First, I had Buddy the Elf, then I brought Drake out, and now I've got Nike's slogan with Shia Labeouf screaming "JUST DO IT!!!"
Yes, they're all media sensations, and boy do we love ourselves some media. Here you are reading this weekly devotional from either your computer, tablet, or smartphone and you're most likely to use your TV for the College Football National Championship tomorrow. If you’re not planning to watch the game, that’s no biggie, my friend. Let me fill you in on something else that I believe is pretty special:
Tomorrow night, there will be 2 of the league’s best teams, Alabama and Clemson, coached by 2 of the league’s greatest coaches of all time. Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney. They both have a near-equivalent win-loss ratio with Nick Saban coaching twice as many games in his career than Dabo Swinney.
Now here’s where it gets special:
Dabo Swinney may only have 115 wins compared to Nick Saban’s 237, but he also has something much more than wins, status, and money. That ‘something’ would be his faith.
July 6th, the month before Clemson football started, Dabo Swinney was asked how and why he goes straight to talking about his faith and God’s grace whenever he gets another trophy or a big win with his team. You can watch the whole 3 minutes on YouTube, but for now, I’ll leave you with a couple of things he said:
Dabo talks about what he thinks it will be like when He meets God and says,
“He’s not gonna pat me on the back talking about how many wins I had, how many coach-of-the-year trophies I got, or how much money I made.”
“I really think He’s going to hold me accountable to how I took advantage of the opportunities and the blessings that He gave me, the impact that I had on young people, and the type of men that we developed through a game.”
Yes, another example of humility in athletes and coaches out there, but how does this apply to our everyday, non-football/sports lives?
Our less-exciting, go-to-work, go-to-school lives?
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Looking into scripture this week, I was going through the short book of James, and I found in chapter 4 that James writes this:
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (v. 7 & 8)
Seems pretty harsh. Actually, it’s truly humiliating.
Scripture can often make us feel guilty of what we have and haven’t done or been consistently doing to honor Christ.
Reading through James, I found myself thinking about the things I say and do, the thoughts that rattle around in my brain, and the idols that I put before God. Those idols are the ones that keep me from furthering my relationship with God such as Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Xbox, Netflix, and their source (which is my smartphone).
I believe the reason that Dabo Swinney and his team are so successful isn’t because of their wins and losses. I believe it’s because they all work hard to keep each other accountable and spread God’s love by the way they work on and off the field, as should all of us.
Yes, the majority of you reading this aren’t "on and off the field" athletes, but you just might be "in and out of your church sanctuary" people. Think about that one for a moment.
The title of this morning’s blog is “Just Do It”. When I say “Just Do It”, I mean go and be lights for God and for your future brothers and sisters in Christ.
Dabo also mentions in his conversation, “If there’s hope in the future, then there’s power in the present.”
You can interpret that quote however you want, but in the direction of driving our faith somewhere, I believe if we have something great that’s been paid for already, then we better start using it!
Yes, your FAITH!
Do we want to live our lives the way others live their lives just to be another copy of another individual, or do we want to live our lives the way Jesus did and the way that God wants us to?
You’re more than welcome to take route #1 and that makes you no less of a Christian than I am or anyone else is. I just want to point out that if it’s 2019 and we say “it’s gunna be a new year and I’m going to do something” how about we actually live out what we say?
I personally didn't make any "New Year Resolutions" because I'm still resolving all of the things that I've been struggling with since I began my relationship with Christ years before now. I'm not going to solve all of my spiritual issues that affect my character in one year, even if there are 365 days to do it!
Making this message even more relatable, I see so often nowadays that our society has become a "Have It Your Way" society. We are so self-focused instead of looking at how we can make an impact in someone else's life. It's the Burger King society instead of The One True King's society.
If you want to go do something big, but you don't really want to put that much effort into doing it, then do this:
Go share your faith with someone else. Maybe don't shove it down their throats like you do when you order Chick-fil-a's seasonal peppermint-chocolate-chip milkshakes, but wait for when they ask you why you act the way that you do. That's when you have the opportunity to share with them.
Whether you get to share it with 1 person or 100 in your life, don't stop until God says to.
Until you hear God physically say to stop leading others to Him, then you just keep on doing it.
The feeling you will get in your chest to know that you brought that person (or people) to Christ through His grace and endless power is indescribable........just like His love for all of us.
Proverbs 27:17 says "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another."
Go and be a blessing to someone else for God.
JUST DO IT!
Live, love, and be loved.
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