Perspective Matters

$1,104,912.08

A person that makes this amount of money per year is in the top 0.1% in the whole world!

Now, what if you made this, after taxes, each month?  Well, you would be a defensive lineman in the NFL who is, as of April, 2025, the 10th highest paid player at his position.

Currently this player is in a contract negotiation dispute with his employer because he is entering the last year of his contract and he, in one key statistical category, did the best of anyone in the league.  Apparently there’s been some offense because his employer went public with comments saying that this player should be happy with what he’s been offered.

In what world can someone say that he deserves to earn more than $21 million/year?  In a world that includes his little circle and those who want to talk about it (the gigantic sports world).

In much more subtle ways, each of can easily get caught up in our own little world.  We feel trapped by the world that we create around us.  Whether it’s one of luxury and fame or whether it’s a world of suffering and struggle.  When we’ve convinced ourselves that there’s no way out or that this will be our situation until the day we die or that we’re alone, we start doing anything we can to find temporary ways to escape this world.  This is why people from of all socio-economic categories are susceptible to lose hope.  The rich and the poor, the famous and the average all give us examples of depression, loneliness, and addiction to drugs, alcohol, pornography, attention, etc.?

Like our friend in the NFL mentioned above, the only logic we see is from very limited viewpoints; viewpoints that either feed our pride or convince us that we’re worthless (which is another form of pride).  Just like it’s easy for us to see how ridiculous it is for a person to squabble over whether he makes $21 million or $25 million each year, I’m here to tell you that you are not trapped in whatever situation you find yourself in.

How do I know?  Well, because I felt trapped (and still do, to smaller degrees) when I pridefully determined to get out of a debilitating sexual sin problem ON MY OWN.  I could have stayed in this little world, surrounded myself with cultural voices that say that I should just pursue more porn or that I should explore whatever sexual thought I had to be “true to myself.”  Instead, I was found out by my wife of, at the time, 10 years, confessed my wrong doing, and for the first time told someone how it was weighing me down and causing me heartache.  Finally, I was starting to gain a much more accurate and healthy perspective.

Assuming that nobody from the top 0.1% of the world is reading this, I’ll use the ultra-rich as an example of why we need to get a better (and bigger) perspective?  After hovering around $4 million/year from 2015-2021, the average Major League Baseball salary has slowly climbed to over $5 million/year in 2025.  I’m sure many Major Leaguers actually do maintain perspective, live well within their means, and spend most of their life using this money to do other things that they enjoy or to give to many things that they have a passion for.  Similarly, you and I, no matter what struggle we feel we’re trapped in, or what life situation we can’t see a solution to, can still gain perspective.  We can broaden our friend-base, look to God and the Bible for the things that are most important, and start putting ourselves in other peoples’ shoes by listening and learning.  

There is a right and wrong perspective.  First, hopefully, you can get to see the perspective the what makes you truly rich in life is filling it with things that matter, not the things that’ll soon fade away and lose their luster.  Seek first your own little world and your own circle of influencers and you will continually strive for the next thing.  Seek first God’s kingdom and all of the things in life that we tend to worry about will be taken care of and we will experience contentment and peace of eternal significance. See Matthew 6:25-34, Philippians 4:4-9, and Ecclesiastes 2:18-26 for some more good perspective.

The Religion of the NFL

 Believe it or not, this is not a piece that will vilify the NFL.  I don't have time to stand in that line of "enemies of the NFL," which is a religion of its own.  Plus, that line is long enough and, admittedly, I kind of like football and am a die hard Bronco fan.  

The National Football League reached a low in 2016-2017 in viewership of only 14.9 million per game, down 10% from the previous year due to many issues, mainly on the political front.  The next off-season the Supreme Court opened the door for the expansion of gambling on sporting events.  Viewership had risen every year from then until the 2021-2022 season.  Though less have watched over the past two years, gambling has more than doubled over the past two years!  One way or another, the NFL has a pull, a draw, an addicting nature to it, it seems.

People are looking for something to follow, to run to, to fall back on in the midst of a world that is growing increasingly tiring and hateful.  Religion, simply put, is man's way of making sense of things, or of getting to God, if your one to believe that God makes sense of things.  In my case, a biblically-accurate Christianity is how I "get to God."  By God's grace in sending Jesus into the world to die for the world's sins, He has opened the door for all who repent of the their sins and believe by faith in the person and work of Jesus to have eternal life.  In other words, it wasn't my effort that saved me, it was God's actions towards me.

