My brother-in-law called last night and said, "Number 11, huh?" No, there is no #11 in the NCAA Basketball Championship game tonight. The upstart George Mason Patriots went down on Saturday, and in less than 11 hours we're going to be watching UCLA vs. Florida.
So, the Smalltown Christian must make his choice. And I'll admit it's difficult.
The UCLA Bruins are a conference rival of THE MIGHTY ARIZONA WILDCATS, so it's hard to choose them. On the other hand, it would be nice for the PAC-10 to win it all, again.
The Florida Gators are my "birth team", since I'm from their area. Plus, Dad attended Florida (with a degree, I think, in partying. Let's just say he didn't finish his studies there.) But...I'm tired of hearing about eastern teams (Duke, UConn, UNC, blah blah blah). Did anyone else notice all four #1 seeds were chosen from east of the Mississippi?
UCLA has better guards.
Florida has a better inside game.
The Gator is
much cooler than the Bruin.
LA is more fascinating than northern Florida.
LA is a Mexican town, and I love Mexican food.
Florida is a shrimp and fish place, and I love seafood.
Tough choices. Which reminds me of life. We wade through mounds of information, trying to make the perfect decision, hating to commit because
MAYBE THE NEXT ONE WILL BE BETTER!!! And we still can't see the future.
An artist I know loaned our church her paintings for an exhibit we did, "The Art of Worship". She asked me, "Will they be safe?" I told her, "Maybe not. They have been so far. I have no reason to think they won't be. But you never can tell."
So is there any safe choice in life? Choose Jesus. Decide to do what you think God wants, as best as you can see, and you'll be moving in the right direction. I mean, ANYBODY can improve the life of his community by following the 10 Commandments. They reflect God's eternal character, so even if you just think,
'Hey, maybe adultery has negative societal effects so I'm not going to do it,' - whether your reasons are theological or just sociological - faithfulness to your spouse is still a healthy thing.
Of course, choosing His way works better if you know Him, rather than just guessing. If you know Him you can make an informed decision on His will, because you know His character and how His mind works and you may have even had a conversation with Him about the matter. Does that mean you'll always be right? Nope. I miss all the time. But my life is a dialogue with God that evolves and grows and will end up where He wants it to, if I just keep walking with Him.
But He's given me no clear direction on how to bet tonight (not that I'm going to bet tonight, although if the clouds parted, the sky rolled back, angel choirs streamed across the expanse and mighty voice from Heaven proclaimed
"The Gators will win the Championship tonight!" I'd probably put down a dollar or 10,000.)
So here's my choice:
The Bruins have an incredible, clamp down stranglehold defense that crushes the breath from their opponents like an anaconda. They aren't pretty, but they are efficient: no one has been able to score against them in weeks. And I don't see how the Gators are going to change that tonight.
So, I'm picking UCLA to win...but I still don't know if I'm cheering for them.
