Monday, January 20, 2020

January 20, 2020 - ONE


Playing favorites… all through my athletic career as a player and a coach I would hear those words. From the time I was playing Little League baseball for my dad and would hear that I only was playing because my dad was the coach (in spite of me having better stats than others and being a selected to all-stars every year)… to being told I was playing favorites when playing a small, young player (in spite of him being good enough to eventually be a McDonalds All America player and collegiate star…)

Bottom line is that coaches do play favorites… and their favorites generally are not based upon how one looks or who someone knows… but based upon the players that give the most effort and are committed to the team; and the reality is that those types of players generally turn out to also be the most skilled…

In life, we also run into people’s prejudices that are based upon how someone looks or who they happen to know… in honor of this MLK Jr Day I will share a quote from him: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

I love that dream… even for the church… that we not characterize people by the amount of melanin they produce but by their value of being created in God’s image and then by their character…

I cared about all of my players!!! But yes, my favorites had the character of being a team player…

There is ONE God… there in ONE race (human)… and there is ONE hope (salvation through Jesus)…

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you all are ONE in Christ Jesus.

[Side note: Jesus’s melanin production probably didn’t match most of us reading this devotion!]

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