What’s
Your Game Plan?
Tis the season for football! Does everyone have plans for tonight’s
game? The Super Bowl is a big deal. I mean really big! Where else would you find people glued to the
TV as much for the commercials as for the game!?
The earlier video had a good message
reminding us that we are part of something bigger. That like a football player on a team, we are
one piece in a larger puzzle of creation with a purpose to which we’ve been
called.
Continuing with that football analogy,
sometimes we are guilty of ignoring the coach’s call to participate. We get comfortable watching from the
sidelines as others do the work that the coach has called US to do. It’s so much easier to sit on the sideline
where things are clean and insulated from harm.
Outside of the mud and the bruises, life feels safe.
But life throws errant passes
sometimes. Things don’t always go
according to plan, even on the sidelines.
Players get tackled out of bounds and knock over reporters, coaches, and
even players that haven’t gone into the game.
In reality, there isn’t a safe place on the playing field or the
sidelines. I watched one football game
where the coach got hit on the sidelines and broke his leg. Imagine that, even the coach will risk health
for the game.
In the competition of football there are many
different plans in place. The coaches
put a game plan together in preparation for their next opponent and rarely do
those plans work out perfectly. There
are some players who are more interested in their own performance than that of
the team. There are players who
prioritize their own statistics over the results of their team. These players can upset the game plan.
Better personal performance leads to fame and
fortune. And for some players, individual
fame and fortune are more important than the performance of the team. If their roles are reduced for the
improvement of the team, they will be the ones who whine or complain. They point out the faults of other players to
make themselves look better. They
believe that they are individually bigger than the whole. We’ve seen them. You know who they are. They are talking to reporters after the
game. They are co-workers in the
office. They might even live under your
roof.
So what is YOUR game plan? What is God calling you to do? Let’s understand one thing first. God IS calling you to something. So sitting on the sidelines with the illusion
of safety is not part of the game plan.
While we might not always be in the middle of the action, we are to be
prepared at all times for action.
Because the game is not centered on our ability to keep clean and safe. It’s purpose includes our getting dirty.
In the U.S. we are used to convenience. There is almost always someone else who can
do something for us if we prefer not to do it.
Our consumer driven economy has nurtured power and control that
disconnects us from the messy reality that defines the majority of the world. If we don’t want to get dirty, we’ll pay
someone else to do it for us, as we fall into the trap of looking down upon
those who keep us clean.
The problem with that outlook is that life
isn’t clean. It’s messy and it’s chaotic. Everything we do to try to avoid the mess and
imperfection is denial. We are
surrounded by messy, sinful humanity. WE
are messy and sinful humanity. And so we
try to hide from it. We insulate
ourselves from the problems of the world and send others to face the mess.
One of my former seminary professors (Dr. Matt
Skinner) writes a blog for the Huffington Post.
Earlier this week he commented about the things we value.
“If you
want to see real wealth on Sunday, look elsewhere in the stadium. The commissioner of the NFL has ‘earned’ a
salary of $30 million in one year, working on behalf of the rich owners of the
league’s 32 teams. Full-service luxury
suites for the big game are renting in the neighborhood of $500,000, and some
could go for much more in secondary markets.
God knows what a beer in a souvenir cup will cost you. All this will be taking place less than ten
miles from Newark, where, according to recent figures, over a quarter of the
population lives below the poverty line.
How many Newark residents would be able to watch the game in person?”
Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in
spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are those
who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed are the merciful, blessed are
the pure in heart, blessed are the peacemakers, and blessed are those who are persecuted
and reviled for Jesus’ sake.” Blessed
are those who live in and face the mess.
Blessed are those who can’t deny the ugliness of life.
Jesus Christ himself lived in the midst of the
mess. ‘The Coach’, if you will, risked
his own health, giving his life for the game, the field, the players, and the
spectators. Jesus did not live in the
comfort of the sidelines. He lived in
the middle of the mud and pain, owned nothing more than the clothes on his
back, and called us to follow him. Our
glory is not in personal statistics, it is in our Coach, our Lord, and our
Savior, Jesus Christ. He gave
everything, including his life out of love and mercy for us, even when we
didn’t want it. We are called to get
dirty with him out of compassion for others, just as he got dirty for us. Be blessed, my friends, in the middle of the
mess. Amen.