Many of you might remember Billie Jean King, a tennis heroine of yesteryear who won Wimbledon six times while also beating Bobby Riggs in 1973’s “Battle Of The Sexes.”
What you may not know is that for all her accomplishments on court, King had a notoriously poor forehand.
She used the “wrong” grip, her elbow got in the way, and the result was more of a “slap” than a “shot.”
I admit it: I have been on a Dawes binge.
Who — or what — is Dawes?
A 21st century band, with a sound that echoes the Eagles, the Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Jackson Browne, Neil Young, and even, improbably, Big Tent Revival.
A modern band with a lyrical sensibilities that are equal parts wry and witty with an occasional heartbreak thrown in.
Ron Dozier, who has been on our staff for 12 years now and recently became the Moss Campus Pastor, delivered the second sermon in The Trust Factor series.
Contrasting Frank Sinatra with Proverbs 3:5-6, Ron’s message landed here: My Way Destroys. His Way Delivers.
Here it is:
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One of our relatively new volunteer leaders got a job in another state recently, and moved there with his family. It happens a lot.
Then on Wednesday, I got this series of messages from him:
Hey Talbot hope all is well! We have been here for a couple months and explored a few churches but we haven’t as of yet found somewhere we would like to go regularly bugt nothing compares to Good Shepherd.
My Tuesdays are fairly predictable: they start early in the office with prayer and meetings and sermon prep and meetings, and then I leave around 5 to work out at the Y, and then back home for a quick dinner and sermon prep.
Julie travels most Tuesday, so I have this routine down pat. For whatever reason, Tuesday night on our dining room table is where a lot of sermon detail and design comes to life.
Julie and I spent last Saturday evening at Charlotte’s Knight Theater taking in The Simon & Garfunkel Story.
The “story” consists of two men who bear an uncanny vocal and physical resemblance to the original Art and Paul, singing the duo’s best songs with a smattering of storytelling mixed in.
Yesterday’s message …
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A couple of phrases and sayings, if I may. You’ve probably heard someone say them in the last month; more likely heard them come out of your own mouth in the last week. Ready?
Trust your gut.
Follow you heart.
Believe in yourself.
What these all are, in the final analysis, are encouragements to lean on your own intuition. That inner sense that tells you who is calling you as soon as you hear the phone ring and before you check caller ID; that awareness you have to stay away from the potato salad that’s been sitting out in sun at a summer picnic; the inward answered prayer that almost magically opens up a good parking spot on Black Friday at the mall. Your intuition is really a personal kind of knowledge allowing you to make decisions based ultimately on trusting your gut and following your heart. They often call it “a woman’s intuition” but c’mon: guys can have it, too.
In fact, one guy who had it was Obi Wan Kenobi: CLIP Star Wars. Hear that? Instincts. Feelings. Yep. Or NOT a long time ago and NOT in a galaxy far, far away, there was Sully. His gut, his intuition told him almost without thinking about it, “I got to land this plane on the Hudson River!” And thank God he did. Praise God for that particular moment of intuition.
But you know this, too, don’t you? For every Obi Wan, for every Sully, there are probably ten occasions when your gut told you wrong, when your heart led you astray, when your inner voice just should have shut up. That guy who you met and you heard LOVE and he’s the same one who left you feeling used up and kicked aside. That candidate who you were SURE was gonna make your life better and now he’s in office and you’re still the same. The church that you just KNEW God was telling you to change to and yet it proved as inept as the two previous ones. That investment that your voice whispered DO IT DO IT DO IT! … and it’s now DONE it to the point that your net worth is about half of what it was. Even the most intuitive among you have learned that when intuition meets long term planning chaos is likely the result.
Which brings us to the biblical couplet that is going to be the foundation of The Trust Factor. It’s Proverbs 3:5-6, and these are the first verses of Scripture that I ever memorized, recommended to me by my older sister when I was a brand new, 17 year old Xn. And these words are so valuable, so enduring, so helpful even if SOMETIMES misappropriated that we are going to read them out loud and together:
Have you ever noticed that you can look at ONE diamond from MULTIPLE angles and in so doing you find new elements to its beauty? Just one look doesn’t suffice; it takes long study from many viewpoints.
In the same way, Proverbs 3:5-6 merits extended appreciation from different perspectives. And, in our case, on consecutive Sundays. Here are its words:
One night a few years ago, I was at the local YMCA.
There were also three young men working out near me who looked to be about 19, 16, and 12.
This kind of thing happens all the time, and in that particular setting I don’t usually initiate conversation with people I don’t know. I have a task to complete and then I’m done. (Along with my lawn, it’s one thing in life I can control, so the whole deal is a pretty important part of my well being.)
My son, Riley Davis, recently posted his pre-season college basketball Top 25 rankings.
While previewing #9 Texas Tech, he dropped this analysis:
My dad is the least-Texan Texan I have ever met. He grew up in Dallas, but is not a Cowboys fan; he cares neither for brisket or for Texas chili; and he would never own a gun or cowboy boots. But he has educated me on the history of college sports in the Lone Star State. His father taught law at SMU, so he grew up a huge fan of the Mustangs and a huge hater of the big boys—the University of Texas and Texas A&M. However, he tells me he had a soft spot for Texas Tech, as they always bore the pseudo-endearing but really more demeaning “underdog” label.
