So it's been a while since I posted. Sorry. Life has been busy!! So let me get to my dilemna. This Friday night the Kentucky High School Football playoffs begin. I love this time of year, but this year brings me to a troubling scenario. In the opening round of the playoffs the Glasgow Scotties take on the Washington County Commanders. 
You say so what's the dilemna?? Who and how do I choose to root for in this game. On the one hand you've got Washington County, which is where I lived for the first 18 years of my life, it's where I went to high school, it's where a large chunk of my family still live. Add to the fact that I have been a part of the radio broadcast team for Commander football and that several of the coaches are guys that I went to high school with, grew up with even played Little League baseball with. On the other hand there is Glasgow, which is where I live now. I live less than 1.5 miles from Glasgow High School, it's where I do ministry at. Add to that several of the football players are a part of our student ministry. To most people this sounds like a really silly dilemna. For most it's not even really a problem, the solution seems simple, root for both, right? But to root for both shows no loyalty to either, to root for both seems like playing both sides of the fence, to root for both seems like putting your finger in the air and seeing which way the wind blows. Was it not Jesus that said, "you cannot serve two masters." That indicates to me that a person has to make a choice and be loyal to the choice he makes. But he has to make a choice, one way or the other but a person has to make a choice.
That seems to be the problem with our society today and our "church society" nobody wants to make a choice. People want to be a saint on Sunday and a heathen Monday through Saturday. People want to attend church A as long as everything suits them and then when it doesn't they go to church B. There just doesn't seem to be any loyalty to anything or anyone left anymore.
Most people that know me, know that I am a huge baseball fan. Most also know that I despise the St. Louis Cardinals, but the Cardinals have a great opportunity to reward loyalty this off-season. After winning the World Series this year, their manager Tony LaRussa decided to retire. Which means they now have one of the best jobs in baseball available. To me it's a no-brainer decision because they have already on their staff a man who has been in their organization for the last 26 years. Jose Oquendo was traded to the Cardinals in 1985 and he's been a Cardinal ever since. He finished his playing career as a Card and then went into coaching. The only organization that he has ever coached for is the Cardinals. He's been a coach in the major leagues since 1999 again only with the Cardinals. If their was ever a person that deserved to be rewarded for his loyalty it's Jose Oquendo. Maybe we can all take a lesson from Oquendo in loyalty. If that's not good enough maybe Joshua from the Old Testament, since afterall it was him that said to the Israelite people, "choose this day whom you will serve." We can't be divided in our loyalty to Christ and His church. We must choose who we will serve, who we will be loyal to. Guess I have a decision to make about who to root for Friday night.
