Best EVER

This is a sports post. If you are a Georgia Bulldog fan, you will not like this post. If you do not like sports, you will not like this post. If you are a hater of Atlanta sports, then you will probably not like this post#.

My teams:
Florida Gators*: 11-1
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets*: 9-3
Atlanta Falcons: 8-4
Atlanta Hawks: 11-6

That's 39-14. I submit that I will never have a year like this again. Usually I have two teams all year that give some hope: Florida and the Braves - and even they have tanked the last 3 years. Not to say I haven't had glimmers of hope through the years: Michael Vick(^) carried my Falcons to 2 surprising playoff runs, and that insane Super Bowl run in '98 (Dan Reeves deserves to be in the hall of fame for taking the ATLANTA FALCONS to the SB..); GT had Calvin Johnson which was incredible to watch; the Hawks...nope, never mind. You can see why usually this time of year all I'm really looking at is the Gators. But not this year.

Not only are my Gators poised to win the SEC and BCS titles ($), but GT is looking great to win 10 games, BEAT the dirty 'Dawgs in Athens (I cried a little), and bring back 19 starters next year. The Falcons are on the playoff bubble (>)and have a real solid chance at making serious noise in year one of the new 4-headed monster that should be around for awhile - Matt Ryan, Michael Turner, Mike Smith, and Thomas Dimitroff (<). And the Hawks! Are you kidding me? I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see this crazy hodge-podge team winning at it's current clip. And with Josh Smith healthy, Joe Johnson playing like an MVP, and Al Horford establishing himself as a legit All-Star, who knows what lies ahead.

It is a season of rich blessings for this sports nut. It will never be duplicated, there's no chance of that. So I apologize if I'm gloating more than usual, it will pass. Maybe..

Much love,
Wayne

PS - I tried something new with the different symbols and side notes; whatcha think?

#for the record, Atlanta is not inherently 'Dawg country, and I will NOT recognize them as an Atlanta team; when it comes right down to it, I'm a fan of Atlanta way more than I am a fan of the state of Georgia
*Both Florida and GT's basketball seasons have started, but it's too early to count their records
^Vick WILL be back in the NFL as the most dangerous slot receiver/wildcat formation QB in the league in 2010
%I can and will say 'my' for all of these teams: I went to UF, I lived on GT's campus for the first 2 years of my life where my dad is an alum, and Atlanta was my home for 11 years. When I say MY team, I mean it
$if we beat Bama, no one will beat us in the national championship. Yes, I'm an arrogant SEC fan who would LOVE to see Ohio State, USC or Oklahoma go through the SEC, even in a 'down' year. But beyond that, let's assume it's UF-OU: OU will score points, but no where near the 60 something they've been scoring. And if you're giving up 41 to Texas Tech in your own back yard, wait'll you see what Urban cooks up with 37 days of prep. I shudder with joy.
>I'm sick of the NFC East getting all the hype - the NFC South is the best division in football; in every major power ranking (CNNSI, ESPN, CBS), the Falcons, Bucs and Panthers are in the top 10, and the Saints could beat any team if their defense makes more than 2 stops all game
< This is not taking away from all Roddy White has done this year, and I'm excited that our receiving corp is young and going to be around for awhile. I just think that the GM, the coach, the rookie stud QB and the all-pro RB are the ones we'll lean on most heavily. And let's not forget John Abraham, who seriously should be defensive player of the year.

Every now and again

Every now and again I get to do something that is just too amazing for words.. God blesses me way beyond what I could even think to pray for, and this happens in a lot of ways that only I will see - you know, things like discernment in decisions, wisdom in the little things, prayer requests for strength, etc. But, other times, like this weekend, God blessed me in a unique way that most folks wouldn't even really be too thrilled about: I got to hang out with the Florida basketball team behind the scenes, the coaches and team managers, INCLUDING Billy Donovan. Incredible. Basically, I was an 8 year old boy with a billion dollar credit at Toys 'R Us.

Check out this from Piper's blog today. Very encouraging if you ask me.

How do you wrestle with John 6 and Luke 14? It's tough..

