"Making A Fool of Myself"

I am the proud owner of a brand new Tundra Gear hat - bright forest green, with the distinctive big G of the Green Bay Packers pinned securely in the middle of it. How did I acquire such a fine piece of head gear, you may ask? Did I pay the $70 retail? No. Did I steal it off the unsuspecting head of a sleeping fan at Lambeau Field? No. I won it.

How you may ask or maybe not, but this is my story. I won this major award by singing. Now if you know me, this shocking to say the least, if you don't let me explain. I CANNOT sing! This is no joke. We train our new sound room people at Church by making them listen to me on headphones during the praise choruses. Painful, but necessary. No one forgets to turn my mike off after that experience!

I have wanted said hat for awhile and over the Christmas Holiday, the fine folks at Tundra Gear ran a contest to win it. The catch, you had to sing for it. More specifically you had to sing a song about Tundra Gear set to the tune of a familiar Christmas song. So you had to be not only a singer, but a songwriter, as well. So I waited and I debated. Embarrassment on a World-Wide Web scale or a free hat?

So late one night, while wife and children were asleep, I got my Droid X and filmed myself singing a little ditty about Tundra Gear to the tune of "O Christmas Tree." The result was a cross between the Blair Witch Project and the little dogs that yap out "Jingle Bells." Google my name and Tundra Gear and you can still find the evidence of my shame on YouTube.

I was one of five submissions. The other four had technical skill, proper lighting, actual songs (mine was 27 seconds of muttered prose) and most importantly, these folks could really sing. Yet I stood among them for all of Facebook and the hundreds, if not thousands of Tundra Gear fans to see.

I am assuming that it was the sympathy factor (in my case) but the folks at Tundra Gear graciously gave free hats to all of us brave or foolish (in my case again) characters that entered. And about a week later, I became the proud owner of what is truly a wonderful hat.

Now why have I bored you with all of this? The reason is that I have been thinking about the words of Jesus in Luke 9:26, "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels."

I have seen grown men on Sunday afternoons stripped to the waist in freezing weather with letters painted upon their bellies, who on Sunday morning were afraid to sing along with their wives during the hymn. I know of young men who will pour out their hearts in sappy love sonnets to disinterested young ladies, who will never let anyone know how they feel about the Lord. Television shows garner huge ratings on the fact that people are willing to make absolute fools of themselves for a few bucks. As individuals, we are more than willing to be embarrassed for love, money, our favorite sports teams and a host of other lesser things, yet how ashamed we often are when it comes to Jesus. Why are we willing to be counted a fool for a few laughs, yet to be a fool for Christ? God forbid!

How dreadful it will be on that Day of Christ's return when we are confronted with all the opportunities we had to sing, share or shout about the Savior, but chose to keep quiet lest someone think we were odd or too fanatical. May God grant us the courage to stand up for Christ even at the risk of reputation, relationships or real injury. The one who hung naked before a mocking world for our sins, deserves nothing less and certainly quite a bit more.