when football isn't about football

Just like thousands of other venues in America on a Friday night, September 5 was a great setting for high school football at Raptor Stadium in Brentwood, Tennessee. Our team had just come off a huge win the week before, knocking off powerhouse Brentwood Academy, which was ranked #10 in the country by USA Today at game time. We were the first team in Williamson County to do so in 31 years. Ever. My son, Bo, caught the winning score with 12 seconds to go. He had 12 tackles, an acrobatic interception, and a couple of huge receptions. Football recruiting letters had been flowing in all year, but that next week they had overflowed the mailbox with requests for BA game film.

You could just feel it in the air. The Raptors were poised to post another upset against undefeated Franklin High and reassert our status as one of the top teams in the state.


We tailgated with our RHS Quarterback Club friends. We got to our seats early and watched he band march in. Right before the National Anthem, Bo strode to the middle of the field with three teammates for the coin flip. The game got underway. We groaned when Franklin took an early lead on a long touchdown run but we weren't worried. No big biggie. The Raptor team and coaches had sky high confidence and so did the fans.

It was our second drive. A simple bubble screen. QB Alex Williams pivoted and threw a pass to Bo who set up just a few yards behind the line of scrimmage out wide. He went up in the air to snag the catch and the instant he landed, the cornerback who had read the play instantly and was running full speed hit him. Now this is my ninth year to watch Bo play football - might have missed one game in all those years but not more than one - and I know this about him. Bo isn't into personal drama out in public ... and he's never stayed down after a play in football. But he stayed down.

I do like a bit of drama but I knew he would hate it if we made a scene and rushed down to the sideline so Amy and I just stayed in our seats. I knew he was hurt but didn't want to speculate how bad. When they stood him up about a minute later and helped him to the sideline and he could put zero weight on his right leg I still kept saying to myself it was all going to be okay and he'd be back in the game soon. When the trainer got word up to me that I needed to get my butt down there, I finally started the internal negotiation process that the injury might be real bad. I reached him on the sideline where the team doctor and trainer let me know that Bo might have a torn ACL and MCL. Pretty horrific news for an athlete with the desire to play college football or continue his track career. They got him on the cart as an ambulance was backed up to the front gate. The raucous stadium got eerily quiet. I gave Bo's hand a quick squeeze and he held on. That's when I knew he was really hurt. Holding hands with his dad in front of a couple thousand friends isn't his style.

He and I cried our guts out on ambulance ride to Williamson County Medical Center. The staff from the front desk to nurses and doctors were wonderful. We were still operating under the assumption that his knee was torn up and the first relatively good news was that the MRI technician was still in the hospital and we could get the damage assessed that night rather than having to wait until Monday. It was two hours after the accident that we began to move him from his bed in the ER to another that would take him back to the MRI room for tests. Halfway from one bed to another his upper leg went a couple different directions at once and started spasming. He had been in a bit of a stupor but he was suddenly wide awake and in intense pain - no pain killers had been administered yet. Morgan, his girlfriend, had left the game and was holding his hand when this happened and he gave her a hard enough squeeze that between that and the sight of his leg moving in ways a leg should not move she about passed out. The nurse looked at the doctor right then and said quite definitively that Bo hadn't torn his ACL but had a broken femur. Staff rushed a portable X-Ray machine into the room and within 15 minutes she was proven right. We've adopted her as part of Raptor Nation for that and all the other kindnesses she showed.


You know it's a rough night when a broken leg is good news but it was a rough night and so the news was good. A clean break. A rod would be inserted the next morning. Full recovery - stronger than ever - the prognosis.

Ravenwood students and players had begun gathering in the waiting room and with a mercifully slow night in the ER they were allowed to come back and be with Bo. I think we had at least fifty or sixty kids gathered around him at one point. Steven, one of his best friends, just couldn't bear to be close. He hung back with head and eyes downcast. But Ricky, ever emotional, started sobbing. He was joined by Will, a 270-pound right tackle. Will and Ryan never stopped crying. I had but couldn't not start back up. Then it was mom and grandparents and the cheerleaders. Then it was the coaching staff. We started and stopped crying too many times to count over the next three or four hours. Franklin's coach stayed in touch with Coach Rector to let him know his boys felt terrible for Bo and had gathered to pray for him after the game. My blackberry never stopped vibrating with texts and calls flying in from all over the country as word got out.

