This may be the first Friday night in sometime that we have time to write.  Football season ended last week so this day is now free for me.  Our state championships are being decided this weekend in Arlington.  A good piece of news to report is the team that beat us last week lost last night.  That may not sound very charitable but the fan in me roots for the other guys at times like this.  Schools and towns across our state will be celebrating for years to come should they win.  Small towns will erect signs as you enter their town to remind you of their victory.  The kids will forever be regarded in the highest of esteem for their achievement.  You really have to be a part of such a journey to fully appreciate it.

My last two days turned to basketball.  Our school holds a Christmas tournament each year with lots of teams involved.  I volunteered to run the clock in our main complex during some of the games.  My last time to do this was several years ago.  One of our coaches gave me a refresher just before my first game.  It lasted about ten seconds then he was gone.  Another friend or two helped me out tremendously to keep me from making it a fiasco.  You kinda get the hang of it after awhile but you cannot let your mind wander unless you desire to be in trouble.  I keep getting to do this during the games of a pretty big school over in Tyler.  They take the game very seriously there.  Let me just add that my nerves reach a fever pitch during those contests.  I get enough grief in my day job to add to more just trying to help out.  I am being very polite to the coach from Tyler.  Better to get ahead of any problem before it may or may not happen.

Let me admit to having an abundance of anxiety in this new hobby.  Running a clock may not seem terribly scary but it was to me.  The first cause was just learning again all of the buttons and such on the system.  My brain doesn't work anywhere close to what it did prior to chemo.  You really have to concentrate while watching the game.  My other fear was just making a mess of things for coaches, officials, and the kids playing.  They all work far too hard to have me over there not doing a good job with the time and the score.  Maybe there was one more reason for being anxious.  It is just something new for me.  Feeling confident is tough when you initiate a new habit.  The unknown can be a powerful motivation to stay in a rut.  This is true for all of us.

Fear keeps most of us from every reaching God's desire for life.  This is not a complex discovery.  It is as old as mankind.  Being afraid can be a great tool for us to remain safe from danger.  But fear can also leave us far from our divine purpose.  They say that the best approach is to just approach your fear to move past it.  Advice like this may be true much of the time.  God's people can look to the divine presence in facing fear.  Just don't think that you will not have to eventually move past those feelings that can cripple us.  It is moving past anxiety that you gain a new depth of God's help.  Remaining in the comfortable will never bring about deep spiritual maturity.  We may be content with the usual but it is probably far from God's best.

Bro. Trey