Facing the Giants

It was about 3 weeks ago when the student pastor sent out an "all staff" email saying that there would be an office NCAA bracket contest.

I thought to myself...I don't know anything about brackets.

And then I thought to myself again...Wouldn't it be funny if I actually won and put all these men to shame.

And then I thought...Email Keith Jones and have him help you fill out the bracket. So I did. I emailed him and I did not receive a response until...

The phone rings at 9:30 on a Monday night and it was my friend Tracey Jones and they were ready to fill out my bracket. I was already in the bed and kind of over the bracket at this point. So, I told her that I was just gonna skip it, and if I decided to fill one out in the morning when I got to work, I would just place random teams in all the blanks. She agreed that sometimes that works...that shocked me because Tracey doesn't usually do anything "random"...there's always a plan.

(Some of you have gotten the 9:30 call from Tracey where she says, "are you in bed?"... please continue on with your laughter.)

Anyhoo, random teams in all the blanks it was. Oh, I did make some good choices along the way...

A little Purdue here...

A little Villanova over there...

A little Gonzaga around here (I have no idea where Gonzaga is and how they got on an NCAA bracket, never heard of'em.)

I was really just picking teams with unusual sounding names. I just like the way they sounded when I said them.

But what you need to understand is...

I was facing the giants!

The first giant I was facing was the student pastor...Big T.

He's played a game of football in his time. He attends all the local high school games and helps train the team as well, so he has to know a thing or twenty about sports. Right?

I would like to title this picture: Who's laughing now!

The second giant I was facing was the Missions/Children's Pastor Reagan. He's been known to rush the kids out of children's choir, light up the big screen and invite all his friends to watch a Cowboys or Mavericks game...(did I just say all that out loud?) So he knows a little something-something about these basketball games, right?

I would like to title this picture: Plaid Shorts...that's all I got.

And my third and final giant is PT, the Senior Pastor. If you've attended TSC for at least 30 days then you know almost every sermon has some sort of sports related illustration, if you're a church member wearing Titans blue...he's hoping you'll be a season ticket holder--who will want to attend a ball game with your poor ticket-less pastor and he's just a wee bit competitive. Just a wee bit. He seems to know or thing or two about the wide world of sports.

I would like to title this picture: I lost, I lost, I lost to...Big Nanny!

And now I leave you with my final concern...I've yet to receive my congratulatory "all staff" announcement email that states that I'm the first place winner of the 2009 TSC Office Bracket Contest and when/where the prize presentation ceremony will be. Could the student pastor be thinking that I will forget about this?

Let's be honest...does anyone actually think I'm going to forget about this?