What is your way of making sense of things?  Maybe you dive into your job, or a hobby, or your family.  Maybe your stuck in an unhealthy cycle of drug, alcohol, porn, or gambling addiction?  Maybe it's your relationship with God that is bringing you perspective?  Everybody has something they default to, or numerous things that compete for their attention.  The NFL is an easy way to fill that void, to be sure, yet it still falls short.  Even if you increase your interest in the NFL by betting or doing fantasy football or building a friend group around your team, it still will always fall short of making sense of things.  As I've argued earlier, football holds some great life lessons in it, both for fans and players.  Also, it's a blast to follow the story-lines and the unpredictable nature of almost any game (hey, my Broncos almost pulled off an upset and scored four touchdowns in one game, so anything is possible).  Yet, the NFL, nor anything else that briefly distracts us from the world, will ever truly help us.

Each person needs something that will fulfill their expectations of creating lasting purpose, giving real peace, and producing joy beyond your circumstances.  A religion CAN NOT do this because religion will always be centered on OUR EFFORTS.  Yes, there are certain Christian efforts that unintentionally make it all about us.  Yet, the essence of Christianity is not a religion, but a lifestyle of following Jesus and making Him our aim, our focus, our Lord.  Whatever you default to . . . how's that working for you?  

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."  Romans 8:28 nails it!  His purpose for us is our best purpose ever.  Go ahead and dive into whatever healthy job or hobby you have.  Go ahead and get the help you need to get away from the unhealthy coping mechanisms you have.  But do it all while telling God, often, that He's your focus, your favorite, your Lord. 

The Lost Art of Asking for Help

 Kyler Murray of the NFL Arizona Cardinals signed a $230.5 million contract that brings him through the 2028 season.  He was about to start the last year of his contract, but his club clearly wants him to know of their commitment to him.  Murray turned 25 yesterday (Happy Birthday, Kyler!) and stated after his team’s playoff loss to eventual Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams, “I’m going to continue to grow and get better.”

This young man (yes, he is still quite young) knows that he must get better and that being an NFL quarterback is no longer just a fun activity, is nothing like college ball, and that he has more than just his own future riding on his shoulders.  His QB rating has gone up each of his three seasons, which is something few other QB’s have been able to say about their first three years.  He clearly deserves this new contract, for his first three years rank quite high up among the greatest first three years ever (not really close to Mahomes, Rodgers, or Marino, but clearly better than Manning, Elway, Brady, and Brees).

 Yet, what gets almost all of the press is one addendum in the contract that seeks to dictate how Murray spends four hours per week during the season.  He must spend four hours each week studying for the upcoming game, without other distractions like internet surfing, gaming, or video-watching.  That’s right, FOUR (4) HOURS-A-WEEK, for about 26-30 weeks, depending on how long the team’s season is.  Why so much press?  Well, initially because it’s odd, not normal for a contract of this magnitude to have such a clause in it.  Then, once talk shows, newspapers, and know-it-all sports “insiders” got ahold of it, they were questioning why in the world Murray would agree to such a stipulation and why the Cardinals felt like they needed this type of “babysitting” for their star player.  These conversations morphed into such ridiculous theories which gave Murray a poor work ethic and even accused the Cardinal’s organization as racist.

 At the risk of being simplistic and for the love of keeping things out of the headlines that shouldn’t be there, allow me to propose another thought here:  Kyler Murray wants to get better and is willing to take the advice of his employer regarding one way that he can get better.

What if it is as simple as that?  Well, first, that’s not really headline grabbing, so we choose not to go down that road.  Secondly, though, very few of us want to admit that we have lots to learn, and even fewer of us will go to the length of putting things in place to keep us learning.  Proverbs 30:2 (a book of some of the wisest sayings ever penned) is a self-declaration that each man, woman, and child should learn to utter for the rest of their days:  “I am more stupid than any other person, and I lack a human’s ability to understand.”

 From this one verse, there are two things we can learn from God and human history:

1.     We are not the sharpest tool in the shed.  You will grow more and learn more when you are of the mindset that most people are smarter than you.

2.     We are limited in our capacity to understand.  You are not God, there is only one God, and the one God has full understanding that He’s willing to guide us with.

Though I’m sure it’s out there, I hadn’t located any writers or sports talkers that supported Kyler Murray’s willingness to be held accountable for something that he needs to get better at.  How about a shout out to his employer (the Arizona Cardinals) for having a wholistic approach to protecting their investment by making sure that this young man develops this important part of his job (and future jobs, as well, whenever he’s done playing football).  Oh, and let’s add a third thing that God teaches us and that, if we’re honest, we know to be true:  We need each other in so many ways.

