Monday Morning QB at STARBUCKS!

Don’t you just love Mondays!  I think I read years ago, that Pastor Tommy Barnett, the famed pastor in Phoenix, said, “Every monday morning I resign my church, just feeling a little down even after a great Sunday, but reflecting on maybe what I could have done or said different!  But after a Starbucks coffee on Monday morning, I’m ready to go again!” (my paraphrase)

Well, using the “Monday morning quarterback” analogy, and being a QB in school, I used to do the same thing, of course, on a lot smaller scale than Tommy Barnett!  LOL!  But now, just as I learned in football, you play the game to the best of your ability and you leave the outcome to the final score!!  Now, before you think I’m a “fatalist”, I’m a tough competitor and I love to win!  You know what the famed coach, Vince Lombardi, said, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the ONLY THING!”

I saw my good friend, Pastor George Lee Glass, and His Dad and Uncle Jimmy, a couple of weeks ago in DeRidder and we reflected over the “campground” days at Youth Camp in Redfield, Ar. in the early 70’s.  We mainly played softball because it was summer time, but usually late in the afternoon before having to get ready for the evening service, some of us would get together and have a good “old-fashioned” game of ‘tackle’ football!  Wow, there was some hitting going on and George Lee and I were “chief competitors!”  You play the game to win!!  But it also teaches you teamwork and cooperation!

Now, life and ministry is not a “game”, it’s real!  Our life is in Christ, and we’re hidden with Christ in God!  Ministry is “service” in the kingdom and has to do with the function and assignment you’re called to.  But, when you have “given up” everything to gain, or “win” Christ, you are no longer driven by the outcome of your ministry, or service, in the body of Christ!  I love the body of Christ for its’ diversity!  Religion and man-made structures have taken away from the beauty and devotion of the body because of trying to make everybody the same!  What a Shame!!  The most beautiful times in enjoying the people of God is when you can come together without an “agenda” and without making sure everybody knows “who’s in charge” and allow the Spirit of God to orchestrate and direct the meeting!

I’m certainly not talking about a “free for all”, where there are no parameters or boundaries in the Spirit!  We all need that.  But it’s certainly wonderful to wake up on a Monday Morning and instead of “critiquing” how you did, you just rest in the fact that “one plants, another waters, but GOD GIVE THE INCREASE!”  This is one of Pam’s favorite verses in I. Cor. 3 and now, after years of struggling with how the “game went” on Sunday morning, I just leave it in the hands of the Lord!

So, enjoy your “Starbucks, or McDonalds or IHOP today, and REST IN WHO THE FATHER MADE YOU!

REFLECTIONS FROM AN OLD COMPETITOR,

JB!