Visit any high school football game during the fall, and we will be treated to youthful athletic prowess beyond measure. We will also see fumbles and recoveries, simple actions that not only teach the players that winning is not guaranteed, but that instill the knowledge that getting back up and taking advantage of all opportunities is part of achieving success in life.
The lessons learned instill valuable knowledge for the high school crowd, but what about our Christian halftime experience? In real life, we come to Jesus like testosterone laden teens, our muscles bulging, and our spirits pumped for success in him. Then that initial rush of enthusiasm wears thin, and the battle for spiritual supremacy becomes a grind of shoulder slammed into shoulder, and passes thrown and intercepted.
What do we do when our shoulders begin to ache, and our legs need a rest? We pause the game. In football, we have a halftime. In our Christian walk, we set our church attendance on the back burner, and we try to enjoy the halftime show of job advancement, new homes, and fancy cars. We raise our children, and we head to the lake house on the weekends.
During halftime, the band that entertains us spreads out across the football field. The band members become so dispersed that it is impossible for them to keep track of each other’s location. How can they remain in step with one other?
They listen to the beating of the drums.
When the percussionists slam their drumsticks against their drums, the sound rings out, and in that decisive sound, each band member can find a beat to step to, and the interplay of flutes, trumpets, and clarinets becomes a cohesive unit, grand in its unity, and solid in its strength.
We have a spiritual drum that rings out. If we listen, we can follow its beat, and we will stay in step with Christ and the other Christians who march with us.
John 3:16 is our bass drum, for its message underscores all other words that we speak.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
1 John 2:2 is our tom-tom, for its message drives us to show concern for those who share this earth with us.
“He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
1 Timothy 3:1-5 is our snare drum, for its message is the ongoing reminder that we march to a different drummer than what the world hears. We must be the higher example that others will see and want to emulate.
“The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?”
When we learn to order our days by the beat of God’s Word, we will become a halftime display that will draw the world to watch, and they will want to join in. Then, when the third quarter of the game resumes, we will be strengthened in number and in cheering support, and we will find victory within our grasp.
It is in working as one for the Lord that we find our success in him.
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