Thoughts on the World Cup

I loved watching the World Cup. I watched as many games as I could and I even kept up a little scorecard all the way through the tournament. I grew up playing soccer and after living in Mexico during two World Cups, I have felt more of the excitement and importance that the rest of the world places on this month-long tournament. We, in the United States, have four or five other sports that we think of as more important, but soccer is the world’s sport and virtually every other country in the world esteems their great national soccer players as something just shy of gods.

I noticed something this World Cup that made me think of my spiritual life. In one of the games (I don’t remember which one), the ball went out of bounds and when the player threw it in to a teammate, the referee called him for an illegal throw-in. I immediately thought that was funny since throwing the ball in is such a basic, fundamental thing that little kids learn to do it in their first few soccer lessons. The ball was given to the other team and when their player went to throw it in, he also got called for an illegal throw-in. I laughed about it as the ball was given again to the first player who had committed the violation. He threw the ball in again, and was called again for an illegal throw-in. I couldn’t believe it. The ball went back to the other team and finally somebody got it right.

Here we have the world’s greatest players of the world’s greatest sport, and they can’t even manage to do something so basic three times in a row. I realize that they don’t really practice throwing the ball in anymore since it is something that they learned as kids and have been doing for so long, even if not exactly according to the rules anymore. But fundamentals are the key to success in any endeavor. I imagine that for kids it would be much more fun to try to learn the newest ball-handling tricks that they see their soccer heroes doing instead of spending hours alone juggling the ball.

I think that I am so often the same way in my Christianity. My tendency is to want new ideas and strategies from the latest books to motivate me to pursue my joy in Christ more and more. There is nothing wrong with many of the great books that motivate us and guide us in our walks. But I forget how to do the basics like prayer, meditation and personal study of Scripture. I lose sight of what it is that will really satisfy me most deeply-God Himself. This tendency is very frustrating to me. I want to find my soul deeply satisfied in my personal times of prayer, meditation and Bible study. I want to truly believe God’s promises to be my true, sovereign Joy, as Augustine said.

Please pray for Julie and me as we are entering into marriage. We want to find our deepest satisfaction in God alone so that we will be filled with the fruits of righteousness in our relationship. We want to be able to love each other from an overflow of joy in God rather than trying to meet our needs in each other. It will be easy to forget the basics of deep spiritual growth in the daily routines of living our lives out together, but we are committing to personal time apart to be alone with God daily. Please pray for us! I don’t want to forget how to throw the ball in.

Summer Plans

I had plans for this summer. They changed a bit in the two weeks leading up to my return to the States. I originally had planned to spend the two months I had free raising support and visiting my friends, the McKinneys, out in Utah for a little R and R. After quite a few long-distance conversations (by the way, Yahoo has a really great internet phone system that lets you call from your computer to any phone in the U.S or Mexico-U.S. for a penny a minute--not too shabby) with Julie, who had broken up with me just before leaving to return to Mississippi a month and a half ago, we decided that my plans should change. We had thought that the two months apart would be good for us, particularly so I could try to work out some personal issues and then maybe see if we could work out dating again some day. Well, God clearly had other plans for us. Before long, we both felt that God was calling us to marriage and that we should try to make it happen sooner, rather than later. We discussed waiting until next summer, but after a great deal of praying and asking for advice, we decided that we should go for it this summer. So I changed my plans and made my first visit to Mississippi where I asked her father's permission (granted) and then asked Julie's permission to marry her (also granted--whoo hoo!). That happened this past Monday. So we are officially engaged now and are scheduled to marry 12 August in Hattiesburg, MS. Yes, this August! We know that this is a very short time, but we both strongly feel that this is what God wants for us, and we want to be right in the center of His will, even if it means changing plans drastically. Please be praying for us as we are frantically trying to make plans to pull this thing together. There is still an awful lot to do, but we know that He is faithful to meet our needs and satisfy us deeply. I also need to try to raise as much support as possible during the few weeks that I have here. Again, I know that He is faithful. Thanks for your prayers as Julie and I join together on this great adventure of missionary life in Mexico. May God be greatly honored by your prayers.

The picture is of us at Peter Carroll's rehearsal dinner back in March.