Post from July 11, 2023

“👟 RSD 1169 ✅ Today’s Verse: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” — 2 Timothy 2:15 (1+1=2;6+9=15)

Message Translation groups verses 14-18 together. “Repeat these basic essentials over and over to God’s people. Warn them before God against pious nitpicking, which chips away at the faith. It just wears everyone out. Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple. Stay clear of pious talk that is only talk. Words are not mere words, you know. If they’re not backed by a godly life, they accumulate as poison in the soul. Hymenaeus and Philetus are examples, throwing believers off stride and missing the truth by a mile by saying the resurrection is over and done with.”

What’s your favorite genre (or maybe sub-genre) of movie? Comedy, horror, drama, documentaries, action—maybe your sub-genre is rom-coms over movies like “Grown Ups” or “Son-in-Law”…I mean—I guess the latter might technically be a rom-com, but I don’t see it that way. You know, there’s a big difference between “Clueless” and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.” Regardless, we all like what we like for a variety of reasons, but I think almost everyone will find as one of their top picks in their memorable movie list (even if it’s not your favorite genre) a sports-themed movie. I’m not saying it’s your favorite, but come on—whether it’s “The Mighty Ducks,” “Field of Dreams,” or “Angels in the Outfield,” these inspirational sports movies make us all feel like we can do something. When our main character triumphs at the end, we feel a surge of empowerment that maybe with enough grit we can reach our goals too. Bonus points if said-movie is based on a true story like “A League of Their Own,” and the cool thing about many of these true stories are that they are also underdog stories—enter “Rudy.”

This early ‘90s gold has a simple story that’s based on the journey of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, who played football for Notre Dame in the ‘70s. Basically, Rudy wasn’t the biggest (seriously—like my size—nothing wrong with that, but it could provide a disadvantage when playing collegiate football for one of the top programs in the country), and he had to work incredibly hard to hold the university’s academic standard (overcoming dyslexia), but he was a good athlete. He was a walk-on to Notre Dame’s scout team, so he basically takes a lot of hard hits (physically) during the movie. Throughout his collegiate career, he went to practice day after day, hit after hit, tackle after tackle with one goal in mind: to be able to play in one game as a player on Notre Dame’s roster by the end of his senior season. See, there were only so many spots on the roster (not even all the scholarship players got to suit out), so this was a long shot for our guy Rudy. But, he went to practice with a great attitude and almost unmatched determination. At the end of the movie, Rudy gets to play (his teammates help him out by running the score up a little near the end so the defense could come on)—he gets one sack on the last play of the game (they were way winning) and is carried off the field in victory by his teammates. That actually isn’t ‘90s magic: it’s in Notre Dame’s records that (as of making the movie) Rudy’s the only Fighting Irish player that ever was afforded the honor (Notre Dame even allowed the filming of “Rudy” at their university, which is not something Notre Dame does). He wasn’t carried out because he saved the game or anything; he was carried out because, after all he had done in supporting his teammates, he finally got to see the inside of the field for himself. The team’s victory (besides the pretty good lead on the scoreboard) was that sometimes life works out—sometimes the good guys win.

What I don’t remember from the movie (I haven’t seen it in awhile, but I really don’t think this is in there) is that Joe Montana (yes, THAT Joe Montana—Comeback Kid, Joe Cool, Super Bowl (a bunch) MVP) was on the same team as Rudy during Rudy’s senior year. Joe is younger than Rudy, so he still got to star in many of Notre Dame’s games and went on to a legendary NFL career. What more could a player ask for, dream for? Semi-recently (you know, about 50 years after Rudy’s senior season, 30 after the movie), Joe Montana gave an interview insulting Rudy’s collegiate career, even saying that Rudy didn’t work any harder than anyone else. Some of their former teammates have taken interviews in Rudy’s defense; their version of events more closely matches the movie. What could Joe Montana gain from the ripeness of half-century sour grapes, expect to besmirch his underdog teammate’s historic moment that he himself couldn’t have?

Today’s verse talks about someone who also was concentrating on doing good work, trying his best to achieve his goal. The young man in today’s verse is Timothy, and his goal was to bring the (still pretty new) message of Christianity to the world. This verse is written as advice and encouragement from his mentor, Paul (who wrote a chunk of the New Testament) and was instrumental in spreading the message of Christianity. Basically, there were people who were more concerned with spreading their message than spreading THE message—some people just have to always be right, as in superior to others, and these people had influence. So, even in this budding religion providing new hope to the world, there were still people going, “Well, I have to make sure I’m one of the important people” (e.g. the people included in verse 17) without the study or humility or regard to whether they were doing what God wants. Some of these same people were gossiping against Paul because Paul was a “criminal” (y’all, he kept getting arrested for preaching the message of Jesus Christ around Rome—you know what the Roman government didn’t like? Messages of love, hope, and salvation). Our guy, Timothy, was Paul’s protégé, and these two proved to be influential in spreading the message of Christ. Why were they so successful? Because they only focused on the goal: telling people about Jesus. It’s hard when you’re doing your best and people are still against you. You can keep your head down, work hard, encourage your team, and serve others, and Joe Cool is still going to use his platform to insult you because you’ve done something special. You might think, “What am I doing wrong? Why aren’t things working out better for me? Why are obstacles in my way? Why are people mean? Why is this so hard?” But, sometimes doing the right thing is hard, but concentrating on doing the right thing and not what the naysayers think helps us to honor our calling from God. It’s in these hard times where grit, perseverance, and tenacity seem the only way forward that our faith is strengthened and God helps us to grow into a wiser, stronger, and more compassionate version of us. This is a little cliché (I’ve definitely heard something like this before), but here it is: you know how they have to put gold in fire? It’s how they get the impurities away from the actual gold. That’s what happens to us when we trust God and work to do what God wants us to do, even when it’s hard…and, you know, uncomfortably hot.

Rudy and Timothy might seem like an odd pairing. I know these stories aren’t congruent—obviously Timothy had a lot more at stake than Rudy did, but sometimes we see our heroes in the Bible as being so extraordinary that we ordinary people could never do anything like that when, in reality, they are all normal people who were brave enough to say “yes” to God, and it was God who provided the “extraordinary” parts. St. Paul saw value in finding our potential in common examples. “[B]e strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus…anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules” — 2 Timothy 2:1, 2:5. The “competing according to the rules” part is Paul encouraging Timothy to keep seeking God, studying, praying, and trying his best to do what God has called him to do. So, even in a ‘90s “feel-good” movie, seeing a small example of being brave and keeping the faith (Rudy is Christian) helps us to see possibility within ourselves. “If he can do it, I can do it.” See, God provides us all opportunities to say “yes” to Him. Sometimes the opportunities might be hard to recognize—I mean, how do we play for Notre Dame if we can’t even get in? But, if that’s the path God has laid out for us, He’ll provide a way: Rudy via a dyslexia tutor and Timothy via Paul’s wisdom and encouragement, and both with some tenacity and a great work ethic. God had a plan for both of these guys, and both are people we can see ourselves in. The plan for Rudy was to give us some ordinary inspiration that, with faith and some hard work and some courage, maybe we can do hard things; the plan for Timothy was for him to become a Saint, both as someone to spread the hope of salvation in Jesus and as someone for us to look up to, someone to show us that when we trust God, with some hard work and some courage, maybe we can do hard things too.”