I have become so discouraged with the level of discourse on Twitter, Facebook and the internet in general. The anonymity of cyberspace makes the cowardly courageous and the mean spirited downright evil. I have watched with sadness as Twitter trolls have destroyed or severely damaged people who posted unfortunate or thoughtless remarks. Sometimes the venom is directed at those who simply have a sincere difference of opinion on moral issues. Recently a video went viral with ESPN reporter Britt McHenry. Her rant against an employee of a towing company was disturbing. It was particularly hard for me to hear because I am from a working class and uneducated family. I immediately found myself judging her and condemning her. Then I stepped back and remembered a wonderful line from Pastor Tullian Tchvidjian. “We all sin and fall short of the glory of God. But that doesn’t keep us from comparing distances.” That is exactly what I was doing! I was comparing
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(This is my annual revisit of one of the great stories in sports. Something to take your mind off of tax day) April 15th is not my favorite day of the year. Tax day is never fun for a guy who is organizationally challenged. My idea of being prepared is having everything in one box. But April 15th is a great day for baseball fans. Jackie Robinson made his major league debut at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on this date in 1947. It was a historic and significant day for baseball but even more so for our country. You can argue that the American civil rights movement was ignited when Robinson came to bat in Dodger Blue. The journey for Robinson was difficult at best and nearly impossible at worst. Many Dodgers players, mostly Southerners led by Dixie Walker, threatened to walk if forced to play with a black player. That ended when Dodger management let them know
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A recent feel good story got only modest play in the everyday tsunami of bad news. Gainesville State School is a Texas juvenile correction facility for felony offenders. The school fields a basketball team that gets to make a few visits outside of the facility to play games. One of the givens is that the Gainesville Tornadoes cheering section will be non-existent. That bothered some of the students at Vanguard College Preparatory School in Waco, Texas and they decided to do something about it. The students organized a cheering section for Gainesville when they traveled to Waco in January. T-Shirts were produced with the Tornadoe’s logo and the words “We Believe” across the bottom. The cheerleading squad was split in half and they wore the black and white for Gainesville instead of their familiar green and white colors. Vanguard fans wore black in support of the visiting team. The Tornadoe players had no idea what was about to happen when
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Yesterday the life odometer clicked over another year. No matter how hard we try we cannot roll it back. Part of acquiring higher mileage is getting some hard earned perspective on your life decisions. Some decisions were good. Some benign. Some not so good. Some truly regretful. That is life. The encouragement I have discovered is that even the really bad decisions can be redeemed by the grace of God. D.L.Moody was one of the greatest communicators of the Gospel in church history. A great Christian university bears his name. One of my favorite Moody quotes is about the learning curve of Moses. Moses ended up having a fairly decent impact for God. “Moses spent 40 years thinking he was somebody; 40 years learning he was nobody; and 40 years discovering what God can do with a nobody.” I have to adjust the numbers for my life. I spent 40 years thinking I was somebody. Twenty years learning I was
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Monday, April 6th will be my thirty-third opening day as the television director for Texas Rangers broadcasts. Someone asked me at church if I ever get tired of opening day. The answer is a resounding no! When I do it will be time to move to a rocking chair at the old director’s home. I feel like I am just behind Lou Gehrig as the “luckiest man on the face of the earth” to be able to do this year after year. In my mind there is no more special day in sports than Opening Day in baseball. The smell of freshly cut emerald green grass delights the senses. The base lines painstakingly and perfectly defined by a grounds crew that is committed to perfection on this day. Red, white, and blue bunting give the ball park a festive World Series look. The players bounce around like little boys. They seem a little extra grateful that they are paid to
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There is much written about Good Friday. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross is incomprehensible to my puny human intellect. There is much written about Easter Sunday. Christians around the world rejoice and proclaim that “He is risen!”. But there is not nearly as much written about one of the saddest and most confusing days in history. The Saturday between the Friday horror of Jesus on the Cross and the Sunday mystery of the resurrection. Some churches do observe Holy Saturday but it was never a tradition in my faith upbringing. I have been thinking about what that day must have been like for those who dropped everything to follow Jesus. How crushing those events had to be. I imagine the fear they felt that they would also be killed. And for what? On Saturday they feared they had given their careers and their very souls for a false hope. I think in particular of Peter. I identify
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One of the really weird things for me is when people want me to sign my book. I feel like the only time my signature is valuable is on a check written from the good account. I do love signing books at a bookstore because they can’t return them to the publisher. That fits into my narrative that my signature actually makes it worth less! Nonetheless, I am honored when people find some value in a personal word or signature. I have gotten many inquiries via Facebook and Twitter about getting signed copies. The logistics and expense of that is a bit daunting. However, I am offering a low cost alternative if you would like a personal note in your book or a book for a friend. Tyndale House Publishing provides autograph plates that adhere to an inside page of the book. Send me a self-addressed and stamped envelope (#6 envelope works great) inside of a regular business envelope. Clearly
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