"Winning Isn't Everything..."

I remember throughout my years in school that different people would use the phrase “Winning isn’t everything …”, but the ending would change, depending on the point they were trying to make.

You’ve heard them as well – “Winning isn’t everything …

… but it’s how you play the game.”

… after all, it’s only a game.”

… it’s the only thing.”

(… and the list goes on)

It seems that whenever I was really digging in to win – some “well meaning” person came and reminds me “Winning isn’t everything, after all – it’s only a game”. However, if “it’s only a game”, and it makes no difference who wins – what is the purpose for playing.

How unfulfilling to go to a ballgame when there is no score kept. Games are meant to be won, otherwise it is not a game – rather it’s just an activity. Over the last several years I have become aware that with our young children there is no score so “no one will feel bad if they lose”. Guess what, most of the kids are keeping score in their heads and know not only about the current game, but their season as well. The few that don’t keep score are easy to identify. They don’t put their heart into it, and don’t seem to really care about what’s happening. They are just there for a social activity, and are waiting for the pop and cookies after the game.

Let’s face it, we are a competitive people. Deep in the center of our spirit God has placed a deep sense of needing to win. Many times in the scripture life is referred to as a game to win. One of these examples is 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 “ Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.”(NASV).

Everything we do in life is a competition! We seem to be very good at competing for jobs, social position, education, material possessions, etc. where the motto “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing” comes through loud and clear. However, when we look at God’s view of the priorities of life we seem to lose our competitive edge and merely participate in an activity.

I think we need to understand winning is not the goal or prize. I would say “Winning isn’t everything: it is a game (competition), it makes a difference how we play the game, and it is the only thing” rolled all in to one.

We are in a spiritual competition, not only for our spiritual life, but others as well. How we play this game is very important, and we are definitely out to win at all costs – even to martyrdom. Paul said it best in Philippians chapter 3 as he recounted all the things he had attained (education, social standing, religious standing…) before knowing Christ. To sum it up he said these things that were important before are now rubbish, the new goal I press on to win is the personal experience with Christ and His direction for my life. Win at any cost!

Is your spiritual life a win or lose situation, or just an activity you do?

Christmas with a Capital C

When Christmas Isn’t Christmas


Have you ever considered how hard it would be to celebrate something that either has never happened or that you have never experienced in some way?

You can’t really celebrate a wedding without a couple to be married, nor can you celebrate a wedding anniversary without a wedding. Or how about trying to celebrate a birthday without birth, parenthood without children, a good book if you are illiterate, victory without a battle, or …??……

The funny thing is, people are spending great effort to try to do the same thing with Christmas. How can you celebrate Christmas without including Christ?
You say, well Santa can be celebrated in place of Christ, right? Sorry about your luck!!! Santa’s real name is Saint Nicholas who was a Christ centered man. We wouldn’t even know his name if he hadn’t been a lover of Christ to the point he sold all he had to give to the poor because he believed that is what Christ wanted him to do. We even hang up stockings by the fireplace because of him.

Well then we still have the Christmas tree, right? No, Saint Boniface, in 722 encountered some pagans who were about to sacrifice a child at the base of a huge oak tree. He cut down the tree to prevent the sacrifice and a Fir tree grew up at the base of the oak. He then told everyone that this lovely evergreen, with its branches pointing to heaven, was a holy tree - the tree of the Christ child, and a symbol of His promise of eternal life.

Since some believe Christmas is “all about the presents”, we can still do that – what’s that have to do with Christ? Well, to be honest, it first started from the story of Saint Nicholas and his giving of presents anonymously - but is also associated with the gifts that the magi brought to Christ after his birth.

Let’s face it, the only way to celebrate Christmas without something that relates to Christ is to abandon Christmas altogether and not celebrate it in any way.

On the other hand, without allowing Christ to be a part of your life, you have nothing to celebrate anyway. It’s just another day that cost you a lot of money, takes up a lot of your time, and is a major inconvenience …… Bah Humbug, as Scrooge would say!

I pray that you find Christ in the middle your Christmas this year, without Him there is no real celebration!

When a Printer Isn’t a Printer!

When I worked for Hewlett Packard as a printer and computer tech it was always interesting to listen to the problems people were having, and the descriptions they gave to them.

Some of my favorite came from the printer calls. You would hear things like: Yes, my printer just sits there and doesn’t work, or the paper doesn’t move, and of course – the lights just blink.

Of course it was obvious that there was a problem, but most times it was operator error. Usually it just sat there without the paper moving and nothing happening because it was either turned off, or unplugged. And when the lights blink that indicates that either the paper or ink are empty – or the paper is jammed. Yes there were exceptions, but most times it centered around these issues.

So, a printer is only a printer when it has the capability of printing, otherwise it is just a piece of computer hardware that is useless. It has to have paper, ink, power, and be plugged into a computer to have full worth.

Printers can be compared to people in some ways. Over 80% of people in the United States identify themselves as Christians, but some questions remain. Just like a printer, people calling themselves Christians need to have a power source, and input source, substance of life (ink), and an output (paper). Is a printer really a printer if it just sits there and can’t print? It is a printer only in name, after all – we bought the thing to print, not to just sit there and look pretty!

It’s the same with Christians. Just because someone calls themselves a Christian doesn’t make them a Christian. A Christian is someone who is plugged into Christ – has accepted Him as their personal savior (power source), Studies and meditates on His Word (input source), relies on God’s Spirit to empower/guide/direct them in what they do and say (ink), and lives according to Gods principles so other people both see and are affected by their life choices (paper).

