Teammate vs. Referee

A friend of mine is helping coaching middle school football. It has given me a chance to live vicariously through him as we’ve talked about coaching and team and football. It’s been fun for me, and I think he is really enjoying not only the experience but the relationships (with students, coaches, parents, etc.).

Sports like football have rules. Without the rules, it would be like Calvinball. (You’ll know what I’m talking about if you are a fan of Calvin & Hobbes. If not, ignore my reference and read on.) Calvinball had no rules. You made them up as you went. It was chaos.

Football has rules. There are boundaries. There are sidelines and end zones which mark the field of play. You don’t play outside of these boundaries. There are specific ways you score points. There are limits to the number of players on the field. There is a limited amount of time the game is played. You have equipment you must wear and rules you must follow. Otherwise, you are penalized for not following the rules. SO, there are referees that exist to enforce the rules during a game. We might not always agree with their decisions, but they have final authority when it comes to enforcing the rules.

Often, we love the referees when they call something in our favor or when they penalize the other team. We don’t love the referees when they call something NOT in our favor or they penalize our team. They get yelled at a lot. It is not an easy job, but it is an important job to make sure the game is played by the rules.

There are also players – teammates. These are the people who are actually on the field of play who have to abide by the rules of the game. They get to hit, tackle, run, block, pass, etc. They get to enjoy the exhilaration of the game as well as deal with the emotions of winning and losing. The referees don’t do any of this. They don’t get to play. They watch and manage the game and make sure the rules are followed.

Following Jesus is like playing football. (That’s probably not a sentence you’ve heard before, but stick with me.) Yes, I know, you don’t really get to hit and tackle, but in many ways, following Jesus is similar to playing the game of football. There are rules to follow. There are boundaries to keep. There are certain things we do that are penalized because they are breaking the rules. We are on a team. It is not an individual sport. We experience ups and downs throughout the experience. Unlike a football game, which lasts for 60 minutes, following Jesus is a game that lasts a lifetime. There is a start, but not really a finish. It may not be about winning and losing in the way a football game is, but it is about living and dying. When we play we find what it is to live, and amazingly so, we also have the opportunity to invite others out of the stands and into the game. We have the chance to encourage others to move away from dying and into living.

There is a referee, too. However, unlike the football refs, this referee is perfect. He never makes a bad call. He is always working toward helping and encouraging the team to succeed. We may not always enjoy his input in our lives when we are breaking the rules, but we can know he is always making the right call and always seeking to help us grow and enjoy the game even more.

Part of the challenge we face in playing this game of life is the temptation to take over for the referee. We are all tempted to be referees. We like wearing the striped shirts, blowing our whistles, and pointing out the infractions in others. Our sinful nature has a propensity toward judgmentalness, so we are very prone to taking on the role of referee in the lives of others.

It is not our job. We are teammates not referees. Teammates are in the game. Referees are not. God has given us the rules and boundaries so that we experience His life - that’s when the game is most exciting, meaningful, and joyful. He did not give us rules so we could all become referees – pointing out each other’s faults and shortcomings.

I’m not denying the important role that accountability and tough love play. Any good team recognizes how important it is to hold each other accountable to playing the game to the best of our ability AND playing the game as a TEAM.

It is one thing for a fellow teammate, who you know loves you and is committed to your success, to challenge and encourage you in a different direction or point out a place where you are falling short. It is quite another story when someone wearing a striped shirt and blowing a loud whistle – not on your team and not in the game – begins pointing out all of your shortcomings and faults.

If you are not following Jesus, but believe it’s your job to tell others how they need to change, then you are a referee. You need to get in the game and on the team.

If you are following Jesus, play as a team. Be teammates.

The Freedom to Feel

Jesus wept at the loss of his friend. Jesus cried in anticipation of the difficult road to the cross. Jesus displayed a range of emotions – he felt deeply and he was perfect.

I was in a meeting today and the person speaking started to get choked up. He apologized.

I was with a group of people last week and numerous people started to cry. Some seemed embarrassed.

I was listening to someone share her story and she started to cry. She said, “I didn’t mean to do that. I’m sorry.”

Often people in my office cry. I have a box of Kleenex on my desk for that reason. And invariably, they are either embarrassed or apologetic or disappointed in themselves for letting their emotions come to the surface.

You’ve been there, too. Someone starts to get emotional and it makes us uncomfortable. We are tempted to tell a joke or distract or simply act like nothing is wrong and ignore the person struggling.

OR we’re the one with the emotions starting to bubble out. We fight them. We hide them. We apologize that we’ve ‘lost control.’

