiled by Prince William was designed by a 10-year-old boy, Spencer Turner. It depicts two hands clasped in friendship inside the outline of a ball. It is simple, brilliant and full of boyish hope.

And grown men are running with that hope. There have been re-enactments of the reported No Man’s Land game, including a match between the British Army and German Army teams in Aldershot, England, and a game in Belgium this week near the Flemish field where the truce happened.

UEFA, the European soccer authority, put together a short video in which former stars — England’s Bobby Charlton, Germany’s Paul Breitner and France’s Didier Deschamps — read a narrative and current players — Wayne Rooney, Philipp Lahm and Hugo Lloris — read aloud soldiers’ letters from the front lines in 1914.

All of it is heartfelt. For the record, Germany, the current world champion, has won four World Cups to England’s one in the sport now played by 209 national associations.

The brief cease-fire on the Western Front in Belgium followed a published letter from women’s suffrage advocates in England calling upon “the Women of Germany and Austria” to demand peace at Christmastime in 1914. Undoubtedly, some men on the front lines did leave their frozen, muddied trenches to not only bury their dead, but to exchange gifts of tobacco or even tunic button.

Henry Williamson, then a 19-year-old private in the London Rifle Brigade who survived the war to become an author, sent a letter from the front to his mother. “In my mouth,” he wrote, “is a pipe presented by the Princess Mary. In the pipe is German tobacco. Ha ha, you say, from a prisoner or found in a captured trench, Oh dear, no! From a German soldier. Yes a live German soldier from his own trench. Marvelous, isn’t it?”

Other letters, published in The Times of London, alluded to the game or games that broke out. Some suggest that they were kick-abouts, mainly between English soldiers using made up balls — some say a can of corned beef served as a substitute.

Fewer accounts came from the German side, although Richard Schirrmann wrote the following December that his regiment, which was holding a position in the hills of occupied Belgium, received a request from Belgian troops to be allowed to send letters to their families. “Something fantastically unmilitary occurred,” Schirrmann reported. “German and French troops spontaneously made peace and ceased hostilities. They visited each other and exchanged wine, cognac and cigarettes for Westphalian black bread, biscuits and ham.”

Schirrmann survived the war and set up the German Youth Hostel Association in 1919.

By the following Christmas, the truce was banned under threat of a court martial for any soldier on either side who dared to fraternize with the enemy.

The story of the Christmas Truce, and soccer’s part in it, became gilded over the decades. It is implausible, but not impossible, that any soldier smuggled a leather ball — or even the inflatable pig’s bladder inside the casing — to the trenches. But that is how it has become depicted in accounts fictionalized and made more beautiful.

Robert Graves, the British poet and writer, in 1962 reconstructed a story of the event, with Germany’s 133rd Royal Saxon Regiment taking on what he called Scottish troops. In Graves’s account, the Germans won, 3-2.

In the match between the British and German army teams last week in Aldershot, the British won, 1-0.

Soccer and war have intersected again over the past century. Perhaps the most evocative of triumphs was strife-torn Iraq emerging as the winner of the 2007 Asian Cup that was played across four countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Soccer can indeed survive hostilities. But only at Christmastime will a story be believed that both sides would put down their arms to meet in No Man’s Land. A beautiful memory, made more beautiful in the subsequent years of man’s imagination.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/24/sports/soccer/tale-of-1914-christmas-day-truce-soccer-game.html?_r=0  

Christmas & Fathers: 4 lessons from Joseph

By Dr. Corne J. Becker  Published December 24, 2014

Mary, the mother of Jesus, features prominently in our Christmas celebrations. Christmas carols, greeting cards and nativity reenactments all celebrate the important role she played in the birth of the Messiah. But what about Joseph? What does the Christmas story say about the role of fathers?

The Gospel of Matthew, written in the second half of the first century to a predominantly Jewish audience, places Joseph at the center of the birth of Christ. Complimentary to the Gospel of Luke where most of the activity centers on Mary, Matthew reports that it is Joseph that is instructed by an angel in a dream not to call off his impending marriage to Mary. Joseph is pictured as a decisive leader, protector and provider for his family in this Gospel.

The birth narratives of Jesus in Matthew, not only highlights the importance of family as the building block of a stable society, but also communicates the importance of fathers in the raising of children. With Joseph as our example, four lessons for fathers can be taken from this Christmas story.

First, to be a father is not just a biological description. Joseph was not the physical father of Jesus, but as instructed by the angel took Mary as his wife and provided a home for Jesus. Being a father is a matter of the heart. Joseph is a great role model for those fathers that have chosen to raise non-biological children as their own. Fathers create homes for children by enlarging their hearts and providing a safe and nurturing environment for them.

Second, fathers model good values to their children. Matthew calls Joseph a just man. This is in sharp contrast to the wicked Herod in the same Gospel, who kills numerous boys in his narcissistic rage as he attempts to remove the pending threat of the birth of the King of the Jews. We are inundated with so many painful recollections of fathers that did not match the expectations of their children.  Good fathers embody the moral and hopeful ideals of their children. They model the way.

Third, fathers do all in their power to protect their family. Joseph, warned in a dream about the murderous plans of Herod, moves his family to the safety of Egypt. This selfless act of Joseph illustrates what good fathers do best – they place the interest of their families above their own.

Lastly, fathers provide a future for their children. Once again, Matthew records that Joseph in returning from Egypt scanned the environment and decided to move Jesus and Mary to Galilee, far from the watchful eye of Archelaus, the ruler that succeeded Herod. Good fathers recognize that fathering does not end when children turn of age. Fathers consider the future of their children beyond their own mortality and work to provide a prosperous and successful future for them.

Perhaps the time has come to reconsider the role of Joseph in our celebration of Christmas. May we rediscover not only his good example, but the stabilizing and transformative effect that good fathers have on children, families and societies.

