Super Bowl Hype

The Super Bowl is tomorrow night and though my Steelers didn’t make it this year, my brother and sister are excited their Patriots did. I love football, its a great game that incorporates both brains and brawn, strategy and speed.  Not many years ago I journeyed to a high school about an hour from where I live to see my younger brother. He was the head coach of a high school team and they were playing a school there.   As I met him there he was running his team through their pregame drills on the field and so we got to chat and watch the players warm up.  It was cool to see him in action and how the young men responded to him with respect and eagerness to learn the game and beat their opponent that day. They were after a win and were doing all they could to secure it !!

I’ve often told our church that when you come to worship at church it’s much like the practices for the game. When you leave the game “kicks off”.  You are out in the world, your God given mission field. And you are to utilize what He has taught you and demonstrate the skill and wisdom God has given to you to live out the Christian life before them.

Paul used the analogy of sports in his writings and here is one instance: “Know ye that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.” ” (1Cor.9:24-25).   He was promoting the lesson that we need to be disciplined as an athlete and strive for the victory but he encouraged us that our “super bowl ring” or “trophy” is enduring !  The trophies you may have won as a kid may have started to corrode, the ribbons will fade but what you are gaining now as a faithful child of God is going to stand the tests of not just time but eternity itself !!  You may not feel very super at times, as you  strive to do whats right in a world that rewards wrong.  You may not feel very significant in a small church or ministry that seems to be unnoticed but rest assured you are God’s MVP if you are faithful to the task He has at hand for you !  So keep in the game, you’re on the winning team, Christian !!!