John hit his head pretty good at school the other day. It was enough for his teacher to call us. One thing she said surprised me, “He didn’t cry.” Yet, a few days later, John and I went golfing and he accidentally bumped his head with a golf club. He fought the tears for a moment, looked at me, and started to cry. He already feels (for some reason) that crying at school is just not as accepted as when he’s with his dad. I’m not trying to say that’s right or wrong just interesting.

Some people haven’t cried for years. Some are proud of that.

Some cry at the drop of a hat. Most are embarrassed by their inability to control their emotions.

I don’t think Jesus was an emotional basket case. I do think he felt deeply and sometimes those feelings overflowed.

It’s been an emotional few weeks for the Sauer’s. We are definitely emotionally tired. But we are also overwhelmed with joy. It is so good even though it’s been so emotional. Life has become more real and meaningful in these last few weeks. Tears flowed. It was hard to catch my breath. I looked silly. I didn’t care.

I believe when we live deeply, we feel deeply. When we step into this life God has for us, our hearts will be transformed. We’ll feel more. I’m not saying you have to cry a lot to follow Jesus, but I am saying your feelings will change (and grow) as you live His life.

Jesus loves. This love moves him deeply. He weeps. He challenges. He calls us to His way of life because He knows what that will mean for us and He loves us so deeply, He can’t help but express His emotion. He also feels deeply for us when we live apart from Him. He feels deeply for those who reject Him. He feels deeply for those who do not know Him. He feels deeply for those who do not feel deeply for Him.

Authenticity includes being transparent with our feelings.

I was deeply moved today by this man who, with tears in his eyes, expressed his conviction of his lack of love for those who are lost. He was overwhelmed with his emotions as he was convicted of his lack of compassion. He was crying out for God to help his heart be more reflective of God’s heart. He saw clearly that to ignore the needs of those apart from God was to have a heart of stone – very much unlike the heart of Jesus.

Love and tears go hand in hand. Take away those moments when you felt deeply in your life. I bet you can hardly imagine your life without those moments. I hope and pray that more and more of them come for me. I believe they do and will when I truly seek after Jesus and His Way of life.

You never have to apologize for letting Christ’s heart change yours. It's gonna show.

Seven Deadly Spirits - T. Scott Daniels

Next Sunday, Sept. 19th we begin a series taking us through the seven letters to the churches in Revelation 1-3. Revelation is an important and difficult part of Scripture. There are lots of different views and interpretations of this book. Some base our understanding of the future on Revelation. Some see it as primarily symbolic and not literal. Some avoid it all together. Our focus for the next few weeks will be in the first three chapters. I thought a little help in preparation would be good. The following are quotes from T. Scott Daniel’s book, Seven Deadly Spirits: The Message of Revelation’s Letters for Today’s Church.

I believe the purpose of this great and awesome revealed word to the early church was not to give the church the key to predict the future but to give the followers of Christ in the first century the ability to view from the perspectives of the divine the culture that surround them. (19)

The primary force that opposes the gospel in John’s vision from Patmos is not the beast or the Antichrist but the principality and power he names Babylon. (20)

Babylon holds a special place in the great and populated pantheon of Jewish oppressors and captors, especially for the biblical prophets. Particularly in the book of Daniel, the reader discovers that the primary problem of Israel’s second great exile was that life in Babylon wasn’t nearly as oppressive as their days of slavery in Egypt. Egypt violently oppressed the Israelites. Although many people died at the hand of Pharaoh, the children of Israel were not invited or tempted to become Egyptians. The distinct problem of the Babylonian exile was that the culture of Babylon gave enough freedom and offered enough wealth and power to their Israelite and Judean captives that the greatest risk the people faced was not slavery and oppression but that their children would become Babylonians. In fact, when we read the famous stories of Hebrew children facing the fiery furnace rather than bowing to the king and Daniel accepting the lions’ den rather than accepting restrictions to his faith, we realize that their faith was demonstrated in their ability to resist the lure of the Babylonian empire and not be assimilated into or be conformed to the culture. (20)

Situated in another empire, Rome, John the Revelator recognizes that the primary challenge his brothers and sisters in the early church face is not just sporadic persecution but the constant lure to compromise with the new Babylon. Like Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel before them, the first-century Christians must constantly be alert to the ways the empire is pressing them into its mold. The book of Revelation gives the early church the language – the linguistic glasses if you will – to see that the goddess Roma (the spiritual embodiment of the power of Rome) will not give them the abundant life she promises; instead, like Babylon she will lure them into a variety of compromises that will conform them to her values and rob them of the abundant and eternal life they have received and are experiencing through the Lamb. (21)