Name tags, church membership/attendance, family name, wealth, position, rituals, nor any thing that you can do as a person makes you a Christian outside of submitting to Christ as Lord of your life.

2 Corinthians 5:14-17 (NLT)
Whatever we do, it is because Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for everyone, we also believe that we have all died to the old life we used to live. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live to please themselves. Instead, they will live to please Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now! What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!!

“Father” – Reality or Just a Term?

Have you ever thought about how broad the term father is used these days? We refer to people who invent things as fathers of their creation, as well as those who create an idea or philosophy. Today, however, I want to focus on those we know as fathers who have helped procreate a child. The term father is usually assigned to the act of biologically conceiving a child, but is that where it ends?

Many studies have shown that children without active/nurturing fathers in their lives grow up imbalanced, and with a lack of nurturing in many areas.

Everything a father does either helps a child develop or diminish as the person God has created the child to be. Whether it is the time spent reading, the hours spent in the car, times of working on projects, or – yes those great discipline events. Our kids are observing and learning from everything we do and teach.


There is a story that goes this way. A father wanted to read the paper, but was being bothered by his little daughter, Susie. Finally, he took a sheet out of his magazine, on which was printed the map of the world. Tearing it into small pieces, he gave it to Susie, and said, "Go into the other room and see if you can put this together."

After a few minutes, Susie returned and handed him the map correctly fitted together. The father was very surprised and asked how she had finished so quickly.

"Oh", she said, "on the other side of the paper is a picture of Jesus. When I got Jesus in His place, then the world came out all right."

Through the years as we teach our children about God and His standards (and we all do either in a positive way or negative way) they suck up that information and make it an internal value. As in this little girl’s case, she may not have known how the world fit together, be she knew the Jesus who had created the world.

God has instructed fathers to impact our children’s lives with true knowledge of God and who He is. It is not the churches job, it is the father’s job. The church is to reinforce what is being taught in the home.

Before crossing into the promised land Moses laid out clear instructions for fathers:

Deuteronomy 6:5-9

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

Have you been really fathering your children, or just showing up once in a while?

What Makes Holy Week Holy?

Well maybe that’s only part of the question. The question may be “What makes holy, holy?”. When you look at how holy is used it might be confusing, such as: holy cow, holy moly, holy smoke, holy shucks, holy guacamole, and the list goes on. Oh yes, we can’t forget an all-time favorite, holy hell.

Unfortunately we have so over used and under practiced the concept of being holy that it really seems to mean little when we say holy week, other than a plethora of rituals and functions that occur during this time. Being holy has denigrated into a thing we observe, rather than what we are.

What does it mean to be holy from God’s perspective? I will give just a couple examples. First, from the Old Testament we find - Qodesh (Hebrew)- a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity. Second, we find in the New Testament - Hagios (Greek) - sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated). I think you can agree with me there is nothing holy about hell or guacamole if we use God’s view of holy.

But we still have this thing called holy week, what makes it holy? Is it the things we do (such as attending services, fasting, taking communion, …..)? Is it the fact that it is Passover week? Is it the fact that Christ died for our sin during this week? Is it the fact that Christ resurrected and defeated death so we all can have eternal life?

To some degree all of these play a part, but the real thing that makes holy week holy is centered around you and me. We can do all of the ritualistic things to the letter and still have an unholy week.

On holy week the first thing Christ did was enter the temple and proclaim that the church leaders had made God’s house an unholy place. He then taught the people soon after that that they were to do as the teachers of the law said, but not what they did, because they were not holy in their actions.

God has given us an edict to make every day a holy day, 1 Peter 1:15,16 “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’”. The day or week is only holy because you and I choose to bring holiness to it through our allowing Christ to empower us to be able to live a holy life through His death and resurrection.

Holy week is just another week unless I allow Christ to make it holy through me. All of the rituals and observances of holy week are meaningless without a personal relationship with Christ.

Today is a great day to ask Christ to allow you to celebrate holy week as a holy person!

In Need of a Hero?

What a miraculous event - all 155 passengers safe after crashing in the Hudson River. The outcome of the crash has transformed a pilot, Chesley B. Sullenburger III, into a hero! A fan site on Facebook was erected immediately with people proclaiming hero status for saving lives, and declaring they would be willing to fly with him even though they fear flying.

Monday the nation will celebrate another hero, Dr. Martin Luther King. In a time when some areas of the country were steeped in bigotry and hatred he stepped to the microphone and made a case for seeing all people as created equal by God. From that time on there has been transformation and open discussion concerning our view of people that had started in the years of the civil war, but got a new boost with his help.

Heroes are important because they denote important events in life, and who was involved in some key actions and decisions. The hero is only important because of what they accomplished and helped bring to fulfillment. Otherwise they are just people that have no more distinction than anyone else.

But you know, we all need and are looking for a hero. Something deep down inside tells us we need to have a hope of someone that can rescue us. Think about it, just look at the movies and books that we enjoy – most are about a hero who defeats the bad guy and rescues us (by extension).

For those that recognize their need for a hero I have one in mind. He saw us living in a very hurtful and unfulfilled life, and decided to lay it all on the line by leaving a protected beautiful place and coming to fight for us. His fight was so strong that He died in battle but resurrected so He could give us new life.

Yes, I’m talking about Jesus Christ. If you find life a struggle, hurtful, unfulfilled, and/or lonely – Christ would love to be your hero. Christ said “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) That sounds like a hero to me!

If your life needs this type of hero, ask Christ to be your hero.