In this Covid 19 season . . ..

I sure have missed live sports.

· I miss not being out on the field coaching my son’s baseball team, watching him hit a game winning double, throw some one out a second or close out a game on the mound.

· I also realize how much I enjoy our local teams Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, Red Sox. I mean 12 championships in 20 years for one town is a great achievement.

· It has made me remember something I am still learning from 12 years ago.

My family and I lived in GA for 9 years. One of the things I quickly realized is that College Football was a god in the south. Saturdays were set aside for watching, attending, rooting and loosing their minds as they root for their team and then Sundays, Sundays they were for bragging about their teams win or they were days of great grief as opposing fans rubbed it in their faces.

I made an observation (maybe even a judgment) there seems to be an imbalance of just how devoted some of these people are to their teams.

It caused me to ask some personal questions:

1. How devoted was I to my Bruins, Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox? Was I an over the top fan? Was I too an obnoxious devotee to these paragons of sport?

2. As I continued to sit with those questions, the Holy Spirit started working on me through a better question:

a. Was I as big a fan of Jesus, and the Kingdom of God as I was for my local teams?

In John 6:67-69, Jesus asks, the disciples, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Simon Peter Answered him, “Lord, to who shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy one of God.”

Peter and the disciples were all in, or at least as all in as they could be. They didn’t know what or how things were going to transpire. Sure, they wavered a time or two but the direction of their hearts and heads was to follow and be with Jesus every moment. This wasn’t a mere association for them, they left their livelihoods to follow Jesus. Why, because he brought them life and he continues to bring life today.

Jesus eludes to the theme of life or eternal life like the beat of a drum in John 6 in less than 20 verses he of life explicitly 4 times:

· :33 “For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

· :40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day.

· :47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.

· :51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.

John 10:10 reminds us of this even more, “The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy but I have come that you may have life and have it to the full. Jesus has called us to partake in his death and his life. His death for our forgiveness of sin and His resurrection for our life. He didn’t die and come back for us to merely associate ourselves with him like fair-weather-fans. He died and rose for us to participate in life that is truly life.

So here is the question: do you associate yourself with Jesus or are you participate in his death, and life as your death and life?

More than that do you yearn to see the world through his eyes?

Does your heart break for the things that break his?

Does your spirit rejoice in the kindness and joy of others?

If the beauty and glory of Christ

do not capture our imaginations,

dominate our waking thought,

and fill our hearts

with longing and desire

then something else will.

–John Owen

I pray that we may all experience God's peace and presence in and around us,

may we take in His renewed mercies every morning without doubt,

may we see His grace in and around us at all times,

may His healing power flow through the veins of the ones who are not well or in pain and the hurting, may we praise Him louder and louder knowing His grace is upon us i

in Jesus's name. Amen