I overheard two Christian young men talking about spectator sports yesterday, and one of my first thoughts was, is this the type of son-in-law I’ll have someday?
By ‘spectator sports,’ I mean the self-serving kind of activities of college and pro sports and all the junk surrounding it. I also mean the end of the continuum of junior high and high school stuff where winning is the focus (kind of hard to love your enemy), the environment of the competitions is loud (kind of hard to talk to your neighbor while there), and/or the amount of time spent reminds a foodie of gluttony and a wine connoisseur of drunkenness.
When I became a Christian a few decades ago, ‘spectator sports’ was deposited in the trash can of my mind, heart, and calendar. There was no place in my heart for both Christ and spectator sports. Such was the standard around me also. I drew a line at all sports activities for a while until developing some discernment as described in the paragraph above. Meanwhile, I could observe other professing Christians who were deceiving themselves into the false idea that there was nothing more American than NFL football after church on Sunday. I didn’t have all my theological reasons lined up, but it didn’t matter. I knew my decision was right. At every turn when reading the Scriptures, it reinforces the charge God has for his followers to stop being a spectator in others’ lives and start being a participant in your own. “and such were some of you: but ye are washed..” “if any man be a friend of the world he is the enemy of God…” “but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” “if any man put his hand to the plow and look back….” and the nail in the coffin, Matthew 25…the wicked and slothful servant. The one who sits around, watching the world, doing nothing.
Lest you think otherwise, I’ll be the first to raise my hand and admit to being caught in the snare of the devil at times in my Christian life. Chasing spectator sports is addictive, mesmerizing, and seems of little harm (once you convince yourself you’ve got nothing better to do!). I also would have plenty of compassion and understanding for others who struggle against this mesmerizing mess. But, it is absolutely imperative that you name it as such-being caught in the snare-and not by other, more respectable names which justify one’s actions. In other words, it is better to be doing wrong and know it, than to live in self-deception–justifying your wicked-and-slothful-servant actions as not being in the devil’s snare.
Since those early days of my Christian walk, other theological reasons have emerged which further prove the wisdom of my forefathers and of the Spirit’s working in my own heart and life. The most far-reaching, however, is still, the parable of the talents. When I was younger, I didn’t think as much of time-wasting activities, but neither did I engage in them much. Today, I have opportunity for lots of time-wasting because I have a business that produces a nice return on investment with little attention or effort. I could spend several hours a day, like many single people and many elderly people, in doing whatever I please. I don’t see how you can justify wastefulness in the wake of Matthew 25. You can’t. If you want to justify your actions, you must first ignore Matthew 25 and use others as your benchmark, not the Scriptures.
It’s time to stop being a spectator of someone else’s life and start being a participant of your own. Are my daughters’ husbands going to waste away their lives, self-focused, on meaningless wastefulness? What about the souls–the fields that are ripe for harvest? Will Christ mistake you as one needing to be saved if you aren’t one of the laborers? How about the parable in Matthew 20 of the penny and laborers. What were the men who were NOT laboring for the householder doing? standing idle. When they became the servants of the householder, what did they cease from? Their idleness.