The Big Game

Today Oklahoma and Texas will meet on the field of battle. Surrounded by a crowd split right down the middle, 50/50, the two university football teams will clash to decide the winner of The Red River Rivalry and unofficial leader of the Big 12 South.

It's an annual rite of fall and one of the best rivalries in college sports. The players have dreamed about playing in this game for quite a while. They've toiled through burning hot summer workouts and played through pain just to have an opportunity to take the field and contribute to their team's victory in this very game. The coaches have prepared for this game from back before the season began, knowing the results will help them recruit the best players and bring continued success. The fans are fired up and ready to root for their boys. You probably don't have to ask anyone which side they root for because they probably are wearing something bearing their team's logo and colors.

It's funny how easily and to what extremes we get fired up for a school many of probably never attended. There was even a report a few years back of a Longhorn and a Sooner fan getting into it in a bar that resulted in the Longhorn being injured in a very uncomfortable place. Amazing that people can get wrapped up so far into something like a college team that they are willing to do harm to another.

Why do you think it is that we don't get that riled up about God? Sure, there are those out there that claim just about any faith that are willing to do horrible things in the name of religion. I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about those of us who don't consider ourselves a radical of any kind. Why don't we get as fired up for Jesus as we do for a football team? Where is the passion when it comes to our faith? Why don't we prepare ourselves as diligently to do God's work as the players and coaches of our favorite teams do to prepare for their games? It just seems like a lot of times we let God take a back seat to whatever else is going on in our lives when He should be the only thing going on!

The big game when it comes to faith is eternity. No matter what religion a person follows, they do so because they believe their faith will bring them some sort of eternity. As Christians, we believe that Jesus is God in human form and that He died as a sacrifice for every single sin any of us has ever committed. Because we believe in Him, we're told we will receive eternal life together with God in Heaven. If that isn't the best reason to make sure we are prepared and ready to succeed then I don't know what would be.

We need to study to Bible so that we are spiritually ready to hear from God. We need to talk to God continually so that His love shines through our words and actions. We need to worship God with reckless abandon and show our thankfulness for what He's done for us. Those are all traits of someone who fully follows Christ. Those are the people who are prepared to do God's work and to receive the spoils of victory that wait for us in Heaven.