Jake's Thought for the Week

Each Monday I will be posting Jake's Thought for the Week, which he sends out to all the parents of the players in his All-Iowa Attack program.

Over the next five weeks we are going to look at a section in the book 'WHEN THE GAME IS OVER IT ALL GOES BACK IN THE BOX' by John Ortberg. I hope everyone enjoys these next five weeks and just maybe it will challenge all of us to look at what God is asking us to do, and just maybe we will be ready to roll the dice.

Roll The Dice-“Here is the irrefutable truth about games that my grandmother would try to teach me as she risked everything for Boardwalk while I tried to hang on to my little cache: When you start the game, you never know what the outcome will be. If you play the game, you may lose. But if you never play the game, you definitely will never win. And if you play the game, you have to roll the dice.”

Initial Call-God summons someone to serve him. You may have noticed that very rarely in the Bible does God bother to interrupt someone’s life and ask him or her to do an easy task. He doesn’t call Moses over to a burning bush and ask him if he could take a few more sheep. One entire chapter in the Bible, Hebrews 11, is devoted to a series of encounters where God asks people to embrace high-risk assignments. God asks Noah to build an ark in the face of ridicule, Abraham to leave everything familiar and then to become a father at the age of ninety-nine, Joseph to be faithful in the face of slavery and imprisonment, and Moses to defy Pharaoh.

Listen to how the writer of Hebrews describes people who say yes to God:I do not have time to tell about..{those} who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and rooted foreign armies… Others were tortured and refused to be released… Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword… the world was not worthy of them.

How high a value would you say God places on making sure people who follow him lead comfortable lives? It seems that God wants to use us, wants to grow us up, wants us to be strong and wise and courageous. He doesn’t appear to be terribly interested in making sure we’re comfortable.

Go Attack!
Jake Sullivan