I gotta admit, I love SEC football. Growing up in Arkansas, I remember the sounds, the smells, and the energy created at a Razorback Football game. I lived in Little Rock for 12 years, and there's something nostalgic about watching the Razorbacks play on Television, now that I've been exiled to Colorado. (HA!)
I don't know what it is, but everytime I sit down to watch a game, there's something emotional inside me that creeps in. I find myself talking to the T.V.
"That was a terrible call ref."
"Oh, come on He was in bounds."
"WHAT? Are you serious? That guy was holding....come on."
My family thinks I'm crazy, and well...the jury is still out on that. But the point is, there is an intrinsic response to pull for MY TEAM when the white jerseys play the blue jerseys. No matter what the call, or the rightness of the play calling on the field; The Razorbacks are Always Right!
Ever feel that way?
Maybe you're not into football, but surely there's some arena in your life where you find rightness by cheering on another team, pulling for a certain athlete, or maybe it's just as simple as waking up in the morning, looking at yourself in the mirror, and knowing YOU are right. Or maybe it's just like this political cycle in America. In your mind you say, "NO MATTER WHAT, MY TEAM IS RIGHT!"
I've studied faith from various perspectives, and I find the same feelings happen in faith. Now before your eyes bug out of your head as you read a Christian Author negotiating truth, please know I am 100% in line with John 14:6. I believe Jesus is the "Way, the Truth, and the Light..." but sometimes we can put ourselves in positions where nothing else in the world matters.
We spend our lives, our time, and our faith energy trying to prove to everyone else Christianity is True, Right, and Definitive, while we let the mission of Jesus fade into this strange football like metaphor. Unfortunately, when we act like this people of faith come off looking arrogant, cocky, and sometimes downright mean. (almost like someone who wears and Arkansas Jersey walks into a restaurant filled with people wearing LSU jerseys. Believe me, it's not a good situation.) People of faith become known for the need to be right, rather than for...well...what we're actually for.
We dress a certain way.
We act a certain way.
We talk with a certain language.
We create lists of THIS IS THE RIGHT WAY, and anyone who doesn't measure up to us is less than...well...human.
I've traveled the world exploring different faiths. I've been to the temple of 10,000 Buddhas. I've been to the Grand Mosque in Bahrain. I've talked with the Atheists at Oxford. I've spent time with different flavors of Christianity all over the globe. What I've found?
We're all people trying to the best we can.
People all over the globe are trying to find honest, authentic ways of living out their lives.
Even the murderer has some sort of justification in his mind that he was right when he had to kill.
Everyone wants the same essential things in life.
We want to be validated by someone.
We want to be accepted by someone.
We want to perform what we think is right at the time.
And unless your just EVIL, you find hope in things like family, friends, and meaning to your own existence.
So, why on this Tuesday am I writing this?
I wonder what the world would look like if people of faith began being know by what we're for; rather than what we're against?
I wonder what it would look like if we truly believed God sat on the throne of heaven, and he didn't need defending, because, well...He's God.
I wonder what the world would look like if we loved people like He asked us to? (no matter where they came from.)
I wonder if the proof of faith isn't in the need to be right in the latest debate, but rather; was about how we treated our family, our friends, our associates, and maybe even our businesses?
Do we really want to follow Jesus?
What would the world look like, if we were confident enough in the fact God is God, and then just lived it out?
Would we feel the pressure to quantify our faith by selling God to our latest associate?
Would we feel the guilt of our own actions if we really understood how much God loved us?
Would we create divisions among ourselves if we treated others more highly than ourselves?
I wonder....
Football season is about over, and I can let my own need to win subside at least until next fall. (I'm kidding...it's just a hobby...at least I think....)
But life is different than football. Setting up winners and loosers like a football game scoreboard? Isn't there more to life than this?
I realize there is a battle raging.
I realize there is evil in the world.
I understand the need to call on God the protector, the provider, the warrior, and the friend.
But is it our job?
The Bible says our battle is not against flesh and blood. We're not fighting the person who argued with you today. We're not fighting the person who cheated you. We're not fighting the group who won't let you participate in their even. We're not fighting to...well...fight.
The more I read of Jesus, the more I find a compassion rising above the need to feel right; and I see a man who came 'not to judge the world, but to serve.'
How are you living out your faith today?
Are you burdened to 'WIN?'
Or are you working on living out how Jesus told us to live, and subsequently winning anyway.
Jesus said, "The first and greatest commandment is this; Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your soul. The Second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself."(Matthew 22:37-40)
What would a world look like if we lived it?
