Hi everybody;

I hope this note finds you as well as can be expected…if not better!  Welcome to the new folks included tonight…as always, it’s my hope that this hits somebody in such a way that you’re stirred to action in your own life.  Other than that, I’m just spittin’ out whatever’s on my mind!  😉

As a 7th grader, Dad FINALLY let me play football.  He’d never allowed me to play until 7th grade for a couple of reasons…a) he didn’t trust the coaches in the pee-wee leagues all that much, and b) he just didn’t feel like a young boy’s bones were far enough along to subject the body to that much bumping and bruising.  7th grade…FINALLY.  Oh, but the summer before, he said, “Timbo, if you really want to play, you’re gonna have to run 20 laps a day around the field.”

<gulp>

“Dad!  That’s 5 miles!”

So every morning for several months I went up and ran 20 laps (around a field that wasn’t a full track lap – so it wasn’t really close to 5 miles)…that is, somewhere around 20 laps or so…certainly never more.  I remember one time dad drove up there after he ate his breakfast because he couldn’t figure out how I was knocking out 20 laps so fast…BUSTED!  As I started working my way back home after about 10-12 laps, there came that old blue station wagon.  The next day, dad equipped me with an old plastic gimme cup and 20 pennies…instructions…drop a penny every time I ran by the cup (because as a genius in math, I apparently had a hard time counting).  The easy way around that…drop 2-3 coins…or 10.

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I had probably the best coach of the 4 7th grade coaches…a man by the name of Vince Cowdrey.  Coach Cowdrey was great because he wasn’t into the yelling and screaming, but in building a boy’s confidence.  Dad and I had thrown the ball so much in the front yard for years I could catch anything thrown my way.  But had I had one of those angry oppressive types, I’m not sure I could’ve caught that well.  Coach Cowdrey was also great in that he wasn’t the “normal” coach – you all know that most of the time, coaches also are required to teach.  So, in many occasions, they’re teaching history, PE, etc…not that there’s anything wrong with that!  But Coach Cowdrey was an English teacher…an honors English teacher.  He was quite a role model, and those of you copied on this email who know Coach Cowdrey, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Anyway, it was on the Mustangs that season that I learned some of the intricacies of football.  Things like…don’t look up on a kickoff at the big guys bearing down on you until you have FIRMLY secured the ball, or those extremely uncomfortable-to-wear protective devices that make running hard – you wear them for a reason, or, one of my favorites…at the end of the third quarter, you raise up your hand as high as you can with the number 4 on your fingers – signifying a move to the 4th and final period of the game.  Football was quite educational.
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The fourth quarter (or final period/inning/set) signify a time to dig down deep and test your strength and endurance…a push for the last few minutes of the game to buckle down, play your heart out, and a variety of other cliches we all love to repeat.

In business, the fourth quarter represents those last three months of a company’s fiscal year – typically the period from October 1 through December 31.  It’s oftentimes a time of realization of current year goal-attainment, future year(s) planning, and, similar to the sporting view, a time of buckling down and giving it your all.  The cliché, “leave it all on the field” is often used in both business and sports – a metaphor typically used to say “give it your absolute ALL – take nothing back to the locker-room with you when this game is over.”
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Have you ever thought about the 4th quarter for your own life?  There’s so many songs, books, poems, etc., that make such statements as to live each day as if it’s your last.  Many of us have a punch list of things we’d do if we knew it was the last period.  I heard a story one time that the same was asked of Mother Teresa…about what she would do if she knew she had only a day to live, and her answer surprised no one who knew her.  In my own words and faulty memory, she essentially said she’d be feeding the hungry, tending to the sick, saying a kind word to the unwanted, etc…things she’d done every day before.  She “lived like she was dying” every day.

Hebrews 12:1 is often quoted because it compares life to a race.  I found something very interesting across 3 major translations (added emphasis is my doing):

First, the King James version of the verse says:
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

The New International version translates:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

The New American Standard Bible:
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easii entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Isn’t that an interesting thing…patience, perseverance, endurance.  All of them, to me anyway, take on a slightly different meaning.  All of them conjure up “4th quarter” type memories.  We are put on this earth to live a holy life – a standard to which we all fail.  It’s like getting your nose bloodied for 3 straight quarters…but the Disciple Paul said it best when in his first letter to the Corinthians he said “Run in such a way to win the prize!” (1 Corinthians 9:24).  Okay…that means after 3 straight quarters or 8 long innings or 2 sets of terrible tennis, we are to come out fighting AS IF TO WIN THE PRIZE!

Look folks, for those of us who go through the routines…we gear up and go to church (sometimes – pointing at myself), read our Bible (on occasion – again, guilty), say our prayers, and try to be nice to each other – we’re still walking around with our rears handed to us on the field of the game of life.  I AM probably the worst at this of anyone on this email!  As in my example referring to my 7th grade football experience, we’ve had a great teacher, but along with the good things we’ve learned about living, we’ve also learned some silly things along the way that holds us back.

What about cheating the system?  What about not “counting your laps” correctly?  Not sure of the parallel – here’s an example…how many of you hold your tongue when you need to, or clear your head of bad thoughts when they pop to mind, or just flat out the second greatest commandment according to Jesus – to love one another as you love yourselves?  Do you really love yourself?  Let me ask another question…if God loves you, and God loves your neighbor, enemy, etc., then who are you not to?

No songs to quote tonight…I had a few – but this has been plenty to chew for me personally.

God bless you all in this 4th quarter…personally, professionally, and most of all, spiritually.
Peace,
Tim