Archive for January, 2011

It is just a game

Monday, January 17, 2011

Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church

Australia won the first of the seven one-day cricket matches against England last night (Sunday). After the summer of cricket we’ve had to this point, that’s worthy of mention.

In case you missed it, Shane Watson was the hero. Chasing a huge total (294), he was 161 not out at the end of the match. Fittingly, he hit the final runs for the win. Needing four, he hit the first ball of the last over for six.

His innings has already been recognised as one of the greats in the 40-year history of one-day international cricket.

Watson is from Ipswich, one of the Queensland towns hit by the recent floods. His family is fine, but he has friends who’ve been affected by the flood. After the match, he said his mind hadn’t really been on the cricket. It was on the flood devastation.

He’s going back to Ipswich for a couple of days. “It’s going to be nice to be able to get up there and feel like I can help out in some way,” he told reporters.

In speaking of his game, he said, “It really does free your mind when you’re thinking about other things and it does put the game of cricket into perspective for what it really is.”

It’s just a game.

Much recent discussion has been about the failure of Australian cricket and the crisis it’s in—who should be sacked, who should replace them on the team and in administration. It’s as if this is a national crisis.

National pride may have been dented, but putting it in perspective, it’s just a game. Of course, we want our team to win, but in the big picture, there are more important things.

Understanding perspective is important for living a life of significance.

Like sands through the hourglass . . .

Monday, January 10, 2011

A new year’s challenge for 2011

Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church

Days of Our Lives, the daytime television soap, has been around since November 1965—45 years. Any child born in November 1965 in the Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Mozambique or Swaziland is probably dead. The life expectancy in those nations is below 45 years (Swaziland is the worst at 39.6 years).

“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.” That’s the introduction to every episode of Days of Our Lives. We’re fortunate to live in a place where we have more sand in our hourglass. Australians have a life expectancy of 81.2 years.

The question is, “What do we do with it?” It’s a good question for the beginning of a new year.

I recently received this email:

“Attn:

“Your ATM CARD WORTH 10 Million USD is ready for pick up, reconfirm your mailing address and your mobile no. for delivery.

“Austen Obigwe.”

I think Austen Obigwe is my new best friend. Reading the email, though, made me wonder what I would do with $10 million.

What would you do with it? After doing the obvious such as paying off the mortgage and any personal debt, what would you do with it?

Would you take the flashy route? The classy car, a new house, luxury fittings, holidays? Would you support a charity, or create one of your own to support a cause? Would you bank it and live off the interest? Invest it? Work out how to give it away?

At the beginning of a new year it’s worth asking, “What will you do with it?”

What will you do with the 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8760 hours, 525,600 minutes, or 31,536,000 seconds of 2011? Remembering, of course, that at midnight tonight (Monday, January 10), 864,000 seconds have already gone . . . like sands through the hourglass.