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Simple Sabbath: Our Legacy
by Alfred Lamar Jackson
Good Saturday to you all. I hope your Thanksgiving holiday went well and you were able to celebrate with friends and family and be thankful for all the blessings, great and small, God has given us. I didn’t participate in Black Friday. I never have and hopefully never will have to. If you did participate in Black Friday, however, I have no ill will toward you – it’s your time and hard earned money!
I’m still in Jeremiah. I do enjoy looking for relevant truths in the Old Testament just because some people think that the Old Testament isn’t applicable to modern times. I came across a passage that made me think about what I will leave my children with once I die unless, God willing, He comes back to finish the “story.” It is strange what becoming a parent and being responsible for another life does to your thinking.
Jeremiah 22:8-9 reads,
People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another, “Why has the Lord done such a thing to this great city?” And the answer will be: Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and have worshiped and served false gods.
Now I have no idea when Christ will return, but I don’t think it will be before my daughter grows up. I could be wrong (smile). However, it makes me start to think about, as a father and as a believer in Christ, what I’m going to DO about what I leave behind to my kid(s). In the scripture, Jeremiah has been chosen to prophesy for God about the coming destruction on Israel by the Babylonians. He is continually distraught about his task because he knows it will happen and because God has already decided the city’s fate. He still tries to urge people to repent and even leave if they will. In the end Jeremiah’s generation will be left with a legacy. Everyone will know just why they were destroyed.
As a resident in this great country of America I am slowly watching the descent into darkness portrayed in the government and social medias. There are still bright lights and God is still working, but ultimately I know how the story ends. The question I ask myself is “What am I going to do? What can I do to make sure she and her generation doesn’t have to repeat the same mistakes? Ultimately I must leave her in the ever so capable hands of God. Yet, the father in me wants to protect her and fight off the evils inherent to this world.”
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This Year’s Bedlam Is As Good As It Gets
With a gullet full of turkey and the anticipation of tomorrow’s Bedlam showdown, this weekend is simply the most wonderful time of the year.
Houses will be divided, trash will be talked, and twelve months of bragging rights will be on the line.
It’s tough to find an Oklahoman who doesn’t care about this game. But tomorrow, Bedlam will be foremost in the mind of a football crazed nation. The game has the prime time slot on ABC and ESPN’s College Gameday is setting up shop in Stillwater. I might make the journey to the land of orange if for no other reason than to give Erin Andrews my phone number. No doubt, I’m exactly what she’s looking for.
OSU is in unfamiliar territory because there has never been this much at stake for the Pokes. The program has never played for a Big 12 championship. Beat the Sooners, and the Cowboys will do just that. Not to mention OSU can secure the first 11-win season in school history and snap that pesky seven game losing streak to its in-state rival.
Pressure can do funny things to a football team, but the Cowboys have proven themselves in crunch time all year long. The Sooners? Well, not so much. OU still hasn’t figured out how to solve the equation of a road game on prime time TV against a highly ranked opponent. The win over Baylor was nice, but routing an overrated Bears team doesn’t mean the Sooners’ road issues have suddenly disappeared.
While the Sooners may have been victimized by expectations, the Cowboys came into this season without any. They’ve been a looser bunch because of it. When asked on a local sports radio show which of his players were playing over their heads, Mike Gundy named nearly every starter on both sides of the ball. Can Bob Stoops make that statement about any OU players outside of DeMarco Murray and Ryan Broyles? I’m not so sure.
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Happy Half-Birthday, RDC!
It’s been six months since I began my “Red Dirt Kelly” blog that very quickly turned into what you now know as the “Red Dirt Chronicles (RDC).” Here are Julie, Jen and her team at the Consumer Credit Counseling office, plus Kendy and I in a “home movie” wishing the RDC a happy six-month birthday.
We are thankful for your participation in our project as readers, thinkers, commenters and encouragers…and we hope you’ll join us in wishing the RDC another great six months, with many birthdays to come!
I just watched this video after having put it together in the middle of the night and realized I was tired…because, it was the middle of the night! Glad Julie, Kendy and Jen’s group had energy to spare. Hey, guys…can I borrow some of that!? Maybe for our one-year birthday I can talk some of our man-authors into actually getting in front of a camera! Have a fun and safe “Black Friday” out there. Let us know if you bagged a bargain…or five!
[kelly]
P.S. The music in the background of this video is “The Crow” by Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers. I grew up on Steve Martin’s humor in high school and have appreciated the more developed “Banjo Period” of his artistic life. Thanks for the birthday song, you wild and crazy guy! One more thing – we’ve got some extra special posts coming up for you next week to celebrate our half-birthday. Enjoy!
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Time of My Life: A Top 10 List Inspired By The Black Eyed Peas
I may not be eligible for an AARP membership yet, but my aching knees recently served as a reminder that I am perched at the top of the proverbial hill just waiting to make my descent down the other side.
My recent awareness of the nuances of getting older has me thinking about the interesting dichotomy of spending our early years desperately wishing to be older and the rest of it longing for time to stop moving so darn quickly.
As a kid, I thought turning 18 meant I was an adult. The reality, however, was that I was still dependent on my parents, didn’t know how to do my own laundry and had to sit at the kid table at Thanksgiving.
At 22, I graduated college and felt like I had the world at my fingertips…until I realized that having a degree doesn’t mean much unless you also have a job. I spent the next year reminding myself to have fun now because I would have the rest of my life to be pinned down to a demanding career. And when I did get that first job, I was referred to as “the young one” for several years before a new “young one” came on board and relieved me of the title.
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