Sunday: The Non-Triumphal Entry of Christ

This is part of a series of blogs entitled: “The FinalCountdown” based on a sermon series we are actually doing at church. This will take some differing views on the last week of Jesus.

Commissioner Gordon says of Batman in the Dark Knight, “…he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.” I imagine some people thought something similarly about Jesus in the week before his crucifixion and resurrection. Many people’s expectations of what was to happen were much different than what did happen. Our ability to know what the end result is sometimes blurs what is actually happening.

So let’s start from the top:

On Sunday, Jesus looks at his disciples and says to them, “you guys go grab me a donkey,” and to some others, “go let everyone know that the King of Zion is coming.” So this happens, and Jesus mounts the donkey with his disciples’ cloaks on it as a makeshift saddle. He then makes way to Jerusalem.

The people along the way are shouting and cheering on Jesus on his trip into Jerusalem. They are shouting for the rescue and salvation that he is bringing. Which is exactly what he brought. But these people weren’t looking to be freed from the oppression of sin but rather to be freed from the oppression of the Roman Empire. This was not the cheering for the Son of God comes to save mankind, but for Israel’s King to replace the leadership above them. The expectation of Jesus’ entry was a new reign of earthly kingdom, and looking at that there is something to be said.

Jesus’ triumphal entry was anything but triumphal. A king on a donkey, walking with a party of tax collectors, being praised by people hoping for rebellion. The triumphal entry was only triumphant because of the end result one week later.

He rides in on a donkey, not a horse like a true earthly king would. These people cheering for him are praising his salvation from their government and not what salvation he actually came to bring. Then, to add to all of this, He is riding in with a party of people that would be considered the lowest people of society that he has been walking around talking with.

Now it was triumphal because even though he is arrested and crucified in just a few days, thus ending his chances to be the savior they all wanted, He rose again to be the Savior of the world. This is the Christian story.

Often we believe that Jesus is the hero that we deserve but not the one we need right now. This couldn’t be further from the truth, when all is said and done, we don’t deserve a hero at all, we deserve death of two types: physical and spiritual. But through Jesus, the hero we need right now, we can defeat spiritual death and live beyond our physical bodies. Jesus’ death and resurrection can do to our lives what it did to Palm Sunday. It can take something that is looked down upon at the time and elevate it to something that has a place in eternity.

In Christ,

BGann  

The Final Countdown

Over the next several weeks, I will be posting a series entitled the Final Countdown. This series will be a view on the final week of Jesus leading to his resurrection. This Sunday to Sunday look will be from a different angle than most with a look in how it was at that time vs how it is now.

Actually this matches up with a series we are having at our church. Our pastor and I fleshed this idea out on paper and because we both went different directions in the approaches to similar points. So here is a little insight of both meshed into a few blog posts.

Sunday:  The Non-Triumphal Entry of Christ     
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:

Bipartite Nature of Our Government System

Tonight, as I observed the State of the Union address while working on homework, a few things that I had been noticing earlier were clearly observant. Many people think our government has problems and I would tend to agree most of the time. The problem is we want to blame one side or the other, but at the end of the day, it's the fault of both sides.

We have a dangerous setup right now. The government we have is no longer about what's right and wrong but only right and left. We have an institution that's not about helping the American people but it's about winning.

Ben Carson recently said that lawyers "are taught to win by hook or by crook." Look at our current political climate and you will see, they are mostly lawyers.

But the other problem is that emphasis on winning with two distinct sides has other repercussions. The left/right paradigm has tied together completely unrelated issues that you are forced to support if you feel strongly about issues. If you believe in equal opportunity for gay marriage rights, you obviously feel that gun control is the best way and must be pro-choice. If not you are an outsider in a political climate that shuns those who aren't in one of the two camps. In the same way, people who are pro-life are assumed to be for the death penalty (interesting dichotomy here).

