I recently I sat down with a man who spent some time telling me all the things he is involved in, sports, sports camps, NBA school for his children and on and on. He was telling me why he couldn't participate in a LifeGroup. I couldn’t help but feel sadness for my friend. I sat and prayed asking God for wisdom. How could I help him see God’s greater purpose without raising his defenses, without causing him to think I’m against sports or his love of sports? I am not. I just know that if we give our kids the whole world…if we help them become professional athletes and don’t teach them to be rich toward God and live for his purposes we have missed the point of life. We have given them temporal happiness, but we have not given them the things that matter most.
There is not a doubt in my mind that if I had asked, “Which do you think is the greatest quality to give to your children, “godliness” or “athletic prowess”? that he would have chosen hands down “godliness”. Yet there is a huge disconnect in what he says and what he does. Why is that? I think that answer is in his understanding of godliness. If I had asked him, “Which do you think is the most important to give your kids, “life” or “athletic prowess”? I have no doubt that to this question he would have raised an eyebrow and given me a look that says, “I don’t understand.” I think that is true because many equate godliness with “inviting Jesus into your heart”, going to church, being good, and having a good time. To my friend knowing God and having athletic prowess is what it means to live.
According to Jesus, to live is to give your life away for his purposes. “Life”, in the Biblical sense, it is not just having breadth or a pulse, it is not even how much fun we are having. We pass out of death into life when we give up our life for God’s greater purposes in the world and by doing so we discover deeper satisfaction, joy, peace and purpose than we have ever known . . . we find life. In the book of Mark, Mark quotes Jesus as saying it this way, “He who holds on to his life (what he thinks is really living) will lose it, but he that gives up his life for my sake and the gospel’s finds life” (Mark 8:35).
I believe that the key to…
· …a great marriage
· …raising successful children
· …running successful businesses
· …experiencing genuine happiness
· …finding ultimate fulfillment
· …walking in the peace that surpasses comprehension
…is to give up the delusion that we can find life apart from giving ourselves fully for God’s purposes – giving up our lives for His sake and the gospel’s. I couldn’t help but think what this man’s life would be like, and I couldn’t help but challenge him to think what it would be like, if he took his passion for sports and began to leverage it for Jesus’ sake the gospel’s. I could see God giving this man more opportunities in sports than he could ever imagine. I could God giving him what he is really looking for – life to the full, life overflowing.
With this understanding it makes perfect sense why the same Jesus who said, “I came that they might have life”, promised to teach his followers only one thing, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Taking our natural passions, skills, training and life experiences and leveraging them to help others find and follow Christ is where we find what it means to really live.
