Three Rings

            At the end of the New England Patriots historic undefeated regular season, quarterback Tom Brady was interviewed on the TV program, 60 Minutes. Reflecting on the success he had achieved in our American culture, Brady said:

Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there is something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, “Hey man this is what it is.” I reach my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think, “God, it's got to be more than this.” I mean this isn't, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be.

            Tom Brady had encountered the problem all humans do: the realization that there has got to be more to life than this. People instinctively realize that something transcends their lives. That “something” is God. People were created to know God.

            I hope Tom Brady has come to know God. 

            Do you?

Source: Preaching the Word: 1 & 2 Thessalonians by James Grant

What Is The Name of that Song?

Ever heard a song that you recognized, liked, and wanted to find the name of it? NFL Films played a piece to open its highlight film of the New York Giants’ 1990 season. It was a beautiful, compelling, and inspirational piece of music.

The work lay dormant in my mind until recently, when I heard it on a JOS A BANK commercial. “Wow! I’ve got to find that and download it to my iTunes library,” I thought to myself. And so the search began.

The search is not over. I looked for the music on iTunes. I hunted for it on Amazon. I rummaged around the back channels of YOUTUBE. I even deployed the song identification apps from my iPhone in the effort to find this piece of music.

Why do I go to this trouble? Because that work of music touches something deep within me. Is it an emotion? Yes, but I think it goes deeper than that.

C. S. Lewis wrote that we possess a longing that haunts us. It senses another world that awaits us. This yearning for another place could even be described as nostalgic.

I believe this hunger to transcend our world reflects an innate desire to reconnect with God. We came into the world with a closer relationship with Him. That was lost when we entered into a life of focus on self—otherwise known as a life of sin. We miss what we know we should have. We long to have it back.

Fortunately, because of the work of Christ, someday that relationship can be fully restored. In the meantime, perhaps we can content ourselves with gentle reminders of what we ultimately hope for, as we hunt for the songs that move us.