I did get my daughter home from Europe yesterday.  It was a two day adventure but worth it.  She is quickly adjusting to the time difference in reverse from her departure.  Her band of travelers are all back safe and sound.  We are also catching up with everything and everyone around here.  My job was again doing the driving along with taking care of details along the way.  Rain storms in Houston were no help the first evening but they did not interfere with the landing.  Floods were a major issue in South Houston on Saturday night but all was good on the north side of town.  All would go well as we returned home last night then proceeded to try and rest. 

Today there is a professional basketball player who announced that he is gay.  Headlines carried the news all day in various platforms.  We who follow sports were told players are about to start coming out in public.  This player is the first in our most common sports leagues to do so.  Others may be homosexual in private but he went public.  One female college basketball player declared her lesbian nature a few weeks ago.  It would not make the same waves until a man came out as gay.  My guess is we are going to see more athletes do this over the summer.  They will watch the reaction to the announcement today before doing the same.  I also will venture a guess that we will overreact to such days.

People were gay from very early in Bible history.  It didn't just pop up over the last few years.  We are told it is wrong and sinful in God's eyes.  But we also are told that being lost isn't just what you do but who you are.  People are lost by not receiving the grace or love of God in Jesus.  Our tendency is to go overboard on how others behave.  We notice habits rather than pray for hearts to be changed.  I know gay people.  Some are very lost while others do good things just as we do.  They have problems like the rest of us.  We cannot and should not isolate our faith from their life.  It is not our task to fix their being gay.  We are called to embody the gospel with its invitation to new life.  God is in the business of changing lives.  What would I do if a gay person came to church?  I'd be very ok as my view is God would be ok with it for them to hear the gospel.  Some of my gay friends grew up in churches like mine.  Some were even members when younger.  My personal prayer is to be as caring with them as Jesus was with the woman at the well.  Perhaps that is my idea alone but it's the best one I have now.

Bro. Trey

Let's go intensely personal this evening.  Not everyone enjoys reading such material but perhaps it will help someone who stumbles upon my writing.  You will remember my mentioning how many bloggers do a far better job than I when it comes to this.  Some are amazing in their explaining or debating of theology.  Others do a remarkable job when coming to grips with denominational stuff.  Most of my efforts are just local and personal on some level.  Odds are good none of it will change the world.  It may not even change anyone's mind.  It is what it is. 

Labels are our way of identifying yourself to others.  We are parents, spouses, children and so on.  Defining our world by labels tells us who and why we are.  We describe our work life by what title we may have on the job.  Some rare individuals receive great honors that serve as naming our life.  My world is partially defined as a survivor.  Twice in the last three years found me dealing with medical issues that carried to potential of being fatal.  Three years ago about this time was the start of my journey with cancer.  I survived that.  It was last Thanksgiving when life stopped due to congestive heart failure.  I survived that.  One of my hopes is those will be enough crises for a few years.  Just dealing with a single major issue is usually all we need to handle.  God decided to let me walk through the valley on two occasions.  My health is going great as far as I can tell.  That is enough for me.

You do learn things when facing such times.  At least my hope is a person who claims faith will be open to God's leading.  You probably know as I do that it's not easy to actually do.  Too many voices at the hospitals or wherever we are can crowd out the divine truth.  That doesn't even take into account your inner voice that can scream out in panic.  Some of what you discover is about God.  Some of what you learn is about yourself.  Other truth on life will filter in along the way.  Let me put down some stuff learned in the last three years.

• Learn to have faith where you are not where you want to be. 
• It's very ok to lean on friends and family when you are weak.
• Trust in God but never discount the science of medicine.
• Whatever you feel is whatever you feel. 
• You will not be the same afterward so be sure it's due to faith not anger.
• Appreciate every day you are given no matter how it goes.

We may add more very soon but that is plenty for the moment.  Just remember you will find your particular insight that you can share with others.  No crisis is the same for any of us and neither will be our learning.

Bro. Trey

Let me clue you in on a secret that not many ministers will tell you.  We also have the occasional Sunday when we have a tough time getting it all together.  Some of this may be due to a hectic week where the preparation doesn't come together.  We may even have personal issues lurking behind the scenes that drain us of our fire.  There are even the times when conflict, problems and other stuff just leave us feeling down about church.  Our hope is you will not notice those experiences.  Part of being professional in this job is not allowing the negative to influence us too much.  It is obvious that we are more successful on some Sundays than others.  How we develop a stubborn streak can be as significant as any other theological training. 

Today wasn't quite one of those days for me.  Even the hectic pace of last week didn't stop me from being ready.  Now it may be there was room to prepare more but I still got my study done.  Events that happen in other places now seem local with cable news along with the Internet.  A bombing in Boston now seems local especially when it dominates the news.  Explosions in central Texas now become immediate with our access to information.  My guess is such disasters weave their way into sermons across the country today.  I didn't talk directly about these events but it did serve as illustration or story.  Perhaps something said here today was helpful to someone.  But it is also true that I had help today.