Dr. Corne J. Bekker is a professor & Dept Chair of Biblical Studies & Christian Ministry at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/12/24/christmas-and-fathers-four-lessons-from-gospel-matthew/   

Scoundrels in the Stable

            

In Jesus’ day, shepherds were thought of as shady, disreputable, untrustworthy, irreligious, but not good.  A shepherd was sneaky, shifty, and likely a thief.   Shepherds were despised by religious leaders, since living out in the hills, they were unable to wash regularly and observe the ceremonial and dietary laws.  Shepherds were not eligible for judicial office.  They were not permitted to be a witness in a court because they were so untrustworthy.  They were not allowed to enter the temple.

                                   

For Jesus to say, “I am the good shepherd” sounded strange, like a contradiction or oxymoron.  Imagine someone today saying "I am the good thief," or "I am the good drug dealer."  Maybe Jesus identified with shepherds because He too was scorned by the establishment.  Jesus knew what it was like to be despised, to have people watch you with squinty, suspicious eyes. 

           

Somehow it seems only fitting that the first visitors to see the Lamb of God were shepherds.  They hustle to the stable and are first in line to touch the hem of heaven.  God communicated first to the shepherds in the fields.  Not the pure and holy, not the high and mighty, not the Bethlehem ministerial association, but the sneaky, low-life shepherds.  I guess God sees the good in the worst of us and the bad in the best of us.  I guess we should think twice before we look down our noses at present-day shepherds.

Shepherds were the first to hear the Good News of the birth of God’s Son.  Shepherds were the first to visit and honor the baby Jesus in the stable with Mary and Joseph.  If God could allow scoundrels like shepherds in the presence of his Son, I guess there’s hope for people like you and me.

            

Lessons from a Salvation Army Bell Ringer

By Jay Lowder   Published December 11, 2014  FoxNews.com

“I don’t have time. I just don’t have it. I need to get home.”

I repeated those words to myself the second I saw him. He was hard to miss, considering the highly unusual way he was ringing the bell. He didn’t just gently twitch it like the Salvation Army bell ringers from past Christmases; he rang it as though he were announcing freedom on the Liberty Bell in Independence Hall.

Furthermore, he was prancing around the kettle, knees jerking upward with each step, like a show horse. He was African-American, missing a front tooth, probably in his early 60s, with a warm voice and personality that were both easy and irresistible.

“How can someone be so happy?” I wondered. It was freezing outside, he was living at the Salvation Army and his job certainly wouldn’t qualify as one of Forbes’ top 10 careers.

“How can someone be so happy?” I wondered. It was freezing outside, he was living at the Salvation Army and his job certainly wouldn’t qualify as one of Forbes’ top 10 careers.

I was intrigued, but I had no cash, and I feared that initiating a conversation, or even saying “hello,” might make me feel obligated to explain why I wasn’t giving. Even though I had avoided eye contact, walked several feet away and kept my head pointed down, he ignored my body language’s obvious message.

As I rushed by, he beckoned, “Sir, I hope you’re having a good day.”

His kind, curious address surprised me. Though wary, I walked over to him.

“Sir, you’re out here helping others, but who is willing to help you?” I asked.

Smiling, he said, “I don't want anyone to help me. I just want to help others!”

I asked if I could get him something to drink in the supermarket. After a little banter he eventually gave in. “If you must,” he said, “then a cup of coffee would be great.”

I felt like a prancer myself as I sashayed to the deli to get a large coffee and a baggie of cream, sugar and a stir stick. Back outside, he met me with a joyful grin, expressed his gratitude and gave me a big bear hug. He then leaned in close and asked if he could tell me a quick story.

Rushing home no longer mattered. I found myself captivated — eager to hear what he had to say.

He said he’d been lying in his Salvation Army bed the night before, reading the Bible, when he felt led to write down three specific verses. The next morning, he was convinced he would meet three specific people to whom he was supposed to give the verses.

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. “I already gave out the other two verses and this is the only one I have left,” he said. “But I believe you are meant to get it. Can I read it to you?”

It was Hebrews 6:10, and he read it aloud: “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.”

I was stunned. The encounter could have so easily been missed. I hugged him and expressed my thanks, though my words didn’t seem capable of conveying the desired depth. I also told him I would return soon to check in.

My first response to the bell ringer had been to see him as a person in need. However, it became clear to me that the bell ringer didn’t need me — I needed him.

The next day, I wrote an abbreviated version of the story on social media. I didn’t provide the man’s name or the location of the grocery store, but people took notice. When I stopped by the store a few days later, he was on fire with excitement. He told me people bought him coffee, hugged him and handed him verses. He felt like a celebrity.

The bell ringer estimated at least 200 people had approached him after reading the story on “the computer.” With arms spread wide, he said, “I’ve never felt so much love in my whole life!”

My family, who had all met him through their various trips to buy groceries, decided to invite him over for a steak dinner. When I offered the invitation, he gladly accepted. Four days later, I went to the Salvation Army to pick him up, only to find he had evaporated like morning dew.

No one knew why or where he had gone. I tracked down his brother, but even he was worriedly searching for signs of him.

It’s been two weeks. We are hopeful he will turn up before Christmas.

With the all the holiday hoopla, that bell ringer reminds me that Christmas isn’t just a time to gather with friends and family. It’s also many opportunities to intentionally connect with others who may not share our culture, background, politics or skin color.

Often, some of life’s best lessons come through unfamiliar teachers who are unsuspecting people of greatness. In giving, we receive. In forgiving, we are forgiven. In rescuing, we are rescued.  

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/12/11/lessons-from-salvation-army-bell-ringer/  
Jay Lowder is founder of Jay Lowder Harvest Ministries, an organization dedicated to reaching diverse groups of people with the message of Jesus Christ. Through his ministry, Lowder travels the globe to football stadiums, schools, churches, and coliseums to provide a message of hope to the hurting.