It's a dangerous trend. A few major issues overshadow the majority of issues and we keep electing the same people who reinforce this idea. The issues are no longer based on moral consciousness or any relation whatsoever. They aren't based on what the people of America really want. They are based on winning or losing for this team or that.

That's where the problem in America lies. We have made a land of moral grey into red and blue, right and left, and with no regards to the people we are effecting. It's a land of control, power, and regulation but not about freedom, morality, and hope.

Red, White, and Blue <- Three colors for 2 sides

BGann

DON'T Give Up, DON'T Ever Give Up

Part of an ongoing series about Do's and Don't's 

"we are starting the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research. And it's motto is 'Don't give up, don't ever give up.' That's what I'm going to try to do every minute that I have left. I will thank God for the day and the moment I have. If you see me, smile and give me a hug. That's important to me too. "  - Jim Valvano, ESPY'S 1993

This is an excerpt from one of the most influential and famous speeches in the history of athletics which can be seen here. Jim Valvano in this speech knows he is dying from cancer. However, he provides one key line that is the motto of his foundation and should be the motto of most of our lives.

DON'T Give Up, DON'T Ever Give Up

To often in life, it's much easier to give up than to keep pressing on. I have often noticed though that the people who refuse to give up are the people going through the most. I spoke with a lady recently who almost died from breast cancer. She lost one half of her chest and had a prosthetic "bra" designed as to not draw attention in public. This lady, who had the world against her, said sometimes she doesn't wear it, apparently it's a cumbersome process, but had a phenomenal attitude about it. Even saying she wanted to get a shirt that said "My hair's going to grow back but this won't." She was joking and in good spirits and all because she refused to give up on life no matter how bad it was. Too often, we give up on the little things when people with monsters staring them in the face refuse to give up. That's the only reason we live our lives in such comfort.

DO Keep Trying

Just watch the story of Arthur here. He was told to give up by people who "should" know what's the best for him. The doctors said he would never walk unassisted again. 



Shows what they know. He had given up, and he would've never walked unassisted again. However, when he stopped feeling sorry for himself, and stopped giving up, he not only started walking but started running. He changed his life because he refused to let other people tell him what he couldn't do and focused on what he knew he could.

Don't Give Up, Don't Ever Give up

BGann

National Signing Day : College in our Culture

Today is the day. Over the last year, older well privileged have scouted and scoured the training of teenagers. They have analyzed every little strength and weakness to the point of knowing exactly what each person is capable of. They have gone through and spoke with them and discussed the possibilities of the future. Now they are asking that this teenagers volunteer themselves for a battle that takes place on television in front of a live audience for people's pleasure. It's not the Hunger Games but rather National Signing Day for collegiate football.

Now all of the above points were not to suggest the brutality of football but the media explosion around it. You will have hundreds of thousands of people watching ESPN cover where an 18 year old is deciding to go to college for four years and cursing the kids who decide to play a switch-up on their schools. This is the culture we live in, that raises athletic scholarships to a point where merely accepting one is a feat worth of national accolades. Some of these guys will get their 15 minutes of fame and not even qualify for school and will never step foot on campus.

So check this out, the NCAA awards roughly $1 billion in athletic scholarships in Division I and II sports (Division III doesn't offer athletic scholarships). These scholarships are split up into approximately 126,000 scholarships over 138,000 students (more on the shady math of the NCAA another day). So you have students being awarded an average of just under $8000 per scholarship and just over $7000 in an athletic scholarship per student, much of this due to the splitting of scholarships in sports not called football, basketball, or volleyball. 

Now on the other hand, there is about $3 billion in private scholarships and $15 in public/institutional scholarships and grants for academic and merit based students. That's 18 times what is offered athletically. Also, since there are $3 billion split up into $2000-3000 chunks, that's at least 1,000,000 private scholarships alone. However, there is little to no fanfare for the student who receive these scholarships.

