Date: 3/25/2008
<br>Author: Devin Pickard
<br>Title: Good Friday Egg
<br><br>I recently joined a very elite club.  There are no secret handshakes or cool tree-house hangouts mind you, but it’s a club nonetheless.  I am sure most of you have never accomplished anything worthy enough to meet this organization’s stringent  requirements for membership.  In fact, you may not even be aware of its existence, though it has been around since the beginning of time.  The list of card carrying members may be fairly short, but it is very distinguished.  I am sure you have heard of some of my fellow inductees in years past.  Allow me to introduce a few of them to you today.<br><br>In the bottom of the tenth inning of game 6 of the 1986 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Mets, Bill Buckner, the first basemen for the Red Sox, allowed a routine slow grounder hit by Mookie Wilson to go underneath his glove, through his legs, and into right field.  This costly error allowed Ray Knight to score the game winning run, thus forcing a game seven which the Mets eventually won.  Try Googling Bill Buckner sometime.  Do you know what piece of information is the first thing that pops up about Mr. Buckner?  It wasn’t the fact that he drove in 100 runs that year or hit 8 home runs and had a .340 avg. in the critical month of September to help get the Sox to the big dance in the first place....no, you guessed it...it was his late game blunder that was at the top of the list.  Welcome to the club Bill.<br><br>On January 8, 1992, U.S. President George H. Bush was attending a formal dinner in Japan with Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, when he....well....as the kids say....tossed his cookies.  If that wasn’t bad enough, he did it all over the Prime Minister of Japan.  How’s that for foreign diplomacy?  To make matters even worse, there were plenty of cameras there to catch the entire incident.  So now when George W’s father’s name is mentioned, no one much remembers his role in the Gulf War or in the post-Soviet breakup.  The first thing to comes to the mind of many is bad sushi.  Here’s your membership card Mr. President.<br><br>This past Friday evening I was privileged to be a part of the community presentation of the “Reign of Darkness”, which is a somber look at the events that took place on Good Friday over 2000 years ago.  The jest of this production is a combination of accapella solos and memorized passages from the Gospels dealing with the crucifixion of our Lord.  My memorized passage was taken from Luke 22:39-45.  I proudly stood up before that gathering of people and recited the first two verses of my selected scripture.....and that’s all I could get to come out.  Keep in mind, there were five more verses to go.....and boy did they go.....right out of my memory.  When I walked into that building, I knew every word of my part front to back and back to front.  I can honestly say that I wasn’t nervous nor did I have anything else on my mind that would have pushed those words from my memory.  I just flat went blank.  For no apparent reason, the words just ooozed out of my pea brain and departed out my ears rather than my mouth.  What an appropriate weekend to lay an egg.  Move over Easter Bunny, there is a new club member in town.<br><br>As I began to ponder my embarrassing blunder, God allowed me to remember some of the charter members of this organization.  Noah got drunk....Abraham lied....Lot’s wife looked back....David conspired....Jonah ran....Judas<br>was greedy....Peter had amnesia.....and the list could go on and on.  I don’t know, maybe even some of you have had a “pie in the face” moment in the past.  I did not think I needed a lesson in humility, but apparently my Creator did.  God always seems to have a way of keeping us grounded....of keeping us from thinking “that we are all that and a bag of chips”.....of keeping us from thinking that we are too big for our britches.  As I look at the list above, I realize I’m in some pretty good company.  I also realize, that for the most part, wherever there is an opportunity to fall and fail, that there is also an opportunity to get up and succeed.  Fact of the matter is, we would not know how to get back up if we never found ourselves getting pushed down.  Anyway, you can only sit on that egg for so long.  Trust me.<br><br>Go the extra mile - Devin   <br><br>