If you have ever been in one of my youth groups, you are cringing right now as you read that title …. Lol

Life really is like a game of football.

If, like me, you live in the southern part of the United States, a big part of your life has just ended. The final whistle has blown. The Super Bowl, our last vestige of this great American sport for many months is over.

I enjoy college football much more than professional football; can’t tell you why necessarily, just do. But I did watch intently last night as the Patriots came back to defeat the Falcons in OT. Much of the time, I was trying to follow along with the game on social media as well as watch it on the TV.

Anyone who does this has probably also noticed the following trend: when the game was going well for one of the teams, fans bombarded Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and others up with numerous posts of support. It was hard to shuffle through all the posts to make sense of them.

Yet, when the game was not going so well for their favorite team…. crickets!

I think it is kind of funny how that works. And, well I might be guilty of that a time or two myself. But I must digress.

My point is this, we often treat our spiritual life just like the rest of our lives. It has become just one “part” of our lives. A part that we talk up when things are going well… And we are mostly silent when we think things are not progressing as we would have planned it.

As I have been studying for my sermon this week, the Lord has emphasized this passage to me:

I see those words, and they challenge me.

You see, as a pastor who tries to prepare to face opposition by studying it; there is one thing that I have noticed about many false belief systems:

The adherents of these false religions have trained themselves to make religion, not part of their lives… yet, make it the whole of WHO they are!

They are totally committed… Totally sold out… Every aspect of their lives is intertwined with their concept of a god they serve. There is no “lull” when things go badly, there is only total commitment.

I often wonder why I do not see more Christians with this kind of commitment. And it breaks my heart to know that many of us who call ourselves followers of Christ, live out that belief as an important PART of our life.

I am here to tell you, following Jesus Christ can not be just an important part of your life. He is LIFE! He is our EVERYTHING.

4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it. – John 1:4-5

Following Him must be WHO we are… Not something we do.

The sooner we discipline ourselves to live like that, the sooner we will see God so great things in us, through us, around us, and even in spite of us. To Him be the glory…..

I pray that we can stop treating our spiritual lives like we treat our football teams. May we so live that we strive every day to become more and more like Him.

What a challenge!

What a mighty Savior!