My youngest was a huge help during our service.  He decided to go with me today mostly due to us eating lunch after church.  He did not mind at all digging into the meal we had at church.  I asked him to come up during our welcome time.  He talked and helped me read announcements.  We put on our comedy show as I set him up for the punch line.  No minister could ask for a better assistant than him.  There was no way my day would go bad after that.  My gratitude goes to those who allowed us to do our thing this morning.  It did indeed make my day.

Not every week in church is almost heaven.  Most weeks can seem routine to be honest.  What we have to discover is how God speaks even on a casual day.  He can talk to us through the songs we sing and hear.  He speaks to us through His word being taught.  He relates to us what we need to know as we reflect on Him.  My encouragement today came through an autistic teenager who shows me more than I could imagine possible.  Don't limit God on how He talks to you.  Just be sure you are listening when He does.

Bro. Trey

My guess is most of us are ready for this week to come to an end already.  Turning on the news is a dangerous proposition at this point.  Just when reporting on the Boston bombing couldn't get more surreal comes the story of a huge explosion around Waco.  This is just turning out to be a not very good week in our world.  We should try to keep in mind that life is seldom if ever totally good or bad.  Our tendency is to think in all or nothing terms.  No wonder we struggle so often with life and faith.  Being able to see the good in a bad time is a learned art.  Being able to recognize what may be bad during a positive period is essential to remaining grounded.  We live with the twin realities of the eternal and the earthly.  Let us discover how to handle that tension. 

Getting to talk to your favorite daughter who is in Europe is a good way to keep life in perspective.  She returns in just over a week but she won't be the same daughter who left back in January.  It does make your day to see that phone number come up on your screen.  It also helps when your heart doctor gives you a clean bill of health.  Just getting to this point seemed impossible when the journey began back in November.  My improvement is fairly drastic for the condition they diagnosed.  Humility and gratitude are the first two reactions that come to my mind.  The last three years have two separate experiences of God doing a good work in my conditions.  God does do good work even in bad times.  Part of it depends on trusting Him for whatever the outcome.  Being joyful cannot depend on how well we feel.  Real joy is knowing God regardless of our situation.

Such words are not easy to express.  You see victims of the bombing struggling with what happened.  Those are real people whose lives will never be the same through no fault of their own.  Parents will not see a child again.  Adults face losing limbs with the effects on their work life much less just healing.  The stories we view on the news did not happen to "other people."  They are a reality in ways we probably cannot ever imagine.  I have a few stories that are similar but nowhere near as public.  Part of this job is dealing with situations that cannot be easily put into words.  Ministry is not always for those with weak stomachs.  Isn't that like life in general?  Thank goodness these times are not constant usually.  That doesn't mean they hurt less when they occur.

Times like these will come to an end.  The lingering issue is not when will it end but who will we become by our faith?  We have to make that call.

Bro. Trey

The highest grossing movie of this weekend is a historical biography from the world of baseball.  The story of Jackie Robinson remains critical and relevant to our society today.  I learned about his life at a very young age being a baseball fan.  He was the very first black professional baseball player in the major leagues.  Branch Rickey ran the Brooklyn Dodgers for years and would be instrumental to making this happen.  Robinson played sports during his college years so his ability translated well the the diamond.  America was in a very ugly phase in 1947 when Jackie made his first appearance in the majors.  No one expected the road to be easy but perhaps they could not imagine just how horrific the reaction would be.

You can perhaps find previous posts here that discuss the poor job American history displays us doing with matters of race.  Not even our founding fathers were able to bridge the gap of this sin while framing our constitution.  Lincoln could years later offer another attempt to deal with slavery but the realities were far harsher than the proclamation.  By the time that Robinson broke the color barrier we were about as racist as ever.  Hotels, restrooms and transportation would still be segregated.  This is the world one lone ballplayer would enter.  Sports would be the cultural vehicle to instigate change in a wider level. 

Tomorrow is another anniversary of the first ballgame that saw a black athlete in a sea of white players.  Every player on every team will wear the 42 jersey in his team's colors.  That number was retired for every franchise several years ago in tribute to Robinson.  Only one active player remains wearing it each game.  That will end this year when the player retires.  We are being reminded of how difficult the journey was to any degree of equality even in baseball.  Jackie Robinson would be asked to have the guts not to fight back in the heat of unbelievable racism.  He would succeed beyond the wildest expectations of his greatest supporters. 

Racism really bothers me even though I'm a child of the South.  Now it is also very probably that old stereotypes remain entrenched in my being.  One can never afford to be blind to possible shortcomings.  Hopefully my views are shaped by scripture along with relating to God.  Some of my views just are because of interacting with black students while growing up.  We will sing the song of Jesus loving children of all races yet still harbor a mindset that puts people of other colors down.  Heaven will be filled with people from all over the globe.  Odds are good that it will not be segregated either.  I am grateful that Jackie Robinson was courageous enough to shatter the color barrier in baseball.  I can only hope God will keep working on the rest of us to shape our heart as well.

