Wanna hear something really cool? My alma mater, Crest High, is back in the softball state championship final four this weekend in Raleigh! I was part of the team that made it last year. We fought all the way to the championship game, and came up short. Man, some of the best memories of my entire life come from the ball field with that team.
If you are not a sports fan, do not stop reading! This is going somewhere, I promise. (hopefully)
Wanna hear something even cooler? This totally correlates with an aspect of my spiritual life as a Christ follower. God has really used this exciting time for Crest Softball, and the community of Shelby in general, to make me think a lot. And for some reason everything I have been reading in my quiet times and discussing with fellow brothers and sisters has to do with this one little correlation. Well, it's not very little. I feel like God goes by the "go big or go home" rule.
Now that I am not playing, I am watching. I am watching about seven or so of my favorite girls on this earth play their hearts out for a state championship. I am seeing pure joy, devotion, endurance, and support. I am seeing it all laid out on the field. That was me last year. And now, I get to see it from a totally different perspective. I get to watch my little sisters fight their hearts out, because I know they will.
You know, the Lord has placed us, the body of Christ, in all different places at all different times. He just wants us to share the power of the gospel--wherever we may be. He wants us to go big or go home. He wants to see pure joy, devotion, endurance, and support in the lives of His followers. We are the body. And even when one of us is on the bleachers, and the other is on the actual field, we are still the body. And so, let the bleachers be the new field, if that's where He leads us.
On Saturday, the girls played the game to make it to Raleigh, and they won with an 8-inning comeback against a very talented team (I am now a softball enthusiast/analyst. If I cannot play, I might as well do everything with it that I am capable.) Let me just tell you, it is a lot different watching. I was so nervous at this game. I'm talking can't talk to anyone around me, chew the chicle out of my gum nervous. I could not do anything in my power on that field. I was not there. That is not where I was placed. My field was somewhere else. But my goodness! Did I want those girls to win. My passion for them to win was intriguing me, or almost convicting me. And so I did the only thing I knew to do--I prayed.
I prayed for every girl as she came up to bat. I prayed for peace and limited nervousness and teamwork within and between the girls. I know it sounds silly, and so be it, but I prayed.
When I thought back to that instance and how it portrayed God's sense of humor in what He compels the follower to do, I thought about my passion. Why is it that my passion for winning a simple softball game, whether I am actually playing or someone else is, is at a glance so much greater than my passion for the kingdom. Imagine what could happen if I had enough passion for the kingdom of God as I did for winning a ball game that will never matter in eternity. All of us. We all stand and cheer and get angry when the officials make terrible calls and laugh together and work hard together and buy each other hotdogs and high five each other and share so much joy--and pain--together.
^The above are metaphors, in case you didn't catch that.
^And that was a pun, in case you didn't catch that either.
But seriously! If we used that energy to go out together as the body of Christ to share the gospel, to beat Satan and his dark forces, to listen to our Coach and do whatever he calls us to do, there is no telling what He could accomplish through us.
If I prayed for my brothers and sisters, a lot of whom are all over the world this summer, like I did on those bleachers, the results are unsearchable. I may not be on their field, but I should be passionate for them with a Godly passion. Where is our passion? Where is my passion?
That is what I love so much about Paul. His passion for the people is astounding (and convicting). Every one of his books talks about how much he prays for and genuinely loves certain people groups. He may not be on their field, but sure is passionate for them to win.
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. -1 Colossians 1:9-12
I encourage you to start praying for that passion, that burning that causes you to do unlikely things, pray unlikely prayers, and befriend unlikely people. Without passion, we are just going through motions. We have no substance, no motivation, no reason. Without passion we have no... anything. He is our passion. And without Him, we easily have nothing.
LMB
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