You can take the boy out of sports ... but not sports out of the boy ...

Growing up in Tuttle carries with it the expectation to play sports. Late summer and fall Saturday nights find many parents watching their young boys playing football under the lights at Bill Hinkle Field. Each aspires to play for the Tuttle Tigers. Beginning Friday nights in September the stadium is full of eager young boys longing for the day when they may take the field as they watch the Varsity Tigers take the field.

Football is not the only sport in Tuttle. Boys baseball and wrestling get good billing with basketball not far behind. Girls softball enjoys a great deal of success and there are always hopes for a solid girls basketball team.

Lyle played for the Tigers. He enjoyed attending the games. We took in most home games this past season sitting on the 50 yard line. Craig, and sometimes Kimberly joined us. When Lyle had to be at the "Station" he would call to get the score. We enjoyed watching the Tigers win the Class 3A State Championship this past December. On the way home we talked about Zack Mincy's running that night - it was special to get to see.

This week when the news about Kelvin Sampson taking the job at Indiana came out I was reminded of a number of conversations over the past few months. Lyle would talk with a sense of frustration as we followed the Sooners Men's Basketball team. I remember Lyle saying he should have turned the game off as the Sooners would drop a game we thought they sh0ould have won. It would be eespecially intense if they were winning until he turned on the game only to watch them lose. The Sooners were his "team."

Many parents relive their sports careers through their children. Lyle did not seem to do so. Nathan's decision to quit playing football and focus on basketball and his choice to play golf rather than baseball only meant Lyle would alter what sport he watched his son play. We often talked about the undue pressure placed on young people to succeed at sports. Many a parent believes their child a sure future "Hall of Fame" candidate if they were just given the chance. Today we would do well to encourage our children in their pursuits rather than push them to pursue what we want/did. Sports offers a great number of life learning experiences. Long after downs are played and innings finished these lessons linger.

We coud adapt an old saying which is true on a number of levels - You can take the boy (or man) out of sports but you cannot take sports out of the boy (man).

Beginnings of a "Conspiracy" ...

We often worry about those who may conspire against us. The news reporter looked nearly speechless as he relayed the testimony in the recent 9/11 trail of Moussaoui. The would be terrorist noted more details of an alleged conspiracy to fly a plane into the White House. Those who conspire against us should be watched.

However, those who conspire for us should be heeded. When we talked of unpacking the title to Willard's book, The Divine Conspiracy, we thought the provocations of the word, "conspiracy" helpful to understand the work of grace. Robert Benson describes the One who conspires for us to be the Dreamer. The conspiring to make Lyle a child of God began with the commitment of his parents to trust him to the Lord.

LYLE ALAN BURRIS, 43, of Tuttle, passed away Sunday, March 12, 2006. Lyle was a wonderful husband, father, son, and friend. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

Lyle was born on October 26, 1962, to C.B and Janet Burris, in El Reno, Oklahoma.

Living out Deuteronomy 6, C.B and Janet conspired with the Lord to raise Lyle to trust LORD God. Many refer to an old proverb, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it," as inspiration for diligence in living out a life of faith before their children. The proverb also implies another important truth - raise a child to do what he wants and when he is old all he will do is what he wants.

Lyle enjoyed a divinely conspired heritage through which he trusted the One who conspired to make him a child.

Tribute in the Template ...

I am working to make some changes to Lyle's template. I have shamelessly borrowed my brother's three column version and will need to make the necessary changes to convert all links, etc to those Lyle had posted. This is a bit tedious for a novice hack. I hope to have this completed soon. Keep checking back. Once the template has been converted, we will make this a group blog of sorts to keep the themes and memory of our friend alive.

Tribute Coming ...

Lyle began this blog almost two years ago. Inspired to blog by his daughter, Natalie, he often interacted with the themes in Dallas Willard's, Divine Conspiracy.

Sunday evening, March 12,2006, Lyle suffered a heart attack and died. Yet, he lives as he trusted in the Triune God who conspired to make him not only his, but to lead him into a life of faith with the hope of Jesus in the Resurrection.

We celebrated his life, Thursday, March 16, 2006, with family and friends at the Snow Hill Baptist Church in Tuttle, Oklahoma.