The Road Team
“Am I a Jew?” Pilate retorted. “Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?”
Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.” John 18:35-36
One thing I enjoy is college football. While this may sound like a sports analogy, this goes far deeper than that because in life, we all have rivals. If you are from the Midwest, the obvious one that comes to mind is Michigan and Ohio State. In other regions of the country, there are others like USC and UCLA, Alabama and Auburn, or Texas and Oklahoma. They are like the Ying and yang for each other. All these universities seem to have a near unhealthy dislike for each other. However, there is one university that no one seems to like. That is the University of Notre Dame, whose team is known as ‘The Fighting Irish.’ You only need to visit one game to understand why. When the fans of a rival team goes to visit the opposition, there is an understanding they are in hostile territory and behave with a certain level of respect for their rival’s territory you might say. However, when Fighting Irish come to a stadium, they act like they are at home. They and their followers walk in the stadium as if the opponent’s home is their own. This level of disrespect for the other university leads to a level of disdain and bitterness toward them that even the most bitter rivals do not have for each other. Yet, Notre Dame behaves as if they relish in those moments. You almost get the impression that they enjoy being the road team.
As Christians, we too have our home and away games. In church and household, we are ‘home.’ We focus on God and enjoy the worship and message of God to help and strengthen us. However, when we go off to work or an event, we may no longer reside in our Godly surroundings. We are the ‘road’ team. We may have friends there, but we know that it is an atmosphere far different from at church. We may struggle to navigate through these situations and wonder how we get back home. How do we best deal with this issue? The answer I found was a lesson taught by the Fighting Irish. You need to focus on both who you are and whose you are even when you are away from home. We must be our authentic self as God would want us to be.
We must be diligent to remind ourselves that when we commit to God, we are to focus on Heavenly things and not those of this world. I once wrote about this years ago, but this is a rare occasion where God prompted me through a recent sermon to bring this back to life with greater depth and perspective. Giving our life to Christ requires us to transform our thinking. Romans 12:2 says, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” God understands that committing to Him is not a switch that you just flip on to become His child. It requires growth and trial and error. But as we transform through prayer, greater knowledge through His word, and trust through faith, we become more comfortable in following His instruction for our lives. This is important because in a worldly environment, you will become more comfortable in His home. Equally as important, you will know right away when you are the ‘road’ team. Nonetheless, we must bring our authentic and Godly self everywhere because even when pressured, we will feel God’s love and comfort such that within us, it is always feels like ‘home.’ Furthermore, others will see us as Jesus does: “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.” (Matthew 5:14)
We must remember that when gave our life to Christ, we surrendered to His becoming the master of our lives. Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.” (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13) Serving God is not easy because it will feel like we are at times always ‘on the road.’ But we must also remember all God has given to us including the gift of grace. Furthermore, we must remember our true identity, which is a child of the everlasting God. It is okay to enjoy things of this world. Just remember in the end which team you are on. How can you focus on God in a hostile world? Where can you better display God’s light in areas outside of your ‘home?’ My prayer is that we remember we are still God’s children even when we are ‘the road team.’ Amen.