Sometimes I watch The Early Show or Good Morning America while eating cereal and drinking coffee. Today, the latter had on the cast (if you can call people who aren’t really actors a “cast”) of Jersey Shore. I’ve never seen the show other than just flipping by it, but I can tell that it is one which would probably kill brain cells faster than any alcoholic beverage one could concoct. 

I did learn that it took one dude, you can guess which one from the picture, 25 minutes to get his hair ready each day. Outside the fact that I’m still blown away that reality TV is really that popular-although I guess we could have predicted post-modernity would bring us shows like this-the only other redeeming part of my 10 minutes was it reminded me of an article I read last month called “Sex Ed in the age of Snooki.” Ironically, Snooki, was the only member of the “cast” not present.

It’s not from a Christian perspective, but because of God’s “common grace” (we’re all made in the image of God and can still reflect truth to one another) even non-Christians can make great points. Here’s a clip from the above mentioned article.

It is good to see that even on CNN.com, folks are aware that free and open sexuality is not good. But I was most impressed by 3 things from this piece.

1.) The affirmed need for families to take responsibility in discussing sexuality before the Jersey Shore, movies, and friends get their grubby little paws on our youth and distort this great gift from God.

2.) The affirmed need to not place the whole responsibility on girls for acting and dressing in sexually provocative ways. I for one am glad to have 2 boys (although I would have been happy to have a girl). Dealing with a daughter who wants to wear a long belt to pass as shorts or blue spray paint to pass as jeans is not something I look forward to. But as a father, and as guys in our culture, we have a responsibility not to expect women to dress as such. I particularly love the line “We have to change boys’ gaze. Boys need to learn how to see girls differently…”

Perhaps if guys in the church can learn to see girls differently, at the very least, girls in the church, will less and less feel the need to dress or act in ways which can do harm to both them and their future husbands.

I obviously like sports. I like playing them-on the rare occasion that I get-and watching them. I look forward to watching my son play them. In addition to simply enjoying them as a hobby, sports provide a great in-road into the lives of many, both believers and non-believers. 

Folks in this part of W.V. (Teays Valley) are like me. They like sports, so I feel like I fit in fairly well. 

But there is also a problem with sports: they can become an idol. They can become a place where our hearts, mine first and foremost, get overly distracted and entangled. They can quickly replace Jesus. And they can quickly replace the church as many American Christians will take extended breaks from worship just to take their kids to sporting venues (this may happen in other countries but I can only “vouch” for America). 

However, sports don’t have to be an idol. In fact they can even be the opposite: something which points us toward Jesus and His glory. C.J. Meheney has as incredibly rich sermon on how to honor Christ with our sports called “Don’t Waste Your Sports.” Justin Taylor blogs a blurb about it here, and has a place where you can watch the video of it as well-I’m glad there is no video of us at Redeemer, although since we meet in a movie theater, you kind of think there should be….

Whether you’re a fan of watching sports, play church softball, or have kids in sports, this sermon is very applicable to you (if you’re not a fan or athlete or parent of either, then you probably won’t find it worth your time). And challenging. And frankly, most of the American church thinks very little about how Jesus and sports collide. Questions like “How do I honor God by watching football” and “Should I regularly skip worship so Johnny can play soccer?” have to be asked. Too often we just do, without any real consideration whether or not something is honoring or dishonoring to God. We just do without thinking. We do without being challenged to think through what it really means to “eat or drink, do it all for the glory of God.” Convictions will and should vary among Christians, yet we still need to be challenged and encouraged to “Not Waste Our Sports.”

This sermon has actually been made into a booklet of the same name, which I’m going to pick up soon. It’s never too early or too late to start thinking through how to truly honor Christ with your sports.

Last night was another bad bowl game, at least for the 2nd half, with Virginia Tech eventually getting blown out by a very good Stanford team. I had anticipated a closer match-up, and so was quite disappointed. But the opposite happened in the Rose Bowl this year with “little” (they actually were quite smaller and had to use strategy more than power to bring down the bruising Wisconsin tailbacks) TCU defeating Wisconsin. 

While TCU was ranked number 3, they were still in many eyes, the underdog. They played in the “nazareth” of football conferences. Yet this sideline reporter noticed that the team as a whole continued to remain humble throughout the week. They didn’t self promote. They didn’t take any media “bait” to defend themselves. 

Here QB Andy Dalton talks about his motivation for humility: that God will lift you up “at the proper time.” A quick look at I Peter 5:6 couches this verse in the older/younger relational dynamics in the church. While athletes need to be careful not to isogete (read their situation “into the passage” they still need to take what’s there and apply it to their sporting venues. Most Christians do this everyday to their situations; they’re just not interviewed about how they apply such verses.

And this QB is probably fully aware of the original context. What I think Dalton is doing is applying the general principle of humility: letting God exalt you at the right time. Should we not humble ourselves outside the church as well? And there is nothing about this exaltation in I Peter 5 that would lead one to conclude that God only exalts us when we get to heaven. He lifts people up all the time, and sometimes for only a season (probably Dalton will not go far in the NFL). 

I do confess that I sometimes cringe when Christian athletes get in front of the camera because they often forget that there are Christians on the losing side as well. And I think the most beautiful display of fellowship is when winners/losers pray together after the game. 

But 9 times out of 10, I think they simply want to give God glory for lifting them up in victory. And I think ultimately what our brother Dalton is doing in this interview is simply following I Cor 10:31:  “….whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

So thanks Andy for the reminder to humble ourselves before one another and let God pick the times to exalt us. Check out this brief interview below.

For many, 2010 meant something new. For Michael Vick, it represented his first chance to start at quarterback since spending time in the slammer for all of the dog fighting mess. And with that chance to start, albeit only because of another Q.B.’s injury, he has gone on to enjoy an incredible season. A season which he pretty much single-handedly propelled me to a fantasy football win in our Redeemer league. Even Obama lauded praise on Vick for taking advantage of his 2nd chance. 

Now I never pulled for the guy to begin with, and really have no reason to pull for the guy. But he did his time and is now making the best of it. However, you wouldn’t be in any spiritual danger to pull against Vick; but then again, for some, pulling against Vick isn’t enough. 

FoxNews analyst Tucker Carlson, who is the spitting image of a K.A. (Kappa Alpha) fraternity boy at my alma mater Furman University, had this to say:

I like dogs. I’m allergic to them, but I still really like them. But dogs are not people. Dogs are not made in the image of God, and that’s why doing things like murdering people made in that image can get yourself executed in the Old Testament and present day period (Gen 9:6). And this whole made-in-God’s-image thing is also why its so bad to curse people (James 3).

You can root against this joker. You can make the case that he didn’t go to prison long enough, because he really didn’t do any time for the actual murder of the dogs. Mike Florio of profootballtalk.com, and also a lawyer, writes:

As to Vick, he was fortunate that the state-level prosecution for killing dogs was bungled; Surry County, Virginia prosecutor Gerald Poindexter somehow couldn’t get a grand jury to indict Vick on charges of killing dogs even though Vick admitted to killing dogs in conjunction with his guilty plea on federal charges.  A zealous and competent prosecutor would have obtained an indictment and a conviction and would have pushed for an additional sentence over and above the time served at Leavenworth.

 

But you can’t, as a Christian, want him executed.