December 21

First Letter by Peter -- 1 Peter 1:1-2; The Blessings of Redemption -- 1 Peter 1:3-25, 2:1-10; Glorifying God for Redemption -- 1 Peter 2:11-25, 3:1-12; Steadfastness in Persecution -- 1 Peter 3:13-22, 4:1-19, 5:1-11; Concluding Thoughts -- 1 Peter 5:12-14

"Even angels long to look into these things." [1 Peter 1:12]

Makes you wonder if the angels watch us like we watch television?  What do the angels know about the script ahead of time and how much do they sit and watch in wonder?  They know how the shows going to end, but it must be interesting to see the plot twists God introduces along the way.  Every once in awhile their Father calls them away from the TV.  "Hey, Michael, I've got something I want you to do.  Can you run down to earth for me?"  I wonder if in God's TV Guide our lives are marked drama, action or comedy?

"For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God." [1 Peter 2:19]

I can't help but think of Coach Don Meyer when I read this.  He was basketball coach at Lipscomb when I was there.  A December 15, 2008, Sports Illustrated article about him, titled The Game of His Life, had this to day about his recent near-fatal car accident:

A Blessing.  Even now, three months after the accident nearly claimed his life, Don Meyer calls it a blessing.  "You can't look at it any other way," he says.  It was a a blessing to crash into a semi that was carrying 90,000 pounds of grain while driving to a team retreat on Sept. 5.  It was a blessing to lose his left leg below the knee, to endure eight surgeries, to spend weeks in the hospital fighting pain so intense that he would croak church hymns as tears streamed down his face.  It was a blessing, Meyer says, and here's why:  If the wreck hadn't happened, if the doctors hadn't performed emergency surgery to remove his spleen and reattach his diaphragm, they wouldn't have discovered the cancer burrowing into his liver and small intestine until it was too late.

It was a blessing to survive, to know what he's facing and now, more than anything else, to coach again.  "I just wonder sometimes because I shouldn't be here," says Meyer, the coach at Division II Northern State in Aberdeen, S.D., the man who, with 898 career victories at week's end, needs just five wins to pass Bob knight as the alltime leader among NCAA men's basketball coaches.  "There's no realistic way I should be here right now, when you get down to it, unless there's something I've still got to do."

If you haven't read Meyer's story in SI, you can read it all here.  It's amazing how what most have perceived as tragedy God and Meyer are turning into a witness to the world on a national stage.