Real Life Matters

Are you ready for the inevitable? What’s in store for you? Have you carefully thought through the really pressing issues of life? That’s what this week’s feature podcast seeks to help you do.

 Prepare [29:02m]: Play in Popup | Download

Colts Quarterback Peyton Manning said he had never seen so many middle fingers in his life. What caused such a middle-digital display? The Colts drove their bus into Baltimore.

I remember it well. I had my official Ravens Bart Scott jersey on (I especially love it because my last name is Scott). My wife Lisa even bought “football food.” This was a very special Saturday. We were purple with pride. This would be the ultimate irony, the perfect storm, the payback of the ages.

But here’s where things get goofy: This middle-finger vendetta is—get this—23 years old. That’s right, 23. You can’t even count that high on all your fingers and toes.

But bitterness never runs out of fingers and toes.

See, decades-plus ago, then Colts owner Robert Irsay, wanted Baltimore to upgrade its stadium. But with attendance dwindling and the team playing crapily, city officials were wary of stadium spending. Relations between Irsay and the city worsened, and Irsay began to look at other cities.

So the Colts galloped off to Indy. Robert Irsay eventually died and his son Jim became the beneficiary of the once-legendary once-Baltimore team.

I know some people don’t like this, but I’m rooting for the Colts this Superbowl. If they win, it’s just a game; if they lose, it’s just a game. Whatever the outcome, I think the lesson is this: The middle fingers, not the Ravens, lost in ’07 because grudges never win in the end. Go Colts!

Colts Quarterback Peyton Manning said he had never seen so many middle fingers in his life. What caused such a middle-digital display? The Colts drove their bus into Baltimore.

I remember it well. I had my official Ravens Bart Scott jersey on (I especially love it because my last name is Scott). My wife Lisa even bought “football food.” This was a very special Saturday. We were purple with pride. This would be the ultimate irony, the perfect storm, the payback of the ages.

But here’s where things get goofy: This middle-finger vendetta is—get this—23 years old. That’s right, 23. You can’t even count that high on all your fingers and toes.

But bitterness never runs out of fingers and toes.

See, decades-plus ago, then Colts owner Robert Irsay, wanted Baltimore to upgrade its stadium. But with attendance dwindling and the team playing crapily, city officials were wary of stadium spending. Relations between Irsay and the city worsened, and Irsay began to look at other cities.

So the Colts galloped off to Indy. Robert Irsay eventually died and his son Jim became the beneficiary of the once-legendary once-Baltimore team.

I know some people don’t like this, but I’m rooting for the Colts this Superbowl. If they win, it’s just a game; if they lose, it’s just a game. Whatever the outcome, I think the lesson is this: The middle fingers, not the Ravens, lost in ’07 because grudges never win in the end. Go Colts!

Ever had a flashback? Oh, not the kind some of us experienced in the 70s, but the kind triggered by an old song or familiar scent. I recently had a major flashback, one that took me back to some strange days, some confusing times. But I learned some serious lessons in those strange days. Can you relate? Find out by listening to this week’s feature broadcast/podcast.

 Flashback [28:59m]: Play in Popup | Download

I love to scan the FM dial, and there are, I think, three Classic Rock stations in a row here in Baltimore. So I remember hearing an old Fleetwood Mac song and I had a “flashback.” There I suddenly was, kicking the dirt off my cleats and yet, simultaneously at Skate Land during Couples Skate with an old short-lived girlfriend who, thank God, dumped me, because the girl I eventually married is much hotter, in every way.

So this 1 Peter passage gave me a flashback, and I’ll never forget the first time I read it. The words, “…as if something strange were happening to you…” stuck with me. It was 17 years ago, on the ride of my life, age 26. I had a smile plastered on my face, probably because I was usually plastered. I was living my dreams…

Until those dreams began to change.

Something strange was happening to me.

Why was I thinking about God so much? It wasn’t like I wanted to think about God. In fact, there were many times when I wished the thoughts would just go away. It was inconvenient. And besides, it was weird. What were these rumors of another world?

Right around that time, a person gave me a Bible. I smiled and said, “Thaaanks…” Inside the front cover she wrote Mark 8:36: “What does it profit a person to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

It was like God was tearing me away from one life and showing me another. And I liked it and I hated it. On the one hand, it had the ring of truth to it; on the other hand, it sounded too good to be true. On the one hand, Christ looked so good; on the other hand, Christians looked so bad. On the one hand, this stuff sounded totally plausible; on the other hand, totally out there. On the one hand it sounded so silly; on the other hand it sounded so deep, spiritual, and transcendent.

And that passage of Scripture kept looping, creeping, stalking. Something strange was happening to me. My dreams were changing. My paradigm was changing. My desires were changing. My interests were changing. My life was changing.

Do you have a strange story like this? How does your story read?