Bro. Trey

Let's continue with a baseball theme for at least once more time.  There will be an aim to make a point but that could be a stretch.  Josh Hamilton enjoyed several years of great success with my team to follow.  His is an amazing story of life, death and renewal.  He was once a highly regarded prospect who ruined those dreams to the demons called addiction.  Most people know how he repented then began a journey back to the game.  Progress took some time until he exploded onto the scene with the Texas Rangers.  He put on a display of power in the home run contest then played great for the team.  No one can question his contributions to the team for most of his time in Texas.  Fans stood behind him even during times of relapse.  Then the bottom fell out in a nasty divorce between Hamilton, the team and the fans.

Most experts knew he would try out being a free agent when the season ended last year.  It didn't help that the season ended early in part because of Hamilton's performance or lack of. He hit everything in sight for a few months early in the season.  Most of his year would be far below expectations.  He also missed time due to odd injuries or illnesses.  People were already in disagreement over what to do about any new contract.  His last few games as a Ranger were a disaster.  He could not hit anything to save his life.  Then there was a horrible effort at fielding that left the fans just angry.  It was not looking good for his return and then he signed with a rival team for a huge amount of money.  The final straw would be comments from both he and his wife.  It sounded like they were just happy to leave the Rangers with other insults included.  Everyone knew it would be ugly when he returned with his new team.  It was surely that if not more.

Hamilton came back to Texas as a member of the Los Angeles Angles this past week.  Fans buy tickets with various motives.  He would be vocally booed by those former supporters loudly.  Cheers only came about when he failed either when batting or fielding.  Sports writers did indeed write about whether this was a good or bad thing.  Some fans even turned their back as a sign of not caring whether he was there or not.  Hamilton wondered publicly if his story of redemption no longer mattered to the fans here.  It is almost as if he should be exempt from such reactions because of his Christian conversion.  His mindset is that people should mostly cheer because of his dramatic turnaround.  I can understand that but there is more to the story.

Believers live in two worlds.  One does not cancel out the other while we are alive on this planet.  Hamilton is indeed a brother in Christ.  My admiration for his salvation remains high as always.  I even spoke to him a bit years ago following his breakout performance during the home run contest.  My opinion is that being a believer may not exclude you from certain expectations.  Josh is a professional athlete.  That is his job.  Not doing your best at work usually has consequences.  He has to realize you cannot shrug off the reactions of others when one so talented falls short on the field.  There is also the problem of the comments made about his former team or residence.  Texas is indeed a football state but we take our baseball seriously.  Controlling your tongue is part of every Christian's story.  Maturity includes knowing when to talk or when to keep quiet.  Just being saved is not a free pass from being wise or smart. 

No easy answers fit such a situation.  I only hope that time will produce a greater maturity in all of us.  That will mean our story never ends but just continues into even more grace.

Bro. Trey

I keep promising myself to do better with writing.  Those good intentions yet again lead to you know where.  Most of us tend to get into a routine that is either difficult or doesn't motivate us to change.  Not even writing a blog can change that.  Making excuses really does bug me.  You can include finding excuses in that category.  Finding someone or something to blame really is one of the most popular things most of us do.  Nothing is ever our fault or there is a reason for our behavior.  So let me just say any blog absence is completely my fault.  There really is no explanation other than that. 

Baseball season is now in full swing.  Count me as one of those weird types that enjoys the game.  I made sure to watch as much from Opening Day as possible.  Football is probably the primary sport now in our country.  But few things can equal that first home game of the year in baseball.  The best celebration was probably at Dodger Stadium.  Sandy Koufax returned for the first time in quite a few years to the field.  He is arguably one of the greatest pitchers in the game's history.  Watching the scene as he came onto the field honestly made the hair on my arms stand up.  You could hear and see the crowd just explode upon hearing his name announced.  Not a bad way to begin a new season.

Baseball also means it is spring which means it is time for allergies.  Nothing says spring like a sinus infection.  Going to the doctor is a different reality for me now after two major health scares.  I now take all of the medicine while keeping an eye on side effects.  This was not always the case.  You will not be surprised to learn that my previous experiences ended up with me knowing better than the doctor.  Humility is now part of my process with the medical field.  I still ask questions but will follow up by doing as told.

I say all of that as a reminder of our topic this morning.  What are we supposed to do now that Jesus is alive?  He gives the answer by telling those first disciples how to move forward and not fall behind.  You really need a healthy dose of peace to go on.  You know as well as I how life can be difficult so God's peace will keep us calm no matter the conditions.  Being able to celebrate the presence of God goes a long way in living.  Not only does God offer peace but He will actually envelope us with His presence.  We learn to listen to Him as he guides us.  We recognize Him from scripture and time alone praying.  Humility grows alongside our confidence in Him.  Excuses lessen as we experience Him in the real areas of life.  After all, is where you are with God enough if it is not where He wants you to be?

Bro. Trey