"Please, Lord, not me."

Bible College Education: Check.

Seminary Education: Check[ing].

Desire to be a perpectual thinker and learner? That's me.

Desire for others to be thinkers and learners? Yup!

Desire for others to be thinkers and learners even if they are "just laymen"? Why, certainly.

Desire to be the punk seminarian who thinks he's got it all down while his congregants "just don't know enough" and would all be better off if they would just let me get away with my highly technical language and swallow my deeply profound theological principles because, while I know more than they do, they still ought to know all that I know? Please, Lord, not me.

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I never want to be that kind of thinker - the one who knows it all; the one who refuses to translate; the one who can't get past his own abilities to theorize in the stratosphere; the one who thinks his people are just a bunch of dumb sheep who are going to eat this doggone giraffe food whether they like it or not, at least, so far as I'm concerned.

Please, Lord, not me.

Now, let me clarify... Think, we must. Think, I must. Think, my people must. But, #1, I don't have all of the answers, though I do, surely, have some. And, #2, I must be willing to translate if I ever hope to be even a smidgen of what it means to be all things to all men. #3, I myself don't even live in the stratosphere - and neither do most of us who think of ourselves as intellectually-minded - so, let's get over our pretenses; they're anything but endearing. And finally, according to Jesus, I myself am a sheep, and I'm not to hip on admitting stupidity to myself; plus, I myself like steaks, burgers, chicken saltimbocca, and the likes - what's all this jibber-jabber about giraffe food?

Again... Think, I must. But never do I want to be that loser who crams his seminariness down the throats of people who, quite frankly, couldn't care less.

Surely, more posting concerning this is on the horizon. But, for now, this was just a rant.

brett favre: a portrait of perseverance

“...Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” -Hebrews 10:35-36 ESV

The writer to the Hebrews calls his readers to press on. Having access to the very presence of God through the veil of Jesus' flesh, they are urged to draw near in the full assurance of faith. However, they face hardship. In fact, they face persecution. And yet, this is nothing new to them, for they have already endured such things. They had faced public scorn and humiliation; they had watched their property as it was taken from them. And now, they faced more – possibly even similar – threats and dangers.

In light of this, the writer encourages them to not give up but, rather, to hold fast to their confession of hope. If they failed to do so, the fact that they had “endured a hard struggle with sufferings” (10:32b ESV) before would be null and void. And so, they had a serious and pressing need for perseverance.

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I personally see Brett Favre as the greatest quarterback to ever play the game of football. Though many would strongly disagree with such a statement, one would only be fooling himself to disagree with the following statement: Brett Favre is by far the greatest picture of perseverance to ever play the game of football.

In the midst of several record-breaking statistics, Favre's greatest stat, in my estimation, is in the category of consecutive starts: He stands at 244 consecutive starts (264 including playoffs). This still-growing feat spans 17 seasons. The only other player in NFL history to have more consecutive starts was a lineman – defensive end Jim Marshall, who ended his career with 270 consecutive starts (widely known also for returning a fumble the wrong direction, resulting in a safety).

To put Favre's starts as a quarterback in perspective, the following is of interest: Among those still playing the game, the only others even “on the radar” with Favre are Peyton Manning (151) and Tom Brady (102), a point which is interesting to note, in and of itself. Of those whose careers have already ended, there is Ron Jaworski (162) and Joe Ferguson (107), both beginning and ending their careers in 1977 and 1984, respectively. Other than these five, there are, in fact, no other quarterbacks in the history of the NFL who have accumulated 100 consecutive starts.

Brett Favre has played through concussions and pains of all sorts. Only a few years ago, he played most of the season with a broken thumb on his right hand. More importantly, he's right-handed! During this past off-season, he underwent surgery to repair various fractures in his foot, an injury he simply ignored during the last part of the 2006-2007 season.

In 2003 (December 22), Favre led the Green Bay Packers (his team since his second NFL season) to trample the Oakland Raiders on Monday Night Football. Favre, not surprisingly, chose to play this game despite the fact that his father died the day before. The night before the game, he wanted to bear his heart to his teammates and did so in a called team meeting. The game turned out to be quite possibly one of the greatest performances of Favre's career and one of the most emotionally-charged games of NFL history. In the first half alone, Favre threw 4 touchdowns. He ended the game with a score of 41-7 and 399 passings yards.

Despite the criticism and skepticism of others, Favre has continued, and this year he is among the best in the NFL, as he leads the Packers into week 9 with a record of 6-1, tied only with the Dallas Cowboys at the top of the NFC. Doing so, he continues to play with child-like fun – shouting, running, and leaping after long completed passes, carrying teammates off the field after touchdowns, and the likes. His love for the game is endearing.

Brett Favre... He is relentless. And, for that, he is a portrait of perseverance.

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* check out this video by Deanna Favre which served as the introduction to this past week's Monday Night Football game (the Green Bay Packers at the Denver Broncos):

http://www.faniq.com/video/Deanna-Favre-introduction-on-Monday-Night-Football-YouTube-3532,10,2/sport_recent