Ephesians 2:10
Growing up, I participated in sports. Baseball, basketball, football. I wasn’t terrible, but I certainly wasn’t a stand-out. Playing sports was just something boys in the mid-seventies did. My most active years were third through fifth grade, 1974-1977. My dad was in the Air Force, and we were stationed in Naples, Italy. The sports bus ran from my elementary school to the sports complex. It was pretty cool. It was in a dead volcano, and the complex was inside the crater. It was a big crater. Football in the fall, basketball during the winter, baseball in the spring. Two or three times a week, rather than taking the bus back to our neighborhood, we went to Kearny Park. We practiced hard to play hard-fought games on Saturday. Everyone on the team was expected to participate. If you didn’t, you were either taking a lap or doing push-ups. No playing on the sidelines. But the thing is, we wanted to be there. Friendships were made, no matter what team you were on. We all had a common goal…to win games. When we did, we “basked in the glory.” When we didn’t, practice was that much harder the following week. Our Christian Walk is no different. God did not send Christ to die for us so that we can sit quietly on the side. His plan is for us to participate. And the beautiful thing is, He is inviting us to join Him. To participate in His work. This is not drudgery; this is a blessing. In this passage, Paul is reminding the church at Ephesus that we have been created for good works. And He doesn’t just kick us onto the field and say, “Get to work.” He has prepared us and given each of us a unique spiritual gift(s) to best be used by Him. The old cliché is true: that life is not a spectator sport. Every breath we have is God-given for a purpose. Christ tells us to go and make disciples. We have been prepared in advance to do so. Don’t spectate, participate!
Growing up, I participated in sports. Baseball, basketball, football. I wasn’t terrible, but I certainly wasn’t a stand-out. Playing sports was just something boys in the mid-seventies did. My most active years were third through fifth grade, 1974-1977. My dad was in the Air Force, and we were stationed in Naples, Italy. The sports bus ran from my elementary school to the sports complex. It was pretty cool. It was in a dead volcano, and the complex was inside the crater. It was a big crater. Football in the fall, basketball during the winter, baseball in the spring. Two or three times a week, rather than taking the bus back to our neighborhood, we went to Kearny Park. We practiced hard to play hard-fought games on Saturday. Everyone on the team was expected to participate. If you didn’t, you were either taking a lap or doing push-ups. No playing on the sidelines. But the thing is, we wanted to be there. Friendships were made, no matter what team you were on. We all had a common goal…to win games. When we did, we “basked in the glory.” When we didn’t, practice was that much harder the following week. Our Christian Walk is no different. God did not send Christ to die for us so that we can sit quietly on the side. His plan is for us to participate. And the beautiful thing is, He is inviting us to join Him. To participate in His work. This is not drudgery; this is a blessing. In this passage, Paul is reminding the church at Ephesus that we have been created for good works. And He doesn’t just kick us onto the field and say, “Get to work.” He has prepared us and given each of us a unique spiritual gift(s) to best be used by Him. The old cliché is true: that life is not a spectator sport. Every breath we have is God-given for a purpose. Christ tells us to go and make disciples. We have been prepared in advance to do so. Don’t spectate, participate!
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