Needs Improvement

My second ‘job’ is in sports broadcasting. OK that sound way more legitimate than it really is. For the last couple of years I have been lucky enough to get to broadcast the Hope Bobcat High school football games for the local radio station. It’s not really a job more like a hobby that someone else lets me do.

When I first got the gig, I was terrified about how bad I would be. I tried to read up on any advice I could find about calling football and made it a point to listen to as many radio and TV broadcasts as I could to try and pick up anything to improve. It is one thing to hear a broadcast it is another to try and do one! After two seasons, I’m not sure if I have gotten any better but one strange thing I have noticed is I’m a lot more critical of the announcers of any game. Now I pick up more of the broadcast foibles, poor explanations, redundancy, errors those kinds of things. Even in those at the top of business, I hear things being said and think that’s not how it is supposed to be done. It’s not that I think I am better than any of the professionals[i], it’s just now I see the standard so much clearer and see how hard it really is. I hear all the wrongs more clearly but I can’t quite figure out how to do it any better.

I think the same thing is true for people seeking morality and faith. Most people don’t take time to consider such things; they just go along with what is being done. If however they are forced to make decision for themselves, they find themselves like me; able to see what is wrong but not then necessarily how to figure out to do it right. We see wrong, we don’t like it but how can we figure out something better? Many religions and philosophies are full of criticism and complaints but not many solutions

Here is where Jesus is different. Jesus came not just to convict us but to change us. Not just to show us our errors but to show us something better.

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

John 10:10

He doesn’t just deconstruct our thinking or force us into a mold, He transforms our lives, give us a higher standard, a better way (Romans 12:2). He doesn’t just open our eyes to the flaws but gives us a way to change, to wipe the slate clean and to become something better than we have ever been.

It is not just enough to know I need to improve; I have to find a way to make it happen. And Jesus is that way!

[i] Ok maybe Terry Bradshaw

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Ecclesiastes 12:10

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