Christmas in 1776, by Thomas Kidd

Dec. 18, 2012  By Thomas Kidd          

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2012/12/christmas-in-1776/

Tis the season to argue about religion. Or more specifically, to feud about whether to say Merry Christmas or Seasons Greetings…to call it a Christmas Village or a Holiday Village…or to allow a crèche or menorah to stand on public property.

What would Americans at the time of our nation’s founding think about all this? They would have been perplexed. Perplexed, first, at the ways that we fuss about the public role of religion. As I discuss in God of Liberty, the Revolutionary era was shot through with public expressions of faith, from the days of prayer and fasting declared by presidents, to the chaplains employed by the Continental Congress and Washington’s army, to the faith principles undergirding the Revolution itself, especially the notion that all men are created equal. The concept of a public square stripped of religion would have been deeply unfamiliar to Americans in 1776.

But they would also find our kind of Christmas strange, and probably unpleasant. We are constantly warned by the prophets of our age–Charlie Brown and Snoopy chief among them–that we should not become obsessed with commercialism at Christmas. Yet this is like warning fish about the pollution in water–a world of consumption is what we Americans live and breathe in.

Christmas in 1776 was very different. One difference, of course, is that America was engaged in a terrible war with Britain. That is why George Washington and his army spent Christmas night of 1776 crossing the Delaware River through a blizzard of sleet–to attack the Hessians at Trenton, New Jersey.

Wartime or not, Christmas was not a big public spectacle at the time of the Founding. One searches in vain through the newspapers and almanacs of the Revolutionary War period to find references to Christmas. It was almost never mentioned, even on December 25 itself. When it was, the holiday was usually only cited as a reference point. (“General Washington hopes that the war will be over by Christmas,” and such.)

But let’s not be romantic about their simple, subdued Christmas, either. One reason that Christmas was downplayed in the New England states is because the Puritan fathers had banned Christmas for much of the seventeenth century. This was not because they were killjoys, but because they did not see how the Bible taught a December Christmas. They believed that the festival of Christmas was invented by medieval Catholics–and this was never a good thing, if you were a Puritan.

You did see occasional evidence of commercialism in Revolutionary America, too, especially after the war was over. In the Christmas Eve edition of Rivington’s New York Gazette for 1783, there was a screaming advertisement–almost reminiscent of our “Black Friday” ads–for “CHRISTMAS and NEW YEAR’S PRESENTS,” which included gold and silver watches; goblets fit for drinking “Porter, Ales, Punch, Sangree” and other holiday beverages; and assortments of stockings which the merchant pronounced “Monstrous Cheap.”

Christmas at the time of the founding–for those who embraced it–was mostly a family and church affair. Lauren Winner’s delightful book A Cheerful and Comfortable Faith shows how Christmas occurred naturally as a part of the household devotion of eighteenth-century Anglicans in Virginia. Wealthy families there often had sumptuous feasts. At one Christmas dinner, the menu of the Fairfax family included “six mince pies, seven custards, twelve tarts, one chicken pie, and four puddings.” Twelfth Night, the evening signaling the end of the Christmas season, saw even bigger bashes, which could sometimes turn into drunken brawls. Devout Anglicans also made their way to church for the Sunday of Christmas week, where they would hear a special sermon on the incarnation, and receive communion.

In modern America, outdoor nativity scenes and other Christmas displays became common after World War I, encouraged by the advent of electricity to light them at night. Some of these displays ended up on government property, a circumstance which predictably elicited lawsuits by secularists. The first major lawsuit on this topic sought to remove a nativity scene from the White House Ellipse in 1969. A number of contradictory court decisions have followed, fostering annual feuding and court cases regarding Christmas or Hanukkah displays.

Americans of 1776 had no particular need for public manger scenes. Christmas, when observed, fit easily in the traditional rhythms of home and church life. Obviously, they had no secularists screeching for the removal of Baby Jesus from the public park, either. His image was not there in the first place, nor did it need to be. Their society was already pervasively religious, even though not every American was a saint. They lived in a serenely religious milieu that we can only approximate today. We certainly can’t recreate it on today’s fractious courthouse square. Thankfully, believers can still foster an indisputably Christian Christmas in our homes and churches. I guess that is where Christmas is the most edifying anyway.

Remembering My Father

My father, Bernard John Schreurs, died 30 years ago this month, on Nov. 11, 1984.  So I'm posting this in his honor.

Dad was born on Feb. 19, 1917, the first of 4 children to Ben & Effie Schreurs.   He was raised on a dairy farm near Cedar Grove, Wisc., when farm work was done by hand and by horses.  He loved horses, and his father trained 2 colts every year, to work together as a team.  He attended Maple Grove School, a one-room school.  As a young man, he worked on several dairy farms.

On Sept. 8, 1949, Benard married Margaret.   Jim was born in ’52, and Wendell in ’55.  Leon Jonathan was born in ’57 but died of pneumonia 2 years later; the minister once told me that it was the hardest funeral he ever did.  My sister Ann came along in ’58, and me 2 years later.  Grandpa Schreurs died of a heart attack in 1961.

Dad started working in a factory that made Mercury outboard motors for boats; he showed us around the factory one time.  My sister Karen was born in ’62 and Jane in ’65. 

My grandparents went to First Reformed Church in Cedar Grove, and so did we.  Dad didn’t say much about religion; saying the Lord’s Prayer at meals and going to church was enough.  When I was 5, Grandma Schreurs passed away.

There were joyous times too.  In Sept., 1974, Jim married Sue.  A week later, Mom & Dad celebrated their 25^th anniversary.  In the next few years, 2 grandchildren, Dale & Dawn, were born.  In ’77, Wendell married Patti.

