BRACKET BUSTERS

One of the fun things about the men's NCAA basketball tournament (March Madness), is that when it begins, there are 64 teams (or 68 I guess) that have the opportunity to play for the National Championship. And when everyone fills out their tournament brackets, it is fun to guess where the "upsets" are going to come; and who is going to be able to make it to the Final Four. The first weekend of games is the best as there are games on constantly, it seems, for 4 days. Then, the next weekend, there are not as many games, but still 4 days of basketball. But, before long, usually during the first weekend, our brackets that we filled out begin to "bust". That is because the tournament never goes as we plan it when the brackets first come out. For example, who no one would have expected VCU (do you even know what that stands for? Virginian Commonwealth University) to make it to the Final Four, especially since they were in one of the "play in" games when there 68 teams starting out. And, pretty much everyone's bracket is "busted" when you consider that for the very first time, since the current "seeding" system was put in place in 1979, there are NO #1 or #2 seeds in the Final Four. I think we have a 3 seed, a 4 seed, an 8 seed and an 11 seed (VCU)! That can make the tournament more exciting for some; but for those of us who filled out brackets, with the misplaced hope that we would pick them right, or at least close, and win our office pool, or competition with friends - we somehow are surprised and disappointed that our brackets are "busted". Add on to that , my personal humiliation in our own little family bracket competition, which I wrote about at the beginning of the tournament. Going into the Final Four, only one family member, and its not me, has a team left in our brackets. That means that our family competition is pretty much over. And I am not happy to report that currently, I am in 3rd place, behind our 10 year old son and my wife, who is locked into first place. And by the way, she would be delighted to talk about her victory, especially the part about her not caring about basketball, not knowing anything about basketball, just picking teams based on how they "sounded" and still winning the competition. Then, a mischievous grin comes across her face and she laughs her Devilish laugh. So pathetic, so wrong! And if Kentucky wins the championship, my 11 year old daughter will jump up into 2nd place, and put me out of the reward category all together. Believe me - I wish this was an April Fool's joke. But, the joke is on me, and so it goes that the joke is on anyone who thinks they will pick all the right teams, year in and year out. To some extent, all our brackets get "busted" Trying to redeem this somehow, I was thinking this week that this really is a picture of life - real life. Fantasy is thinking the brackets are going to work out the way we plan - that the best teams will always win, or that our "cinderella" pick will always pan out - that's the way it should be. But then reality kicks in - those that "should" win lose and the "cinderella" we picked went home from the ball a long time ago. in fact, it seems that the ugly step sisters end up winning. That is life. Life doesn't always go - in fact it never really goes according to my plan. Health, finances, jobs, relationships, happiness, etc. are all placed neatly in our life brackets according to how we think it ought to be; and yet its not very long before our fantasy life brackets get busted. The real key is: what are we going to do when that happens. We can choose to enjoy the surprises of life and "roll with it" or we can become bitter and live in misery. One of my favorite passages of Scripture is Psalm 73. David talks about how he got his eyes on other people and when life wasn't going as he thought it should, he became discouraged. Until...he went to church (verse 17) and learned the truth about God's control and how everything is going to end. You see: for those of us on God's team (followers of Jesus), we may lose a lot of games, but in the end, we win the eternal championship (Heaven). So, our physical, temporal lives here, our dreams, may seem to get "busted" all the time; but we have a 100% guarantee, from God Himself, of how this will all end. That is why we can place our faith, hope, trust and focus on God to guide us through this life that seems get "busted" in some way, every day. This was where David eventually got his thinking to, and it where I need my heart to settle as well: Psalm 73:25,26 - "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."