My Sooners and My Christians....

Well, I was born an OU fan and not only an OU fan, an OU football fan! I was actually conceived while my parents were going to OU med school so I was literally sooner born and started attending football games at the age of 2 months. Today was a hard day for my Sooners. After the strange and unexpected call reversal in a crucial moment during the game, I was brought back to the OU v Oregon game day of last year. A lot of Sooner fans were upset and many were called sore losers when even trying to talk about the game. (Sorry Roxie and an any other non-sport savvy people if you are lost in all of this, it will hopefully all mean something to you at the end) Our loss against Oregon was a little emotionally draining for me but I knew it wasn't the end. I kept telling myself to look back at the game. We were cocky and started to believe we didn't need to play as hard toward the end of the game. We gave up a touchdown to Oregon without a fight the play before the critical moment. If we had not allowed that touchdown, we never would have lost. I think the same logic should be applied to this game. My attitude is that the Sooners should be able to play at the degree which never would have put us in this position and have such an advantage mentally and physically in the game where we will still win even if a call does not go in our favor. We should be solid. And our defense in this game was not solid and they were exhausted. If we caught the two dropped balls in the first drive and held onto the three or four very possible interceptions, we would never have been in this situation.

I had too much frustration after we lost, so I ran for a bit. I was telling myself basically what the paragraph says above and then I had a thought. This is very much like our charge as Christians to live above reproach. I've never liked this charge. I always felt like it was too often used to tell me what I can and can not do so people may not think badly of me, but think how much easier our lives could be if we did live above reproach. We wouldn't have all of the gossip going around at church because nothing could be talked about. I don't know if this is making sense to anyone yet. I tell myself that the Sooners just should have done better early and then they would have won, yet I get mad when people don't think very well of me due to some impression they got from one of my actions. Making sense yet? I don't know. While I know people will judge and probably assume the worst most of the time, wouldn't it make our lives easier if we played the first half right so we wouldn't be in loosing situations later? So I guess what I'm telling my Sooners and my Christians reading this (and MOSTLY myself) is when life makes the wrong calls (at least from your perspective) or you loose face, make sure to look at yourself and evaluate what you can do better for next week not getting bitter about things that are over and were never in your control. And for my sake..............I just hope Coach Venables keeps his defense aggressive, but realizes when your blitz is not being effective and allowing 15 yards passes to open receives maybe we should reassess the situation!!!!!


-Kristy


ps sorry if all of the sports lingo went over some heads!!!!

Theology versus Living

So, today I had a great morning drive to church. I decided to go to a church that I have only attended once before but absolutely embraced it. The church is about an hour away, which might be a little long of a drive for church, but a lot of my friends from camp attend there. I had also heard my boss mention this church in various conversations during the summer and thought it sounded interesting. The pastor was very intellectually stimulating, personal, and funny (which I'm not sure I have met too many pastor's like this...).

On my drive to church I was thinking about a decision I made last night. It was one of those decisions that seem potentially large, but once looked back at a person just laughs, thinking how silly they were acting. I was still a little unsure of my decision during my driving, feeling that it may be motivated by some selfish ambitions and could make a situation a little more complex. Last night while trying to make my decision I realized it was 1:30 am already, so asking people for their input would be a little hard; I thought before I went to bed I prayed about it. While this doesn't seem like a big deal to most Christians, I should maybe say that I haven't actually had a moment when I just sat down and prayed for months. Yes, I know I'm a horrible person and you all may tell me so, but sometimes I feel lately like I having been living with Jesus being my theology of life in place of Jesus having an active relationship with me.

Maybe if I explain some ideas I've been struggling with lately, you might understand better. Sometimes I think its much easier to think of Jesus as an historical figure and a result in my life due to my western culture's way of promoting morality. I know this is complete humanism and some would just tell me I lack fiath, but I do occasionally think that religion is just a means of calming the masses and giving a purpose to life for people; possibly even a way to boost their self-esteem and provide an identity (by believing they are the chosen people of a god, or they are serving the correct and only god). I probably tend to think this way more often when I encounter or hear of people justifying horrible things in the name of Jesus. Or people just completely ignoring facts or logic and holding tightly to a verse that they have taken out of context in the Bible. Or people showing up at funerals with signs saying "God hates Fags" and other nonsense. My mother would tell me theses thoughts of doubting Jesus or my other thoughts of religion is all coming from my constant analyzing (and yes, most of my thoughts are a result of much analyzing and contemplation), but I can't help but to think sometimes religion (and yes this includes Christianity) and theology ends up hurts more people than helping anyone. Don't believe me? Ask a Muslim about the Crusades. What about all of those people in biblical times that were killed in the old testament simply due to the fact that they weren't Jewish? How about the jihad and killing people for Allah?

Well back to last night. I wasn't sure what to do, so I prayed. I just sat there and was talking to God in my head (which i guess is what prayer is anyway, huh?). I turned the light off and kept my lamp on in hopes I would have better concentration. After some time, I felt I had heard what God wanted to say and then feel asleep. My mother called me this morning wondering if I was driving to this church and then I proceeded to ask her opinion on my situation. I guess you could say I wanted affirmation of God's answer though my mom (and yes, I do struggle with some trust issues with God). She affirmed what I felt like God was telling me (however, God seemed to give me a more detailed answer), so I felt I had reached the correct decision. During my drive, I turned off my music so I could just think and not be distracted. Oddly enough, I finding driving on highways with the dull brown (or sometimes green) plains of Oklahoma results in my most clear state of mind. Upon my arrival at the church, many faces of my camp friends appeared. The preacher once again seemed to be talking only to me and I felt another nudge from God during a couple of sentences in the sermon. My decision I feel was correct and I guess I learned yet another lesson in faith. May we all continue to be lead by God and learn more lessons in faith so we might be better messengers for Christ in our words and actions.

-Kristy