"Hammy"

     Most Monday night's this Summer finds me playing softball for our church in a church softball league. Some of our younger, lady members call it "Old Man Softball" and to that there is some truth. It is good that us "old guys" have those young whippersnappers to rely on or it would be a very long night.
    Anyone who knows me understands that sports has been a huge part of my life. I am one of those sappy old-timers that thinks sports is a great analogy for life and we can learn many things about living from the playing field.
   This has been an interesting softball season for me. Mentally, I am still that young kid that can make all the plays and run the bases with reckless abandon. Realistically, I have pulled my hamstring in both legs this Summer trying to make all the plays and run the bases with reckless abandon.
    After the latest "hammy"I whined to my wife as we were driving home from the ball field  "I don't understand? This has never happened to me. I have never had these leg issues!" And she placed her hand gently on my leg and said "But, honey. You are getting older."
   Which bring the older me back to the softball field this past Monday. My legs felt fine, not great, and I  determined to use wisdom as I played. Of course, my wife is in the stands saying "Be careful, Babe." One of my younger friends says "Hey now, don't run too fast today. One base at a time."
    Old Man Softball.
    Well, I do hit and I hit well. Hit line drives all night with a couple towards the fence that in my younger days would have been triples but this night they were just jogging-stand-up-doubles. As they replaced me with a faster, younger runner I come into the dug-out.
    "Hey, Pastor, nice wheels" one of the young wisenheimers smirks at me. I laugh. And then Z chirps in"You gotta run for Jesus!" Laugher all around. It really is a great bunch of guys and gals.
    But in that slightly sarcastic, little dig at his pastor there is a lot of truth.

   Christ would say about his mission to this planet "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." John 4:34.
    Paul would tell the Colossians "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." 3:23

    In other words, run for Jesus. We need teachers, doctors, actors, housewives, administrators, plumbers, and (you fill in the blank) who do the things they do as if they were doing them for God. Because in the end, we are. God has created us with talents and gifts not to keep them to ourselves selfishly, but to allow others to benefit and enjoy our gifts as well. We glorify God by doing well what God has put us on this planet to do.
   So run for Jesus. Even with a pulled hammy.

   

SEEK

      I needed a gallon of milk the other day. Skim. So I waited. The gallon of milk never showed up. Eventually I had to get up, head on over to the store and get that gallon of milk. What an inconvenience!

    So, I bought a cow. Kept her in a cool place so my milk would be chilled. The first morning after I bought old Bessie I ran out to the barn to pick up my milk. And there she was, chewing and drooling and looking at me with that stupid cow expression.And even though I had the forethought to put a gallon jug out with her, and since I knew she could not read, I put next to it the pink cap so she knew I would want skim, still nothing. 

    So off to the store again. How frustrating!

     John Chapter 4 gives us the great passage of Christ meeting up with the woman at the well. The woman at the well had no idea who this man was or all the speculation surrounding him. She was not aware that over in Jerusalem the signs were pointing to the fact that this man was the Christ. People were conjecturing, gossiping, and talking about Jesus being the Messiah.

     John the Baptist had testified to it, proclaiming him the lamb of God, the one whose sandals he was not worthy to untie, the one who would baptize in the Holy Spirit, but Jesus neither confirmed or denied it.

    Mary knew her son was the Messiah. She tried to get him to "show it off" by asking him to take care of the lack of wine at the wedding they were attending. Christ would perform the miracle, but no one would know but Mary and his disciples, as Jesus would tell his mother beforehand "My time has not yet come."

    The disciples followed Jesus on  the strength of his personality, the force of his miracles and the hope that this could be the Messiah after a slew of self-proclaimed messiahs had come across the their path.

    Despite all of this, Christ never made a verbal proclamation of his being the Messiah until he makes it to the woman at the well.

    The woman at the well?! The women who had had five husbands and now was living with a man who wasn't her husband? A woman who was a Samaritan: a cultural McCoy to Christ's Jewish Hatfield?

Would it not have been best to shout it out at his baptism or at the wedding or to his disciples? Obviously not. How come?

    I think the clue is found in verse 23 "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks."

     I will make this supposition: The woman at the well, despite her reputation and background, must have been an honest and open seeker of the truth. And Christ spends time with honest, seekers of Truth.

He does not waste his breath or time on those people who are just in it for the show. He does not open up to those who come seeking self-gratification or that attainment of spiritual stature. He seeks out those who seek the truth. And since Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, he seeks out those who are seeking him.

    Think of Nicodemus. As a whole the Pharisees were a dastardly lot but Nicodemus came seeking the Truth and Christ opened up to him the plan that God the Father had put in place: "For God so loved the world...".

    Zaccheus was given an audience with Christ for one simple reason. He so wanted to just see Jesus that he climbed into a tree. Christ sought out the seeker.

    When Christ says that he comes to seek and save the lost, we understand that he comes to seek and save all the lost. But those who get found by him are those who realize they are lost. He seeks out the seeker.

     Too often we treat Christ like the cow in the barn. We expect the milk to be waiting for us when we get there. We expect the milk to pop up on our door step, ring the bell, come into the kitchen, pour itself in a glass and say "Drink me." Yet there is a condition to finding Christ, and growing in Christ...we must seek him.

    We must seek him for the Truth. We must seek him to worship the Truth. 

    We must not just sit and wait. We must seek. Christ says to seek the kingdom of God. Scripture says when we run to him he runs towards us and when we call to him he answers us. James says "We have not because we ask not."

     So let us be seekers of Christ. Scripture shows us that as we seek we shall also be found by whom we are seeking.