Keeping it going

Yesterday the Alabama softball team captured the championship of the Tuscaloosa Super Regional, and they are bound for the softball college world series. Again.

Three years ago, the Tide was a win away from the championship series before running into a red hot Florida team. And then, two years ago, they won it all on a memorable night complete with rain delays, a comeback, and plenty of drama.

Now, after falling short last year, they're going back.

It wasn't easy. Friday night I sat through one of the most tense dramatic games imaginable. Bama fell behind 4-0 early, and scratched their way back to win after 12 innings and almost five hours of softball. But the remarkable thing about that game was the play of the freshmen:

• After senior Jackie Traina had one of her rare nights struggling to pitch, freshman Sydney Littlejohn came in and pitched 8 scoreless innings. 
• In the bottom of the 7th (the last inning in softball), freshman Marisa Runyon blasted a shot over the wall to tie the game. on to extras…
• And then the game ended when freshman Peyton Grantham hit another blast.

As I thought more about the game, I thought about the key players in the championship two years ago. Some of them have moved on to their post college lives: players like Kayla Braud, Courtney Conley, Kendall Dawson, and Amanda Locke. Others are about to end their careers at Alabama and turn the team over to the "kids": players like Kaila Hunt, Molly Fichtner, and Jackie Traina. So it's good to see the young ones stepping in and showing the potential for the future.

You know, it's kind of like life. We all have a very limited time on this earth. The 75 years or so that we average is but a breath; we are here today and gone tomorrow. Time will, as the Indigo Girls song says, "make history of us." There is so much to be accomplished, so many people to help, and such a need for us to spread God's love and enhance the kingdom of his Son.

So it's good sometimes to sit back and realize that it's all part of a much greater plan enfolding over thousands of years, under the direction of a very patient God. Like Alabama's seniors, I need to work hard, prepare hard, and do all I can. But when I am done, others will step in and probably do even better. Others like my nephew and nieces, like the young people I have met through YoungLife, and like the children of my friends. Lie those Tide freshmen softball players, they are stepping to the plate and I know they will hit it out of the park.

So, anyway….softball. Yeah, great series. Now let's take home another championship. Roll Tide!

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

WARNING : CONTAINS SPOILERS

A few days ago I went to see the latest telling of the story of the amazing Spider-Man. This is a story I have loved for most of my life. I remember reading the comic books and watching the TV cartoon for hours as a child. I would dress up and pretend to be Spider-Man. (In fact, dressing up and playing superheroes was something I spent way too much time doing.)

As I got older, I appreciated something about the Spider-Man legend that made it different from other superheroes I liked. I realized that this was the story of a young man - really a teenager - who was confused about life and how to deal with it. Raised by his aunt, never knowing his parents, trying to figure out how to have a girlfriend and a double life…Peter Parker is a conflicted character. Which makes him a great subject for a story.

I loved the movie series that starred Toby Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, and the first installment of the new movie series was, in my opinion, even better.

I even enjoyed the Broadway musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. Although I was definitely in the minority on that.

But this movie. What I really, really loved about it was something that a lot of people hated. The ending.

LAST WARNING!
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When Gwen (Emma Stone) fell down that clock tower and Spider-Man's attempt to save her failed, it was one of the most powerful moments I've seen in this type of movie. It felt real, and it was heartbreaking. Then watching him visit her grave for months, and watch the video of her graduation speech…seeing her memory inspire him to keep going in honor of her memory. That was the stuff life is made of.

Really, this movie was about facing death and how we handle it. Peter (Andrew Garfield) learning about his parents and processing that, the things he learned from Aunt May about how she moved on from Uncle Ben's death - they all came together when all of sudden Gwen was snatched away from him.

Death is our greatest enemy. It snatches those we love away and suddenly our lives are never the same. Thankfully, it is a defeated enemy, but that's the subject for other posts (like this one). The point from this movie was: It's real, we have to accept it, and we have to process it so that we can live productive lives.

Jesus has the last word over death. But while death is allowed to continue its doomed reign, we can - and must - go on living.

Yes, movies with happy endings are awesome. We all like happy endings. But in life, there is heartache. And I love a movie that reminds us of that and helps us process it. This was a good one.

Do something…it makes a difference

What do you think is the leading cause of apathy? There are lots of reasons.

Self-absorption.

Too busy.

Lack of knowledge.

But I think the biggest reason for apathy is that people have come to believe it doesn't make any difference anyway. For example, people don't vote because they think one vote is meaningless.

Well, a recent study by the Barna Group indicates that this is the case with world poverty. People don't want to try because they think it's pointless. But the study also indicates that they are wrong.

How so? In the last 30 years, the percentage of people living in extreme poverty has dropped from 52% to 31%. However, 2/3 of Americans think it has increased.

A summary of the study can be found here:

Global Poverty Is on the Decline, but Almost No One Believes It

I encourage you to read the article slowly, and digest what it is saying. But even if you do not, the bottom line is this:

The fight against world poverty is making a difference. It's not a hopeless cause. So please realize that you can make a difference. And if you are a follower of Jesus, it's your responsibility to do your part.

So..let's get to it.

Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?" The King will answer and say to them, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of the least of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me." (Jesus, in Matthew 25:37,40 [NASB])

Pages and everything

Sometimes, moving forward is taking a step back.

As you may have been able to guess, I am huge fan of technology. I love being connected on social media. I enjoy my Macbook, my iPhone, my Kindle, and I will probably be on board at the next great breakthrough.

The thing I love about reading books with the electronic media is that I just have to take one item with me, and I'm able to jump back and forth between various things I'm reading. I am usually reading two or three books at the same time: one fiction, one nonfiction, and one to help me dig deeper into Bible study. This is all possible for me - who misplaces things a lot - because of the Kindle and the Kindle app.

And of course, I have the Bible app on my iPhone. Just pull that baby out and I have the Scriptures available anywhere. When you see me staring at my phone in church…yeah, it's the Bible.

But I've made a decision…I'm going back to using the Good Book. Emphasis on book.

Recently I noticed something about my Bible reading. I noticed that I was reading way too fast. Once I noticed it, I really started noticing it. I would skim, I would rush, and I would not settle down mentally to really get into it. I have a theory as to why. That's the way we read everything else these days. We scroll through twitter, see links to blogs and article of interest, and we skim through the ones we pick, looking to see whether they are saying anything new, anything to make us slow down.

At least I do. And I've read research indicating that you might too.

That's fine for blogs - heck, you're probably doing it right now. It's fine for articles, and it may be okay for books.

But to me, it's not okay for God's word. The authority of God is dripping from every page, and I need to slow down and absorb it. Take the time to learn the context, so I can distinguish what is really being said from my own personal biases that I try to read into the Bible.

I just don't think I've been doing that with the electronic versions.

And I also miss highlighting, underlining, and making notes in the margins. I miss turning to another passage to see what the writer might have been referring to. I miss a lot of things.

Not anymore.

I'll still use my Bible app for convenience when the book isn't at my fingertips. It's so cool to always have the Scriptures with me. But when it's time to sit down and really read, really study, I'm making a change.

Give me the Book.