Whatever Happened to Me?

Whatever happened to me?

In 1971 I decided to run for president in 2000 because I would be 37 and new you had to be 35 to run for president.  From that moment forward I . . . did absolutely nothing about becoming president.

In the late 1970’s I decided I would become a football player so I could get a college scholarship and play in the NFL.  From that moment forward I . . . did absolutely nothing about becoming a football player.

In 1981 I decided I would become an engineer because engineering was a worthwhile occupation and would make decent money.  From that moment forward I . . . took a semester’s worth of engineering and science classes and realized it wasn’t for me.

In 1984 I decided I would become an anti-trust lawyer defending large corporations from the government.  From that moment forward I . . . actually went to a really great law school where I learned I wasn’t cut out to be a corporate lawyer at a large law firm.

In 2011 I told my wife of 27 years that it was time for me to start training to become a pastor, so I packed her, our stuff, our 13 year  old son and moved to Louisville, Kentucky, leaving behind our 25 year old son, family, friends, church, fantastic job, and a home to a place where I knew no one and about which I knew almost nothing.  Guess what?  I actually did what I decided to do. 

Funny how God moves, even when you’re old and out of touch.  I don’t wear skinny jeans (the thought is, frankly, disturbing), my glasses are round with thin wire rims, my beard is trimmed, so it is neither stubble nor Spurgeon-like, I don't have an I-Phone or a Mac (PC guy here) and, frankly, I don’t like Starbucks coffee.  Yet here I am in Louisville, closing in on finishing a Master of Divinity and contemplating maybe a Th.M. or Ed.D.  Crazy?  Insane?  Perhaps.

Here’s what’s even more spectacular – God isn’t finished with me yet. 

I teach the elderly every Sunday morning at a local assisted living facility and preach once a month at a local nursing home.  I tell these folks all the time that while their heart is still beating they have something to offer God and can make a difference in the kingdom.  One of those people is a fellow named Ray, who is 93.  His mind is still sharp and he’s forgotten more about Jesus than I know.  He’s also kind, funny, and thoughtful.  And I’m “teaching” him?  Yet, God has called me to be there at this time and in this place and guess what?  I’m doing it!  I’m actually doing it.  No deciding then not doing anymore.

I also teach some local home-schooled high-schoolers.  Wow, never would have thunk it.  Yet there I am every Tuesday, trying to pour into them whatever I can both in the subjects I teach (speech and government) and spiritually.  I get to teach on-line students through Regent University, where I'm not merely allowed, but actually required to make thinking about God and the Bible part of the coursework.  Amazing! Will it matter to any of them?  I don’t know.  Yet, God has called me to be there at this time and in this place and guess what?  I’m doing it!  No deciding then not doing anymore.

Will I ever have the impact of some great preacher or pastor?  I don’t know.  Maybe, maybe not.  Am I some great man of God to be emulated?  No.  I’m pretty ho-hum average.  So what does this “deciding and doing” really mean?  It just means God has found a place for me to serve where He is using the skills and abilities He already gave me long ago.

You see, God didn’t intend for me to be president (THANK YOU!!), nor a football player (at 115 pounds in high school I would have been crushed), nor an engineer (oh the agony of doing math problems day after day), nor a corporate lawyer (although I was a decent litigator for many years).  God intended for me to be just what I am right now, where I am, with the people around me, doing what I’m doing.

God apparently knows what He’s doing with me better than I do!  It’s a strikingly weird, yet confoundingly comforting thought.

Eli Manning and the Mizzou Crisis - the Link is Obvious

Given the normal matters about which I tend to blog, it would seem odd for me to write a post about whether an NFL football player deserves to get into the Hall of Fame.

Perhaps not?

Part of the "Raving" I have done on this blog over the past couple of years, is to point out the complete lack of logical consistency among those who oppose Christianity (and also those who simply oppose common sense).  The Eli Manning post serves the same underlying purpose.