We have generated a culture in which it is a source of pride to accept a restrictive scholarship that is a "full-ride" to an institution to go above and beyond just your studies for mere entertainment of others and disregards the achievements of those who receive much more money to do precisely what college is about, study, learn, and succeed in bettering yourself.

I am not saying that college football is bad, I love college athletics. What I am saying is that it's a dangerous time when a society places more stock in physical prowess than in mental capacity. If the next Steve Jobs runs a 4.3 40, we may never see the next Apple. The most incredible part of all of this, these athletic scholarships that are amazing full-ride's don't cover all of the cost and the restrictions they come with limit options for the student athlete. (more on this in the future NCAA shady math post).

Ultimately, it's probably time we look forward with our minds rather than our muscles. There are a lot of bright people in this nation and we need to let them know that they have options and reward those who are as strong in the classroom as Ray Lewis is on the gridiron. But seriously, when's the last time Rivals gave a darn about anyone's GPA.

Study Hard,

BGann

DON'T Be a Bad Tipper

A few days back I came across this post on Reddit. It's a picture of a receipt from an Applebee's by a waitress (the poster was actually not the waitress stiffed by this Pastor). Immediately on seeing it, I realized one thing that we should not do:

DON'T Be a Bad Tipper

Being a bad tipper has several negative outcomes. First of all, your nice and caring waiter/waitress makes most of their income by tips and no by their low hourly pay. Second, they are working their tails off so that you can go somewhere and eat without working hard. Most of all, tipping is a direct reflection on you. If you are a bad tipper you give a bad impression on:

• Yourself
• Employer
• Family
• God

You misrepresent all of these if you are stingy with your tips. I know people who work in the industry that say that church people are the worst tippers. Shouldn't it be the other way around.

DO Be a Generous Tipper

Go over the top, don't just tip nothing or a buck. But also, don't tip out of some misguided obligation. We should want to be generous. Think of a tip as saying "thank you" when you get your check. So next time you get your check, say "I appreciate you for working you butt off so I can sit here and enjoy a wonderful meal." That's how we show the love of Christ and how we lead people to see we are good people.

Give more.

BGann

DON'T Assume "It'll Work for You"

The first in a series of Do's and Don't's: Check on more info and posts here.

So, a couple of days ago I am scouring the internet getting ready for the Super.... I mean the Big Game. I come across this story about Colin Kaepernick (who I mysteriously can't read enough about) done by Rick Reilly (who I've read too much by). 

SOURCE: http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/8897116/colin-kaepernick-birth-mom

So, this article is basically saying, "Colin Kaepernick should reunite with his birth mother, because it worked for my daughter." That's where this is going. 

DON'T assume "It'll work for you"

Rick Reilly made the arrogant assumption that his and his adopted daughters lives were a valid testing ground to figure out what Kaepernick should do. Quite frankly, it's a completely different scenario, with different players, different feelings, and different attitudes. Quite frankly, if Colin Kaepernick has no desire to ever see the woman who birthed him in favor of seeing the woman who raised him, that's his prerogative.

We usually do the same thing though. We often look at someone else's situations or hardships and offer our advice with a phrase similar to "It worked for me, it'll work for you." That's where we have to stop. People will turn your off and never listen to a word if you are arrogant enough to assume you know what's right for them.

DO Offer your story as a possible outcome

Now this wouldn't apply to Rick Reilly because he really should've never used the public form of ESPN.com to call out Kaepernick. However, in our situations, it IS perfectly acceptable to tell someone your story. If someone goes through something or has something that you went through, you can tell them what happened to you and how you worked through it. This gives them an opportunity to evaluate the possibilities and take in what you said. It also leaves them under no obligation to actually do what you did.

All Rick Reilly needed to do was say to Kaepernick, "Hey, let me tell you about the time my daughter got to meet her birth mother." Instead, he hit him with questions on why he hadn't met her and then wrote an article discussing on why it was bad for Colin to not meet using the thinly veiled reasoning, it worked for us, it'll work for you.

Hope this blog works for you

BGann