So, find an employer that cares about you as a person then be loyal to that employer to the point that you willingly admit your weaknesses and develop your strengths for their benefit.  This type of humble approach to life does EVERYBODY good, including yourself.

UPDATE:  The Cardinals chose to take the clause out in order for it not to be a distraction. It's funny how somebody else's brief obsession with what they THINK they know (the press) can dictate how an individual or organization runs their own stuff after giving it alot of thought.

Exactly who are we giving thanks to? And for what?

Recently, an NFL receiver who fumbled in OT to contribute to his team’s loss, stated on Twitter that he had received numerous death threats from fans.

One of his tweets was . . .

Thank you, God.  Without failure there is no growth.

 

In order to by thankful to God for something that didn’t go well, a person must have a healthy view of life, right?  He realized that he can grow from this.  He realized that the best way to practice self-care is to see failure or hardship as something meant to make us better.

 

Of the many wonderful quotes about self-care (out of the way-too-many self-centered ones), this is one of my favorites:

Self-care is never a selfish act — it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer to others.   – Parker Palmer

This perspective rightly takes the focus of self-care off of personal comfort and places it on other things, or, people, in this case.  Yet, at least in this one sentence, it doesn’t pinpoint WHO put us on earth and WHO gave us the gifts that we have.  Which brings me to this  NFL player’s other tweet in direct response to the death threats:

 

Jesus you people need help.

 

We put God into some impersonal box when we can open it (“Thank you, God”) and close it (use Him as an expletive) whenever we want.  Jesus is a real person, is really the Son of God, and  personally died for our sins.  Jesus himself asks us to believe in Him, receive the gift of eternal life that He provides through the cross, and follow Him.  So, to help us keep thankfulness more personal, let’s switch that Tweet around and confess our need for HELP:

 

Help, you people need Jesus.

 

The source of true thankfulness is an admittance that we need help, that if it wasn’t for the person we are saying “Thank You” too, we would be in a much different place.  It's true in the most basic of ways:  When you say, "Thank you," to the Fed-Ex person, you are saying, "without you I would not be getting this today, so I want to give credit where credit is due."  Thankfulness ought to always be personal.

 

If the SOURCE of our thankfulness is a heart that recognizes its need for help, the OBJECT would be the person that provides that help, the “You” of “Thank You.”  Ultimately, this comes around to the maker of all good things, God.  The ultimate good that God provided was His Son Jesus Christ “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2).  He conquered death in our place and offered us life eternal: “The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:36).

 

Let’s make Thanksgiving about thanking God, not just others or even a general, impersonal, overall “thankfulness.”  Thanking God himself is the foundational and most important act of self-care, because no one cares for you more than He does.  “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (1 John 4:10)

 

 

Winning at all costs?

As we approach another National Football League season, we are coming off a Super Bowl that showcased a clash of coaching cultures.  We had John Fox vs. Pete Carroll.  Old School NFL vs. New Thang College.  Keep your shirts tucked in vs. Let all your emotion show.  Even the teams themselves reflect the coaches, especially regarding old guard and new guard.

I see another difference;  maybe it's my age or maybe it's actually a different philosophy of football.  It seems that football, on all levels, is turning into, more and more a "look at me" sport.  Ex-college coaches have been successful for many reasons, including their ability to relate to and harness young passion and our youth culture.  Without delving into a sociological study, I think it's safe to say that, in general, this generation of players in the NFL talks more, celebrates more after a simple tackle or a first down catch, and thrives more on swagger than steadiness.

Even the Conference Championship games had a different feel between them last January.  The two AFC coaches rarely showed emotion, while the two NFC coaches rarely don't (see Jim Harbaugh going nuts after a failed reply challenge).  Coaches set the tone.  As we found out, Old School Calm and Cool lost the Super Bowl to New Thang Emotions On The Sleeve.  At the same time, we were reminded that a great defense usually beats a great offense.

This year, the same six teams are expected to be right back in the mix again at the end of the season.  No matter what style you are in favor of, my guess is that it's the TEAM you'll be rooting for, not the style.  Who cares how you do it, right?  Just get the job done, right?  What's the most important question at the end of the year?  "Whose holding the Lombardi Trophy"?  I don't think so!  I know this, because all anyone will care about tomorrow when Seattle opens up it's season against Green Bay, is who will win that game, not who won 7 months ago.

Rather, the most important question at the end of the season will be, "How did you go about your business?"  Obviously, this is the question for anybody, no matter their job, their like (or dislike) for sports, or where they live.  What matters most to everybody that played in that Super Bowl has nothing to do with the result of that Super Bowl, but with how they celebrated, recovered from, or mourned the outcome.