I don't truly care if Eli Manning gets into the Football Hall of Fame or not.  I don't know him personally, so I can't say if he really cares.  Here's the rub, though.  Reasonable, rational thinkers ought to see that Eli as a Hall of Fame quarterback is a no-brainer.  But I can tell you right now that, despite the prodigious numbers he already has and will  have by the time he finishes (barring injury), there will be many questioning his credentials because he doesn't have the kind of emotional appeal necessary to gin up support for a Hall of Fame run.

Thus, our problem.  As a society, we simply don't care to talk on a logical, rational level anymore.  We're much more excited by hashtag blahblahblah than we are about thinking through problems and analyzing them with any alacrity.

The recent upheaval at the University of Missouri and other colleges proves the point.  Students at numerous universities have made clear they are not the least bit interested in examining reality from varying points of view - no, they have made clear they are much more concerned about whether anyone is hurting their feelings.  According to several news stories, there were actually certain college student groups announcing they were angry at the media for turning its attention to the  recent Paris bombings rather than maintaining its focus on them.  Self-absorption hardly qualifies as a rational means of discourse about societal problems.  This kind of raw emotionalism, in which MY feelings matter more than any other issue fails the rationality smell test.


This, however, is where we are as a society.  Feelings mean everything.  Think about the recent gay marriage decisions by the Supreme Court.  Whatever you think about gay marriage, Justice Kennedy's persistent focus on the notion of animus against gays as a rationale for allowing gay marriage strikes me as a bit, well, emotional.  Making a ruling based on a rational understanding of the law I get.  Ruling that people should receive certain treatment under the law because some other folks don't like them, smacks of fourth grade playground nonsense.  Yet such is the currency of our social discourse these days.  When you offer any opinion that even smacks of logic or analysis, you are branded a "hater" and, if you are well-known, get a hashtag campaign mounted against you!  (I had to ask my teenage son a while back what all this hashtag nonsense meant - I still don't completely understand it).

We think emotionally all too often because we then feel justified in claiming offense (many Christians rush to get offended as well - the recent Starbucks "red cup" flap proves the point).  When we "feel" offended we get all smug and self-righteous, as if we're somehow not guilty of ever, ever, ever offending anyone or doing anything that could be considered inflammatory or (OH MY) . . . wrong.  Yet, of course, we pretty much manage to do wrong to others every day.  For instance, my wife is such an amazing gal because she puts up with me despite my massive flaws!!  Her emotions, no doubt say he's awful, but her mind says I love him and I promised to bear with him through all the ups and downs of being married because we made a covenant before the God of the universe to do so.  So despite being offended by me sometimes, she actually thinks about it and stays (I have one or two good points, as well, I suppose!).

Yet, ironically, it is Christianity, not secular humanism, that faces up to the reality of our flaws and our misguided-ness.  It is Christianity that acknowledges "there is not one who is good, no, not one."  It is Christianity that offers, despite our penchant for being petulantly pedantic, an answer that doesn't require we avoid offense.  You see Jesus accepted the greatest offense in human history - the perfect God-man, of his own free will, accepted death on a cross in exchange for everlasting life to those who would repent and believe the good news that the Messiah had come.  He didn't deserve that shameful and horrific death but he didn't whine and complain about how offended he was.

So we can go on being offended basing decisions on our emotions and we'll keep getting what we're seeing regularly across university campuses.  Or, we can begin to behave rationally and recognize that offense is part of the human DNA and anyone who thinks it will ever go away (until Christ returns) is, ironically, out of their mind.

Just like I'm out of my mind to think Eli Manning will be in the Hall of Fame?

Eli Manning Hall of Fame Quarterback?

Eli Manning, Hall of Famer?  I know that name and that term simply don’t go together.  Late last season, after a five interception game against San Francisco, some writer actually suggested it might be time for the Giants to “think about the future” and recommended they draft Jameis Winston in the 2015 draft.   Oddly, that writer apparently hadn’t been watching Jameis, who had been throwing interceptions like he meant it much of the season.  More to the point, that writer obviously hadn’t actually taken the few minutes it takes to track down Manning’s numbers.  The numbers indicate Eli Manning should be in the Hall of Fame when he finishes.  Allow me to elucidate.

