The renown football coach Vince Lombardi completed that phrase with the words, “It’s the Only Thing!”  Actually Lombardi most likely heard the adage from UCLA football coach Henry “Red” Sanders.  It is a statement which sums up the American ideal of unfettered competition.  Now I have to be honest, I keep score.  When my kids were playing preschool soccer, I kept score.  Track and Field Day, I threw away the participation ribbons, playing the game wasn’t enough.  Even when I work out, I keep score.  I can’t just go tread a mill for 30 minutes, I have to set a goal and beat it.

But winning isn’t everything, at least not when it’s the only thing.

Or maybe winning is everything… as long as we are playing the right game.

For example here are some winning phrases from the Bible…

• Love never fails. I Corinthians 13
• Mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2
• The greatest among you will be the servant. Matthew 23

So maybe the question isn’t so much, “Are you too focused on winning?” It’s more, “Are you winning the right game?”  Anyway, what got me thinking about this was a great story from Espn.  It’s about two missed free throws.  Check it out by clicking here.

On Christmas Day, I had the opportunity to speak to about 1500 villagers from the area surrounding the orphanage we support in Myanmar.  Mostly Buddhist — the country is around 90% Buddhist — and perhaps a few Muslims.  At least 1/3 to half of the people were children.  I gave a very simple Christmas message focused on the fact that “Jesus is the One.”   Jesus is the one who brings us life.  Jesus is the one who changed history.  Jesus is the one and only begotten Son of God.  Jesus is the One.

I’ll be very honest.  I was discouraged when I finished.  Between the steady rumble of the kids speaking while I spoke, and the interpretation-pause that came every 2-3 sentences, I didn’t think a single word I spoke had made a difference in anyone’s life.  When I finished I sat down and told Lynn, “That was a massive waste of time.” Meanwhile I was thinking that it was a good thing we were feeding them so that they wouldn’t walk away completely empty-handed.

I was wrong.  I had forgotten the life-power that is released when the Spirit of God connects with the Word of God.  The next day a Muslim man wandered back to the orphanage.  He asked to speak to one of the leaders.  David and his wife invited him onto their porch and he started sharing his story.  He started with the words, For seven years I have been searching for God, yesterday I came here and listened to the talk and I realized that Jesus is the One.  I want to give my life to this one called Jesus. I had the humbling honor of baptizing that man the following Sunday.

I was wrong.  I had forgotten the life-power that is released when the Spirit of God connects with the Word of God.  Brother Sho Mough used to be a Buddhist monk.  When I was in Myanmar over a year ago he had just become a Christian, but his parents were long-time committed Buddhists.  They wanted nothing of their son’s Jesus.  But they were willing to come on Christmas Day for free food.  The next day, they told their son, “Yesterday after we listened to the man talk about Jesus, we decided that we want to be followers of Jesus like you.” I had the humbling honor of baptizing both of them the following Sunday.

I often tell people that I work hard and do my best because God deserves it, not because He needs it.  God is worthy of the very best that I have to offer in any given situation, but He does not need it.  He often will do more through my inadequacies than I can imagine him doing through my adequacy.  I often tell people that God doesn’t need my best — and sometime I even believe it.

It is amazing the life that can happen when the Spirit of God connects with the Word of God.

I have a brother who is deaf.  He wears hearing aids sometimes, but he would rather communicate through sign language.  The hearing aids aren’t a complete solution because the problem is not just an amplification issue, it’s a frequency issue.  In other words, even when the sound is amplified Tim only hears certain frequencies.  I remember once long ago, listening to a recording that attempted to simulate how he would hear words.  It wasn’t cool.  I couldn’t understand any of it, but what I did understand was why it was so difficult for Tim to talk.  What we hear shapes how we speak.

I recently read a story — on another blog — about a musical trainer who worked with Opera singers who could not hit certain notes within an octave, even though the notes fell well within their vocal range.   The trainer was mystified, so he did extensive testing on their vocal chords, but he couldn’t find any reason why they couldn’t hit those notes. On a whim, he tested their hearing.  He discovered that problem was not with their voice, it was with their ears.  They had a hearing problem.  They could not hear the notes that they could not sing and they could not sing a note that they could not hear.

I wonder if our ability to listen to God would change the way we sing when we worship? I wonder if hearing God speak would change the way we talk about our faith? I wonder if our prayers are hard to understand, because we can’t hear the voice of God?

