Milwaukee Brewers star and 2011 National League MVP Ryan Braun agreed to a suspension from Major League Baseball for the remainder of the season after an investigation linked him to Biogenesis, a company suspected of providing performance-enhancing drugs to elite athletes in baseball, basketball, tennis, boxing, and mixed martial arts. Cheating in sports, or any other profession, is a selfish act and is unfair to clean players who lose roster spots or matches to peers guilty of doping and teams that suffer when their star player is sidelined with a drug suspension. Jesus taught us a different way; he calls us to seek to make one another better through love. LinC looks at how we can imitate Jesus through humility and sacrifice. Key Scriptures: Amos 8:4-10; Mark 10:35-45; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27.
After decades of industrial decline, a dwindling population, and facing more than $14 billion in debts, last month Detroit became the largest American city ever to declare bankruptcy. But even amid this economic disaster, there are signs of hope in Detroit, some of which are coming from the city’s youth. And Detroit is far from the only major city facing challenges. Cities around the world struggle with problems such as declining housing markets, poor infrastructure, and schools with inadequate resources. But there are opportunities in all of these cities for young people to be agents of hope. Next week we’ll look at how God uses us to redeem and transform our cities and communities.
