Out of my mind…

Sports can be a good or bad topic when talking to someone.  Mostly because people either love sports or hate them.  For example, I LOVE sports.  I’m the kinda guy that will watch Sportscenter two hours in a row even though they run the same stories.  However, I realize not everyone shares my enthusiasm.  So please, stick with me.  I promise I’ll get to a point.

I have had a hard time finding people that do not like college football.  Something about the sport just excites people.  Whether it is your alma mater or the place you wish you had attended, it seems that everyone has a favorite.  Fans get so passionate about this game.  Last night (Thursday) I watched the fourth quarter of the USC/Oregon State game.  I didn’t bother watching most of the game because USC was supposed to win by 27 points.  They were ranked as the best team in college football almost unanimously.  In fact, I wouldn’t have seen any of the game if I hadn’t switched channels to watch Sportscenter.  Everyone just assumed USC had this game in the bag.  But as I watched the last five minutes of this game, I saw unranked, underachieving Oregon State finish what will probably play out to be the greatest upset of the season, beating #1 USC 27-21.  As I watched the post-game reports and Sportscenter, I was floored by what the commentators had to say.  Leading up to this game, all they could talk about was how USC was going to go undefeated and play for the national championship in January.  Everybody else was just playing for #2.  After this monumental upset, those very same commentators spoke of how USC was almost guaranteed to be out of the championship picture.  In a matter of three hours, these “experts” went from being sure USC was the best there was to saying no hope existed for them to win it all.

Now, those of you who are not sports fans are probably rolling your eyes and looking for an opportunity to leave, but WAIT!  That’s when I realized why people love college football.  Despite everyone whining about the ranking systems and how they decide who goes to what bowl and how bad the NCAA needs a playoff system, people love it because it is the way it is.  College football teams live and die with each game.  A team is forced to give everything it has every game.  If they don’t, if they lose, their hopes of a championship are gone.  One loss can end it all.  A team can be the best their is for 10 or 11 games, defeating every team they face.  But if they lose that last game before the championship, it doesn’t matter who they beat or how badly they won, they still lost.  They are still going to fall in the rankings and miss the championship they worked so hard for.  But people love that.  They love the suspense.  The love that you have to use every last bit of strength and every last shred of hope and honor to just have a shot to keep your dream alive.

And then it hit me.  There are days I love the suspense and the sacrifice and the battle of college football more than I love the faith I live by.  And I am a person that has chosen to spend my life helping others discover such a faith for themselves.  How can I honestly hold this game above a faith that calls me to make all the same sacrifices?

In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, the author writes of running the race:

“For you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize.  Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.  They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crwon that will last forever.  Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.  No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after i have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

If you want suspense and sacrifice and battle, here it is.  Our life is our race.  We run it everyday whether we want to or not.  Somedays we are leading the pack and others we seem to be fading and losing ground.  But we still run.  We are called to run, but not just run.  We are called to run to win the prize, eternal life and salvation with Jesus Christ.  Later in Hebrews 12, it is written that we are to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles”  so we may “run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”  We are called to do more than wake up and run each day.  We are to give our all and sacrifice everything to run the best race possible.  The best part of all this is that you just have to want it bad enough to strive for it.  God has put the prize within reach and even give us instructions and guidance on how to run for it.  Just like a football team competing and hungering so badly for a win and the ultimate prize or a championship, we must hunger for the life God has called us to live.  We must lay it all on the line to finish the race strong, the way He intends for us to finish.  I’ll leave you with a passage from 2 Timothy.  Here the author just reiterates the struggle and sacrifice of a life spent following Jesus.  He tells of how it costs a great deal, but is completely worth it.  I challenge you, as well as myself, not to just read these words and then finish your race today at a jogging pace.  I challenge us all to elevate your play to the excitement and challenge of the race God has laid out for you.  I challenge us all to sprint to the finish.  Today and everyday.

“For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

2 Timothy 4:6-8