Charisa Stories

Category: Sports

  • Are You Reluctant To Read Stay?

    Are You Reluctant To Read Stay?

    My new book Stay: Lessons My Dogs Taught Me about Life, Loss, and Grace has been available for about 3 months. Your response has been an encouragement and blessing. Today I wanted to address the elephant in the kennel. When I have done book signings or talked about the book on the radio I often get these responses.

    “Is this a sad book?”
    “Will it make me cry?”
    “Does the dog die?”

    Those are usually followed by something like this.

    “I can’t read it if it is (any of the above).”

    My honest answers to the above queries would be sometimes, maybe and yes. But Stay is not a book about dying. It is entirely a book about living! The sad moments are wrapped in the redemptive joy of life, relationship and grace. I am pretty sure you will laugh, relate often to the stories of friendship, and marvel at the gift God has given us with these furry friends. Hannah lived well beyond her predicted time frame and those days were amazing times of inspiration and insight.

    New rescue Maggie “found” us and brought her own story that includes a lot of adventures that will make you laugh and sometimes cringe.

    I hope you will give Stay a chance even if you are a bit unsure. I think you will find it is much more than a sad story about a sick dog. It is a story about life itself and some lessons that changed me.

    I have been blessed by the comments of people I don’t know at all on Amazon and other sites. Here is just a sampling.

    This is a fantastic book. One that I will not only read but reflect, study, and put into practice. As a dog lover I relate to much of his experiences. ~ Laura

    You may ask, how can a dog teach you about life, especially when pets are not your thing? Dave Burchett brings a perspective that is different than any other book about Life….read it and you will see….. ~ KSC

    The most thoughtful, observant book I’ve read about the relationship between a pet and its owner. I bought it for two of my friends who have gone through recent loss and who love dogs, and they agree that this book is amazing. It truly touches the heart in the best way. ~ Anonymous

    Fascinating and heartfelt story. Loving how he sees life lessons through the relationship with his dog, Well written, humorous and tender. ~ KE

    Love love love! Wonderful insight to the Lords creation and life lessons! Awesome read! ~ Kerry

    Out of the dozens of reviews only two have been critical and both have been from readers who do not share my Christian worldview. So be aware that this book is about dogs, faith, Jesus, grace and living life joyfully in the moment. No apologies for that. Just lettin’ you know.  I would be grateful if you checked it out.

    Read the first chapter here.

     

  • Remembering Jackie Robinson

    (This is an annual revisit of one of the great stories in sports. Something to take your mind off of tax day)

    April 15th is not my favorite day of the year. Traditional tax day is never fun for a guy who is organizationally challenged. My idea of being prepared is having everything in one box. But I was heartened to find that April 15th is a great day for baseball fans.

    Jackie Robinson made his major league debut at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on this date in 1947. It was a historic and significant day for baseball but maybe more so for our country. You can argue that the American civil rights movement was ignited when Robinson came to bat in Dodger Blue. The journey for Robinson was difficult at best and nearly impossible at worst.

    Many Dodgers players, mostly Southerners led by Dixie Walker, threatened to walk if forced to play with a black player. That ended when Dodger management let them know in no uncertain terms that they could keep walking to the unemployment line. I often write about the pain that is caused by “bad” or thoughtless Christians. Can you imagine the pain that Robinson felt to have his teammates reject him for only one reason?

    But one teammate reacted in a way that I wish all serious and thoughtful Christians would emulate. Team captain Pee Wee Reese was an unlikely ally for Robinson. He was born in segregated Louisville, Kentucky, and the odds were that Reese would be a part of the boycott against a black player. But the diminutive Pee Wee Reese proved to be a giant of a man one day in Cincinnati. During infield practice the Redleg players were screaming at Jackie with all of the usual hateful epithets. And then the venom was distributed to Reese. They were yelling things at him like “How can you play with this (epithet)?”, as Jackie stood uncomfortably at first base. Pee Wee went over to him and put his arm around him and smiled. A silence fell over the Reds dugout and the fans witnessing this amazing act of grace, Jackie smiled back.

    At Reese’s funeral, Joe Black, another Major League Baseball black pioneer, said: “Pee Wee helped make my boyhood dream come true to play in the Majors, the World Series. When Pee Wee reached out to Jackie, all of us in the Negro League smiled and said it was the first time that a White guy had accepted us. When I finally got up to Brooklyn, I went to Pee Wee and said, ‘Black people love you. When you touched Jackie, you touched all of us.’ With Pee Wee, it was No. 1 on his uniform and No. 1 in our hearts.”

