Pros
update
8 Sept 06
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds
because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by
Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight,
without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith,
established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.
This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every
creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
(Colossians 1:21-23)
Despite all the differences between sports there is one universal, one
thing that everyone agrees upon. In fact even those who can’t agree on
any other point, agree about this – we all intensely dislike fitness
testing! It doesn’t seem to matter what the sport, the idea of our
physical attributes being laid bare and all of our weaknesses and faults
being exposed, is enough to make any athlete run away. However, part of
maturing as a player is that you start to know your Achilles heel and
know what needs to be done about it.
The Apostle Paul doesn’t pull his punches, like a good spiritual fitness
tester he tells us the truth plainly so that we can know what to do
about it; before Christ ‘you were far away from God, you were his
enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions’.
We don’t like to think of ourselves as having evil thoughts – maybe
we’re not as good as we could be we think, but evil’s a bit strong.
Similarly calling us enemies sounds harsh, I might have been indifferent
to God but isn’t calling me ‘an enemy’ a bit steep? Paul’s not
exaggerating for effect, instead he’s giving us an accurate diagnosis.
Every one of us by nature doesn’t want a thing to do God and instead
puts ourselves in his place. We think that it’s my life, to run my way,
with my gifts, for my glory. Whether we dress it up with social niceties
or not, we’re all the same in this way. The consequence is that God
can’t have a thing to do with us - we’ve alienated him.
But now God has brought us back as friends through a real event that
happened to a real man Jesus Christ as he shed his blood and died on the
cross – an instrument of torture and death in first century Palestine.
This is the good news that as a follower of Jesus you know and love. So
continue to believe this truth, and to build your life on it – because
it’s the only basis you have for your relationship with God. Moreover
view those you play sport with in this light, they are people far off
from God who need this good news – pray for them, and tell them when you
get a chance.
Graham and Pete