Personal news:
I popped into Barnsley Football Club ticket
office today & asked for 2 tickets for Manchester City v Barnsley FC in the
Quarter Finals of the FA Cup. Of course
I knew full well that the Man City stadium is sold out, including Barnsley’s
allocation of 6000 tickets. However, on the
way down, I prayed, “Lord, if it pleases you, I’d love to have 2 seats together”
(so I can take our 12 yr old).
I walked into an empty ticket office and
the woman said, “Two tickets have just been returned”, so I bought them, amazed
at answered prayer. God always answers
prayer, but sometimes the answer is no, or not yet! It’s good to pray about all manner of things,
including football tickets, and trusting God with the outcome!
I began to think a bit more...why does such a game, which, as my
mother-in-law says, is just a bag of wind being kicked around cause such
interest? It does galvanise a town like
Barnsley to be playing in the Q/F of the FA Cup, against such high quality
opponents (last season’s Premier League champions). Football draws a community together. But also there is something about the ‘underdog’
trying to topple the ‘favourites’, indeed the odds are stacked against BFC
progressing to the semi-finals of the world’s old football competition. But we all love to see the ‘weak shame the strong’.
This reminds me of the good news of Jesus,
who from a position of total weakness ‘disarmed the powers and
authorities...triumphing over them by the cross” (Bible). At Gateway Church we’re half-way through a
preaching series looking at why Jesus died?
The series is called ‘The world’s greatest hero – Christ crucified’.
Whatever happens at the big game tomorrow, we’ll
enjoy the experience, even though it’s a dent in some birthday money I was
given in order to buy the tickets! I’m
not used to buying a ticket, because I usually get paid to watch Barnsley
FC! Well not quite, I’m actually a match
day steward at BFC’s home games at Oakwell, the home of where Gateway church
was launched on Easter Sunday 2011.
Easter Sunday reminds me that surprises do take place – when the church celebrates and declares that the ‘underdog’
did overcome the odds and emerged victorious.
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