This past Sunday June and I went for a run. We went right about the hottest time of the day, which is similar to a torrential downpour in a car. Unavoidably annoying, and hazardous to your health! Either way, it was great to be outside, to be with June, and to be active. If those three things made up each day of my life, I would be fairly happy. Back to the run. We were heading in to the last leg of it when June turned it on. Believe me when I say I had nothing to do with it. Something intrinsically motivated June to go a little further, a little faster.
As we walked to cool down, I looked right at her and said, "You are an athlete!" She kind of looked at me in shock, saying, "You really think so?" I said that is what athletes do. They push themselves. Every athlete at one point in time may start out on the bench, but no true athlete is okay with staying there. No great stories are written about someone sitting on the sidelines during the big game. They are written about the superior athlete.
Last night I had this dream. Very similar to a dream I've had several times a year for maybe the last ten years of my life. The setting of the dream revolves around some sport. Either I am trying to make the team, or I have, and I am trying not to lose my spot. Without going into too much psycho babel, this dream evokes another fear I face in my life and faith journey...sitting on the sidelines.
A couple blogs ago, I spoke about another fear I face as well. They are probably loosely connected, but this one makes my heart anxious. The other makes my heart ache. It is very tough for me, being a former three sport captain in high school, to sit on the sidelines. Humbling, I guess you could say. Do you ever feel like you are sitting on the sidelines? Its not the feeling that life is passing you by, its that life is happening right before your eyes. Always right before you. It is not that you missed the moment. It's that you saw the whole thing, and your presence had no impact on the moment. The last game of my college soccer career came down to penalty kicks. [Earlier I scored the goal that sent it into a shootout.] I was not selected as one of the penalty kickers. Impacted by the moment, as I sat on the sidelines watching the team lose that day.
If you click on the title of this blog you will be able to take a quiz that will help you learn which superstar Athlete you would be, or another quiz helps you determine which Celebrity you would be. These people are not only iconic in our culture, but at one time or another have inspired us all. Unfortunately, if we get too comfortable watching them, we merely become spectators in this life.
In Christianity you have a choice. You have a choice to be a "hot" Christian or a "cold" Christian. If you are Christian you can probably identify someone who falls under either category. So, if this fear was applied to my faith, I would fear being a lukewarm Christian. I don't want to be nominal, or merely average. To just sit on the sidelines. If you continue to read on past the "lukewarm" part in Revelation 3, God says, "to the victorious one I will give..." Right there He is saying BE AN ATHLETE! Go the extra mile, run a little faster, dig a little deeper.
I believe God created all of us to be athletes. Not super sports stars, but people who don't settle for the sidelines. A people who don't merely read about their faith, but write the next pages in the history of Christianity.
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