A Real Player
Matthew 8:18-20 When
Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of
the lake. 19 Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will
follow you wherever you go.” 20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of
the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
“I can’t wait to be a football player,” exclaimed the
adolescent teen. “Catching a pass and running for a touchdown will make me a
hero!”
I wonder what this
“football disciple” thought when he went to his first practice and had to run
wind sprints for 20 minutes, do 20 minutes of hard calisthenics, including the
grim “up-downs”. I wonder what he thought when he was tackled for the first
time, and his ribs shifted to the right. I wonder if he was still excited when
he put on his sweaty jersey from the day before and the smell nearly caused unconsciousness.
Do you think he still wanted to play the game, to be a hero?
If he was a real
player, he did. Real players see the hard work, the sweat, and the pain as the means
to the goal—literally. A real player embraces the work because he knows it will
lead to victory.
The teacher coming
to Jesus was excited to follow Jesus because of our Lord’s great healings. He
wanted to follow such a popular man as Jesus! Maybe he would become a hero,
too. But Jesus warned him, “Foxes have
holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay
his head.” In other words, Mr.
Teacher, you need to know that following Jesus means bone-crunching, sweaty sacrifice.
Still willing?
LIFE Link: Kingdom work requires daily workouts.
No comments:
Post a Comment