Cheerleaders! What would football be without them? Even if they sometimes don’t know which team has the ball, you know? But there’s one thing you can count on. No matter what happens on the field, you can count on the cheerleaders to always be on your side.
Our kids used to love to go to the circus. Now they take their kids to the circus. One of the much-hyped highlights of the circus is those death-defying acrobats on the trapezes above the center ring. It's breathtaking to watch them make that daring leap into space and onto the next trapeze. I imagine it's fine as long as you're hanging onto that first trapeze, and when you've grabbed that next trapeze. What's scary? That would be the time between trapezes.
For years, I had the privilege of working with, and our son had the privilege of playing for, a championship football team at our local high school. They had been almost an automatic win for the other team until the new coaching staff took over. And in one season, they turned those boys from losers to champions. But as good as they were, the coaches never scored a single point in a single game. The game ultimately had to be won or lost by the players on the field.
I got to laugh at some of those drug commercials on TV. They'll spend about 20 seconds telling you all the wonderful things their product will do for you, and the other 40 seconds telling you all the awful things it could do to you. First, "you'll feel so much better," then, "may cause hair to fall out, teeth to decay, or a lung to collapse; side effects may include hearing loss, brittle bones, nervous breakdown, or sudden death." They don't want to tell you that stuff; they have to tell you. It's a truth-in-advertising law.
I think I saw that painting when I started going to Sunday School as a little boy. It's Jesus, standing in a garden, knocking on this big oak door. Actually the first people to see what became that famous painting were the friends of the painter, Holman Hunt. He reportedly gathered them together to unveil his masterpiece, and he got plenty of "oohs" and "ahhs" from his friends - except for one. That friend said, "I like the painting, but I think you made a mistake that you may want to correct. You forgot the handle on the door." To which the artist smiled and replied, "Oh, that's not a mistake. See, when Jesus knocks on the door of our hearts, the handle is on the inside."
