Go Giants!

We were in despair Saturday night. The easy waltz to victory for the Giants who had dominated the first two games lost its grace and ease.... and they ended up losing game 3. For those of you who don't follow Sports, don't worry. Neither do I. This is not a post on the World Series. It is a post on greed and opportunism, maybe. Sometimes God changes my direction mid-word. Anyway, this was despairing because Asherel desperately wants the Giants to win. It is not because she cares one whit about baseball either.

When the Giants won the league playoffs, Asherel happened to be nearby as the Giants were closing in on victory. Her dad, a lifelong Giant fan was sitting on the edge of his seat.
"If the Giants win," he declared, "I will buy you a Wii drumset."
Now Asherel had wanted a Wii drumset for some time, since she had become quite good but then the drums broke.
So she settled down to watch the Giants finish the game and go on to victory. As Arvo settled down happily to check his email, Asherel reminded him of the drumset, and true to his word, he ordered it. The trick is to catch him in the full flush of victory.

So quickly Asherel began calculating. What if the Giants won the big one, the biggest one- the World Series!? What could she procure if she could manage to be around at that moment? Having started guitar lessons and loving them, the idea of her own guitar began to take seed.
"I will buy you a new guitar if the Giants win the World Series!" proclaimed Arvo.

So Asherel has been sitting with him every single moment of every single game. I sent her to bed last night when the Giants had a commanding lead because she has developed a cold from all the late night baseball watching. And she needed to rest up for the pivotal and hopeful final victory tonight.

I like baseball, so I watch as well, but I am more interested in things the typical baseball fan doesn't notice. Things like why would a man with all the money of a pro baseball player not have the 3 unsightly large moles removed from his face? And things like pondering whether Buster is a nick name or his real name, and how can someone who looks 15 years old possibly be such a great catcher in the Major League? Does the lazer eyed shortstop look that wildly eyed intense all the time or is that just his game face... and has anyone tested him for steroids or over-caffeination? In short, I notice all the important things that shockingly disturb Arvo when I try to get answers to these riveting questions.

Anyway, they won last night and we are one game away from a new guitar. This is great, because I want my guitar back, which has gone from kid to kid to kid as they learned, and I have yet to get my paws on it, though it was originally my guitar. Currently, Asherel is using it.

So Asherel and I will be perched on the edge of our seats, like opportunistic vultures tonight. Asherel tells me that if I time it right, I might be able to bargain for a new laptop. It all hinges on the Giants.

God also tells us to ask for anything and everything. He says we do not have because we do not ask. Asherel and I aim to fix that problem. And while we chuckle over our avarice and plotting, we do know that God perhaps meant something a little differently when He made that promise.  If we just read the first part of the promise, we can go away thinking we just need to ask away, and Mercedes and diamonds will be flowing like manna from Heaven. But then there is that little caveat He tacks on at the end of the verse. We are not supposed to ask with the wrong motive, and the wrong motive seems to be asking for things that we use for our own pleasure. Well that eliminates about 99.9 percent of what I ask for......

It would seem that we should be asking from pure motives. Drat. So I am making a deal with Asherel- she asks for the computer for me, and I ask for the guitar for her. Selfless greed! Go Giants!

James 4: 1-3

 ¹ What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ² You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.