High Expectations

I am pouring over the stat sheets, watching NFL updates on ESPN and creating my strategy cheat sheets for my upcoming Fantasy Football drafts. Yes, I am a Fantasy Football Junkie. One aspect of what makes it so intriguing is the high expectation factor of who will become an exceptional player this year and if you choose wisely, then your Fantasy Football Team will destroy the competition (like those who picked Chris Johnson last year). The problem is, you never really know how a player will do, and with higher expectations is the likely possibility of higher disappointments.

Two examples in the NFL and NBA of drafter players with high expectations.  Ryan Leaf, the QB drafted by the Chargers as a second pick behind Peyton Manning. Sports Illustrated asked “How good is he (Leaf)?” and answered, “Almost as good as he thinks he is, which is to say spectacular.” However, after a $31 million dollar contract and a disaster of a rookie season with more locker room fights and emotional breakdowns than touchdowns, he became one of the biggest busts in the NFL. In the NBA, does anyone remember the first three picks of the 1984 draft? Number 1: Houston selected Hakeem Olajuwon, Number 3: Chicago selected Michael Jordan and (yes you can groan), between the two, Portland selected at Number 2: Sam Bowie. Sports Illustrated, said that pick was the biggest draft bust in NBA history.

High expectations sometimes can lead to high disappointments. One of the most colorful Judges in Israel’s history was birthed with high expectations with great potential. He showed glimpses of power and might as the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and yet his role as a deliverer to the Israelites ends as a major disappointment. He is Samson. Samson was God’s number one pick to be the mighty warrior to defeat the Philistines and drive them out of Israel, establish peace and worship to God and re-establish Israel as a holy nation. Samson, however, allowed cultural distractions and personal weaknesses (primarily those that bat their eyes and twirl their hair) to diminish and eventually destroy the great potential he had as Judge and deliverer.

What about us? Do we even begin to think of ourselves as God’s #1 pick for his team? I believe, God has high expectations for us, and certainly much greater than we have of ourselves. He views us with great potential, and He is ready to equip us for whatever task or challenge may lie ahead. God sees us as men and women of character and integrity living our lives in the fullness of God’s love in all our roles as spouses, friends, parents, co-workers, business owners, etc. God sees how we could have a great influence on others, if we submit our lives to him and train with obedience and dedication. We could be His star player on His team. Wow! To think God chose us as His #1 pick, with high expectations and full of potential. I think all of us want to be an MVP on God’s Team, so let’s train and begin to live like one.

And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. – Colossians 1:1-12

Rejected

Have you ever been in the awful position of feeling rejected? Being an outcast from a group or community can leave permanent scars. Many of us shudder when we think about our middle school and high school experiences. One of my scars from 7th grade came from three of my closest friends. The four of us first became friends in the 5th grade in the small town of Ellendale, ND. We were drawn together by our stature (we were the shortest ones in our class) and in our interests (wrestling, band, and drawing). We did most everything together: eat lunch together, shoot spit-wads at each other during class, and even during the summer we spent each day at the city pool. I have great memories of the four of us hanging out together, but during the fall of 7th grade something changed. It seemed like overnight they decided four was too many, and it would be just the three of them. They excluded me from any contact, didn’t talk to me even when I would talk directly too them, and purposefully avoided me in any activity. After a couple of weeks, I felt completely rejected…an outcast. 7th grade was a black hole of insecurity and loneliness.

Rejection by friends, or even worse family, may be at the top of life challenges. In my study of Judges, there was one man, who rejected by his family, was driven out of his family land and made an outcast, simply because he was a half-brother, the son of a prostitute. This man named, Jephthah, must have had many scars of anger, bitterness, loneliness, and isolation from his family clan. Yet, the irony to his story is that years later when his family community was under a serious threat, the elders came and pleaded with him to lead an army against their enemies, to be the savior of the very same people that rejected him and made him an outcast. God honored Jephthah’s return to lead his people and gave him victory and the title of Judge of Israel. Read the full story in Judges 11 & 12.

Jesus experienced rejection as well.

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him…”See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” – 1 Peter 2:4 & 6.

The rejection of Christ by the very same people he loved and wept over, those he healed of leprosy, blindness and disease, those he ate with in their homes, those he taught the way to the Kingdom of Heaven, those he called his family, and to all for whom he died for. Rejection of the Son of God, who bears the scars on his back from the Roman whip, the nail pierced wounds in his hands and feet, and the scars of rejection on his heart by those he suffered and died for…by those he loves.

Today in my prayers I ask for forgiveness in my neglect of time, love, appreciation and friendship to Jesus, my Lord and Savior. Today may each moment be filled with appreciation, acceptance and joy of having Christ present in my daily journey. As the scripture says, He is rejected by men, but chosen and precious by God, and if I put my trust in Him, He will never reject me.

Fuel of Ambition

Would you say ambition is a good attribute or a negative one to have? Encarta Dictionary simply states ambition as “a strong feeling of wanting to be successful in life and achieve great things”. Ambition is the fuel that keeps our engines running to strive for a goal, a dream, or accomplishment. All who have accomplished great things in sports, politics, business, etc. have had this fuel of ambition made up with varied additives of courage, perseverance, dedication and sacrifice. However, we have also seen unhealthy ambition become a dangerous, explosive high-octane fuel mixture that destroys. In Judges chapter 9, we see ambition in its dangerous, destructive form in the story of Abimelech.

After the death of Gideon and forty years of peace in Israel, there was a power struggle for who would lead the Tribes of Israel. One of Gideon’s seventy sons (yes that’s right seventy!), Abimelech had an unhealthy explosive fuel of ambition that left a city and a people devastated for his quest for power. Abimelech’s story was one of self-centered promotion, conspiracy, twisting morality, leading to mass murder and attacking his own people. Ambition became the fuel for evil.

Sadly, we have present examples of unhealthy, destructive ambition with politicians (Charles Rangel, NY and Maxine Waters, CA) of corruption and crossing ethical lines, sports (Lance Armstrong with mounting evidence of performance enhancing drugs), and business (all I have to say is British Petroleum). Although those cases receive national attention and we shake our heads and exclaim, “shame on you”, yet, we can also allow the same destructive ambition to fuel our lives as well. When we become highly critical, self-promoting, manipulating, undermining, conniving, overly sensitive to offenses and self-seeking, within our homes, friendships, workplace, business, schools, and sports then we have allowed unhealthy ambition to fuel our attitudes, thoughts, words and actions. Destruction is imminent.

Ambition, when in alignment with what God has for us, is a powerful, transforming attribute that is fueled by the Holy Spirit in love and truth for God’s glory (Rev. Billy Graham, Missionary to India Mark Buntane, Songwriter Michael W. Smith). The primary additives to contain this highly unstable fuel of human ambition, is humility and love in Christ.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

If you have some fuel of ambition running your engine toward God inspired goals, hopes, and dreams (and all us do), then keep your engine in tune with the Truth of God’s Word and in the hands of the master mechanic, the Holy Spirit, and run straight and strong.