Stuff White People Like

I have a new favorite blog to frequent to quench my smug humor thirst.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

Past entries included “The Idea of Soccer“, “Asian Girls“, and “Barak Obama“.

 Seriously, what’s not funny about that?

Weekend Contemplation

This past weekend Meredith and I journeyed with the a group of junior highers to the Dare2Share Conference in Phoenix.  It was as challenging weekend for all who went including myself.  One particular point that stuck out to me was encouraging Christians to start acting like we are called and stop making excuses.

I coach boys and girls soccer at the Lutheran school that is a part of our church (speaking of Lutheran schools, did you know it’s National Lutheran School’s Week and they finally changed the theme after 4 years…true story).  I love being a coach because it allows you to push people in directions that aren’t always comfortable, but always beneficial.  I love seeing the hard work pay off.

From time to time…say about every other day, there is a player that will continually make a simple mistake over and over again.  Often times this is partnered with the player getting upset and incessively saying “Sorry!”.  My response consistently goes along the lines of “Don’t keep telling me sorry…just do it correctly”.

It is in those moments that I can most relate to the frustration that God must experience with people like me who are too often quick to say “sorry” and slow to change.  If I’m really honest about it, I’m the guy who seems to have an exhaustive list of excuses as to why I failed, sinned, underperformed, and let others down.  I’m the master of “I didn’t mean to…”.  I even get sick of my own pride and stubbornness as the situation dissipates and I’m left alone to ponder where I derailed.

This would be an ideal spot to mention God’s grace and the forgiveness offered in Christ’s death and resurrection.  But I’m not sure what exactly that would accomplish other than making me feel momentarily okay because I’m forgiven.  The truth is that it would leave me unrepentant and relying on “cheap grace” as Dietrich Bonhoeffer so eloquently put it.  I think it’s time that I start putting a more focused effort on living the life that Christ has bestowed upon me.  As Paul says in Romans 6, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound?  Certainly not!”