Got Skin in the Game?
As a die-hard fan of the Dallas Cowboys, I only have memories invested in them. On the other hand, I read this of Jerry Jones, the owner of the Cowboys. He can surely say “I have “skin in the game”! More than three decades ago, Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Stadium for $150 million. Jones has since turned the Cowboys into the NFL’s most valuable brand, by far. Last year, 2021, Forbes valued the Cowboys at $6.5 billion. That “skin” has sure paid off for him! I read that in the news and I knew a blog was coming!
The phrase “having skin in the game” was coined by Warren Buffett. He started out with very little. The seed money for his first stock fund came from eleven doctors who started his investing with $100K. But he wanted to show his own commitment as well, so he contributed $100 to the fund. Buffett said, “Now, I have skin in the game.”
Daily I’m reading a chapter from Lisa Harper’s 100-day devotional book, “LIFE – An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of LIFE”. Yes, that’s the title! She is one of my favorite Christian speakers and authors.
Always single and at age 50, she adopted her Missy, a Haiti HIV orphan baby. At school, Missy was asked by a boy, “Who’s your daddy?” She said: “I don’t have a daddy.” Lisa said: “Missy could be sad that she doesn’t have a “skin” daddy who can make her pancakes and take her to soccer practice. But through lots of talks with her, Missy came to realize that she DOES have a Daddy! Her Daddy God who loves her more than all the stars in the sky.” Lisa says: “Missy has lots of good, strong, godly “uncles” who have stepped up to show her so much love and example of ‘God with skin on’”.
This world needs a God with skin on — physically, real, and touchable. Is there a touchable God? Yes, there is. In the body of believers that are within the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is not a figure of speech. Each believer, you, and me, with his or her skin and bones, makes up the Body of Christ, as much as Jesus when He walked the earth.
By giving love in tangible ways to others, giving encouragement and hope to those who need “just a word” that helps them push forward, and in opening our hearts and in wrapping our arms around someone who needs a warm touch – we are being Jesus “with skin on”. Praying WITH someone to offer comfort is a prayer that has been answered by God who still walks the earth in the flesh of you and me. We can be God’s ear for them, God’s touch, and God’s comfort.
I have a “God with skin on” in my life. I heard Him in my sis-in-law yesterday when she encouraged and loved me. When my best friend listens to me, Christ is there listening. When my children ask me over and offer me a meal, Christ is there cooking. When a friend “likes” and/or comments on my blog with encouragement, Christ is encouraging me. Each action they take gives God skin. Let’s put some “skin” in the game today – as the Body of Christ “with skin on”!
“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which He blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are His body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
― St. Teresa of Avila