The Second 50: Reflections on Life and News from the Other Side

The Case for for Daily Meditation

    My oldest son (Jonah) left for Helsinki to try out for a professional soccer team.  He has graduated from college at UAB and despite four (4) years of playing soccer there has a passion that burns brighter than ever to continue playing.  Although he will only be there a month, I have the sense this is a life changing event as he steps fully into the career world.

    I decided to share with him a few of the verses which have been a pillar of strength for me over the years.  One of the verses was Joshua 1:8 where God, according to biblical accounts talks to Joshua about becoming the leader for the people of Israel after Moses had passed away.  The emphasis placed on a daily mediation could not be clearer, nor could the words: "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate on it day and then, for then you will be careful to do all that is written in it and then you will have good success".  (Joshua 1:8).

    The effective leader meditates on the words of scriptures as he navigates the issues and challenges of life.

Takeaways in the Game of Life

    I enjoyed watching tidbits of the football game between the Saint Louis Cardinals and the Greenbay Packers. The game pulsated with excitement as the teams moved up and down the field scoring on each other.  The final play of the game was a takeaway. The quarterback was stripped of the ball, i.e. a fumble that led to a touchdown by the Cardinals.

    It can hardly be disputed that the historical figure called Jesus viewed issues in life from a spiritual perspective.  If one is inclined to believe this Jesus was merely a good man, the explanation Jesus gives of the parable of the sower raises unique questions.  

  Jesus describes a takeaway situation in the game of life!  He says that when some hear the word sowed by the sower that immediately, meaning right then without a moment's delay, Satan takes away the word that they heard. (Mark 4:15)

    A takeaway...in the game of life. If Jesus was an unusually good man, why, one wonders, would he tell a story about a person hearing about a relationship with God and the significance of that relationship being taken from them?

Some Do, Some Do Not...and Tiger Woods (again)

    I have concluded that the events of Tiger Woods greatly sadden me, perhaps more than I care to admit.  I am at the stage in life, The Second 50, where one can have great satisfaction in the skill and achievement of others. My personal diary and spiritual journal again take me to Tiger.

   It is with sadness to see a man who was highly regarded in the eyes of the world to be publicly humiliated and disgraced. Tiger will always be the standard of the disgrace and humiliation that extra-marital affairs can bring. As Saddam would say, this is the mother of sexual scandal.

    One can only wonder what his close friends and confidants said to him during these times.  Particularly when the National Enquirer became aware two (2) years ago that Tiger was seeing a lady but agreed to bury the story in return for a cover story. Unfortunately there was not a friend or confidant strong enough, to refuse to assist in flying ladies on Tiger's behalf.  Perhaps economically he had no choice and had no other career option.  As the advertising empire crumbles, he will be faced with finding another career choice.

    The consistent spiritual perspective that this historical figure called Jesus maintained is rather remarkable. The book of Mark recounts a time when Jesus was teaching those who had come to hear what he had to say. His mother, brother and sister apparently had joined the crowd on that occasion.  Their presence was made known to Jesus.  

    Jesus then shared with the crowd that whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother (Mark 3: 31 - 34).  The converse of this statement is equally true.  Yet, the great satisfaction in life, if Jesus is correct, is that you and me can live a life consistent with the will of God. And when we do so, our efforts are treated with the greatest respect in the eyes of Jesus.

New Lessons from the Tiger Affair(s)

      As I read the Biblical accounts of the life of Jesus and the current affairs of Tiger Woods, I have reflected often.

    Both individuals received tremendous public attention.  There is an incident recorded that Jesus had a difficult time enjoying a meal with his family because word had circulated that he was in town, and so many were coming to him for healing.  Surely, the healing was not only physical, which was miraculous enough, but it was also an emotional healing of the inner hurts and wounds that life often brings. (Mark 3:20)

    This idea that Jesus was merely a good man is again hard to accept by all that is written about him.  Despite all the scrutiny then and over the hundreds of years, we have yet to hear a scandal or a character blemish.  Even a good man would have clear, cut character flaws that were noted by critics then or by the many historians who studied and followed his life and the events of the day. 

    Tiger Woods has been publicly humiliated.  There is a certain amount of empathy from this writer.  One wonders how many men who have been innately given a voracious sexual appetite would satisfy the constant hunger if presented with attractive women time and time again who wanted to be viewed as special in his eyes. It is easy to throw stones at Tiger, or at President John Kennedy, or President Thomas Jefferson, or the great Benjamin Franklin, or the spiritual leader, Dr. Martin Luther King.  It is far more honest to say, but for the 'grace of God go I'.

    The scandalous-free life led by the historical Jesus of Nazareth is indeed remarkable.  One is forced by sheer logic to ask, was this Jesus simply a good man, or was he more?