    Robinson later wrote this sentiment to Reese in a book inscription.

    “Pee Wee whether you are willing to admit what you being just a great guy meant (a great deal) to my career, I want you to know how much I feel it meant. May I take this opportunity to say a great big thanks and I sincerely hope all things you want in life be yours.”

    We need a lot more Pee Wee Reese’s in the body of Christ. We need men and women who are willing to step up for others when it may not be the best action for personal gain. We need men who are brave enough to look hatred and bigotry in the eye and call it by its name. April 15th was a day that demonstrated the greatness of two men. We need men who have the courage to emulate both Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese in our walk with Jesus. The Apostle Paul had some good advice to accomplish that goal.

    Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

    Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. (Galatians 6, The Message)

    I want to be willing to stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. As I meditate on the gift of grace and redemption I received through the Cross I wonder how I can do anything else?

  • Grace and Les Mis

    (Reposted from theFish.com)

    One of the joys of Christmas break is when the lovely Mrs. Burchett and I get to see some movies at an actual theater. One movie has dominated my thoughts since we left the theater several days ago. I did not know what to expect when I bought tickets for the movie version of Les Miserables. I heard some good things so I was optimistic. But I did not expect to be moved so profoundly.

    In case you do not know the story and plan to see the movie I will not be a spoiler. I will just say this is one of the most powerful stories of grace versus law ever written. The movie came to mind again when a song cycled up from Tenth Avenue North called, appropriately, Grace. The lyrics describe the surprising power of grace to change our hearts.

    Grace, only grace
    Can roll your dead heart’s stone away
    Grace, only grace
    Can move us to a rhythm that will change our ways

    Grace, only grace. I have found that to be so true in my own journey. Yet I fought grace for decades as so many others do. Les Miz is an incredible demonstration of the tension created by grace. Grace makes no sense to us and it is almost incomprehensibly radical. Pastor Tullian Tchividjian wrote this about our “aversion” to the concept of grace in his blog about the movie.

    We love the “if/then” proposition: “If” you do this, “then” I will do that. We love “what-goes-around-comes-around” conditionality. It makes us feel safe. It’s easy to comprehend. It makes perfect sense to our grace-shy hearts. It’s makes life formulaic. It breeds a sense of manageability. And best of all, it keeps us in control. We get to keep our ledgers and scorecards.

    The logic of grace, on the other hand, is incomprehensible to our law-locked hearts. Grace is thickly counter-intuitive. It feels risky and unfair. It wrestles control out of our hands. It is wild and unsettling. It turns everything that makes sense to us upside-down and inside-out. Law says, “Good people get good stuff; bad people get bad stuff.” Grace says, “The bad get the best; the worst inherit the wealth; the slave becomes a son.” This offends our deepest sense of justice and rightness. We are, by nature, allergic to grace. (from “Give Me Law or Give Me Death”)

    I was allergic to grace. Thank God I opened my heart to the compelling truths of grace. I beginning ever so slowly to comprehend the magnitude of Paul’s words to the Ephesians.

    But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) (Ephesians 2, NLT)

    Here is what I am discovering in my imperfect pursuit of grace.

    Grace compels you to trust others with you. Grace compels you to trust Jesus with your sin because you can’t manage it yourself. Grace compels you to forgive because you have been forgiven. Grace compels you to accept others and not judge them. Grace compels you to move toward the unlovable and not away. Grace compels you to sacrifice when you desire security. Grace compels you to love when your heart is hateful. Grace compels you to trust God when you are afraid and weak.

    One other thing that is true. Grace is hard.

    But it is the theology that allows us to quit trying to be righteous and actually begin to be righteous. Grace is the theology that allows us to deal with sin instead of trying to manage and rationalize it. Grace is real. It is powerful. And it is not weak. Grace should never be your cover for sin. Instead grace is your only hope to deal with it. Grace makes me tremble when I think of an almighty and powerful God. How could He give such a gift to an unworthy child like me? And how could I be comfortable taking advantage of that amazing grace? I cannot. I pray that I will not. Grace is compelling. I want it to be compelling in my life as well because of one other truth I am discovering. Real grace works. The chorus of “Grace” is my prayer for the New Year.

    Grace, grace, come and move me
    Oh, come and move me now
    Grace, grace, only you can
    Lift up what holds me down