Super Bowl Excitement Not so Super

Well the big day is just about here and it seems like there has been a buzz in the city for months now. From painting, to cleaning, to planning big parties, many are getting pumped about the big game. However, I am not one of those people. Not that I do not like football or the super bowl for that matter. I do. The fact is though ,this year, I could care less about the two teams involved. Sorry Hal Mayer and Danny Schafner. But there is something else, something is just different this year. There seems to be this cloud over shadowing the big game much like the rain clouds that have been hovering over our city for the past few days.

I guess my heart is just heavy today. This week has been anything but super. On Monday I found out that a church that I love dearly and respect a great deal had to lay off 8 people. One of which is a good friend of mine. Tuesday I got a parking ticket for parking in a lot where I have permission to park. Wednesday I found out that another friend of mine just lost his job and another friend has a brother who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Then yesterday I got word the club wants to talk about raising our rent (are you kidding me!!! I thought we were in a recession?).

So I know that you are saying Paul stop it with all the great news!! LOL! Well it is hard to find joy and excitement in the middle of difficult situations and yet that is what God asks us to do. I am not sure if you are feeling the same way that I am this week. If your week has been anything but super. However, I know this, all of the circumstances around me may be saying things are horrible and things are bad and things are going to get worse, and they may. But I refuse to give up, I refuse to roll over, and I refuse to quit.

I think that is the essence of the super bowl. In this game you have two teams one that everyone is calling one of the best teams in the league and another team that people are saying well they did what they had to do to get here and they made it. Think about it Arizona is a 9--7 team, they lost 4 of their last 6 regular season games and yet here they are 2 days from the pinnacle game in football. Why? Some would say luck, some would say determination, some would say heart, but no matter what it is they are here and history will tell their story of how they got here and what they accomplished. Win or lose they made it to the Super Bowl and I promise you when Sundays game is over each player will want said of them. "They left it all on the field"

My question for you today is, what super bowl are you facing? Or what has made this week or this month less than super? You see Jesus went to a Super Bowl type event back in his day with a cloud over his head. Everyone else was celebrating the Passover and yet He knew He was about to become the the person who would eliminate the need for a Passover. The cool thing about Jesus is that He refuses to give up, He refused to roll over, and He refused to quit. His Super Bowl was not played out in a huge arena but on a hill outside of Jerusalem and yet His victory there has sealed our victory forever.

So with that said I would like to have you join us this Sunday as we Celebrate Jesus' victory some 2000 years ago. I am going to be talking about the super bowl type event Jesus was a part of "the passover" and we will be having communion. I can tell you that I am pumped about the party that we are going to have Sunday morning. It is going to rock all other parties going on for the Super Bowl. Be here and invite someone to come with you, you will be glad that you did.

BTW- After some caffine and some time with God this AM I am feeling much better. ALMOST SUPER!!!! Look Out Sunday!!

Fire alarms maybe they are telling me something?

I hope that all of you are enjoying the nice brisk weather we have been having the past week. It seem the cold has kept me inside for my workouts most of the week. That is until today. You see my first triathlon of the season is on February 14 and I really need to get some time in the pool so that I am ready. Well all week I have been going from YMCA to YMCA looking for a pool that was open. It seemed like every one that I went to was closed for the season. Well today I finally found out that the Campo YMCA in Brandon had their pool open, so I decided to check it out. Now mind you I am a pretty good swimmer, I was never on the swim team or anything but I felt I was ok. Keep in mind that it was like 38 degrees out this morning at 7:30am when I arrived and you could see the steam coming off of the pool. I have to admit it looked pretty cool. So I dawned my triathlon spandex shorts, grabbed my goggles and headed outside. I jumped in the nice warm pool all by myself and began to swim. 1 lap, 2 laps, 3 laps, "are we finished yet" I began to think. I was only at 150 meters and my body was telling me "you should have started working on this part of you training a whole lot sooner than now". Well I continued swimming for about a half an hour and I can tell you I was dead tired when I finished. But the story does not end there, you see as I was finishing my last lap the lifeguard came over to me and told me that I needed to get out because the fire alarm was going off. I said "but I only have my spandex on what about my clothes. They told me I could run in and get them and then change outside. So that is what I did. lucky for me (or maybe everyone outside) they had an outdoor restroom. That was my morning how was yours?

So I know you are all saying Paul what does this have to do with anything at Relevant. Well the fire alarm story was just for fun but the swimming story is the key. You see I have been telling myself for 2 months now "the swimming part of the triathlon is no big deal, just wait till a few weeks before the race and you will be fine" Well I am a few weeks before the race and my running and cycling are great and my swimming sucks. Do you know why? Because I have neglected that portion of training. I tried to skip a step in the process and now I am paying the price. Sure I will be ready and finish the race, but things could have been so much easier if I would have just been working on every part of the training a little bit at a time.

I think that the same is true in our spiritual journey. Maybe we have alarms going off all the time telling us something is wrong but we just ignore them. Many of us make a decision to become a follower of Christ much like I decided to become a triathlete but we leave certain steps out of the process that will help us maximize our experience with Jesus. We like the thought of being a Christ Follower but hate the training that goes long with it. Then we have an alarm that goes off and it reveals the problem that we have been ignoring. Well this week at Relevant we are going to be discussing the Spiritual Bailout that we receive from Jesus and also what process of spiritual fitness goes along with this Bailout.

relevantupdate

Relevant Update 1.8.09

Here is a little something about the game last night and our brand new series at Relevant.