The Saturday surgery went smoothly and was deemed a success. Ravenwood High School set up residence at WCMC. At one point we learned he had been admitted as "anonymous" so we went down to let them know that it was okay to identify him by name and allow people to come up and see him. "Don't worry, every body's found him" was the reply. Bo didn't go to school the next week. His hospital room and then our living room, his new convalescent center, looked like Christmas in September with a slew of presents and cards. College coaches called to let him know he was still being recruited. Neighbors, teachers, friends, Young Life leaders ... all came by to wish him well and many to say a prayer with him.


Last night was four weeks from the accident. He drove to school for the first time earlier that day. He got rid of his crutches completely two days earlier. He's doing his therapy and lifting upper body weights five days a week. Subsequent X-Rays show the unmistakeable image of a knee-to-hip rod, but you have to look hard to find the line where the complete break occurred.

I already knew that high school football wasn't really about football. At least not just about football. But if I've ever forgotten that while caught up in the spirit of competition, I'll not forget it again.

Student council isn't about running schools but teaching leadership. Scouting isn't about camp outs but learning responsibility. And football isn't about touchdowns and tackles but discipline, teamwork, loyalty, overcoming adversity, and being there to cry with a friend who is down.

I'd still rather Bo be playing on the field his senior season but I'm grateful to watch him on the sidelines with his teammates, as big a part of his team as ever. Because football isn't just about football.

'sparking' controversy at the video music awards

Poor Russell Brand was humiliated after he had to publicly apologize to the Jonas Brothers after making fun of them for wearing chastity rings throughout his gig as host of the MTV Video Music Awards. At least he can take comfort that Courtney Love, perhaps best known for shooting heroin while pregnant, is defending him and declared on Facebook that the brothers are 'asses'. Ouch. That's got to hurt.

Good for Brand that the international community is coming to his defense as well. Sharon Owens of the Belfast Telegraph frets:

I just hope he makes it out of the US in one piece after calling President Bush a “retarded cowboy” at the MTV awards. Apparently he had a go at professional virgins the Jonas Brothers too. But somebody made him publicly apologise for what he said about promise rings. Spoilsports!

Indeed.

What sparked all the talk and controversy was 17-year-old Jordin Sparks, American Idol winner and pop diva, who interrupted her moment as a presenter to let Brand know, "Not every guy or girl wants to be a slut."

Gasp. What cheek!

But seriously, it's true. In some circles she will be criticized harshly while English comedian Brand calling a head of state "retarded" will barely raise a stir.

Speaking in the context of a world war filled with both heroes and cowards, another Englishman, C.S. Lewis said, "We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst." I wish I could say things like that but all I can come up with is a little repetitive: "we scoff at virtue and wonder what happened to virtue?" T.S. Elliot once said, "In the twentieth century we are obsessed with turning roses into weeds." So far the 21st century moral garden doesn't look too different.

I don't know the full significance of the placement, but it is interesting that King David, writer and collector of Psalms, began that work with a simple proverb (Psalms 1:1, NIV).

Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

In our connected age that is virtually an impossible task.

I'm guessing this incident will be good for Brand's career. But it is good to know that the 'shock jock' was out-sparked by a simple defense of honor.

Labor Day: It Beats the Alternative

Founded in 1882 (or 1884) by machinist Matthew Maguire (or by carpenter Peter McGuire), Labor Day in the United States - ratified as a federal holiday in 1894 (maybe; and maybe again in 1898) and by all 50 states as a state holiday - is celebrated on the first Monday of September each year.

In the words of McGuire (no one can remember what Mcguire said), Labor Day should be a "worker's holiday" to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold." (His reference to "rude nature" does take a little luster off the honor.)

By a resolution of the American Federation of Labor Convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement (Source: Department of Labor website.) But that seemed like too much work and conflicted with church services so it never quite caught on. Over time, another hallmark of the holiday, highly charge political speeches on the evils of the Bourgeoisie's exploitation of the Proletariat, faded away also. We can thank long-winded politicians, the NFL, and the defeat of Communism for that.

Ever since Adam's Curse in the garden (Genesis 3:17-19), though, there has been a definite negative connotation associated with work.

Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.

Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.

In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.

