the final score

I really enjoy the approaching autumn season for a number of reasons. A few of them in no particular order is the return of Oktoberfest-style brews, a chance for my superior fashion sense to shine in cooler weather (the key to fall fashion is layers), apple cider, and of course the return of football.

It’s been well documented the August is the worst month for sports fans in the calendar year. August baseball leaves much to be desired before the playoff push, and as a nation, we just pine for the pigskin to return to the forefront of the scene.

Now some of you may be saying “Hey Phil, the Olympics happened during August!” And you’re right, they did happen. But I’m going to argue that the Olympics aren’t actually about sport, but more about nationalistic pride and human interest stories.

Let’s look at women’s soccer for example. The team was pretty popular in London, everyone seemed to be following the team and its (lucky) road to a gold medal. And while the national team commands a lot of respect, sadly, no one actually cares about the sport or state of women’s soccer. There’s a reason there isn’t a profitable women’s soccer league in the US. People won’t pay to see the product. They don’t care about the players. They care more about the country, more about the prestige, the pride of winning for their country as opposed to the sport itself. Women’s soccer, and the rest of the Olympic sports, will become, and already has become, an afterthought in the public’s mind.

Now contrast that with the atmosphere in Columbus, Ohio. Officially, college football season starts in September, but anyone in Columbus will tell you that the season never ends. Ohio State is always on the front page of the sports section, regardless of whether it’s November or April. In Indiana, where there is an emphasis on fundamentals, chest passes, and jump shots, Hoosier nation is always in basketball mode. In Boston, every move the Red Sox make in the off-season is scrutinized.

Even in these hotbeds of sports, it’s possible to find the fan that doesn’t really care about the sport. In a stadium of 100,000 plus, it’s not that hard to find. Some are in the stadium to stand and cheer, have a few drinks, and if the team wins, fantastic, they’ll have a fun party afterwards, say their share of Michigan jokes, and head home. But some of these fans can’t tell the difference in a defense between a cover 2 zone or man coverage. They complain when their quarterback gets sacked without looking to see if the offensive line did their job, or whether the receivers got open. All they care about, in the end, is school pride and the final score.

Are you a “final score Christian” or one who immerses himself/herself in the scripture, wanting to know everything you possibly can about the God you say you believe in? Would you read those articles about the team in April when the team isn’t actually playing the game, or simply read the headline and the lead, shrug your shoulders, and then move on with the rest of your life? Do you stand and cheer on Sundays, leave church or a weekly meeting feeling entertained, or challenged? Do you know the tune to the fight song and hymns but have no recollection of the words?

Jesus warns us in Matthew 7

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’"

Team Jesus doesn't need more fans. It needs  more who are willing to pick up their cross, to regard what they once held dear lost, as literally trash, for the sake of Christ.

Team Jesus doesn't need more fans. It needs more followers.

résumés and reference lists

The whole concept of a résumé is very interesting. First of all, trying to find out how to type the e with an accent over it is very difficult. People work very hard to make an impressive résumé. They format it with different tricks in word processing programs to make sure that all the columns and bullet points are uniform, and that there is no wasted space on the page. You know, to look professional, as if looking professional can somehow overshadows the lack of content and experience in the actual document. Some people, in an effort to fill their résumé with relevant experience jam pack their lives with internships and temporary jobs, or while they are still in school, with loads of extracurricular activities. They’ll spend time at a job they hate or work of an organization they don’t believe in, just so they can fill their résumé with noteworthy accomplishments.

Equally important is the reference list. The list of people you know will talk you up as the perfect worker for the company. You put people who like you and want to see you succeed. You’ve built up relationships with these people at various encounters in life, and you trust them to make you look good.

Résumés are important when applying for jobs. But employers are smart people. They know all the formatting tricks people use, see through the flowery descriptive language and adjectives,  and they get suspicious when they see you can only keep a job for 1 year, or if you’ve stretched yourself thin with all the extra things you do. When you submit a résumé online, a lot of times, the formatting goes out the window after you copy and paste the text into a box that only allows so many characters, or email it to a recruiter, and their word processer is different than yours so that when its printed out, it no longer fits neatly and perfectly on one sheet of paper. What’s more important than the piece of paper is the interview, where another human being can analyze and see the person who is hiding behind the piece of paper.

All Christians have a Christian résumé, for good or bad. Its there whether we like it or not. How we fill it and format it is up to us. We highlight different aspects of our lives in it. How long we’ve been leading a Bible study, how much we give on Sundays, how often we volunteer our time at charitable organizations and so forth. On paper, we can appear to have the perfect résumé. Now these things are important, but how did they get on the page? 

Did they appear because they flowed naturally from our lives? Did we see the beauty of what Christ did on the cross, and in response to that, our lives appeared radically changed due to a holy calling? Or did we see Christ on the cross and decide that wasn’t good enough, and that we must somehow add to it, and that we must earn God’s approval?

Do we perform so that we might earn God’s approval, or because we know that we already have God’s approval?

The following comes from Hebrews 10: 1-4

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 4 because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Good works can become the modern day blood of bulls and goats in our Gentile culture. God knows our true hearts, our true intentions.

I’ve been to handful of job interviews in my day, and I am by no means an expert. I have noticed though, that during an interview, the employer will quickly glance at my résumé, and then put it back in the folder, and then proceed to grill me with questions. That document I worked so hard on for several hours to make it look just right is lost within an HR file and will be placed back among several hundred others just like it.

God looks straight at our hearts, or more accurately, right through our hearts. 

“And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” Hebrews 4:13.

So are you working to fill your résumé with a bunch of accomplishments, trying to spice it up with a fancy header? Or do you come before God leaving your résumé at home. You have one, and it’s full of great noteworthy things, but you know it won’t impress. Instead you come simply with a reference list that only lists Christ? (Cheesy, yes I know) 

But seriously, if you are standing before God, or actually, let’s change the audience. Hopefully if you’re reading this you would know how to respond to God. If you are talking to a friend who asks you what it means to be a Christian, what would you point to? Your church attendance, your upright code of morals? Or will you acknowledge your sin and admit that you are helpless apart from Jesus?  Will you tout your super Christian piece of paper, or use the reference list?