My Blood Runs Orange (Trina Agee Cornell)

Trina is one of my heroes! We have been on many mission trips together in Honduras and I've grown to love and admire her. She's such a wonderful example, WCS has tried several times to persuade her to teach for us. Trina and her husband Bob live in St. Louis and are expecting their first child!  Pray for me as I continue my mission in Vietnam!

I have been a Tennessee fan for over two decades.  I have lived through championship years - and losing years.  I have lived through good coaches - and bad coaches.  I have lived through close calls, big wins, and devastating losses.  (You can ask my dad how I used to handle losses - it wasn't pretty!).  I am no fair weather fan - I am in for the long haul, season in and season out.  

It was hard to watch Saturday night's game against South Carolina.  Tennessee came in as a two-touchdown favorite, and probably a little confident as well.  An SEC game - on the road - is always a tough test, no matter who it is.  I watched Tennessee, riddled with several injuries both before and during the game, crumble on both offense and defense.  A number of second-, third-, and sometimes fourth-string players struggled to give Josh Dobbs time to throw - and allowed South Carolina to run all over them.  We had a chance to tie with a 50-plus yard field goal with five seconds left to go - it was straight enough, but not long enough.  I watched a lackadaisical, energy-less Vols team lose to an unranked SEC team.

Weirdly enough, I am kind of glad that they lost.  We are over half way through the season, and Tennessee hasn't played a complete game yet.  They have been a second half team all year - underwhelming in the first half, and dominating in the second half.  They did not fit that description Saturday night - they played the same throughout the game.  They needed to learn - you can't play that way for a whole game, throw a number of interceptions, and get stupid penalties - and expect to win the game.  That's not the way it works. 

When was the last time where you had a “complete day”?  A day where you accomplished everything on your list, got everything just right, and finished the day on the right foot?  It feels good to have days like this – but we know that, in reality, every day is not like this.  We are not always going to play our “best game” every day – we get tired, we get frustrated, we get angry, and we let the day ruin us.  We cannot be hard on ourselves when we do this – we have to dust ourselves off, get a good night’s sleep, and try again tomorrow, Lord willing.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever – He is with you through the “complete days” and the not-so-complete days.  Ask Him for His wisdom and guidance – give it your best, and just call it a day.

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com