March Madness

Ephesians 5:16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

Whatever version of March madness we headed for there is plenty of distraction for all of us. Basketball pools to complete and hours spent tracking our teams, St. Patrick's Day and leaders in the midst of adversity like Coach Tressel pictured above with the WWJD bracelet.

Always interesting to see the way the enemy dresses up for us. “Spend your time on basketball, its ok.” How many hours will be invested in basketball pools over the coming days? I remember when I was being convicted of quitting participating in the pools hearing "Its ok its March Madness everybody does it, our church does it.” A basketball pool may be harmless depending on our degree of time investment.

Does the enemy really care if I am setting in a bar drinking green beer or setting in front of my own TV watching basketball all day? No. The enemy's agenda is to distract you from drawing close to God. We invest time on other things and then other things impact our ability to execute a daily intentional life the following days or weeks or months.

The enemy wants us to miss time in God's Word and prayer today so that it is easier to miss the next day. The faith journey is like exercise it will take discipline. Answering the bell when you would rather not get up. Believe me I need to answer the exercise bell!

In a recent small group, men who love Christ deeply, confessed to not living an intentional life with Jesus and not leading their families well in the truth, scripture memory and family worship. I was very guilty of the later and thankful for Desiring God's pastor's conference messages focusing on prayer. Many of us struggle with busyness and use it as an excuse for having deeply surrendered personal lives. But is busyness Biblical?

"Dear brothers, we must implement implement family worship in our homes. God requires it of us as heads of our families. Your family owes its allegiance corporately to God. You have a position of authority in your family not as their buddy or friend but as their prophet, priest and king, showing them the way to God. " Dr. Joel Beeke. WOW!

Which leads me into my final point. Do we really have time to point out flaws in Ohio State's Head Coach Tressel's character or other leaders? Matt 7:3 "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" All indications are Coach Tressel loves Jesus, loves his players and provides an environment committed to developing leaders. However, he is like the rest of us, we are all broken leaders in need of a bloody Cross.

There are 168 hours in the next seven days. How will we invest our time? How much time will God get from us? How much time will we spend on what we say is most important (God & family) Kind of a crazy thought but what if we tithed our time? 17 hours of prayer, reading and serving this week? Lets focus on redeeming our time this week into our priorities. "God created time, men created watches"-Tommy Nelson.

Whether we find ourselves consumed by Hoops, green beer or pointing out specks in other eyes this week, may we seek God above all else and desire to be leaders after His heart not our own. May our families and followers experience the overflow of our discipline to invest deeply in our time with Jesus. As one of my mentors always says: "Many leaders start well but few finish well." God help us to pave the journey with bricks of obedience day after day.

Make it a great night!
Coach C