The unthinkable happened - TWICE! Last night in both the men's and women's 4X100 relay preliminaries the baton was dropped in the exchange of the last leg. So what happened? It's really very simple - the runner with the baton is responsible to make sure the runner getting the baton has it before they let go of it. Now admittedly it's hard to do when you are running a million miles an hours (or close to that).. but hey they practice this, they all know this is the most important part of the race.So of course this got my mind going. And yes Jon (my son) - you can shut up again about my blog being preachy... What I thought about was how are we passing the baton?
As parents it's our job to pass the baton - how many times do we drop that little puppy in the exchange. Our kids don't get our values, don't get our work ethic, don't get our faith? And remember - the responsibility is more on the one passing it than on the one receiving it.
What about church? Last night we had a wonderful meeting with Staff, Elders, and some other key leaders - one big topic of discussion was this. How well are we discipling others? In Olympic terms - How well are we passing the baton?
The Bible is full of examples: Moses passed the baton to Joshua; Elijah passed the baton to Elisha; Jesus passed the baton to his disciples; Paul passed the baton to Timothy.
There are also notable failures in the Bible. David failed to pass the baton to Absalom; Eli failed to pass the baton to his sons; And Israel time and time again failed to pass the baton to younger generations.
So what is God saying to us? As parents he's saying get this right! As leaders he's saying - reproduce yourself in others! As a church he's saying - reproduce yourselves in the world. Didn't Jesus say something kind of like that? Oh, right - it's called the GREAT COMMISSION.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."Mat 28:19-20 (NIV)
So how well are we passing the baton?
2 comments:
Those events were so illustration-worthy that even an ex-Baptist could see it. Pastor Wiersbe would be so proud ;-)
And yes, of course I will make the same "don't drop the baton" reference on Sunday.
Love ya bro!
Not sure what I'll blog about after the Olympics - I guess I'll have to watch soap operas.... I wonder how things are going with Luke and Laura?
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