In 1978, Mom was diagnosed with cancer and died on May 6 which was probably the hardest day in Dad’s life.  I still recall his tears.  In the next 3 years, Ann, Karen, & I moved away to attend college.  Looking back later, it seemed like Dad aged a lot in those years in which his family shrank so quickly.

The factory closed in 1980, and Dad took an early retirement.  A year later, his health declining and unable to take care of himself, Dad reluctantly moved into a retirement center.  It was hard for me to visit him there.

Ann got married in 1984, and at the reception, I remember Dad proudly introducing me to his friends as his son who was in seminary, studying to become a minister.  As I thought about that later – his bragging about my becoming a minister – that said something positive about his faith.

In Nov. that year, he was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus but was spared from suffering because he died of heart failure in his sleep, on Nov. 11.  He was buried on a cold, cloudy day.  Life is short.  Psalm 39:5 says, “The span of my years is nothing before [God].  Each man’s life is but a breath.”

After you’ve died and gone, what difference will your life have made?  I believe that values like faith, hope, love, joy, & peace will matter in the long run.  After you’re gone, those things will last far beyond anything that can rust or rot.  In Matthew 7, Jesus told the story of the wise and foolish builders.  Are you building your life on the rock or the sand?  What legacy are you leaving for your family & friends?  After you’ve been dead for a while, what will people remember about you?

P.S.   Our son, Jonathan David was named after his grandfathers; John is an old family name on the Schreurs side.  Jane’s father is David Stevenson.  Our daughter Megan Leigh is named after her grandmothers.  Megan is the Irish (red hair!) form of Margaret; Jane’s Mom’s middle name was Lee.

Now Thank We All Our God

The day before Thanksgiving was bleak and raw.  The sky was the color of wet ash.  Margaret sat disconsolate on the living room floor, hugging her knees, and wondering why the men in her life left her when she needed them the most.

On the end table there was a stack of sympathy cards (“Sorry to hear about your Dad… I knew your father and he was a fine man…May God comfort you in your time of grief.”), unpaid bills, and a letter from her attorney explaining that getting overdue child support and alimony from a deadbeat, out-of-state ex-husband was not an easy or inexpensive procedure.

Stacks of old blank-and-white photos were scattered around her on the floor.  There she was when she was just a slip of a girl, hugging her father’s leg, both of them smiling.  How young and strong and handsome he was.  There she was on the porch of the cabin up north.  It was a place where the mountains come down to wash their feet in the cold lake waters.  The cabin was on a lake in a valley, surrounded by trees.

At night she’d sit with her father on the screened-in porch, and they’d watch the sunset, and he’d blow smoke rings and tell her stories and make her laugh.  They’d sing hymns: “Amazing Grace,” “The Old Rugged Cross,” “Softly and Tenderly.”  His favorite was “Now Thank We All Our God.”  One night he lit his pipe, blew out the match and asked, “When you extinguish a match, where does the flame go?”  And all that night she lay in bed and thought, Where does the flame go?

           

She thumbed through another stack of photos.  There she was with her husband.  It was a malignant marriage, and he finally left her for a secretary with long legs and a short attention span.  There she was again with her father.  Now she was older.  His hair was gray.  He had his cane; so the picture must have been taken after the stroke.  She remembered him hobbling around his apartment, grabbing onto pieces of furniture for balance.  There she was with him on the church steps.  She picked him up every Sunday for church, and they were walking up the steps she’d always stop and straighten his tie.  His tie was never straight.

When she saw him at the funeral, asleep in his best brown suit, she thought, Where’s my father?  Where is his mind?  Where are his memories?  Where is the sound of his laughter?  Where are all his stories?  He used to say that’s why he walked so slow, because he was remembering all the stories.  The match was extinguished, but where was the flame?  There he lay, the world’s best father.  He had taught her how to skip stones, how to cast a fly-reel, how to ride a horse.  To all the world he was just one man, but this one man was all the world to her.  She straightened his tie and whispered “I love you, Dad.”

Sitting there on the floor, Margaret prayed.  She thanked God that her father was no longer in any pain, and that out of a bad marriage had come 2 good kids.  She thanked God for the good memories that got her through the bad times, and for the promise of a better time.  She asked God for the strength to be both a mother and a father to her children.  She thanked God for the assurance that, although others might leave her, He never would.  She sang “Now Thank We All Our God” in a weak, weepy voice.  Her eyes began to leak, and her mascara got smeared and streaky.

Then she leaned back against the wall and fell asleep and dreamed of a golden, sunny valley.  There was a blue stream, and a man was standing by the shore, skipping stones.  He was a young, strong, handsome man, and he waved at her and smiled and called “Maggie!”

“Daddy” she cried, her heart filled with joy.  And she ran to his arms, pigtails bouncing, little-girl legs running through the meadow, a happy child, happy forever.

What sports should — and should not — be about - Q &As w/ Marcia Shoop

A conversation the Outlook’s Leslie Scanlon had with theologian Marcia Mount Shoop, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister & author of “Touchdowns for Jesus & Other Signs of Apocalypse: Lifting the Veil on Big-Time Sports.” Shoop’s husband, John Shoop, is offensive coordinator & QBs coach for the Purdue Univ football team.  

Shoop earned a doctorate in religious studies from Emory Univ.

Q: Why did you choose sports and football as a topic?
A:   “It’s because of the peculiar position I find myself in in my life – I’m a trained theologian and actually a theologian with a pretty good amount of feminist training also, and I’m married to a professional football coach, one of the most male-dominated and some would say misogynistic things there is in our culture. Also I was a former competitive athlete myself … . But really, tipping point for me and my husband was what we went through at the University of North Carolina, when the NCAA investigated the football program (and John Shoop was an assistant coach). What we saw there and what we experienced there created a moral imperative for me.”

