My
son, Aaron, now a junior in college has played soccer since he was three. At
one time, he even played for three teams simultaneously.
I’ve
been a soccer mom for a very long time.
I
remember one spring season when he was just entering adolescence; it seemed to
me he was holding back a bit when he played. “What do you think is going on?” I
asked a friend sitting beside me on the sidelines. She’d played soccer for a
number of years and knew far more about the game than I did.
“When
I played, it took me awhile to learn that you don’t save up energy for later,
you leave everything on the field. He’ll have to learn the same lesson.”
It’s
the first time I became familiar with the phrase, “leave it all on the field.” Her
wisdom struck a chord, and in fact, he did have to learn that lesson.
So,
I read I Corinthians 15:58 again a few days ago:
“Always
give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor
in the Lord is not in vain.”
The
Message reads, “And don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the
Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.”
I
had to ask myself a few questions.
Am
I giving myself fully? Am I holding back? Do I believe that nothing I do for
God, regardless of visible results, is wasted?
I
want to answer yes, and no, and yes.
But
honestly, some days, the answer is no, and yes, and no.
However,
I’ve found an answer for those times when I feel myself settling into the place
of comfort and ease where good is the enemy of God’s best.
You’re
probably not going to like the solution.
I
don’t like it much either, but I believe it's God's cure.
Fasting
and prayer seem to shake me out of this zone. Self-denial shatters the glass
walls of our cages of comfort and helps connect us in a deeper way to the one who knows
firsthand the ultimate self-denial—the blameless Son of God who took the
punishment for our sin.
The
discipline of fasting and prayer helps restore my passion.
“Take
your everyday, ordinary life—sleeping, eating, going-to–work, and
walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God
does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well adjusted
to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your
attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out” (Romans 12:1-2 The
Message).
Heard
this song recently and it stirred my heart. Hope it stirs yours as well and
helps you become that “living sacrifice.”
Join
me as we leave it all on the field.