Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Abandon the Bleachers

I'm a terrible fan. I just don't get the whole idea of fan-hood. I 'became a fan' of exactly nothing on facebook (though I'm a little better at 'liking' stuff). I did have a poster of the Broncos' 3 Amigos when I was a kid (Can you name them?) and a hat that was autographed by Sammy Winder... but they're long gone now. For the most part, my life has been free of any 'fan' related paraphernalia. No giant foam fingers, no cheese or corn heads, no crazy colored body paint... I'm just not a good fan.

Don't get me wrong - I love sports. Almost all of them. I do have issues with basketball, but I can sit for hours watching cars turn left, Franco-Italian guys roll around on the pitch as if that beautifully executed slide tackle actually hurt them, grown men throw each other around like my boys do (minus the giggling), huge hulks of men in pads slamming into each other trying to move a weird shaped ball down the field, & even an occasional puck and ice related clash... But I'm just not a good fan.

But I don't want to be. This weekend's Husker-Aggies game only reinforced that. To put it quickly enough to make both sides hate me... the Huskers lost, their fans are bitter about missing out on that last little stab at A&M before they take their ball and go play somewhere else, the Aggies were saved by Cyrus Gray and Black, White, & Yellow, and their fans are left trying to defend a win that was not as completely earned as they would have liked. I have good friends in both camps. If I were a good fan... I'd be outraged by the poorly timed calls and the 'how could you not see that' no calls and the pinching of the nether regions. But I'm not (except the pinching stuff... that's just wrong in any context).

My favorite teams have always been the Broncos and Rapids (Colorado's good football team this year!) and Cowboys (of Laramie, not Dallas) and Huskers. That's not likely to change, but I'm also not sculpting my bushes into Cowboy Joe, I'm not painting my house red & white, and I'm not spray painting the rock part of my yard orange (although, that one does sound kind of fun, now that I think about it).

Here's the thing: I don't want to be identified by a mass of face painted wackos, I don't want my day ruined when my favorite teams lose (I remember being baffled when I saw the depression, seriously, of Husker fans when they lost one game one special season long ago), and I don't want to be forced to defend an outcome I had no hand in determining.

I don't want to kick the dog because what I'm seeing on tv is driving me mad. I don't want to sit in the stands and scream - I want to be on the field, pouring out everything I can to make sure my team comes out on top when the clock hits 90:00 (+3 or whatever) or zero if you're stuck in that football. And I think I've just wandered away from the realm of sport... but I think Jesus has too many fans in the church.

What if you got off your couch and stopped telling the church what to do to be better... and DID something to BE a better church?

What if more of us stepped out of the crowd cheering for the King as He rides in on a donkey (a fickle crowd that incidentally screamed for His death just a few days later) and joined Him in His work to win back the hearts of His people?

What if we stopped patting the preacher on the back for a job well done and actually did what the Word he's sharing says we should do?

Jesus doesn't need us to rabidly abandon all logic to defend Him. He doesn't need us to buy the latest and greatest Jesus junk, or to hold up our foam prayer fingers at all the right times...

He wants us to step onto the field with Him.

Abandon the bleachers.

11 comments:

  1. Awesome post! Abandon the bleachers and get our hands dirty...
    Now only if we would actually do it (speaking of myself here), how amazing that would be.

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  2. I'm praying that whatever obstacles keep us in the seats would be removed... What are some of them that you see?

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  3. Good post man. Just read it today.

    And by the way.

    Ricky Nattiel, Mark Jackson, and Vance Johnson :)

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  4. Thanks Justin... I knew somebody had to get it. You never let me down, man.

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  5. Great post, Mike! I just saw a parallel of identifying sports fans as rabid crazies who kick dogs and paint their faces that runs strangely close to identifying Christians as crazies and fundies (while still not putting the words into action.)

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  6. Thanks Matt. An unintended correlation... but where it is apt, I'd rather not be identified with those either. I want to be lumped in with those who'll hear "Well DONE..." not "Thanks for hearing, but you didn't actually DO anything for me/the least of these, did you?"

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  7. I can relate to this and often feel like a loner among the masses. I'm comfortable there. As for teh Three Amigos, I love that movie. I'm thinking of names and I have Ned Needlelander, Dusty, and I can't remember the third! It'll hit me as soon as I submit this.

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  8. And yes, I knew you were talking about the Broncos ;-) Long live Tecmo Bowl.

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  9. Lucky Day Ed, it was Lucky Day!

    (And yes, I realize your name's Ucla, not ed.)

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  10. that's exactly how i feel...sorry i didn't see this earlier...but i think if i would have read this when you first posted it it probably wouldn't have really meant too much to me as it does now...but man i'm just sick of my life not really going anywhere and me not doing anything with my life and not doing anything for Christ...and i'm ready to be put in the game!!!

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  11. I'd love to help you figure out where exactly to 'get in the game' Abby... in the meantime, keep digging into the heart of God & find your identity there as His child.

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