NFL transactions and Jesus’ team

I doubt that NFL general managers are getting 8 hours of sleep per night.

As you may know, the recently ended NFL lockout cut into the time available for teams to sign and swap players before the beginning of the 2011 season. As a result, there has been a flurry of player transactions in the last several days. Albert Haynesworth is headed to New England, Donovan McNabb is flying north to Minnesota for the fall, and Reggie Bush’s talents have been traded to South Beach.

What makes a team trade for a player or sign a free agent? Simple. The team believes that the player they are acquiring will make them better. Stated another way, they believe that the player is a good fit—he fills a gap and provides skills that otherwise would be lacking from the team.

Isn’t it interesting that God intends for the church to function as a team, or, to use Paul’s metaphor, a body (1 Corinthians 12:13,27; Ephesians 3:6; 4:12; 5:23; Colossians 3:15)? All the parts of the body are important (1 Corinthians 12:14–26), just as all the members of a team are important. When a body part doesn’t work properly, the whole body suffers. When a team member gets injured or doesn’t play hard, the whole team suffers. Why? Because the function of the whole is dependent on the function of the parts.

If you have placed your trust in Jesus to save you, consider yourself under contract. You are no longer a free agent. You are on Jesus’ team. That means the rest of us need you. If you become enslaved to sin or selfishly detach yourself from other believers, our team will struggle. On the other hand, if you fully invest your gifts and talents in service (Ephesians 4:12–13), our team will succeed.

And the stakes are a lot higher than a Vince Lombardi trophy.

—Beau Stanley

Follow @beaustanley

An NBA lock-in

It looks like the NFL lockout is coming to a close after the owners ratified an agreement last night, but I hear sides are really far apart in the NBA. I think I have found the solution to the NBA lockout, though. Let’s just get the players and owners to have a lock-in.

Yes, lock-ins are mostly a middle-school thing, but maybe the shoe fits here. Lock-ins are a lot of fun. Basically you get a bunch of people together in a building and they stay there for a night. The only one I remember participating in took place at an indoor sports facility. Unlimited batting cage tokens + intense personality = hands that look like shredded meat, evidently.

I’m not sure where they’d go, but maybe they could hang out in an arcade that features only “Magic vs. Bird.” Maybe they could rent out Latrell Sprewell’s house so that he can feed his kids—that was a concern of his some time ago, anyway. Maybe they could go to a big party barn and have face-painting and hide-the-revenue games. Maybe they could stay at St. John Arena and play a huge game of lockout knockout.

Are there colossal egos in play here? Sure. But I’m convinced that if you pump a little Rob Base through the speakers and have them together watch Chunk from Goonies do the Truffle Shuffle, everyone will be holding hands and singing “Kumbaya” afterward. 

Admittedly, there may be a better way to settle a dispute than to lock both sides in the same building for an extended period of time. There are some logistical challenges with this idea, too. Who will do the valet parking? Who will go through the buffet line first? Who will pay since everyone seems to be so strapped for cash?

If we can’t pull off the lock-in idea, maybe there really won’t be an NBA season after all. I, for one, won’t notice until playoff season rolls around in late September.

— Beau Stanley

Follow @beaustanley