Much love
Wayne
Ephesians 4:29

The Resurrection, recruiting trips, and fidelity

After my last, lengthy post, I feel like I may have set myself up for two things with this blog: 1) they will all be 9,000 word dissertations, and 2) they will all be serious and heavy. These two things MAY be true on occasion, but they are not rules. You've been warned.

I teach a group of middle school fellas on Wednesday nights. This is probably my favorite thing I get to do, outside of one on one discipleship. These middle school (so 11-14 years old) fellas and I have been going through Colossians verse by verse for 5 months (thank you Matt), which is amazing that they've hung in there with me for so long. Well two weeks ago we started talking about baptism and therefore the Resurrection. They had a ton of INCREDIBLE questions! They were gracious enough to let me have a couple weeks to prepare (and we finished up Colossians last week), but tonight we are talking about the reason we have hope, we have the opportunity to know God personally, the death of Death. Pray for me.. But as an encouragement, have you meditated on the Resurrection lately? We talk about the cross often (and with good reason!), but withouth the resurrection..Jesus would be another hollow prophet..but He DID rise! That empty grave meant we have access to a God who we had been so distant from; it meant that we - small and broken, insignificant, unable to clean up our own act - had RELATIONSHIP with a Holy God. Incredible. (Take a few and catch up, Matthew 28:1-20)

I'm going home this weekend! Me and two kids from my youth group are going to go spend some time checking out UF; one of my two students is a bit of a basketball stud and so he is in the season of taking unofficial trips to schools (unofficial means he's paying for the whole thing - plane ticket, food, housing, and not the school) and Florida is one of those. Being a bit of a Gator fan I volunteered to help my buddy out by showing him around. What a sacrifice, right? It's going to be amazing.

This Sunday our church is diving into the concept of fidelity - the idea of being pure and holy in our relationships with spouses, and the idea of being pure and holy in the preparation for marriage. Any thoughts on how this should be conveyed to middle and high school students? Hutch and Meg are leading the discussion, and will do a tremendous job, but I thought it'd be neat if you had any thoughts.

Much love
Wayne
Matthew 12:33-37

Reasonable expectations

So I'm back at the blogging thing. Not sure the inspiration, but I put it on my phone alarm to remind me to update regularly, so I'm going to. I'm going to blog about a whole bunch of things, but the main three: 1) Jesus, 2) sports, 3) music. If you're interested in any or all of those, then I would love for you to give me feedback from time to time. There is always a danger that I will spend too much time on sports, but I will do my best to balance it well.

But let's start with something I had the privilege of preaching about with Hutch a few weeks back (you can hear our sermon here): the importance having a relationship - a real, dynamic, messy, connected, growing, PERSONAL relationship - with God through His son Jesus Christ, and how that relationship will (or should..) lead to what John records as fruit in chapter 15, and what James calls works, deeds, actions in, well, his whole book.

I wonder if maybe I too often get hung up on getting ready for something? Getting ready for taking the time to mentor or challenge one of my amazing middle or high school students but never actually doing it.. praying for the chance to share the message of hope, salvation, freedom to someone who desperately needs it, but not acting on the every day opportunities He so readily offers.. I'm not the Holy Spirit, so my words cannot and should not convict you. John 15:1-17, John 17:3, Matthew 28:16-20, Ephesians 2:10, James 1:22, James 2:15-17, James 4:17 - that's what should be convicting. Let's be doers of the Word. I will not tell you what that looks like for you - but I know Scripture is clear with those verses I just jotted down, so if you need some suggestions, I'd start there.

And sports: MY Atlanta Hawks are 3-0! I can't even believe it.. Who has body snatched Josh Smith and put someone who can shoot an 18- 20- 24- footer in his place? Flip Murray making legitimate contributions? Beating the Hornets on the road? Nobody pinch them please.

And yes, the BCS is screwed up, but I'm the loudest, most obnoxious Gator fan in the world, and here's the deal: WE SHOULD HAVE BEATEN OLE MISS. We beat Ole Miss, none of this playoff biz is even on Gainesville's radar (or LA's or Norman's or Austin's or Happy Valley's). So yea, I think an 8-team playoff would be great, but don't blame the BCS if we (the Gators) don't make it.

OK, great job reading this far, I'd love to hear your thoughts

Much love
Wayne
Colossians 4:2