Wake Up, Look Up

[Music]

hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach

wrock and in today's episode we're

asking the question do I want change or

just credit but before I get into that

let me say happy new years's and I've

tried to pick an article that I think

will set us on a good trajectory for

thinking about the New Year's and New

Year's resolutions and hey maybe your

New Year's resolution is to listen to

wake up lookup if so great start you're

nailing it so far uh this is focusing on

a hilarious story in the sports world uh

dealing with the Charlotte Hornets in

the NBA basketball if you're not a

sports fan let me just give you a little

context the the Hornets have been in the

NBA for about 20 Seasons they they've

actually been in the NBA longer but then

they went away and moved to a different

city and came back and anyways about 20

years in those 20 years they've had four

winning seasons okay four winning

seasons in 20 years they are the

absolute basement of the NBA and I say

this as a Browns fan so look I'm not

looking down on anyone you might think

of them as the Cleveland Browns of the

NBA they're not any good but they're not

just not good at basketball apparently

they're not even good at giving stuff

away that's because recently they had an

onc Court promotion in which Hugo The

Hornet their mascot dressed as Santa

Claus and delivered gifts to Charlotte

Hornet's fans including one 13-year-old

kid that they brought down to the court

and as everyone in the arena cheered

they gave that kid a PlayStation 5 wow

what a gift highlight of that kid's

Christmas everybody celebrated the kid

was pumped then they walked him off the

court into the back of the arena and

took it away from him that's because he

wasn't actually going to get it they

gave him a hornet's Jersey instead which

you might be guessing as a previously

alluded to no one really wants that's

because I guess they were going to take

the PlayStation 5 back uh they didn't

want to spend the 500 bucks even though

they're a billion dooll franchise the

funny thing about the Hornets is after

the event happened and it caught a big

on social media they said hey we messed

up we turned the ball over which if

you've watched the Hornets play you know

is pretty familiar territory for them

it's a funny story it's funnier to me in

part as a Browns fan because I could see

the Browns doing this like we can't even

give things away without taking an L but

it's also interesting to me because I

think the reason for this story is the

reason why New Year's resolutions don't

work you see the the Hornets weren't

actually interested in being generous

they didn't want to be generous they

wanted to appear to be generous they

wanted to come off as generous and

that's the difference between I think

real change and change that doesn't last

I think most of us If we're honest we

don't want to be healthy we want to look

healthy we we don't want to be

financially wise we want to appear to be

good with money it's appearances that

we're after Jesus warns about this by

the way time and time again in the

gospels this is his chief objection with

the Pharisees they they don't really

care about connecting with God In Prayer

they just want to look like they do they

don't care about being generous with the

poor they just want you to think of them

as being generous I wonder if we

wouldn't all benefit this New Year's Day

from an exercise in which we divided our

New Year's resolutions into two buckets

the ones that are mostly driven by

appearance by cosmetics by our pride a

desire to be seen as being something and

then those that we actually really care

about and maybe do yourself a favor take

that first bucket and just throw it away

those aren't going to stick that's not

really what you want and focus on this

who do I really want to be who do I

really want to be what do I really want

to do what do I really want to

accomplish even if no one sees appearing

to be generous and actually being

generous are two very different things

listen if you want to win this year

don't be like the Charlotte Hornets

that's never a good winning formula

instead focus on what God is telling you

needs to change and then decide you're

going to do the hard work of change even

if no one notices because it's the

change you really want and really need

and for those of you for whom that

change involves wake up lookup I'll see

you tomorrow hey thanks so much for

watching this episode of wakeup lookup

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