Hello,
Oskeewowow!
For those of you who do not follow college athletics, this odd word is
the battle cry for the Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois. I spent the first two years of my
college career at the University of Illinois, and although I transferred out as
a junior for career reasons, my heart stayed at the University of Illinois and
with the friends that I had while I was there. Even to this day….more years later than it seems….my U of I
friends are still amongst my best friends even though I don’t see them very
often.
This weekend, thanks to the generosity of my brother-in-law who got some
tickets, two of my Illinois friends came to my house to go to the Penn State/U
of I game with Kate and me. We rendez-voused at my house, here in enemy territory, on Friday night,
laughed and joked with each other as if no time had passed since we had last
been together, played ping-pong in my Illini Man Cave, and prepared ourselves
to represent our team at the game.
We woke up with the sun on Saturday, pumped! Expecting a clog of traffic on our way to State College,
Pa., we donned our orange and blue and left at 8:00 for the noon game. The sun shone bright on the dimmed, but
still beautiful colored ridges on our drive. The drive didn’t seem like the 2 hours that Google had
predicted for us as the four of us chatted all the way there like a bunch of
squirrels gathering nuts. Although
the crowds of blue did not part like the Red Sea for us as we made our way onto
the parking grounds, the trek to our parking space was not as arduous as we had
planned. Surprisingly enough, when
we emerged from our car, the natives wearing blue and white greeted us with
warmth and welcome. And when we
took our seats in the stands and the tide of blue began to rise all around us,
we remained unscathed among the enemy.
There weren’t many wearing orange and blue at the game, but we did our
best to cheer for our team when it made first downs, tackles and even a couple
of touchdowns. It was amazing the
quiet that fell upon that stadium of 100,000+ when the Illini did something
good, and somehow we hoped that our three voices filled the stillness of those
moments. We sang “Oskeewowow
Illinois” when we scored, we groaned when our team fell apart (which it did far
too often), we “questioned” the ref’s calls….we had a great time….a time just
like we had years ago when we sat side by side in “Block I” in Memorial Stadium
at the University of Illinois.
Friends are a wonderful gift from God, often a gift from God that seems
not to be effected by the passing of time, the paths life takes us on, or the
bumps and bruises that we all gather along our separate ways. I thank God for the blessing of
friends.
To spend time with dear friends magnifies, to me, the wonder of the
blessing of the friendship that God has made with me in Jesus. It magnifies the joy of joining our
voices with Jesus, our friend, in
singing “Alleluia”. It magnifies
the hope in my heart when in my prayers I bring my successes and failures to
Jesus’ ears, and sense the cheers and groans that we share. It magnifies the despair that we, my
friend Jesus and I, share at the injustice that goes uncalled, and the
determination to make sure that it does not go un-noticed. “What a friend we have in
Jesus…..”, may not have the rousing tune of a college fight song, but it sure
rings true to the depth and wonder of the friendship with Jesus that knows no
passing of time, that remains no matter what path life takes, and doesn’t
disappear when we become scarred by the battles that our sins stir up.
Spending this past weekend with dear and long-time friends was
wonderful! And it opened my eyes
again to the wonder and blessing of spending every moment of this life….and
every moment of eternity….with one whose friendship is the greatest of all.
By the way…..we lost the game….in overtime. Ugh!
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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