The Draft

Remember those days in the neighborhood, when the guys got together to play touch football. Captains were selected and they began to choose up teams. Were you ever anxious, if you were one of the last ones picked? Well, just imagine how it must have been for many college football players who waited to receive the call that they had been picked in the 2009 NFL Draft. There were 256 who received calls, the rest didn't.

One of those who didn't get a call was Graham Harrell, the 2008 recipient of the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Trophy for being the best quarterback in college football. Why wasn't he selected as one of the 256 players in the 2009 NFL Draft? Wasn't he good enough?

Harrell's outstanding career at Texas Tech University included setting NCAA records in most touchdown passes in a career, most 300 yard (32) and 400 yard (20) passing games; and surpassing 5,000 yards passing in two consecutive seasons. This year, he finished fourth in the votes for the Heisman Trophy, which is awarded to the best college football player each year. Despite all his accomplishments, he was not chosen. To his credit, his rejection was not because of moral, legal or attitude issues, he just didn't fit the profile for being an NFL quarterback.

Rejection is a very humbling experience. Not just for aspiring football players; for all of us. You apply for a job, but don't get it. You ask someone out on a date, and they turn you down. After ten years of marriage, your spouse says they want a divorce. Your parents split up, and you feel left behind. You do your very best, yet someone else beats you out. You try your very best, but your performance is never good enough. Maybe you have felt the sting of rejection.

Well, so did Christ. He came to be the Savior to the world, yet he was rejected by those he came to save. He didn't fit into their profile of a Savior. He wasn't of royal descent, nor a mighty warrior, he came into the world as a carpenter's son and teacher. Many didn't realize that He was God's Son wrapped in human flesh. Most didn't accept that He was the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament. Some did believe and accept Him.

"He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all that received Him, to those who believed in His name , He gave the right to become the children of God." John 1:11-12

He was rejected and nailed to a cross, so that you might be accepted. Because sin, you were alienated from God. But because of Jesus, you can be a child of God. Jesus died a sacrificial death, so that you could have eternal life. Haven't you realized it? God loved you so much that He made YOU: His number one pick.

Oops! Spellcheck, please.

Last Friday, April 17, 2009 in Washington D.C., the home team dressed in the locker room, yet the players didn't notice. As they were introduced on the field, no one noticed it. When the team was in the dugout, no one caught the mistake. Not until the sports announcers on the TV broadcast and the people in the stands saw it on the giant TV screen, did the mistake become known. Two of their star players, Adam Dunn and Ryan Zimmerman had on jerseys that had the team name misspelled. It read, "NATINALS," instead of "NATIONALS." The "O" was missing.

Someone who was sewing the name on the jersey, in their rush to get the job done,left the "O" off. Maybe they were out of "O's." Regardless, they just messed up. But they were not the only one. Whoever inspected the job missed it, too. It wasn't caught by the person that packed it in the delivery box. The equipment manager that hung it in the locker of the players, didn't catch the mistake either. It went unnoticed until it was revealed on the Big Screen in high definition for all the world to see.

No one would have ever known had the miscue been dealt with earlier. Instead, the mistake became an embarrassment to the team, the organization, the owner and the fans. Though the mistake was corrected during the game, the mockery continued as the story spread throughout the sports media network.

Mistakes, miscues, goof-ups and sin happens. Too all of us. But usually most of ours don't end up on a "Jumbo-tron." Imagine if the last impure thought you had, made its way to YouTube. Consider that "juicy bit of gossip" you shared with a friend was broadcast on the evening news quoting you as the source. What if you went to a movie theater, and your past week's sins were the preview to the movie. Talk about embarrassing.

I think many of us, even as Christians, think that our sins done in secret, stay a secret. In reality, they are not secret at all. Every thought, word, attitude and action, including our sinful ones are played out before the eyes of our all-knowing, holy Heavenly Father.
"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord." (Psalm 139:1-4)

It is only by His grace and mercy that doesn't make our sin known to others. Yet be assured that though God is patient, He will not be mocked. As the Israelites discovered "your sins will find you out." (Exodus 32:23) If we persist in our rebellion against God and continue in our sin. He will allow our sin and its impact on our lives to come out for others to see.

Even as followers of Christ, we will stumble and fall into sin. But God desires that as His Holy Spirit convicts and convinces us of our sinfulness, that we get right with Him. The psalmist, David prayed, "Search me, O God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." (Psalm 139:23-24)

When we do sin, if we will confess and repent of our sin right then, He forgives us and it goes no further. "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103:12)