Mark's Remarks for Friday, March 6, 2009

It's Friday, But Sunday's Coming

I was happy for Tony Dungy when he retired last month as the coach of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts. I felt sad for football fans. Dungy was a great coach. However, he is also committed to serving Jesus as best he can and I know he retired because he feels that is his best means of serving God.

Tony Dungy's brother-in-law has a great story, which illustrates the details of how one can live like Jesus. It was September, 1996, and Tony Dungy was preparing to coach in his first game as a head coach in the National Football League. Dungy invited his brother-in-law to come share in the experience with him. Tampa Bay was playing Seattle. Dungy, at that time, was the new coach of the Buccaneers and they were staying in a hotel the night before the ballgame.

As the head coach, Dungy occupied a suite so he could hold meetings with his staff in the living room. Dungy and his brother-in-law got settled in Saturday afternoon, and then went to meet with the team for chapel and supper.

After supper, Dungy headed back to the room while his brother-in-law hung out with the players, watching ballgames and eating their evening snack. (A snack for an NFL player constituted a full-size meal for the normal human being.)

Finally, Tony Dungy's brother-in-law went upstairs to his room to go to bed. When he opened the door, everything inside the suite was dark. So, very quietly, he felt around for the pullout bed in the living room, climbed in... and Tony Dungy was already there, asleep!

The brother-in-law was aghast. Dungy woke up, and the brother-in-law insisted that he go sleep in the bed in the suite's bedroom. Dungy refused. "You're my guest; you take it," he said. After all, he had invited him.

The brother-in-law could not believe this. "You're kidding, right? You're the head coach of the Buccaneers with a game tomorrow, and I'm the relative eating free food and staying in a free room -- you take it!" But Dungy refused to leave. Finally the brother-in-law gave up and got on the floor to sleep. Dungy did not take the bait. He went back to sleep on the couch. Finally, Tony Dungy's brother-in-law, seeing the bed was going to remained unoccupied, arose, went into the bedroom, climbed into bed, and went to sleep.

This week, I'm preaching on Philippians 2:1-8. I thought about how Tony Dungy, in a human way, illustrates a facet of Christ's example in that great chapter. Dungy, with all the rights and privileges of a head coach, surrendered those and freely offered them to one who was undeserving. He chose to serve and experience a consequence of that service. That is a small reminder of Jesus, and all the rights and privileges of God, but instead, he lowered himself to serve us. He left his experience of heaven, to come into our world and relate to us.

I am a huge fan of The Dick Van Dyke Show. (I have every episode--on video tape.) I have introduced this show to my kids, and they're big fans now. The show has now appeared on network TV or syndication for almost fifty years.

If you are a fan of The Dick Van Dyke Show, you are naturally a fan of Dick Van Dyke. For the past forty five years, millions of children around the world have become his fans because of the movie Mary Poppins. In that movie, he played the character of "Bert the Chimney Sweep."

This week I saw one of those episodes of A & E Biography. It was on Dick Van Dyke. The producers of the episode interviewed a whole bunch of people. One was a daughter of Dick Van Dyke. She was talking about her dad's years in retirement. She had been wondering if he would fade from the public's memory.

One day a few years ago, she was visiting her dad and they went walking together at a park. They sat down on a park bench and just started talking. Up walks this little girl, and she's staring at Dick Van Dyke. Keep in mind, this was about 40 years after Mary Poppins had been made. Yet, this girl clearly recognizes him. She sits down on the bench, snuggles up next to him, and she began singing, "Let's go fly a kite..."

Dick Van Dyke joined right in. They sung the whole song together. For the daughter, it was a beautiful moment of confirmation.

Yet, as I envision that scene, I think about that girl. You see, to her, Bert the chimney sweep leaves the celluloid world and comes down into her world. She enjoys fellowship with him, and he blesses her with his greatness and presence.

That is exactly what Jesus did for us. He left his exalted place in heaven, came down into our world, fellowshiped with us, and he blessed us with his greatness.

How can we help but respond to Him.

Maturity

I was a late bloomer. When I was a freshman in high school, I was six feet one and weighed in at a booming 125 pounds. Winnsboro had no gangs, but if they had, I would not have been in danger. All I would have had to do is turn sideways. The gang members would have never seen me.

From junior high years through my single years, after I had graduated from college, I had to wash my face with Clearasil soap just to have any hope of controlling my pimples.