I am a pastor.  If I had a knee-jerk response every time something bad happened or when it didn't go my way, I would be out of a job.  Not, necessarily, because the congregation would boot me out, but because I would clearly not be qualified to lead them anymore.  So why does it seem to not matter whether a football coach loses it?  Because results matter more than personal growth in the NFL.  The irony is, though, that without a commitment to personal growth, the results will mean less and less anyway.

Life is a marathon, sports is a sprint, let's not confuse the two.

A Solid Standard

What is a standard? Should there be standards? How are standards determined? The NFL is in the process of changing their standards regarding how hard to hit and where to hit an opposing player. It's already created lots of conversation because of the many fines dished out over the past few years. The topic is even hotter now because of the "Bountygate" in New Orleans and the lawsuit by former players who feel that their quality of life is negatively effected because of their involvement with football. Ultimately, the standard has been determined and will continue to be determined by the bottom line, the almighty dollar. This, I'm afraid, is the bottom line which many businesses, families, government, and even some schools use to make major decisions. What a LOUSY standard to major on! Yes, money is needed for something to stay active and for a civil or non-profit to at least keep going. Yet, by concentrating on money like so many do, we lose the human element of whatever it is that we do. This is why many successful businesses don't even invite their financial people into planning sessions or creative brainstorms or goal setting. People must be the motivation of what we do. Even better, why not go a step further and start valuing the One who created these people to begin with. Since our standard relates to what's best for the people, we need to go to the source of people - God Himself. Why don't we want to do this? Because God doesn't play by our rules (imagine that, the creator of everything has His own set of rules). He has the right to determine proper STANDARDS by which we should live. The major relationships in our society (husband/wife, parent/child, employer/employee) are addressed in the Bible from Ephesians 5:22 through Ephesians 6:9. The verse before this passage (Ephesians 5:21) sets up all these relationships - "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." It's only out of an awe and respect for Jesus Christ that we are able to listen to and submit to each other and put into practice these vital principles found in the following 21 verses. Then, in Ephesians 6:10 and following we hear the great challenge to "Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might" by putting on the full armor of God. He has it all figured out. He's prepared us with all that we need. He'll gladly take over our situations when we're ready to let Him. He loves you. What will you do with Him today? tomorrow?

What have you done for me lately?

So the National Football League® is going through a bit of an identity crisis right now. It is a violent sport that, naturally, has violent consequences, yet it almost needs the violence to keep it popular. According to a 1994 study, which was referred to in this 2006 St. Petersburg Times article, NFL players are expected to live some 20 years less than the average American male. Now, I learned that life expectancy is different than life span (life span is actual years and life expectancy is based on health professionals and other expert opinions), so the results vary with different studies. Either way, it would be very hard to argue against the fact that NFL players tend to not live as long. I mean, my wife points out that their lifestyle would even lend to hearts working harder, muscles and bones getting more stress, and minds going through intense ups and downs from game to game and year to year. What drives them to do so? Allow me to use the NFL as an acronym for what I'm getting at - it is the trading the Now For Later business. Each year for at least 10 years a team has gone from worst in their division to first in their division, some even making it to the Super Bowl. More than any other sport, any team could catch fire any particular year. As a result, teams are very willing to trade the Now For Later, like trading three future high draft picks, just to move up in the draft 3 or 4 spots, or signing a proven veteran quarterback who only has 2-4 good years left with a 5-year contract. If you aren't willing, as an athlete, to do all you can to be good NOW in exchange for whatever you have planned LATER, than you may as well leave the Now For Later League. It isn't just a sports thing, I believe it's a life thing as well. We live in a NOW culture where food, entertainment, education, and even marriage demand immediate GOOD results, or we are GONE! The thing is, the best things in life take time, effort, and sacrifice. Children are a total blessing, and if you invest in them like the treasure they are, you will be rewarded greatly. On the other hand, when children are seen as a bother and a "cramping of my lifestyle" they turn into us and demand things of us. As I, and others with us, continue to water and nurture this new little church in central Minnesota, we know that it is a long haul. we also know that it's worth it, because we are promised that we work for God, and not ourselves or even the people here now. If God chooses to bless us now, great, but if He doesn't we can still come out of this looking good in His eyes because we were (are) faithful. Who do you trust in life? The things and organizations that demand immediate results or the God that sees the big picture and promises, "Seek first my Kingdom and I will take care of all your basic needs" (see Matthew 6:33)?