Watch Out for Wofford!

I’m sitting here staring at my NCAA Men’s Basketball Bracket, and I have mixed emotions. On one hand, I’m excited to see buzzer beaters and amazing performances. There will be Cinderella stories and epic meltdowns. It will be March Madness!

On the other hand, I am completely conflicted on how to fill this bracket out. My head and heart get into quite the argument. Sure, we live 20 minutes from Carver Hawkeye Arena and my closet looks a bit like the inside of Ironside Apparel, but should that mean a 10 seed over a 7 seed? And for three years as a grad student I WAS a Cameron Crazie! But can Zion carry them all the way? My heart and my head don’t always agree.

Wait, I’m a dad of two year old twins. That means I don’t know anything about 90% of these teams. Come on, I watch Sesame Street and Frozen, not SportsCenter and late night PAC-12 basketball. So if I am supposed to trust my head over my heart, my head is admittedly not up to speed.

When I see Marquette I still think of Dwayne Wade and when I see Maryland I still think of Juan Dixon. I know more about Old Dominion the country band than the basketball team, and Colgate is a toothpaste!

I really can’t trust my head.

So I’ll probably listen to some person on ESPN tell me who is good and who might pull an upset. Either that or I’ll pick with an East Coast bias or Big Ten tilt. Something has to give, right?

This bracket will be busted by day two, no doubt.

At times, being a Christian and answering the call to be a part of a Christian community can feel sort of like picking a bracket. We try to use our hearts and our heads, but they don’t always agree. We aren’t sure who to take advice from and we know we have biases that affect it all. We are flawed.

But, our faith will not be broken and our unity doesn’t have to bust like our NCAA brackets.

Take a deep breath. Our faith is NOTHING like picking winners and losers. If it is, then we have become the Pharisees, and Jesus said “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees! Hypocrites!” (Matthew 23:13)

Faith in Jesus means following him the best we know how. It involves learning as much as we can alongside a variety of people; using our heads.

In Matthew 11:29 Jesus says, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Don’t forget that it is important to learn from Jesus and discern how the Holy Spirit speaks to us through scripture.

But we can’t just rely on our minds. Ours is a faith that has everything to do with our hearts. In Romans 2 we are reminded that the laws of our Lord are written on our hearts. And 2 Corinthians 3:6 says that what is written kills but the Spirit gives life. We can’t separate our faith from our hearts.

By the grace of Christ, our head and our heart are guided on the path of righteousness.

And we sure need the Christian community to help us overcome the biases we carry. The more isolated we become, the more our particular viewpoint skews everything we do.

Your head and heart don’t have to be at odds when it comes to living in Christian community and following Jesus. Instead, we get to live in the wonderful continuing revelations of God’s grace and love, reconciling our hearts with the wisdom that the Spirit grants us.

Our beloved United Methodist Church is in the midst of what appears to be struggles between heads, hearts, and listening to only the people that appeal to our agendas/biases. But guess what? Hope abounds!

The only thing that will keep us separated from one another is pride. Pride comes before disaster, and arrogance before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18) But we boast only of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14).

At Shueyville UMC we are doing our best to love one another, listen to one another, learn from one another, and learn from God’s Word. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. (Romans 8:38-39)

By 11:15AM on Wednesday you’ll need to have your bracket complete. You can’t get a redo after one of your teams go down. Your bracket won’t be perfect and you have to live with it.

But when it comes to following Jesus, there is an abundance of forgiveness. That means at any time we can see the error of our ways, repent, and live into the love and grace of God. We get redoes and our imperfections are covered by the blood of Christ.

So, I’m going to fill this bracket out, take Duke to the finals, and then cheer for all kinds of underdogs. Why? Well, we know that our Lord is always standing on behalf of those who are overlooked. And just like Jesus, we all love a Cinderella story!

Watch out for Wofford!