Forgive me as I take off on a tangent today. We lived in Tulsa, OK for forty-plus years and we were avid fans of OU — Oklahoma University\u2019s sports teams. We always rooted for them. On the other hand, my brother-in-law who attended Oklahoma State University, with his children, were huge OSU fans. We were friendly rivals when we would have OU vs OSU parties at our home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So of course when I see this good news about a win for OU, I am taking it to the streets, rather to social media today. Thanks to Dr. Jim Denison\u2019s article, I was proud to hear that the University of Oklahoma women\u2019s softball team made history on June 8th when it became only the second team to win three national titles in a row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, more than the win, I was most thrilled to hear about the faith of their head coach, Patty Gasso. I am posting this blog because we get so wrapped up and tied up in what\u2019s wrong in our world, that we fail to speak up \u2013 loud, proud, and unashamedly \u2013 about the GOOD NEWS that is happening in our world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read on, please, and see the goodness of God as explained by Coach Patty. The Lord told her several years ago, \u201cYou\u2019re not here to win games. You\u2019re here to open the door — here to win souls.\u201d Now God is honoring her Christian commitment to the Great Commission in remarkable ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Team captain Grace Lyons was asked by an ESPN reporter how she and her teammates handle the pressure of their competition and maintain their joy. The reporter might not have expected her answer: \u201cThe only way that you can have a joy that doesn\u2019t fade away is from the Lord. Any other type of joy is actually happiness that comes from circumstances and outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lyons\u2019 teammate Jayda Coleman shared how, after winning the Women\u2019s College World Series her freshman year, she was happy but didn\u2019t feel joy: \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to do the next day. I didn\u2019t know what to do that following week. I didn\u2019t feel fulfilled, and I had to find Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She continued: \u201cI think what makes our team so strong is that we\u2019re not afraid to lose because it\u2019s not the end of the world if we do lose. Obviously we\u2019ve worked our butts off to be here and we want to win, but it\u2019s not the end of the world because our life is in Christ and that\u2019s all that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, therein lies the remedy to what irks us about Gay Pride month and any other \u201cproud about whatever is anyone\u2019s bent\u201d. Those OU women took pride in what matters most. They were so loud and proud about their Savior Who changes everything about their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Dr. Jim Denison says, \u201cJayda Coleman\u2019s worldview is crucial not only for her and her teammates but for the future of our society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those women are modelling the grace of Christ in our broken world. Shouldn\u2019t we be as verbal about being proud about our Savior as others are proud about their “pride”. We are blessed to be Christians Who bear the resemblance of our Savior Who loved the unlovely, healed the broken and hurting, walked the walk and talked the talk of His Father.
Shouldn\u2019t we pick up the baton of our forefathers (and those OU bold and brave women) and declare the Good News of the Gospel that changes us into God\u2019s royal family members \u2013 filled with PRIDE for our Savior and Lord!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Forgive me as I take off on a tangent today. We lived in Tulsa, OK for forty-plus years and we were avid fans of OU — Oklahoma University\u2019s sports teams. We always rooted for them. On the other hand, my brother-in-law who attended Oklahoma State University, with his children, were huge OSU fans. We were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27043,27040,27041,27042,27044],"tags":[1210,1769,27036,308,27038,9350,40,27034,27030,27029,27031,27033,27035,27028,27032,27037,27039],"class_list":["post-18206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grace-of-christ","category-oklahoma-university","category-womens-softbal","category-womens-softball","category-world-series","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-coach-patty-gasso","tag-espn","tag-grace-lyons","tag-great-commission","tag-inspiration","tag-national-title","tag-oklahoma-state-university","tag-oklahoma-university","tag-ou-vs-osu","tag-ou-womens-softball","tag-patty-gasso","tag-tangent","tag-university-of-oklahoma","tag-win-souls","tag-womens-college-world-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18208,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18206\/revisions\/18208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}