Player or Spectator?

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21
“And he (Jesus) said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and  u take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23

Last September I had the opportunity to visit, for the first time, the United States of America. I was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and during my stay Pastor Daniel (Cedar Rapids Family Church) invited me and a couple of other guys to a Football Game…American Football that is! What a day that turned out to be and what an experience..Iowa doesn’t have an NFL team so the fans turn up in their thousands for the next best thing a College Game and none better than a game that involves the ‘Iowa Hawkeyes’ The Best College Team in the States!!!
I found myself in the Kinnick Stadium (Iowa City) surrounded by Hawkeye fans that far outnumbered the Central Michigen supporters and the noise was thunderous to say the least. Songs and chants filled the stadium for one team then the next. It was quite different to any ‘soccer’ game I’d been to. BUT when the game got started ah..this noise I recognised. The spectators began shouting from the stands at everybody from the referee to the thrower to the catcher, to even the TV controller who would step onto the line every so often and just halt the game…Well the adverts are important!! It’s amazing how expert the fans are. They know all the rules, they could referee a game better than any professional and as for the teams on the field well, if only the coaches had known about all these fantastic wanna-be footballers that surrounded me….in the stands.  Funny how loud these people can be, indeed at one point I was accosted from behind to turn round and hear a little old lady apologising to me for almost deafening me at a pivotal point in the game..
Just happens I have been reading a great book by Kyle Idleman, ‘Not a Fan’ in which he asks the question of Christians, are you a Fan or a Follower? Are you a committed, deny yourself follower of Jesus Christ or are you just ‘An Enthusiastic Admirer?’
As I read further into his book I kept thinking back to last September and all those screaming, we could do it better than you, professional spectators, who will never play a game in the field. It’s going to cost them too much, they might just find they don’t know much after all and well they don’t want to look silly! It’s safe in the stands, it’s safe with the crowd and there is a crowd there! BUT the game isn’t played in the stands; it’s played on the field. The game will never be won in the stands; it can only be won on the field! Oh yes, they are right, wrong decisions are made…on the field. Players will ‘foul up’ on the field…. but on the field!                                                                                                               They are the ones playing the game, making the difference, changing the score. They are the ones taking the risks but they, and only they are the ones who will win the game……Hey they are the ones, the only ones who will get the CROWN! (2 Timothy 4:8)
(I left Kinnick Stadium that day with an empty plastic coke cup? Not much of a reward that! Oh yes I had my Hawkeyes Hoodie and baseball hat but I was only a SPECTATOR.)