Karl Marx, writing from his comfortable upper middle class lifestyle in London, England, couldn't help but express outrage over the horrific conditions for much of the worldwide working class, though his assertion that industrialization separated 'man' from the fruit of his labors failed to note that the life expectancy of farmers wasn't very long either.

A negativity toward work, even by those who ply their trade in safe, comfortable, life enhancing environments with free coffee and real half and half, persists. For example, if someone works long hours today and shows a fondness for work, he or she is labelled a 'workaholic' - someone with an obvious and dangerous psychological deficiency. One of the cool fantasies of the modern American worker is to quit a job that doesn't meet his or her need for self-actualization.

I have no desire to argue against the theology of the Curse. But I would posit that there is something a lot worse than work. No work. Just ask yourself this question, who looks happier and lives better, the one who is out of work or the one who is gainfully employed?

I like what friend and author, Richard Exley, presented in The Rhythm of Life. The best life, the fulfilled life is one that has the proper balance of work, rest, play, and worship. In a culture obsessed with play - and certainly not going overboard in the area of worship - what a great reminder of, what a great paradigm for ordering your life in a way that opens you up to experience and express what matters most.

Wow. I feel like I have a better attitude toward hard work already. I plan to remember that tomorrow when I head back to the 'salt mines'!

reality tv ... the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat

Amsterdam - The planned airing of a game show in which a terminally ill woman will choose someone to receive her kidneys has stirred up controversy in the Netherlands and caused outrage internationally.

I don't know what's creepier, the Big Donor Show referenced above - or Gene Simmons Family Jewels. Do I really want to see how a member of KISS raises his children?

Long before Survivor, Dancing With the Stars, The Biggest Loser, The Apprentice, American Idol, The Bachelor, Temptation Island, Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire, Fear Factor, Extreme Makover, The Osbournes, and a host of other reality TV shows, reality TV was already at the forefront of popular culture as introduced by the television medium.

Of course there were game shows. No, life is not lived in the tic-tac-toe world of Hollywood Squares, nor the harsh and sterile electronic set of The Weakest Link, but outside of a few controveries, the competition has been real, so they qualify as Reality TV. But game shows, popular as they are, aren't the ultimate form of R-TV. Not even close.

If you need a clue, I'll point out that you've probably been watching R-TV for a couple days and will continue to do so for a couple more weeks. (And if you're not, maybe you should be!) I'm not just referring to the Olympics but to sports in general. Sports on TV has been an enduring success from Friday Night Boxing to the Little League World Series to the NFL and that strange little experiment of an all sports network called ESPN that has multiplied itself into at least 15 television networks, 10 internet networks, and another 3 radio networks.

What defines R-TV?

1. unscripted
2. real events
3. an uncertain outcome

Sure, R-TV manufactures outrageous and sometimes highly abnormal situations and locations to create voyeur ... I mean viewer interest, but what makes them universally appealing is that the participant's actions and emotions determine the outcome.

What has been more compelling than sports? And the Olympics have often been the greatest stage of all.

Jesse Owens winning four gold medals in front of the Fuhrer, refuting the notion of Aryan Supremacy ... Mark Spitz not just swimming to 7 gold medals, but breaking 7 world records ... Al Michaels shouting, "Do you believe in miracles?" as a team of no-name kids repelled Russia's Big Red Machine in hockey ...

Not all the stories have ended the way "we" wanted them to. But that's the point. The catchphrase of the long running ABC Wild World of Sports said it all: the thrill of victory ... the agony of defeat. What's more real than that? That's reality even without the TV!

The Last Lecture

Randy Pausch died on July 25, 2008, at age 47. A computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, he achieved worldwide fame and became a bestselling author by the way he celebrated life despite a diagnosis of just months to live due to pancreatic cancer.

It began September 18 2007, when he gave a speech titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." The context was his university's "last lecture" series, where professors were challenged to share with the audience something that matters most to them, as if they had only days to live. For Pausch, who spoke just weeks after learning he was suffering from terminal cancer, the context was not hypothetical.



The lecture became a hit as it criss-crossed the globe on the Internet, with more than three million viewers on youtube alone. "If I don't seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you," said Pausch, the married father of three young children, at the start of the lecture. He spoke with optimism and humor, convinced that not even the specter of death could keep him from having fun; a buoyancy he maintained throughout his illness. He claimed you couldn't escape the Reaper but you could still beat him ... by living well.

