If you don't play the game you will never be soccer player

The other day in a session I was able to teach, I sort of had a "going off the script" moment. These generally are the times where some of my better lines come from. While this line was not earth shattering, it was enough to stick in my mind and recall later. So I share it here.

My son is 4 and he is a horrible soccer player. He does not follow the rules. He likes to carry the ball. When I tell him to kick the ball into the goal, he sits on the ball. Needless to say, he is not on the fast track to be the next Messi (5 goals in one game! You have got to be kidding me!)

 

The thing about soccer, like all sports, is that there are rules that one must follow in order to play. If you do not follow the rules you will never be a soccer player. 

Likewise, there are rhythms and patterns and disciplines and even "rules" to the Way of Christ. If you do not follow these "rules" you will never be a Disciple.

Unless you play the game, you will never develop your game.

Let those with ears hear.

Peaches as a way forward

Last year I was told the peach season in Texas was deeply impacted by the drought. This meant that the peach crop in Texas was going to be small. But what I also learned that when the fruit trees are affected by drought, they will not only produce less fruit but the fruit that is produced is highly flavorful.

Drought for peaches means that a plethora gives way to potent.

The Church talks about being in a bit of a drought. The rise of the "nones" (as nicely articulated in the recent Time magazine) highlights that the Church is not going to get a plethora of members anytime soon.

What would it look like if the Church mimicked the peach trees? What if we gave up on getting a plethora of members and focused on creating potent disciples?

To be honest, the crop may have been small but last years peaches were the best I have had in years.

Bees see the world differently. They will go to hell...

As you know, bats rely on ultrasonic waves in order to understand the world.  In fact is is all they can use to understand the world.  If you were to ask a bat about what they "see" they would describe it rather differently than the way you and I would "see" something as we use a small bit of ultraviolet light to "see".  

Bees on the other hand use ultraviolet light, but they see differently than humans do.

What humans see and what bees see.

Snakes use infrared light.

 

A tick picks up on butyric acid and temperature, while ghost fish picks up on electrical fields. 

We have this assumption that if human beings were given the "proper" information then they will "see" the correct and most logical conclusion.  So people on different sides try to lay out arguments so that others can "see" where they are coming from in order to come to the same "logical" conclusion.  When the other person does not come to the same conclusion, they are idiots, or wrong, or going to hell (the punishment is related to your level of religiosity it seems).  

But no one thinks bees and bats and snakes are going to hell because they do not see the world like we do.

So just two things: 1) who is to say that there is more out there to be seen and we just cannot observe it yet (we did not even know that these animals "see" the world differently until very recently and with the use of technology) and 2) bees, bats, and snakes see the world differently - that does not mean they are idiots, wrong or going to hell.