Recently, my wife and I went to Wichita to see our grandkids and their mom and dad. One evening they asked me to go to Dillon’s the next morning early to purchase some things. I went the next morning, arriving at Dillon’s at 7:15 a.m.

Coming from a small Kansas town I was amazed at the dairy aisle with so many products to choose from. But I could not find any of the buttermilk my daughter wanted. I asked a woman who was dragging a pallet jack loaded with boxes out of the back room, “Where is the buttermilk”? The woman gave me an angry look and said, “You will have to find it yourself.” I was kind of surprised and my first thought was to be angry with a comment back at her, but I kept quiet. I then called my daughter on the cell phone and said, “I have never seen so many milk products in my life and where exactly should I look for buttermilk?”

I am talking to my daughter on the phone at the far south end of this dairy aisle at the same time as the woman who told me to look for myself comes out of the back room and goes to the north end of the display and reaches in the refrigerator door and then without looking at me says in a loud voice, “That is all I have” and then she disappears in the back room again.

I go to the area the woman was at and in this refrigerator are three buttermilk containers in an otherwise empty area. I don’t know if she brought these three from the back room or what.

I take one and move towards the ice cream department. As I start down the aisle a man with a pallet jack filled with frozen goods is in the middle of that area. He pulls his head out of the freezer door and says, “Have you got enough room to get by my stuff?” I said, “Yes.” He says, “Good, have a great day.”

I get to the self-checkout area and am scanning my products and a woman that is working in the store filling in plastic bags at the checkout area is having a conversation out loud with God next to me. She says, “God, I need your help.” The woman actually said that twice and the Holy Spirit prompted me to say, “He will help you and is with you.” She never looked at me but said, “I had to go through Christmas by myself, He better help me.”

Three different people, in a matter of five minutes, one who was angry, one who was very happy, one who was searching for God. To be honest, the more I thought about it, I have been every one of those people in my life also, at some point of time.

Our scout team during my high school years of football was called the rainbow squad. We had different colored mesh pullovers that went over our jerseys and pads. We called ourselves the ‘bows.’ We were the ones who represented the opponent in practice and took on our own varsity during the week leading up to the varsity game on Friday night. We had great camaraderie and were a team within a team on the football roster. We loved taking on the varsity each Tuesday and Wednesday during scrimmage time. Some of my most fond memories of playing high school football came on those weekday scrimmages.

Small groups are important in life whether on a football team, such as linemen, defense, offense, special teams or small civic groups in your town or small groups within your church.

Research shows that 80% of people who join small groups in a church will still be involved in that church five years later. Only 20% of church goers who do not join small groups will be involved in that particular church five years later.

Create small groups in every area of your life and stay involved. The original twelve disciples were a small group and they changed the world.

Here below is the story of Father Kapaun a great Kansan. His remains have been identified in Korea and his funeral is today in Wichita.

Football coaches test players in practice so they can be ready for the big game on Friday night.

Our football opponents, during those games on Friday nights, try to fool the players to get out of position on defense by tempting us with counters, options, reverses, misdirection plays, play action passes and quarterback looks one way and throwing another.

God does not tempt us. God tests us to confirm our faith or commitment to Him.

Deuteronomy 8:2 “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.”

Satan tempts us trying to pull us away from the will of God.

1 Thessalonians 3:5 ‘For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you and our labor would be in vain.’

James 1:13-15 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown gives birth to death.

In the huddle before every play the fullback would ask, “Which way do we go Pat?” The fullback was a great athlete in Middle School football, but the kid refused to study the playbook. He was one of the best athletes in school and a large individual so the coach continued to play him.

Our offensive formation was the straight T. The fullback was to take a hand off from the quarterback on either side of the center in a dive play or he was to go to the left or right basically towards the defensive tackle or end and block ahead of the halfback. The coach thought of the pass as a negative thing. So before every play the fullback would ask the halfback which way to go after the quarterback called the play?

My first thought, when I think back to that team, is I laugh. It is a good story to have fun with. My second thought is I know the kid should have studied the playbook and I know he should have paid more attention to the play calling by the quarterback so that later in the season he could have known where to go by himself, but at least the kid never got the play wrong. How many times have you seen a kid think he knows the play and goes the wrong way? The quarterback turns the wrong way and smashes into the fullback and they fumble the ball. The quarterback reaches the ball out for the option play fake but the back is on the other side of the line behind him? The guard pulls the wrong direction and either steps on the quarterback’s foot or he runs into the other guard pulling right at him. You get the picture.

So which way do we go? Most of us in our lives go the way we want to go. The heck with the quarterback play calling. So in our lives we step on the quarterbacks feet, we run into the other players, we fumble the ball, we miss our assignments, we make a mess out of our lives in a football sense. God gives us the freedom to do whatever we want to do and we all screw it up, we all are sinners. But there is hope. Don’t ever give up. There is that guy in the huddle that will tell you which direction to go on every play. He is the Holy Spirit the Holy Representative sent by God the Father to be with us on this earth. All you have to do is ask him the question? Which way should I go?

Isaiah 48:17-18 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;

Several of my football teammates had been seen drinking beer at a party next door to one of the new to town assistant football coaches home, at the start of the football season. The assistant told the head coach about it and the head coach went to the players and asked them about it. They admitted to the incident. Coach could have kicked them off the team, due to the rules of the team, but he did not. He made them apologize to the team before practice one night.

All of us at one point or another in our lives have chosen to break the rules. Either we break Gods laws, human laws, and the laws of nature or even the coach’s rules for the team.

Thankfully, God does not reject us at our first offense of ignoring the laws or the second or third etc. God continually draws us towards him as long as we are still alive on this earth and wants us on the team. But there may be a penalty to have to pay.

The best place for rule breakers is on the team, because those rule breakers are all of us.

Paul Bear Bryant was football coach at Alabama for 25 years and on the day he died this folded up poem was found in his wallet. He read this poem to his team ever so often and told the team, “Don’t be to proud to get on your knees and pray.”

“This is the beginning of a new day. God has given me this day to use as I will. I can waste it or use it for good. What I do today is very important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving something in its place I have traded for it. I want it to be gain, not loss, good, not evil. Success, not failure in order that I shall not forget the price I paid for it.”

It is very important to read from the Bible everyday, but I also read other books. These are my favorite books from the past several years. Most all were found at thrift stores or used online.

Anam Cara by John O’Donohue (A book of Celtic Wisdom)

He Leadeth Me by Walter J. Ciszek (American priest that spent 23 years in Soviet Gulag)

Holy Desperation by Heather King (Praying as if your life depends on it)

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes (A novel of the Viet Nam War, but actually Karl’s story)

Evangelical is Not Enough by Thomas Howard (Worship of God in Liturgy & Sacrament)

Dakota by Kathleen Norris (A Spiritual Geography)

The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris

Prayer Shield by C. Peter Wagner (How to Intercede for Pastors & Other Christian Leaders)

The Unnecessary Pastor by Marva J. Dawn & Eugene Peterson

Working the Angles by Eugene Peterson (The Shape of Pastoral Integrity)

Ten Things Wrong with the Modern Church by Paul Washer

Knowing God by J.I. Packer (Took over a year to read, so much good information.)

Catholics Wake Up by Jesse Romero (Be a Spiritual Warrior)

Map of My Dead Pilots by Colleen Mondor (The Dangerous Game of Flying in Alaska)