Maybe it’s somewhere in our nature as God’s image-bearers. Maybe it’s somewhere in our sin nature. I’m honestly not sure it even matters. The fact remains that most of us want to have some sort of a spectacular life. We want to be known for something, to do something that seems to matter. If we’re honest, however, most of us probably feel like we are anything but spectacular, anything but known for something, doing anything but something that sems to matter. Many times, the message we seem to get back from the world and ourselves is that we don’t amount to much. I’ve known that feeling and those thoughts, on and off the field.
I think the very beginning of the story of Jesus paints a different picture, though. When Luke introduces us to the first characters in the narrative of the Messiah, he presents two rather ordinary people in the opening verses of his gospel. “In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.” While their lineage and calling might sound impressive, there had been other priests and daughters of Aaron before them. Zacharias was a priest during a time when God was silent for four centuries. To some degree, while I’m speculating, he might have felt like his life and work were mundane and weren’t amounting to much. Really, what message could he really proclaim?
Been there? Doing what God has called you to do, or what you think God has called you to do, but nothing really changes, nothing seems to be affected. You’re in a world that just shrugs and moves on, if they even notice you.
But don’t stop reading at verse 5. Check out verse 6: “They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.”
Spectacular? Maybe to no one but the Lord.
Faithful. Obedient. Just walking with God.
What if that, as a player, coach, parent, or fan is the pinnacle? What if your life doesn’t have to be spectacular? What if it just needs to be faithful to the Lord? What if you and I really believed that, on and off the field? What would change?
Maybe it’s time we find out just how spectacular Jesus is when we stop trying to be.
Lord Jesus, I’ve tried to be spectacular. Make me simply faithful and obedient to you. Amen.