Q: For those who are not familiar with what happened at UNC, can you give us a nutshell version of what happened?
A “In many ways it’s pretty typical of how the NCAA operates. There was potential infraction. They found out that one of the football players had attended a party that was hosted by an agent.” That triggered an NCAA investigation which ultimately involved more than a dozen players, all of whom were black, and focused on academic fraud and improper benefits paid by agents to players. Both players who were found to have violated NCAA rules and some who did not got caught up in the scandal.

 

 

Q: Your family got to be close to some of these players. What is it like for these young men to go to college and to play football?
A: “I think it’s a lot different from what people assume. People assume in general that when a young man goes to a Division 1 school to play football or basketball, that it’s really glamorous, and they get a lot of special treatment, and they get whatever they want, that they’re treated like kings. That’s really not accurate. They do get a lot. They get an education, they get their gear for football, they have meals provided. But underneath the surface there’s some pretty pronounced problems. A lot of them have to do with the way institutions and the NCAA regulate things like benefits. In an effort to limit what kind of special treatment students can get from alumni who are big boosters or from agents and things like that, the NCAA and their member institutions have created situations where, for instance, students are given a per diem for food when the cafeteria is not open, or there’s not a training table for them to eat at. In some case that per diem is not enough to cover three meals a day … . We’ve known players who have literally gone a few days without eating. We had one player from North Carolina pass out one day in the training room because he hadn’t eaten in a few days. He had sent his per diem home to help his family … . We’ve had parents ask John during the recruiting process if there’s a way we could help their son get a coat. He doesn’t have a coat. Those are all things where our hands are tied. We are not allowed to buy groceries for the students, we are not allowed to buy them a coat. All of those things are very tightly regulated, which creates situations where these regulations conspire against close supportive relationships – the relationships you want to have with people you care about, and who have a need. … When John recruits players, he makes a lot of promises to those families that we will look out for their son, that he’s going to be part of a big family here. And when the NCAA investigation happened at UNC and all the coaches got fired, we really felt like those promises that we had both made to several families, that we weren’t going to be able to keep those promises. One player in particular told us just a few years ago UNC ‘was the best thing that ever happened to me. Now it’s the worst thing that ever happened to me.’ That’s heartbreaking.”
People assume that a Division 1 football player will go on to play in the NFL, “that he doesn’t care about school, or if he does, it’s secondary to getting into the NFL … . Only 2 percent of Division 1 athletes play in the NFL.” But the eligibility requirements “create conditions that are ripe for a lot of these young men to not get the education they deserve — because the goal is to keep them eligible, not necessarily to keep them in classes that they really care about, or studying things that they’re really passionate about or that will lead to a job someday. The top priority is to keep them eligible.”

Q: What would you say about the intensity that so many Americans have for sports?
A: “That really is the core question of my book. Why do we care so much about this? Because if we didn’t, it wouldn’t be so much of a money machine, and all of these things wouldn’t be happening … . My argument in the book is that sports touches such a core space in us because it creates these spaces where we get to play with some of the deepest questions of what it means to be human. We get to play with our belief, our hope, that redemption is real … . In American culture, when we’re passionate about something, that’s where the money goes. And where the money goes, so goes power and so goes corruption. And so go a lot of other pretty tenacious distortions that we take with us into these places where the stakes are so high.”

Q: What impact does it have that the dominant sports are male sports, and that some are played in a culture of aggression and violence?
A: “I explore these questions in my chapter called `Man Up,’ where I look at what kind of concepts of masculinity and femininity and gender in general do big time sports depend on. Does the sport of football really require these kind of caricatures of masculinity and femininity for it to thrive? … We’re seeing some pushback against football now. Some things are coming to the surface about its violence and about some of the really harmful ways that masculinity is performed in football that is not just diminishing for women but is diminishing for men too. So these are some the questions that are really challenging football to really figure out who it is. And if it doesn’t do it, if it just kind of digs in its heels, I wouldn’t be surprised if it kind of really peters out in its popularity. Because more and more people don’t want their kids to play football. More and more, people are asking questions about things like concussions and all these other things … . There are real examples all over the place of players starting to ask questions, and that is all to the good.”
Q: Many college communities are having conversations about sexual violence against women. What role do you see athletics playing in that?
A: “Because athletics is a money machine, they care about public perception. With the Title IX and Department of Education investigations of over 50 institutions of higher learning around sexual violence, and even the NFL case where the punishment for a clear situation of domestic (violence) was tepid at best, for good or for ill, public perception is what’s going to turn that ship around. Now again, the problem becomes in very male-dominated enclaves like football, how you ask the questions and how you address the issues is very important. Because it can’t just be about appeasing the media. If you really do want to deal with a rape culture, if you really do want to interrupt the patterns of violence against women … , there has to be real concerted attention all around to what it looks like to share power and to be in different power relationships with women. And if women are nowhere to be found in the institutions that are doing this work or don’t have positions of power, then I’m worried about how we’re really going to do that work.”

Q: What role do you see the church and people of faith playing in all of this?
A: “I went into this whole thing thinking, ‘oh there are sort of caricatured versions of faith and Christianity that pop up all over the world of big-time sports. I’m not so sure that’s a good thing. How do religion and sports go together?’ But I think I really have come out after writing the book in a very different place, where I feel Christianity hasn’t taken up enough space in the world of big-time sports. By that I mean we have not brought our Christian values to bear on the world of big time sports. We haven’t been troubled enough by things like racialized injustice or sexism or abuses of power or even just pure unadulterated physical abuse and verbal abuse to minors in some cases at the hands of people in authority … . I don’t know why that doesn’t kindle any fire in more Christians.”
“The thing that really is so clear to us after all of these years with John coaching at the highest levels of football is that even with your deepest commitment to being that kind of coach who cares about young men, who cares about making them better young men, the people they were created to be, that’s not what gets rewarded. That’s not what will get you a job. In fact, I think coaches do some of their best work during losing seasons. That is when they teach these young men how to deal with adversity, how to keep working hard, how to not turn on your teammates, how to stay in this and not give up. Those are the most important skills of grit and determination and community and coming together. And what’s the thanks they get at the end of the season? Well, normally they all just get fired.”