The Revelator recognizes that it takes a special set of skills to live a faithful Christian life in caesar’s Babylon. Certainly the “visible Caesar” represents the continual threat of violence and persecution inflicted on those who seem suspicious to the status quo because of their perceived disloyalties. The larger letter of Revelation, and the letters within the letter, contains many references to endurance, long-suffering, and hope beyond physical death, but John seems equally to recognize the threat of the “hidden Caesar” that invites us to compromise. To find Caesar in all his hiding places requires the believer to see the world apocalyptically. The spiritual survival of the early Christians depended on their ability to not see Rome as the eternal city but to see her as another Babylon on the way to implosion and collapse (Rev. 19). Followers of Christ cannot view the economics of the empire as “just business”; rather, they must have the insight to see it as the trap and lure of the beast. Disciples, who are committed to overcoming evil with good, must not view political and military power as a necessary means to a peaceful end, but they must be able to recognize in caesar’s chariots and horses the never-ending cycle of the principalities and power’s attempts to overcome coercive power with more coercive power and to stop violence through the use of greater violence. (22)

Each church is caught in a tug-of-war between Christ and its surrounding culture. In each letter, the church is called by the one “who walks among the seven golden lampstands” (Rev. 2:1) to “listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches” (2:7) and to “conquer” or overcome the forces that are keeping it from fulfilling its divine purpose and character. (22-23)

Stepping Over the Line

I’m not talking about crossing the line – doing something that you shouldn’t do. I want to encourage you to step over the line.

There is a line in each of our lives which separates our comfort zone from our risk zone. As you approach this line, you tend to experience things like fear, anxiety, and unease. Because of these normal responses to this line, most of us move back into the area of comfort.

We see a friend or family member heading in the wrong direction. We begin to think about what we ought to say to encourage them back in the right direction. We start to feel anxious, so we decide to do nothing.

We hear of a need that moves our heart. We feel strongly that we need to help. As we begin to move closer to doing something about it, we begin to doubt, so we do nothing.

We sense Jesus calling us to take a step of faith in our lives. We are hesitant and afraid of what this will mean, so it is easy to distract ourselves with our own busyness or justify why taking a risk isn’t the right decision. We do nothing.

All of these describe instances of moving toward the line that separates comfort and risk and how often we stay in the area of comfort.

This is not the Jesus Way. This is not the pathway of the Epic Life. It is safe, comfortable, easy, but not biblical. And if we’re honest, many of us, if faced with the decision to give up what we’ve found in this life, won’t take the risk. If given the chance to pursue a life of risk-taking and adventure where we’re called into the unknown having to be dependent on something outside of ourselves, most of us balk. “Why would I choose that?” “Why would I give up my good and comfortable life?” “What would I risk it?”

These are legitimate and important questions. And what’s true about them is God gives you the opportunity to ask them every day. It’s not a one-shot experience. You may choose comfort today, but God is going to invite into His life tomorrow. The invitations will keep coming no matter how often you reject them.

The Jesus Way involves stepping over the line. It means stepping over the line at work. It means stepping over the line in relationships. It means learning to live a life where Jesus’ Way of living is your guide. You are dependent upon Him and not yourself. It will not be comfortable. It will not be easy. It will not be safe. But it will be good and epic and abundant and life-changing and kingdom building and obedient and joyful and . . . it will be life as life is meant to be lived.

In fact, another way to describe what I’m saying is that it will be a life where the steps you take are steps of faith not certainty. You will have to put your foot in places where it is not clear whether you will find solid ground. You’ll have to trust in the one you can’t see with your eyes to be the foundation upon which you walk. Steps of certainty are found in the land of comfort. Steps of faith are found in the Jesus’ Way.

Right now, I believe, Jesus is encouraging you to step over the line. It may be in a relationship. It may be in your walk with Him. It may be in a willingness to do something that makes you uncomfortable, but you believe it is what God wants you to do. Don’t move away from these feelings of fear and anxiety. Step into them. Step into them knowing that you step into the arms of God. Though you may trip and struggle and even suffer, know that THIS LIFE is His life, and His life is a life that truly changes the world and will definitely be a life that enables you to experience the promises of His joy, peace, purpose, love, hope, and freedom. Comfort is easy, but it is also shallow and self-centered and in the long run empty.

If you don’t believe me, then look at Jesus’ life. Look at His disciples. Look at what they found. LIFE by stepping over the line, by stepping in faith, by stepping into a place where they were forced to depend upon their Father.