Assuming Manning plays four more years (after 2015), he will end his career in the top 10 (and very likely top 5) in the following statistical categories and every single quarterback ahead of him is either already in the Hall of Fame or a sure fire Hall of Famer: career touchdowns (he’ll be around 380); career yardage (he’ll be around 54,000); career completions (he’ll be around 4,700); career game winning drives (he’ll be around 44); career fourth quarter comebacks (he’ll be around 37); career consecutive starts by a quarterback (he’ll be around 226, behind only Favre).  Right now the only non-Hall of Fame quarterbacks ahead of him in any of these categories are Vinny Testaverde and Drew Bledsoe and Eli will pass both of them by late 2016 or early 2017 in any category he’s behind them.

Oh, yeah, he’s played in two Super Bowls, was on the winning side both times, and was the MVP both times.  And, by the way, his playoff work is phenomenal.  Here’s a list of quarterbacks who CANNOT say the same:  Peyton Manning, Favre, Brees, Namath, Fouts, Marino, Tarkenton, Kelly, Moon, Unitas, Dawson, Young, Jurgensen, Warner.  All of these quarterbacks are in the Hall of Fame or almost certainly will be (Warner being the one close call) yet none of them won two Super Bowls.***UPDATE*** Peyton Manning was on the Super Bowl winning Broncos team this year, so he now has 2 wins.  BUT he was already a hall of fame guy in everyone's mind, anyway, so it doesn't make that much difference to my argument.

Here’s my prediction: Eli plays five more years.  He ends up in at least the top eight and probably top five all-time in all the statistical categories I noted above.  He’ll prove to have been one of the most durable and reliable quarterbacks in NFL history.  He’ll have won close to 20 playoff games, at least two Super Bowls, been a Pro Bowl selection several times and kept his nose clean throughout.  He will retire as a top notch ambassador for the NFL.

Yet, after he retires there will be all kinds of massive hand-wringing by so-called “experts” (by “experts” I mostly mean people at ESPN, 98% of whom are not Hall of Famers) about whether he’s “really a hall of famer.”  They’ll trot out excuses like his propensity for bad games once in a while (Hmmm, you mean like brother Peyton’s recent 5/20 performance against the Chiefs, where he also threw four interceptions?).  They’ll say he wasn’t a great thrower of the ball (you mean like Sonny Jurgenson – yeah he always, I mean always, threw the tightest spirals around – NOT).  Then you’ll hear the “it’s not all about the numbers” argument (but that fails to explain how everyone with the kind of numbers we’re talking about is either in or will be in the Hall of Fame).

Why, then, does Eli seem like such a hard sell?  Because he is just too dad gum ordinary.  He lacks Favre’s pizzazz, or Peyton’s ridiculous numbers, or Brady’s machine like quality, or Montana’s wit, or Marino’s release, or Namath’s persona . . . the list could go on.  It shouldn’t be this hard to sell a two time Super Bowl winning quarterback with the kind of numbers he’ll have as a Hall of Famer.

Manning’s like the guy who works at the office who consistently shows up, works hard, even when he is sometimes a bit off, never complains, has significant moments of absolute brilliance, followed by long spans of ordinary but diligent and effective, and never gets in any trouble in or out of the office.  Sometimes you hardly notice he’s there because he never talks about how great his ideas are or how hard and long he works.  Yet, when he’s gone, you suddenly realize this guy was a rock.  You realize you were so much better off having him there working with you.  He really was a great guy and made a huge difference to the company.  That will be Eli Manning.  But those guys don’t get awards or honors.  They get a pat on the back and a kick out the door.

Here’s to hoping, if Eli Manning has the kind of career he’s poised to wrap up, that it doesn’t end that way.