Q: Are there any takeaways in this for you, particularly for people who will never play Division 1 sports but for whom fitness and being active are important? For average people, what role should sports play in our lives?
A: “Sport is about life. It’s about thriving and having a zestful existence. I’m coaching the middle school cross-country team here in West Lafayette, at Battle Ground Middle School. It’s just such a delight. We’ve got kids out at all ability levels. We’ve got really great runners all the way to kids with special needs. And everybody can find vitality and connection and a new level of achievement by being on this team. And that’s one of the things I work with the kids on. You can have so many different kinds of goals, but they’re yours. We have team goals, but you also have your own. And whether I’m not going to walk any today when I run my two miles or I’m going to run a little bit faster during this part or I’m going to tell myself I can keep going when it gets hard or whatever your goal is, there is a way for every single person on the team to cultivate a new level of vitality in their own bodies, a new sense of connection to their teammates, to the ground that they’re running on, to the air that they’re breathing, to their bodies that they live in, and a new way to discover that they can do something that they never thought they could do … . That’s what sports is about. When we lose that, when we lose our connection to things like vitality and relationships and groundbreaking, then we really have gotten into a very distorted space.”
 http://pres-outlook.org/2014/10/sports/   Oct. 23, 2014

The Worst Isn't Going to Happen

After 12 years and 2 children, Jennifer had had enough.  Her husband had had 3 affairs (that she knew of).  The latest was…. Well, she’d rather not think about what the other woman looked like.  It was the worst thing he’d ever done to her, on top of all the other worst things he’d ever done to her.  He’d tried to apologize and explain, but it was deja voo; Jennifer had heard this before.  Their marriage was over.  Her friends said, “The guy was a loser.  Good riddance.”  But Jennifer was not to be consoled.  She felt stupid.  Angry.  Used.  Most of all, she felt rejected.

Rejected. The word brings up images of jilted lovers and laid-off workers.  People who apply for a job and don’t get it.   People who try out for a team and don’t make the cut.  Of course, some people reject themselves.  An aspiring author has her manuscript rejected; so she gives up writing.  Tired of the taunting and the rejection, a teenager takes his own life.  Suicide is the ultimate self-rejection.

Jennifer rejected herself for a while, mourning and moping, in self-pity, refusing to take control of the situation and make a new life for herself.  Finally, her friends said, “Quit feeling sorry for yourself.  Get down off the cross.”

The Christian faith holds out God’s love and acceptance to us.   “[Nothing] in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”  (Romans 8:39).  Nothing in all creation.  Others may reject you.  You may reject yourself.  But God doesn’t.

It’s good to know that the worst thing that can happen to you, can’t happen.  Death isn’t the worst thing that can happen to you.  The worst thing that can happen to you is that God will reject you, that somehow God will stop loving you, stop accepting you.  And that can’t happen.  Like the Apostle Paul said: “Nothing in all creation…”

Others may reject you.  You may reject yourself.  But God always loves you and accepts you with open arms.  You are God’s child.  Your picture is in heaven.  The worst that can happen to you, isn’t going to happen.  Phew.  That’s a relief.  Now get down off that cross.

If you feel rejected, these Scriptures may help you: Romans 8:16, Ephesians 2:8, Galatians 3:13-14, Colossians 1:13-14

Travelers on a Train

At birth we board a train and meet our parents. We believe they will always travel by our side. However, at some station, our parents will step down from the train, leaving us on this journey alone.

As time goes by, other people will board the train, and they will be significant - siblings, friends, the love of your life, children, and many others. Some will step down and leave a permanent vacuum. Others will go so unnoticed that we won't realize they vacated their seats.

The train ride will be full of joy, sorrow, fantasy, expectations, hellos, good-byes, and farewells. A successful ride requires having a good relationship with all passengers. We must give the best of ourselves.

The mystery to everyone is, we do not know at which station we ourselves will step down. So, we must live in the best way, love, forgive, and offer the best of who we are. It is important to do this because when the time comes for us to step down and leave our seat empty we should leave behind beautiful memories for those who will continue to travel on the train of life.

I wish you a joyful journey on the train of life. Reap success and give lots of love. More importantly, thank God for the journey.

Lastly, I thank you for being one of the passengers on my train.

                                                                   

author unknown

Margin: Restoring Your Reserves

In 1995, Richard Swenson wrote a book called Margin: Restoring Emotional Physical Financial and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives.  A printed page has a column of blank space along each side of every page.  We need some blank space in our lives; margin is the space that we need between ourselves and our limits. Do you allow yourself some free time everyday?  

We have a tendency to fill up every part of our schedules.  Our days and nights are full of work, meals, conversations, phone calls, texts, emails, news, interruptions, appointments, etc.  So there’s a tendency to fill up the blank spaces in our lives.  The problem with this is that when a crisis comes up, it pushes us beyond our limits, and then we suffer from stress overload.  It’s like being pushed off the edge of your limits, or off the edge of your page. That’s what leads to heart attacks, divorces, broken relationships, high blood pressure, angry outbursts, etc. 

If your life is filled to the edges of your schedule, and you find yourself exhausted at the end of every day, you are probably trying to do too much.  You need to develop margins in your life – some black space or free time between you and your limits.  What can you eliminate from your schedule?  What can you say no to?  Does that team or committee really need you?  How can you say no to the next new project that comes up?  Do you really need to work overtime regularly?  How can you free up some time to relax and unwind?  

