Holy Hockey

I’m old enough that I actually remember using an alder for a hockey stick on frozen ponds and a rock or a piece of ice for a puck when I was really young. I remember actually stuffing catalogues up inside my pant legs for shin pads. I still have, hanging in my study, the first pair of new skates my mom and dad bought me when I was in my early teens. Yes, they are antique. I’m of the generation that I remember many Saturdays, walking over a mile up the road and then across fields of snow early in the day, shoveling for hours to clear the pond, playing hockey with two or three others until it got too dark to see the puck and then dragging my tired, cold, hungry little body home in the dark.

I can honestly say that when I was a kid, I loved hockey. I have many memories of watching Hockey Night in Canada (the theme music is forever embedded in my subconscious) on Saturday evenings while my mom kept the toasted tomato sandwiches and cold milk coming (that was one of the key ways she showed love - by feeding people… worked for me!)

I say all this so that what I say next won’t be misunderstood. I think hockey is a wonderful sport and sports are a wonderful thing. But things are not like they used to be. I have watched in recent years as sports, and it seems hockey in particular in this part of the world, have become more than sport, a religion almost for many. Is that really possible?

Well, last week I saw a post on someone’s Facebook from a Canadian Tire site. It read:

“Sport is at the heart of many families and communities across Canada. It unites us as a family, as a community, and as a nation.”

Sounds like a pretty religious thing to say if you ask me!

Anything can become an idol and nature abhors a vacuum. It comes down to values and what you are willing to sacrifice for what, doesn’t it. So, here’s a question. How many parents in our culture today are sacrificing their children to the god of hockey?

A Holy Place

There’s an old rabbinical story about how the spot was chosen for God’s holy temple. Two brothers worked a common field and a common mill. Each night they divided whatever grain they had produced and each took his portion home.

One brother was single and one was married with a large family. The single brother decided that his married brother, with all those kids, certainly needed more grain than he did, so at night he secretly crept over to his brother’s granary and gave him an extra portion. The married brother realized that his single brother didn’t have any children to care for him in his old age. Concerned about his brother’s future, he got up each night and secretly deposited some grain in his single brother’s granary.

One night they met halfway between the two granaries and each brother realized what the other was doing. They embraced and, as the story goes, God witnessed what happened and said, ‘This is a holy place – a place of love – and it is here that my temple shall be built’. The holy place is that spot where God is made known to his people, ‘the place where human beings discover each other in love.’

Excerpted from ‘Sacred Marriage’ by Gary Thomas (pages 30-31)

Lip Service

I left the house one day a while back and when I got in the car I thought, “I didn’t kiss Florence good bye!” So, back in the house I scamper …

“Did I kiss you good bye?”

“Yeah, you did.”

“Well, my mind wasn’t in it.”

So I kissed her again making sure this time that my mind was in it! 

My wife is a very gracious woman who thankfully knows me well and loves me still. But the whole experience reminded me once again of just how easy it is to simply go through the motions.

Sometimes it happens when we’re stressing over all the things we have pressing on our minds, in which case it isn’t really a conscious kind of thing. That can make it easy to justify. But, we are called to live examined lives. The fact that we are prone to these things doesn’t mean that we are not responsible to do something about it. That’s what repentance is all about and it isn’t a one time kind of thing but a way of life. Search our hearts Lord and show us the way so that we aren’t just going through the motions.  

“The Lord says: ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’”  Isa 29:13a

Prepared To Worship

“My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord. Let every creature praise His holy name for ever and ever.”  Psalm 145:21

‘Praise the Lord!’ It’s certainly one of the most repeated phrases in a Christian’s vocabulary, especially when it comes to corporate worship times. And rightly so, because He is worthy of all praise. But how often do those words seem somehow empty when we say them? How often do they just kind of roll off our lips without much real thought? Sometimes, as much as we want them to be, our hearts really aren’t there and we are speaking more because we know how we are supposed to feel about God. To say ‘praise God’ simply because we are told to praise Him hardly seems to qualify as worship! But what’s wrong? Are we bad people who say things we really don’t mean? Not necessarily. Here’s something really important to keep in mind - worship in the Bible is always responsive.

“All true worship is a response to the self-revelation of God in Christ and Scripture, and arises from our reflection on Who He is and what He has done. The worship of God is evoked, informed and inspired by the vision of God.”  John Stott

Worship; true worship, the worship God is looking for, is ‘evoked’. Priority must then be placed on knowing God and experiencing His greatness in our lives. When we gather for corporate worship, how often do we come ready to worship? The best corporate worship experiences must get their start before we even come together because the best corporate worship happens when our hearts have already been prepared. The best corporate worship times happen when we have already worshiped God in our private worship times. Those are times of simply reading the Word and praying for God to show Himself to us. When we see God for who He really is and what He has done, our hearts will rise up within us and we will worship Him. 

So, the next time you see Sunday coming, make it an intentional effort to seek God’s preparatory work in your heart and see what kind of difference it makes. And prepare to be amazed!

One With Them

I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions as a general rule. I think every day and any day is a good time to really think and make changes. But I do admit that it can be helpful to have special times or seasons when we take stock and take on some new initiatives that could improve our lives.

I really appreciated hearing about the ‘Blessings Jar’ that some people are using for the year ahead. I think that is an idea that has great potential.

Personally, I have taken on some things that I hope to do this year and one of the things I have done is to sign up for the ‘One With Them’ devotional from Open Doors International. Open Doors is a ministry that is devoted to the persecuted church. Every day for the next 365 days I will have the opportunity to connect somewhat to those who are suffering persecution for their faith. It’s a really good opportunity.

You may have other things that you are doing, but if you are interested in having a devotional appear in your inbox each day for the year, with authors including field staff, local pastors, widows and children and each with a ‘unique story to tell and lesson to be learned’. You might want to give it a look.

Here is the link to their site and to the devotional offer. May God bless 2013 for you and yours.

Open Doors