A Weekend of Losses

Somehow this Monday morning feels like a weekend of losses. Lost games, the world was almost lost. Loss goes hand in hand with grief so I am feeling grieved over the silly hype about the world ending. What brings the most sadness is how events and people such as this make us Christians look like super fools. If we profess to believe the Bible is God's unchangeable, infallible word, we must believe all of it. We must read it and know it. We don't get to pick and choose. Especially the beautiful little scripture that plainly states we will not know the day or the hour that Jesus will return. So, if we don't know when it will happen what is it that gets a grip on some smart guy and convinces him beyond doubt that he knows something no one else knows. Something that Jesus Himself stated no one will know?

Its like the person who ruins the surprise party by blabbing about it. This guy blabbed on a surprise party that he didn't get the invite to. Most amazing to me was watching the followers. They really believed it. How does that happen? As a Christian, this makes me feel the loss. There is grief that comes as the world makes fun of us Christians for our belief in Jesus' Second Coming. And grief that we've been played for fools if we believed this guy.

As I watched this whole deal play out in the news I read an article about a family with three teenagers. Mom quit her job to become a full time missionary spreading the news about May 21. The woman was sold hook, line and sinker. She and her husband made full preparations for Saturday's big event, including not paying bills that were due after 5/21. The three teenagers were interviewed and I was again grieved by the damage that has been done. They think their parents are crazy. They are embarrassed by their parents and saddened that their mother can boldly proclaim how sad she is that the will leave earth on Saturday and know that her children will not go to heaven. My God. Now that its Monday morning how is the damage in this family repaired?

Wisdom, friends, is worth its weight in gold. Just ask Solomon. The man prayed for wisdom and received it. May we all continue to seek God through seeking wisdom. The Bible tells us that we can be led astray by false teachings. The only remedy for this is to know what is false and what is not. How do you do that? Learn the Word. If you don't know the Word, then every crazy thing sounds plausible.

Our weekend over here on the home front didn't include end of world preparations but we did suffer some losses. My Soccer Chick and her teammates slept through a game Saturday afternoon. Not sure what those girls did between Friday night and Saturday evening but they played as if they were sleepwalking. Needless to say The Hub was pitching a sideline fit. His voice paid the price. Not sure how his blood pressure managed to get him through those minutes. I was only happy that parents were restricted to the opposite side of the field. We lost 2-1 to a team that was less than great.

We went on to a Sunday evening basketball game for Oldest. I haven't blogged about his team too much this season. For a reason. We lost...again. This one, though, was a close one. Oldest hurt his ankle but still managed to be a rebounding machine. He's a funny one to watch. He doesn't deal too well with pressure. Complete opposite of his dad who is Mr. Cool. Oldest gets those rebounds and looks to pass that hot potato as fast as he can.

My third and final loss of the weekend would be my one-on-one basketball game with Bball Girl. She has sat this spring season out of sports but only by formality. She's gone to every soccer practice with her sister and practices harder than the girls on the team. No point in pointing out that she's not on the team. She is athletic by nature and driven to compete. Doesn't much matter what the sport is, she just wants in. Sunday morning during children's church I think I may have a shot at beating her. Not really, I was just out for some fun. Girlfriend beat me and made it look easy. Ducking and dipping, turning and spinning. I had to remind her it was not a real game and she didn't have to whip me quite so bad.

All in all, a lovely weekend with the family. We suffered some losses but the win was in the living. Not cliche, just real. We have an amazing family. Great kids, great parents. Family. Wouldn't trade this time for anything in the world. Soon my world is changing as my sweet Oldest heads off to college. Just a few short months away. Not ready to talk about that now. Sigh...