The principle of margin is similar to the Biblical Sabbath principle.  The Sabbath was the day of rest on the 7^th day of creation, and the reason why God commanded the Israelites to rest on the 7^th day of the week.  The idea is that we need one day of rest and worship per week, to be renewed and rest our bodies and minds from the daily grind.  The idea for margin is the same – that we need times for rest and renewal, to recover from the stress of daily life.

If you are stressed out or worn out, plan to take a day off for rest and worship and renewal.  Plan to find time in your life, to leave blank, like the margin on the edge of the page.  Do this, and you will be blessed.

"Unanswered Prayer" by Garth Brooks

Just the other night a hometown football game

My wife and I ran into my old high school flame

And as I introduced them the past came back to me

And I couldn't help but think of the way things used to be

She was the one that I'd wanted for all times

And each night I'd spend prayin' that God would make her mine

And if he'd only grant me this wish I wished back then

I'd never ask for anything again

[Chorus] Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers

     Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs

     That just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care

     Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers

She wasn't quite the angel that I remembered in my dreams

And I could tell that time had changed me

Inn her eyes too it seemed

We tried to talk about the old days

There wasn't much we could recall

I guess the Lord knows what he's doin' after all

And as she walked away and I looked at my wife

And then and there I thanked the good Lord

For the gifts in my life

[Chorus]

Some of God's greatest gifts are all too often unanswered...

Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.

Your School Needs Jesus

My wife welcomed her new 3^rd graders at our local elementary school last week.  Our communities’ students, teachers & school staffs need prayer as they begin a new year.  I believe that they need Jesus’ guidance and blessings this year.  Every year, teachers continue to learn new educational tools, methods, & skills.  Administrators and staff face new challenges in meeting the needs of today’s students.

The first 5 books of the Old Testament were called the Torah or the Law.  Rabbi’s back then taught the Torah to their young students, so that children grew up knowing that God had created the world and done marvelous things through Abraham and Moses.  As the decades and centuries went by, God’s Spirit lead the Israelites to add the books of history and poetry (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon) to its sacred Scriptures, and the prophetic books came later.   

In the New Testament, Jesus was known especially for teaching; He was a Jewish rabbi.  He taught outdoors as well as in the synagogue.  He taught hard, new ways to interpret the Old Testament, especially in Matthew 5-7, his famous sermon on the mountain.   Each gospel presents a different side of Jesus’ ministry; so take the time to read each of them.  Some of his stories made religious leaders look bad and outcast minorities look good, such as the parable of the Good Samaritan, or the Pharisee and tax-collector who prayed in the Temple. 

I appreciate the time my employer gives me for continuing education, to keep learning.  No matter how old we get, there’s always something more to learn.  I hope to keep learning for many years, partly because learning new things keeps one young by introducing new things into one’s life, no matter what your age.  No matter how old you and I get, there’s always more to learn about Jesus and following Him as our Savior and Master.  To learn about following Jesus, read the first 4 books of the New Testament and spend time praying to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  A church in your community can also you learn about Jesus.

Pray for the school in the district where you live.  These are challenging times for students and everyone involved in educating them.  Every school needs Christ and his Spirit’s guidance, protection, mercy and gracious love.  Your local school needs Jesus.  Pray that every Christ-follower in your local schools will be a light in a dark world.  

A Place to Meet God

Our deck was aging and sagging badly; it was like walking across a trampoline.  In May, I received help in tearing it apart.  Turns out there was a reason for the sagging - most of the support framework was rotting.  I decided to use 4 x 4 posts in concrete in holes in the ground for the new deck.  While building the deck, I learned about post footings, pier-blocks, ledger boards and joist-hangers; I also learned about sore muscles, pinched fingers, and 60 lb bags of concrete!

Working on our deck reminded me of God's detailed instructions for the Tabernacle (Exo. 25-26).  Tabernacle means tent, dwelling place or sanctuary.  It was a portable holy place where God would meet with his people during the decades they wandered through the wilderness.  The Tabernacle was where people and their leaders worshipped and offered sacrifices to God.  Do you have a place to meet personally with God?

There are numerous other Biblical building projects, including:

-Nehemiah & his Jewish recruits rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem, to protect and secure the city where God’s people rededicated themselves to God.

-A carpenter made the manger (an animal trough) that held the newborn Jesus in the

barn behind the crowded inn.

-The cross on which Jesus was crucified.

All these building projects were part of God’s work or intended to honor God, which raises the question: Will our new deck be used to honor and glorify God?  Will it be a place to meet with God?  Our backyard is to some extent a place of nature with grass, plants, trees and a few flowers – a place where one can spend peaceful time with God.  My wife helped me a lot in the building process, and we didn’t have a single disagreement!  So God’s already blessed us through the building process.  What about your latest project?  Is it part of God’s work or intended to honor God?  How will it affect your relationship with God?

The stone that was rejected by the builders (I Peter 2: 4-9) turned out to be Jesus Christ!  Jesus was rejected by many who were too attached to the standard religious practices of their day.  Peter wrote: Welcome to the living Stone, the source of life.  The workmen took one look and threw it out; God set it in the place of honor.  Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life, in which you’ll serve as holy priests offering Christ-approved lives up to God.  (The Message)

Without God, the supporting framework of our lives, tends to rot like our old deck.  But one can build a new life based on the greatest cornerstone – Jesus.  If you’re tired of your old life and ready for a new life, start building your life on Jesus!  

A Story of Grace & Forgiveness

Sycamore Row, by John Grisham, takes place in rural Missisippi in the late 1980s.  (Spoiler Warning: this column tells how this novel ends.  Do not read if you do not want to see how the plot unfolds.)  Seth Hubbard commits suicide by hanging himself from a sycamore tree.  Seth was 71 years old and had terminal lung cancer.  Seth was a very private person, and no one had any idea how wealthy he was.