I did not like being among the last ones to mature. I prayed that God would change this. He did. He made me the first guy of his generation to lose his hair.

I was 28 before I married. I was 33 before I had my first child. I recently experienced a graduation in May of 2008. (Judy has informed me it was my last.)

I say all of this because one of the blessings of Facebook is that it has put me in contact with many my friends from high school. I cannot help but notice how much farther along they are in terms of life experiences.

I remember at my 25th year reunion, five years ago, one of my classmates told me that he would probably retire by the time we would meet again for our 30th. He began working full-time for the State immediately following our high school graduation, skipping college. I plan on retiring too-- in about 30 years when I can afford it! Let this be a lesson to all young people. Nothing says "frivolous" like going to college.

Some of my classmates have grandchildren that are five and six years old. My two youngest children are five and six years old.

Every year, our church's youth group goes on a wilderness trek. Among other things, they spend a week together climbing a mountain in Colorado. Last year, I accompanied my oldest daughter on Wilderness Trek and, together, we climbed Mt. France. My goal is to climb a mountain with each one of my children before they graduate from high school. Lord willing, our youngest child, Timothy, will graduate from high school in 2020. I am confident that I will climb the mountain with him -- using a walker.

As a matter of fact, I have a photograph of what I think I will look like on that momentous day in 2020, when I come down that mountain:

Every time I am tempted to think that I am getting too old for this, my children will say something or do something to brighten my day, and I am reminded of how truly blessed I am. Just the other night this occurred. The whole family was together coming back from somebody's house, and the kids were singing. Our youngest child, Timothy, began singing that old black spiritual, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot." That was when we discovered that he had not fully learned the words because what he sang was, "Sweet and Low Sweet Chariot..." Judy and I use Sweet and Low quite a bit, but we've never thought about this application for the product.

When Timothy sang this, we all burst out laughing. All except for him, of course he thought he was giving us a lovely rendition. I may be lagging behind yet again, but I wouldn't trade places with anybody in the world.

Interesting websites

A while back, Tim Henderson told me about a blog that he was having RSS'd to him each day. It was by a fellow named Seth Godin. (I always get Seth Godin's name mixed up with Seth Rogen. They are two different people.)

I began looking at some of his posts and have since become a fan myself. (You can find his blog at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog). Although the main audience is business people, entrepreneurs, and marketers, there is still much to apply to other areas of life. For example, I find what Godin has to say about leadership to be informative.

Godin's most recent book is called Tribes. Tribes is a collection of short essays and posts taken from Godin's blog that especially address the subject of leadership. Godin theorizes that every person can have a tribe. Tribes are simply groups of people who follow their leader. The important thing is not the size of your tribe, it is to be a leader with integrity, who is faithful to his or her vision. The leader is unafraid of failure and success, which is an appealing quality in today's world.

Another book that Godin wrote a few years ago is called Unleashing the Idea Virus. In this book, Godin anticipated the free marketing power becoming available in the Internet age. Although the book is dated, it is not out of date.

I would enocourage you to take a look at anything Seth Godin publishes.

It's in the Genes

May I indulge a little in parental pride? We received word this week, our oldest daughter, Haleigh, made Second-Team All-State in basketball. This is for the private schools in Texas. Haleigh is a sophomore and, quite frankly, this caught us by surprise.

I personally think credit should go where credit is due. Haleigh got her athletic talent from --her mother. But, thanks also to Haleigh's teammates and wonderful coach, Diann Preston.

Five things I think I think (a tip of the hat to Peter King for this idea)

1. I cannot believe the access that Facebook offers. It is a really cool way of keeping up with people that have blessed you during the course of a lifetime.

2. For the past ten years, Hollywood has produced more family-friendly entertainment than they did the previous 30. Two or three years ago, five movies came out at virtually the same time including Finding Neverland, The Incredibles, and The Polar Express. We literally did not have enough time or money to see all the good movies available. I can live with the freedom of speech that creates clearly labeled garbage, as long as it also encourages quality entertainment.

3. I want to see Frost/Nixon.

4. In all my years of high school, college, graduate school, and my doctoral program, I can't recall a single mention of quantum mechanics, quantum physics, or quantum theory. I think, and I'm not being sarcastic or funny here, this was a BIG mistake.

5. Cutting Terrell Owens was essential for the Cowboys.

Have a great weekend!