When we listen, it shapes what comes out of our mouths.  To whom we listen will shape what comes out of our hearts.  When we hear the music, we not only dance, we begin to sing.  This is why it’s so important to read the Word. When you open the Bible God opens His mouth.

We are in the midst of a teaching series called WORD.  It’s all about the fact that God will speak to us if we are willing to listen.  In fact, for all the talking to God we do, asking God to do stuff for us, what if… rather than doing stuff for us… He just wanted to say stuff to us?  And what if, with a Word he could do far more in us, through us, and around us, than we ever dreamed possible.  If that is the case, we should be the world’s greatest listeners — shouldn’t we?

But it’s not always easy…sometimes we have to persevere.  I want to share an e-mail from a person at our church who would tell you…don’t give up, God still speaks.

Hey Pastor Dan,

I was at the service last weekend, and you were talking about the power of words.  At the end of your sermon you challenged each of us to listen for God’s voice.  I’ve got to you tell that I was really skeptical about this, but I gave it a shot.  Every day last week I prayed that God would speak to me, and that he would make it clear to me that it was indeed His voice, and not just me wanting it to be him speaking to me.  By Thursday, nothing had happened.  With only two days to go in the week, and afraid of being disappointed, I gave up.  I brushed it off and thought oh well, I didn’t really expect anything to happen anyway.

Friday morning I went to work and had a meeting scheduled with one of my cases (I work in immigration and help people with visas and naturalization).  I had never met the man before, so he explained that he wanted to apply for citizenship for himself and his family.  He said he was from Pakistan, and that he was a Christian.  He told me that he is so glad to live in the U.S. because he can say that, everyday without fear of persecution.  I began to ask him about his life there, more for my own curiosity than anything else.  He said that God was calling him to be a priest, and that he studied in secret to become one.  It eventually put himself and his family in danger, and he decided to flee when his government began to question him and threaten his family.  He got teary eyed when he described the day he left his country, knowing that he would never see his parents again, at least, he said, not on earth.  Overcome with emotion, this man -who I had known for 10 minutes- looked me in the eye and said, “I don’t know if you are a Christian.  But you need to know that God speaks to you.  He doesn’t come down and sit beside you and whisper in your ear.  But he sends people to you and speaks to you through other human beings.  God is speaking to you through me today, and he is speaking to me through you.”

Pastor Dan, I didn’t doubt you when you spoke about the power of words.  I know that words can be powerful, but man when it’s God saying them they just seem to hit you extra hard.  Anyway, I just wanted to take a moment to tell you know how awesome that was.  Thank you for challenging me.

God still speaks.  He speaks in many ways, but if we want to hear Him, nothing will substitute for personal reflection on the scripture.  Don’t give up, just listen.

Some say it was one of the all-time best Superbowls in history…and I watched about 3 seconds of the first half as I was walking through the Charlotte International Airport.  I had a wedding in Key West Florida and when I made the plane reservations I wasn’t thinking about the Superbowl, just trying to stay in Florida as long as possible.  So I watched about 3 seconds of the first half as I walked through the airport.  Then I listened to the last four minutes on the radio as we drove from the Baltimore Airport.

Okay, so here is the apology.  I’m a Kurt Warner fan.  Have been since he was with the Rams.  My dad is a Rams fan.  So I was cheering for the Cardinals.  I know those of you who are Steelers fans you are thinking…you should apologize and the only reason you will forgive me is because the Steelers won.  But actually I’m not apologizing for cheering for Kurt.  I want to apologize because at some point during those last four minutes I prayed for the Cardinals.  I asked God to help them win.

I’ve always told people that I don’t pray for the weather and I don’t pray for sports teams to win.  But I slipped.  I fell.  I prayed.  At some point in the last 60 seconds, I prayed.  I prayed multiple times.  I prayed that the Steelers wouldn’t score and then I prayed that the Cardinals would.  I told God that Kurt Warner is such a strong Christian and in the post game interview he will talk about you (God).  So let him win.  You can let him win.

The reason I don’t pray for sports teams to win is that I’ve always figured that each team would probably have a Christian or two on it…or a Christian fan or two praying for it.  Why put God in a bind?  But to be honest in the moment I told myself that there probably aren’t any Steeler Christians…so I prayed.

Then someone sent me the video above.  Guess there was at least one Christian on the other side.  So I’m going to go back to my old philosophy, no praying for sports teams to win… unless Jake or Josh are playing.  I think God will understand that one.

