Competing for Our Souls
by Dale Reeves
Story Pastor
I love Spring . . . almost every part of it, except maybe the part where I have to mow our lawn every week. I look outside the dining room window and can just feel it growing. But I do love the lush green grass . . . and the beautiful flowers my wife has planted . . . sitting on our backyard patio while we listen to the peaceful trickle of a fountain cascading over rocks and a few goldfish happily at play . . . and the fresh robin-blue eggs that have recently appeared in newly-made nests.
And, I love sports in the Spring . . . NCAA March Madness, the Cincinnati Reds Opening Day, and the Masters Golf Tournament held in Augusta, Georgia every April. As a lifelong Reds’ fan, I remember the magical days in the 70s when the Big Red Machine won two World Series championships. And, every April, I get to dream again. As sports talk host and writer Lance McAlister commented on Wednesday of this week, “The Reds are hitting .201 as a team, .171 with runners in scoring position . . . the worst in MLB. They are without two starting pitchers. This team is 11-7, and tied for first place in their division. How? To quote Robert Wuhl in Major League, ‘It’s a miracle.’ . . . Is this offense tough to watch? It sure is. And incredibly frustrating. But they are 4-0 in 1-run games, 8-0 in games decided by two runs or fewer. . . . The Reds are going to hit. I believe in miracles.”
And, so, in this season when all things are new, a guy can hope again!
And, did you happen to catch any of the action of the four-day 90th edition of the Masters Tournament last weekend? After the first two days, Irishman and Masters defending champion Rory McIlroy was six strokes ahead of everyone else in the tournament, which was the largest 36-hole lead in the history of the tournament. On day three (often referred to as “Moving Day”) that lead vanished, as Rory squandered his lead allowing Cameron Young to catch him at the top of the leaderboard at 11-under par. Then, on Sunday, the final day of the tournament, the lead changed hands several times throughout the day, with Rory finally winning the Masters for his second consecutive year, just one stroke ahead of runner-up Scottie Scheffler. With this win Rory joined Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, and Tiger Woods as the only players to win two years consecutively.
As I watched the presentation of the “green jacket” for Rory the second year, the most touching part of the day was when Rory looked at his parents from Ireland and with tears in his eyes said, “Mom and Dad, I owe everything to you. You are the most wonderful parents, and if I can be half the parent to Poppy as you were to me, then I know I’ve done a good job.”
To see Rory’s emotional words, click here to watch.
In an interview later that evening, Rory hailed his parents, Gerry and Rosie, by acknowledging their immense sacrifices—including working multiple jobs to fund his golf—praising them for enabling his success as he affirmed, “I wouldn’t be sitting up here if it wasn’t for them.”
Striving for Success
If you’ve watched any of the NCAA March Madness basketball games this spring, then you’ve probably heard similar stories of athletes passing the praise along to parents who sacrificed untold dollars and hours, spending money on leagues, camps, road trips, hotels,
private coaches and trainers to see their kids achieve their athletic dreams. Many parents in our church today go to great lengths to help their kids strive for success in sports like baseball, softball, soccer, dance, cheerleading, and whatever other pursuits they choose to invest their time and money in.
This past Sunday, our lead pastor Brad Wilson probed in his “For Competitors Only” message, “What are you pursuing? What is shaping your life right now? There is a competition every day for your attention, your priorities, and your focus. What do you set your heart towards?” In case you missed that teaching, you can check it out here:
Brad continued, “Jesus has soundly defeated his enemy, it’s over. It’s not even close. What do you do when you know you’re gonna lose? Satan knows he can’t defeat Jesus, but he does have a strategy. He will compete with you by distracting you, and he has a playbook.
He wants to slowly cause you to drift away from your relationship with God. . . . It is a competition not for our salvation (Jesus has taken care of that), but for our souls. Our souls are going to look for something to satisfy our thirst for God. We have an innate desire for satisfaction, created for God, but often we try to fill it with what we think we need or what we want.”
Competing for Which Crown?
In a recent blog written by Bob Russell, former senior pastor of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, he wrote about children who grow up in the church. According to the Barna Group, 64% of young adults who grew up attending church withdrew from church involvement by their late twenties. As one youth pastor that Bob quoted said, “Most church programs give kids a lot of entertainment but very little substance. We tell them, ‘just believe’ while their schools teach them ‘question everything.’ Guess which message wins when they’re 18?”
Bob concludes, “Church leaders need to be perceptive about the spiritual attacks being leveled daily on their kids from social media and the educational system and seek ways to counter it when possible. . . . The primary changes need to take place in the Christian homes. Kids spot phoniness and rebel against it. Parents need to be fervently intentional about training their children. . . . Satan is mounting an all-out attack on your kids’ spiritual values. If 64% are walking away, we don’t stand a chance unless discipleship becomes daily, relational, and woven into real life.”
To read the entire blog from Bob, click here.
If you are a parent, can I ask you today:
Are you intentionally doing everything you can to pour into your kids’ spiritual development more than the time and money you are investing in their athletic pursuits?
If your kids were to compare your investment in their sports versus your investment in their souls, what priority would they say wins?
Do you care more about their sports or their souls?
Jesus challenges us, “Forwhoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sakeand the gospel’s will save it.For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?Forwhat can a man give in return for his soul?” (Mark 8:35-37, ESV).
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Runin such a way as to get the prize.Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Corinthians 9:24, 25, NIV).