I'm with HIM!

I've been in beautiful Albuquerque, New Mexico for business this week, staying not far from our dealer, Golden Equipment, at the Sandia Resort and Casino. Hanging out poolside one night having a beer with two friends from Golden we notice a bunch of beefed-up (can you say HGH?), tattooed guys drinking (heavily) surrounded by a group of bikini-clad young ladies. After observing them for awhile, one of my buddies decides to ask them who they are. They tell my friend that are with Diego Sanchez, a UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) fighter pictured left.....they are part of his "posse". Apparently they didn't like the fact that we inquired about their background, because soon after he came back to where we were hanging out, a majority of the Sanchez Posse came our way and wanted to know if we wanted to fight. No lie. They were obviously drunk and pretty obnoxious. They kept saying, "Do you know who we're with dude? We're with Diego....and you don't want any of us!". We just kept our mouths shut and tried our best to ignore them, and then decided to head inside for dinner. Mind you, not that any of us were afraid of these guys - but it's next to impossible to have an intelligent, rational conversation with drunks. After dinner, I kept thinking back to how important it was for these folks to ensure that we were aware they were with Diego Sanchez. That was their claim to fame - that was what defined them. In fact, none of them really had their own identity. They were simply members of Diego Sanchez's posse. And I thought, how sad - on so many different levels. They were Diego's....that was their existence. But someday, Diego won't be fighting. And that day may be just around the corner. His body will fail him - he'll lose enough quickness to make him vulnerable in the ring, his muscles won't recover quickly enough from workouts, his VO2 max will drop, and he'll be known in sports vernacular as "washed-up". Not a matter of if, but when. And what then for those groupies? Maybe they move on to somebody else. Maybe not.....maybe they grow up and finally realize that there is only one person who will never leave them, never let them down, never disappoint, and never stop loving them. The One who died on a cross for their sins, the One who awaits patiently their return home to Him. How cool is it knowing that we are His? It means that we don't have to put our trust and faith in anybody walking this earth, because we know that ultimately people will let us down. We are with HIM! We are His children, and nothing can change that or take that from us. But first we must BELIEVE and RECEIVE!

John 1:12....Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God