Congratulations to all Steeler fans.  Sorry Kurt.

For John Sutter, it started as a normal January morning in California. He was a prosperous rancher, owner of a 50,000 acre spread. He had no idea how much his life would change when one of his employees, John Marshall, walked into the room with the news that gold had been discovered at the construction site of a sawmill.

The year was 1848 and Marshall and Sutter agreed to become partners in mining the gold, but soon the news leaked out. Sutter’s property was besieged by thousands of people – trappers, farmers, sailors, lawyers, school teachers and preachers – from nearly every corner of the country. All of them had one mission, one vision, one passion. They wanted to strike it rich. Within a year, the “49ers” flooded by the 1000s into California and the gold rush had started.

Gold rush – what is your rush? What would cause that sort of excitement, passion, and a willingness to rush away from all you had in the hopes of rushing toward something of greater value? Gold rush. It’s interesting, some very wise people have compared the word of God to gold. Proverbs 19:8-10 says that the words of God are right, making the heart rejoice, more to be desired are they than gold. Psalm 119:72 says that the words that come from God’s mouth are better than thousands of gold coins.

So I’ve been pondering the power of words.  Thinking back, some words were like gold.  I’ve held onto them for decades.  Some words were like poison. unfortunately I held onto some of those for decades as well.  Those were the words that laid bare the lie that “sticks and stone will break my bones but “just” words will never hurt me.” I wonder how many sticks and stones words are said in our homes verses gold words?

There is power in words, power for good, power for harm.  Words formed the wave that President Obama rode to the White House — not just his words, but also words like “I have a dream.”  There is power in words.  If God speaks, wouldn’t you expect that his words would hold the greatest power of all?  Wouldn’t you expect that his words would be of the greatest value?

If we believe He speaks, why do so many of us, spend a seemingly small amount of time — at least in proportion to their value — listening to His Word?  Maybe we think His Word is just words?  I’m looking forward to the next few weeks at Calvary…pondering His Word.

We spent time at our staff meeting today praying for President Obama and our country, then all 15-20 of us crammed into my office to watch the events unfold.  I didn’t get to hear Rick Warren’s prayer but God did and when it comes to prayer, that’s probably the main thing.  Most in the room didn’t stick around for the poem, which means that they missed the benediction — hard to beat, “red man, get ahead; yellow man get mello” — but we all heard the oath and the speech.  They could have practiced the oath a bit more, but the speech was powerful.

Some random thoughts from the day…

1. I am grateful that an African American was elected to the presidency.  It doesn’t make up for lynchings, segregation, or slavery, but I pray it will be a healing step forward.
2. This is not a bandwagon comment, ask Lynn she will tell you.  It was July of 2004.  I remember watching a young black senate candidate give a speech at the Democratic National Convention.  It sang like a sermon.  It inspired me and I told Lynn, watch him…he’s going to run for President some day.
3. The last time our staff huddled around a tv on a workday was on September 11, 2001.
4. I am concerned about some of President Obama’s political convictions and I am waiting to see what decisions those convictions inform.
5. On the greatest gifts President Obama will give in service to the nation is his words.  Never underestimate the power of words.
6. President Obama loves the message of hope.  I do as well.  He who gives the most hope often leads.  But my hope is not in politics nor the government.  My hope is not in President Obama or any other man.  My hope is not in the words spoken by men.  My hope is in Jesus.  My hope is in Jesus working through his church.  My hope is in the life-giving words that God has spoken.
7. Regardless of President Obama’s race, faith, power, influence or politics, God holds the heart of the King in his hands.  So I will pray for President Obama with as much passion and hope as I had in praying for President Bush.
8. I love the fact that I can say that in my lifetime an African American was elected President, but I long for the chance to say that in my lifetime, Jesus transformed my community in ways that went beyond our imagination.

I’ve been thinking about this since our trip to Myanmar; what gets us down.  While we were in Myanmar we met Mary.   Mary is the main mom at Agape Orphanage.  In fact she started Agape Orphanage with her husband.  Not long after they started the orphanage — about 10 years ago — he died from malaria.  He got sick on Sunday, was in the hospital by Monday night and Tuesday morning he died.  That was in June.  In July her 11 month old son got pneumonia and within a month he had died.  I’m not saying she didn’t struggle or that she doesn’t grieve.  In fact even today when she talks about it there are tears.  But she didn’t quit following God’s call to serve kids.  In fact, in many ways she is the heart and soul of Agape Orphanage.

