Getting Our Head in the Real Game

Saturday, I joined college football fans across the country – including the President – in watching one of the classic matchups in college football every year:  the Army-Navy game.  In its 112^th rendition, the contest delivered a competitive, close game full of passion, tradition, and skill.

For me, one of the highlights of this game each year is hearing where the seniors on each team are going to serve upon graduation.  The Navy quarterback, for example, is going to be a naval flight officer, while the fullback will begin SEAL training.  Each of the young men playing knows that, while the game is important, it isn’t the point.  They are being trained, not to play a football game, but to serve their country.

What would it be like, however, if those young Army and Navy players decided the game was the point?  What if they tried to stay at West Point or Annapolis instead of moving on to the 101^st Division, the field artillery, flight training, or their assigned ship.  That would be a travesty of their training as cadets and midshipmen, and an abdication of their sworn oaths as sailors, soldiers, and Marines.  The football game is just a game – they are being trained to leave the game for a lifetime of service.

This is an apt model for the church that Christ commissioned.  Indeed, his “Great Commission” begins with the command, “go”:  “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19).  It is a call to action, one focused not on our own entertainment or satisfaction, but one focused on doing God’s work and being about our Father’s business:  bringing people into relationship with God and into the kingdom life.

Unfortunately, the church far too often refuses the call.  Content to play the game (after all, it’s so much fun!), we minister to ourselves, meet our own needs and wants, and avoid thinking about any danger “out there.”  We refuse to leave the playing field for the fields of life – the fields that Christ says “are ripe for harvest.” (John 4:35) Our call is not to sit on the sidelines or even play the game.  Our call is to do the work and share the Good News of Christ – and we can’t do that if we never leave the locker room behind.

In Christ,

Adam