In challenging his audience to really achieve their dreams, Pausch turned our typical success paradigms upside down by saying that achieving our dreams is not really about achieving our dreams. Huh? That's not a chapter in The Secret is it?

"It's about how you live and how you love," he said. He believed he learned more from the dreams he had not achieved. How we travel the journey matters more than whether we get to the exact destination we had in mind. I guess knowing you are about to die will do that, will give that perspective, won't it? Not necessarily according to Pausch.

"Cancer didn’t change me at all. I know lots of people talk about the life revelation. I didn’t have that. I always thought every day was a gift, but now I am looking for where to send the thank you note."

Now that's a challenge. I can't think of a better place to start than a simple, "Thank you, Randy."

Who Stole Jesus?

We all know that the Grinch stole Christmas but who stole Jesus? According to an AP story last month we now at least know who found Him! In Detroit of all places.

Thu Jun 5, 12:57 PM ET

A Detroit woman has found Jesus ... in an alley.

The pastor of a church in the city says its stolen 8-foot Jesus statue was recovered from bushes in an alley about two blocks away.

Patricia Bowers says she notified the church late Wednesday that she had seen the statue the previous day after she had gotten off a bus.

Bowers says she didn't realize the green-hued, plaster statue had been stolen until seeing news reports Tuesday night.

The Rev. Barry Randolph says the only damage to the statue is a broken hand. The cross it was attached to suffered major damage.

A church member noticed the statue missing Monday. Randolph says thieves may have thought the statue contained copper, which often is stolen and sold as scrap metal.

Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press.

When I was a seminary student many of us were pretty certain that theological Liberals like Anglican Bishop John A.T. Robinson who had written Honest to God, a thin book that had ignited a firestorm of debate, had tried or were trying to steal Jesus of His divinity. In Robinson's case it was through a mind-numbing and fuzzy critique of the Medieval Church's belief in a three-storied universe, which seemed fairly threatening at the time but in retrospect was a straw man argument that didn't really address the topic at hand; God. Today such concerns might be directed at the Jesus Project (a methodical, decidedly agnostic, approach to understanding the historicity of Jesus) or come in response to bestselling books that put God on trial, like Christopher Hitchens' God Is Not Great, Sam Harris's Letter to a Christian Nation, and Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion.

Some would argue that Hollywood has stolen Jesus, at minimum the power of His name, by gratuitously inserting profane usage of Jesus Christ into almost any movie made that is not rated G. Can you imagine the outcry if names for God in other religions were treated in the same way?

After the Crucifixion, the religious authorities were concerned that His disciples would steal Jesus -- while His followers, notably Mary and Martha, believed that it was the Jewish leaders who had done just that.

Parents, when sending their kids off to college, are concerned that skeptical professors will try to steal Jesus from their children. Only 8% of Americans consider themselves an atheist -- so why do they all seem to be employed by higher education? I kid. (Sort of.)

Many Christians believe that Jesus has been stolen from the public square by a radical fringe that uses the courts to enforce a much more expansive view of the "separation of church and state" than Jefferson ever intended in his letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802.

The Death of God Movement, inspired by Nietzsche's infamous sentence in Thus Spake Zarathustra, "God is dead ... and we have killed him," didn't actually believe God had died literally or physically. But they did believe that the "idea of God" was no longer adequate as a system or inspiration for morality or finding ultimate meaning in life.

Is it possible to steal Jesus? to kill God?

We know that if God is God, if Jesus is who He says He is, then such questions are ridiculous. So why do they keep coming up?

Is it possible Nietzsche was on to something -- at least on a personal experiential level? Faith, the requisite for knowing God, almost by definition -- a confident belief and acceptance in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person or idea -- seems to imply that we, by choice, can steal from Jesus His divinity and power; at least for our own lives. That raises too many theological questions to even pretend I could address in a quick blog or a lifetime of sitting in front of a typewriter.

But the question of whether someone has stolen or can steal Jesus is worth noting on a personal level. For we truly do live in a profane and secular day when it's easy to just go with the flow of soft belief. So if you show up at church one Sunday morning or find yourself pondering the meaning of life in the middle of the night while staring at the ceiling and can't seem to find Jesus, don't go looking for Him in an alley in Detroit and don't point an accusing finger at others.

The place to begin is found in the face you see in the mirror.