I was blessed with the opportunity to go see the Rangers vs. Yankees in game 1 of the ALCS at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. I was born and raised in New Jersey as a die hard Yankees fan. Now you may be asking yourself why in a somewhat religious blog am I talking about baseball. Let me explain.
I was sitting in the upper deck with a lot of die hard Ranger fans. Now there are a lot of Yankee fans in the United States and the world but for some reason they did not show up very well to this game....and especially not in my section. The Ranger fans were a little rough. Every time a Yankees fan would walk to get a soda, beer, or hotdog they would be boo'd by the entire crowd. Profanity and chants of "Yankees Suck" would soon follow after. What amazed me during this entire process was the passion of these fans. Now, yes they were rooting for the team that I was rooting against but they were passionate to a fault. The attendance was 50,930 for the game and everyone was on the edge of their seats not wanting to leave the stadium. And as I sat there in the stadium with my girlfriend Nikki, I found myself asking the question why isn't Church this packed. Really we have a God that cannot disappoint us. A God who wont give up a lead in the 8th inning, wont ever strikeout, or miss a play yet most Church's including the one I have the privilege to serve at is not even close to being packed. It breaks my heart.
From the early days of the jewish people the word for Church "ekklesia" meant a people gathered together for God. Why is it that we do not gather for God anymore. It seems that people want to go to Church and experience a sporting event instead of experiencing the living God! I will always have a place for sports in my life especially the New York Yankees, but not at the expense of my religious beliefs and not at the expense of my God. I pray that more can gather together each week for God. And even when our sports team, family, or friends fail us we can turn our hope to our God, a God who can fill us, a God who never disappoints!
Romans 5:5 "Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us"
