Storming the court

Since moving to Uganda in 2010 I haven't been able to watch much sports as I was accustomed to growing up nor as much as I would've liked.  So when I do have the opportunity to watch sports when I am back in the States for a short 3 months, I enjoy it thoroughly, even if it is the opening games of the NHL season after a long lock-out.  I am an avid college basketball fan and enjoy this time of year when conference games are in full swing and teams are pushing for the "journey to the Tourney" as it is frequently called.  It is this time of year that I wish that I had ESPN so that I could watch all of the mayhem unfold.  I am currently in the States so I have had my fill of watching sports, in particular, college basketball.

The past few weeks or so I have been quite annoyed at the number of games that I have watched where upon winning the game the home crowd, namely the students, rush the court.  This has become quite frequent in recent games that I've had the opportunity to watch and I just don't understand it.  It seems to me like storming the court should happen once every decade or even once in a school's history.  It should be a big event that hardly ever happens but now it seems that if a home team beats a ranked opponent, that is reason for storming the court.  Last night I watched the final minutes of the Butler/Gonzaga game.  The pregame, which I was also able to catch, Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps and Co. talked up how Indiana knows it's basketball and there is no greater place to play with knowledgable basketball fans than at Hinkle Fieldhouse.  So with that build up and with Butler's recent success (back-to-back National Championship appearances) I was appalled at how the fans rushed the court.  Granted, the game ended in dramatic fashion with a steal and then a buzzer beater but still, rushing the court?  They beat another mid-major team who just so happened to be ranked #8 on their home court.  Butler was ranked #12 themselves so it's not like it was a historic upset.  I just don't get it.  The same thing happened two Saturdays ago when N.C. State handed the Duke Blue Devils their first defeat of the season.  If I'm not mistaken, N.C. State was picked to win the ACC yet they storm the court against one of their biggest rivals.  Jee wiz. Act like you belong with the Dukies Wolfpack.  The fact that you stormed the court just proves that you are nowhere close to the level of Duke.  With all this being said, I was pleasantly satisfied the day after the N.C. State win when the Ohio State Buckeyes knocked off Michigan.  It was a huge win and the Buckeyes played great throughout.  But the fans cheered, screamed wildly, and remained in their seats like they knew that it was a big win in a conference game.  Thank you Buckeye fans for somehow saving the dignity of what is "storming the court".

All you others, you are just pretenders in my mind and make a mockery of what should happen after a historic win.

What I Read in 2012

As is custom on my blog, here is a list of books that I read this past year:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows  by: J.K Rowling

When Helping Hurts by: Steven Corbett & Brian Fikkert

Hedges: Loving Your Marriage Enough to Protect It  by: Jerry B. Jenkins

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis

Perelandra by: C.S. Lewis

Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe by: Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears

Fathered By God by: John Eldredge

The Hunger Games by: Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire by: Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay by: Suzanne Collins

God, Marriage, and Family: Rebuilding the Biblical Foundation by: Andreas Kostenberger

What is the Gospel? by: Greg Gilbert

Explicit Gospel by: Matt Chandler

The Trellis and The Vine by: Colin Marshal & Tony Payne

A Christmas Carol by: Charles Dickens

Marks of the Messenger by: J. Mack Stiles

the Loudest Note

Since coming back the States in late October I have been reading a few Christian classics.  One in particular is a morning/evening devotional by Charles Haddon Spurgeon.  This past Saturday night, 1 December, I read a gem that left me praising as I fell asleep.

"Let us daily praise God for common mercies--common as we frequently call them, and yet so priceless, that when deprived of them we are ready to perish.  Let us bless God for the eyes with which we behold the sun, for health and strength to walk abroad, for the bread we eat, for the raiment we wear.  Let us praise Him that we are not cast out among the hopeless, or confined amongst the guilty; let us thank Him for liberty, for friends, for family associations and comforts; let us praise Him, in fact, for everything which we receive from His bounteous hand, for we deserve little, and yet are most plenteously endowed.  But beloved, the sweetest and the loudest note in our songs of praise should be of redeeming love.  God's redeeming acts towards His chosen are forever the favourite themes of their praise.  If we know what redemption means, let us not withhold our sonnets of thanksgiving.  We have been redeemed from the power of our corruptions, uplifted from the depth of sin which we were naturally plunged.  We have been led to the cross of Christ--our shackles of guilt have been broken off; we are no longer slaves, but children of the living God, and can antedate the period when we shall be presented before the throne without spot or wrinkle or any such thing."

Downtrodden and blessed

Wednesday and Thursday of last week were very difficult for me.  Circumstances that happened were out of my control and they left me discouraged and questioning the purpose as to why these difficulties were happening.  In the midst of this discouragement God led me to a passage in Scripture that really blessed my downtrodden soul.

Romans 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."