In his last will, he leaves 90% of his estate to his housekeeper, a black woman named Lettie in her 40s, receives his house and 200 acres around his house.  His last will specifies that his ex-wives, children and grandchildren are to receive nothing.  He leaves 5% to his church, and 5% to his long lost brother Ancil who has not been seen in decades.

His estate is worth over $24 million.  So his last will is challenged in court by his children who were included in the previous will.  They suggest that the housekeeper was sleeping with Seth, which she denies.  She knew nothing about his lumber and furniture businesses, and had no idea of how wealthy he was.

As you might imagine, people start coming to Lettie Lang, the black housekeeper, in a very friendly way, as soon as they hear that she’s going to receive a lot of money.  The attorney representing Seth’s estate, Jake Brigance, discovers that at one time, Lettie’s family owned the 200 acres that Seth’s will gave to Lettie.  The land changed hands in 1930, but they cannot find out why her grand-father sold the land to Seth’s father, or why all of Lettie’s family left that part of Mississippi and moved to Chicago.

Jake hires a private investigator, to try to track down his long lost brother, Ancil.  Finally, they find him living in Juneau, Alaska, where he’s a bartender who gets paid in cash under the table.  Ancil gives a videotaped deposition in which he tells his story:

When Ancil and Seth were children, their father required them to work hard picking cotton, taking care of the farm animals and other chores.  Late one night, they heard their father leave the house and drive up the road.  They sneak out of the house & follow him on their bicycles.  They hide in the woods, and see their father and other white men beat up a black man named Sylvester Rinds.  Then the white men hang Sylvester from a sycamore tree.  A few days later, their father buys the 200 acres from Sylvester’s widow.  But Sylvester’s family still lived at the edge of the land, near the river, until the sheriff and Seth’s father kick them off, and burn the houses of the black families.  So Sylvester’s family all leave the area, except for a baby girl who was adopted by another black family. 

This girl grows up knowing she was adopted, but knowing nothing about her real family or why they left Mississippi.  Years later, the girl, now a young woman, gets married & has a daughter, named Lettie – the same Lettie who eventually is hired by Seth to be his housekeeper.  Remember that Lettie did not know the story of what happened to her grandfather Sylvester.

When this all comes out in the trial, the jury rules in favor of Seth’s last will, the will that leaves 90% of his estate to Lettie.  After the trial, Ancil returns to the place where he grew up, and shows them the sycamore tree where Sylvester was hung –the same sycamore tree that Seth used to hang himself. 

Ancil attends a picnic on the grounds near the sycamore tree, where he meets Lettie and her family.  Ancil tells Lettie that he’s very sorry for what his father & the other white men did when they killed Lettie’s grand-father Sylvester.  Lettie says, That happened a long time ago, and we should leave that all in the past.  In other words, she forgives Ancil and his family for hanging her grandfather.  Ancil meets Lettie’s children who express the same sentiment.

Jesus said, For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.  (Matthew 6:14-15)  Jesus also told the story of the prodigal son who was forgiven by his father. 

In Sycamore Row, Seth’s will was his attempt to make amends for his father’s role in the lynching of Lettie’s grandfather.  Ancil apologized when he met Lettie and her family.  Lettie and her family responded graciously.  It’s a tremendous story of grace and forgiveness.

The Food Stamp Challenge

“Dad, we’re almost out of food here.  Will we have enough”

Last year, Ivan Herman wanted to know firsthand: what was it like to worry about food and to struggle to feed your family?  To find out, Herman, his wife Susan and their 2 children ate the way they would if they were earning just $23,000 a year and surviving on food stamps.  Their church has a food pantry, and Herman wondered, how do all those families get by on the other days of the month? 

One evening last year, he brought up the idea of the “Food Stamp Challenge: with his wife, as a way of getting his family to think differently about food.  The Food Stamp Challenge is a commitment encouraged by some, of intentionally eating on a food stamp budget for a set period of time, usually a week or a month.  His family agreed to do it for 40 days,

They cleared out their pantry, basically starting from scratch.  The Herman family, Ivan, Susan, and their 2 children, ages 7 and 3, lived on a food budget of $396 per month.  That was the amount they calculated they’d be eligible for in good stamps if one adult worked full-time, 40 hours per week earning $11.50 per hour.  In this imaginary scenario, the other parent was assumed to be caring for the children and an elderly parent who lives nearby.  In 2012, the federal poverty level for a family of four was $23,050.

For the Herman family, this budget meant:

            -Spending about $1.10 per person per meal.

            -Eating, most of the time, no meat or fish.

            -Cooking from scratch, which tends to be more economical.

-Emptying the refrigerator before daring to go back to the grocery store.  If they    didn’t go to the store, they couldn’t spend more money.

So what did they learn?  He discovered that people on food stamps can’t afford much fresh fruit.  When school let out for spring break, his daughter stayed home, and her not eating 5 meals at school, meant squeezing 5 more meals into the budget.  One day, he snatched a banana from the top of a trash can.  It was sitting on top of a bed of dry paper, and the peel was clean and unbroken.  He put it on the front seat of his car, to save for later in the day.

People from their church approached Herman and confided in a hushed voice, that “I was on food stamps once too.”  One day, a friend walked up to Susan in the church parking lot and handed over a paper bag of food, saying, “Take it.”  Inside was some food and a note.  The food would stretch the meager food money, the friend wrote.  “In my life I have found it easy to be on the giving end of help.  It is hard to ask for help from a friend or family member.  But when your family is in need you have to push aside such pride and be willing to take a helping hand.  So this is our gift to you, some food for thought.”