I only watched a few minutes of the game. I had a Bible study scheduled for that night so I went to that. Nobody else showed up. It was pretty much me and the waitress at the restaurant. I gave her a $5 tip for my glass of water and left. No sense everybody's night being a total loss.
Well, it wasn't a TOTAL loss. I did go home and read two chapters in The Book of John. I was reading the account of the betrayal and death of Jesus and began to think about all the things Jesus gave up for me. For us.
He gave up His life . . . obviously. But that's not exactly true. He is alive today! Come to think of it, Jesus didn't really give up anything at all. He actually has everything He could have dreamed of. Hmm. I wonder. Does Jesus dream? If so, what does He dream about? But I'm off on a tangent.
God didn't really lose anything either. We are fond of saying that "God gave His only Son" but God's One and only Son is currently sitting right by His side. God didn't give up anything either.
For the Badger basketball team and their fans the night WAS a total loss. Some people spent thousands of dollars to travel to Indianapolis, rent hotel rooms, pay for dinner, tickets, taxi fares, tips. All to see their team lose. Of course, they might have won! But they didn't. Thousands of dollars lost, time lost for absolutely nothing. But that's past of the cost of being a fan.
After the game many Badger fans posted congratulatory messages for their Badgers. "Thanks for the season Badgers." "We'll get 'em next year." "Thanks Bucky!"
Always thinking about those Badgers (or whatever teams name you want to use). Which brings me to the point of this blog post.
I wonder . . . with all of the basketball games being played in March and now baseball starting up, how much time does the average sports fan have for Jesus?
Do you remember what Jesus said was the greatest commandment? Here's hint.
"36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” - Matthew 22:36-40
I struggle with that command. It's not that I don't want to obey it. I can't!Let's talk about the word "ALL" for a moment. All . . . that kind of means everything, doesn't it? How many minutes are there in an hour? ALL the minutes. Every one. Well, there's 60 minutes in an hour.
How many minutes in a basket ball game? 40 minutes. That's the whole game. That's ALL of it.
We have no trouble thinking about basketball for 40 minutes but most of us can't think about God for 4 minutes, let alone 40 minutes.
Do we love God with ALL our hearts? Or do we save some of our hearts for the Badgers? See what I mean? God wants all of us and we refuse to let him have us. That's a problem.
So, how do we let God have all of us? We could start by getting rid of the extra stuff.
I probably spend too much time on the computer. I work on a computer at work drawings architectural plans. I also write this blog on a computer. If I wanted to think about God all the time I would have to give up my job. Is that what God wants?
The question actually is do we LOVE God with all we have? My answer, sadly, is no. Do I love God more than I love my best friend? More than I love my wife? My kids? Myself? The answer MUST be yes!
Thank about that for a moment. Do you love God more than anything? Is YOUR answer yes? I want my answer to be yes, yet I still fail at living that out. It's probably the same for you. So what do we do? We stand back up and try again tomorrow. Our highest goal must be to please our God and when He wants us to give him our EVERYTHING, our ALL, We MUST be fanatical about doing that.
You Are My All In All - Hillsong Kids
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