Then today somebody sent me a youtube link with a message from a man name Nick.  He has no…  well I’ll let him tell you his story.  Just watch the video below…

So what gets you down?  This isn’t one of those just-look-around-you-because-someone-is-worse-off-than-you kind of challenges.  I’m not a big believer in alleviating my pain by finding someone in worse pain.   What I am is a big believer in the virtue of perseverance.  What I am is a big believer in the freedom we have to choose our attitudes. What I am — above all — is a big believer in God’s ability to work in and through our circumstances to bring about gold in our lives.  See I think that one marker of the current and future capacity of our hearts is how much it takes to get us to quit.

So what gets you down?

So here is what I did on my Christmas Vacation – aka my short-term mission trip to Myanmar. I preached a message entitled Jesus is the One on Christmas Day to a gathering of 1500+ Buddhist Villagers and orphanage Children, at least two Buddhists and one Muslim decided to become Jesus-followers that day. I baptized 30 people, including the three 3 day-new Jesus-followers. I preached a message on Sunday entitled The Church at It’s Best and participated in an ordination service for two pastors and a missionary-evangelist. I met with the leaders of Calvary Theological Seminary, the school we have helped to start. I participated in a dedication service for the school building Calvary helped to build. I toured a Farm Center that Calvary helped to start and two orphanages that our 1% offering will help to build next year. Oh yeah, I also gave a talk on leadership to the first students of the Calvary school.

Meanwhile, among other things, Lynn and my children, Sarah, Katy, Jacob and Josh played with the children – everyday. They held children. They hugged children. They blew bubbles with children. They did crafts with children. They held hands with and tickled children. They bounced children on their laps. They played basketball with children and soccer with children. The children taught them rubber band games and how to count to ten. They laughed with children and did puzzles with children. They gave candy to children and broke up a couple of fights – usually over the candy. In other words they played.

I will be honest – and I am not just saying this to make them feel good – their ministry here was more important than mine. Anybody can preach and pray and dedicate and tour…but it takes someone who is great in the Kingdom of God to be able to play. And play is what those kids needed more than anything I brought. Playing with someone is a very simply, very profound, very innocent way of simply saying, I like being with you, no agenda, let’s play. Think about it, Jesus said that we can’t even get into the Kingdom of God, if we don’t become like children.

Don’t worry I played a little bit too, it’s just that the rest of my family did it better.

…and it’s breaking my heart. Remember the story in Matthew 25. Jesus is talking and he shares that story of the good guys (sheep) and the bad guys (goats). The good guys are the once who give Jesus water when he is thirsty and food when he is hungry. The good guys are the ones who give Jesus clothes when he is naked and a home when he is homeless. The bag guys ignore Jesus in need. The good guys and the bad guys both say, Jesus when did we see you in need. Jesus responds, Whenever you care for the least of these my brothers, you do it to me.

In Myanmar, a country that is over 80% Buddhist, a country where 90% of the people live on less than a dollar a day, everywhere I go I see Jesus… and it’s breaking my heart.

Last Sunday, after church, Lynn and I prayed for a woman who runs an orphanage in a very remote area of Myanmar, the Chin State. She has an orphanage in the mountains – forty one children. Because they are so remote, they have no sponsors, so they come to Agape Orphanage when they need help. It is the poor helping the very poor. The Nargis Cyclone hit them hard, so they have gone into debt buying food. Nobody will give them anymore credit. So she has not been able to buy food for a few months. Her children walk the fields looking for corn and rice that has been dropped behind in the harvest. For the last month, her children have been eating one time every three days. Joseph – the Agape Orphanage Director – asked Lynn and I to pray for her and her children. We prayed and the tears streamed down her face.

As we were praying, the thoughts going through my head were – I’m praying to Jesus who is eating once every three days in the mountains of the Chin State.

We gave her $700 — the $500 we saved from not paying extra for our baggage and $200 we took for personal expenses.  It will help for a couple of months.

After that prayer, as we drove to another mission, all I could think about was 41 hungry children and I kept asking Jesus, “Did I do enough?” Tears in my eyes — I can honestly say that I have never had such a strong desire to be rich. If Jesus really is to be found in the “least of these,” if you ever go to Myanmar you will see Jesus everywhere you go…and it might break your heart.