Trick Play

I like football, I really do. But my husband and my oldest son, they love to watch football. Without a doubt, my 9 year old son has already surpassed me on his knowledge of the game and football lingo. I get the concept, score the most points you win. I understand most of the rules, and I like to follow a game when I can (not game after game after game like others who shall remain unnamed). But start throwing out the difference between tight ends and defensive backs and cornerbacks and players and stats and records and different formations and I'm out of the conversation.

We joke in my house that my favorite is the trick play. I often times call for the fake punt on the first down, wouldn't that really confuse the other team? :) I mostly call for the fake punts or touchdown plays or the interception play to make my son laugh (I have always been a bit of a ham), but when you catch a good trick play they are fun to watch. Have you ever been watching when they really truly fake out the other team. Everyone is running after the wrong guy, unbeknownst to them, and it turns out all along a different guy had the ball the whole time! I love those trick plays, and I usually fall for them too and totally follow the decoy man with my eyes.

I have to think that while the trick play is fun for me to watch, it's not so fun for the guys on the other team. The ones who got "duped." The ones who fell for it.

It makes me wonder, where am I falling for the trick play in my own life. How am I running after the wrong guy, chasing after the decoy?

I've been studying the book of Ecclesiastes with my Bible Study group. To borrow from Solomon, he continually says throughout the book that when we seek satisfaction in the "horizontal things" in life (the earthly, temporary things), we will continually find them to be meaningless and a "chasing after the wind" or a "grasping for the wind." In other words, if we are running after any thing other than God, we are running after the decoy man. Nothing horizontal in an of itself- be it wealth, pleasure, work, riches, wine, possessions, power, prestige, legacy, etc- will ever satisfy the deep places of our soul. They will not lend lasting satisfaction, they will not bring purpose, they will not fulfill. They will never be enough, and as an end in and of themselves they will be "vanity", "meaningless breath", empty. Our soul was made for vertical relationship (a relationship with God through our Savior Jesus), and it is there alone that we will find what we seek (fulfillment, satisfaction, purpose, joy, love, peace, etc).

Where have I been duped into running after the decoy man, into chasing after the wind?

This morning I came across this verse:

"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." (1 Timothy 6:10)

A few different words seemed to jump out at me from off the page. First, the word "eager." Eager means enthusiasm for, ardent desire for, impatient desire for. What am I eager for? The question stirred within my mind. And so I ask you, what are you eager for?

In this case we see the caution toward being eager for money. Money in and of itself is not evil, but "the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil" we are told. Jesus puts it this way in Matthew 6:24: "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." Do we need money, yes. Do we use money for good things, yes. Should we quit our jobs and stop earning money? No. But if we seek our satisfaction there (thinking back to Solomon and Ecclesiastes), if we love money, if we are impatiently desiring money, we find ourselves caught up in the trick play. We are chasing the wrong guy.

Let's continue on with the verse. The second word that jumped out at me was the word "wandered." They did not sprint off, they wandered off. They did not intentionally leave the faith, stop believing God, or turn away from God, but they set their eyes on the wrong thing and in doing so wandered away from the faith. And sadly they pierced themselves with many griefs.

Have you ever wandered off unintentionally. You didn't set out to get lost, per say, but you just started following something else that caught your eye. And then once you turned back around, you realized you were no longer where you thought you were. I think of children and toddlers. They do not want to leave their parents or the safety of being next to mom or dad, but something catches their eye. They go to check it out and turn around to discover they are lost.

To me, this is the picture I have of this verse. One does not set out eager to hurt themselves, to pierce themselves with may sorrows or griefs. They do not intend to walk away from God or turn away from their faith. But they have set their eye on the wrong thing, they have been eager for the shiny object, and one small step at a time they have wandered away from their Dad. They have fallen for the trick play by chasing what they thought was the ball, only to realize that the ball was never actually there in the first place.

While this verse is specifically referring to the love of money, I believe it can apply to many areas of our lives. So I ask again, what are you eager for?

Are you eager for recognition and promotion at work? a higher salary? Are you eager for the new diet to work so that you can look good in a bathing suit this summer? Are you eager for a clean home and well behaved children that others will compliment you on? Are you eager for someone else to apologize to you and acknowledge you were right? Are you eager for all these health scares to pass so that you can assure everyone is healthy and safe? Are you eager for others to pat you on the back and tell you about a job well done? Are you eager for someone to tell you are pretty? Are you eager for justice, maybe even revenge? Are you eager to just get through this busy and stressful season so that you can finally have some peace when things calm down?

I want to give you two other verses here...

Isaiah 55:2a

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?

John 6:36

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

We can be eager for many things, running after the decoy. We can spend our money on what is not bread, labor for what does not satisfy. But the means of our satisfaction, fulfillment, life for our very souls is right here in the verse from John, spoken by the lips of Jesus Himself. "I am the bread of life," Jesus says. He invites us, calls us to come and be filled. We must choose to respond, to believe in Him. Don't fall for the decoy, Jesus is the real thing.

So say we receive Jesus, now what? What does being "eager for God" look like anyway, just sitting down and praying all day?!

To be eager for God does not mean that we forsake all other things. But it means that we seek Him first (Matt 6:33), and then we do the good works He created us for (Eph 2:10). We no longer just "do the things" to find satisfaction in the "things" alone. But when we are eager for God, when we seek the "vertical" relationship first, then we still "do the things" but out of a wholeness that comes from God alone.

It is not the doing that leads to knowing, but it is the knowing that leads to doing. Or as James puts it, you believe God (faith) and your faith shows itself through works. Or as John describes it (1 John), you first receive God's love and then your love shows itself in obedience.

We as the people of God are a people who are called to action. We are called to be doers without a doubt. We are called to go and be the hands and feet of Jesus to the world. We are to be eager for doing good. We are to stand out, to be distinct, to be a light for Christ in a dark world. We are called to "...let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." (Matt 5:16) To clarify, that doesn't just mean doing mission work in a third world country or working for a church (although it can be that). It is being a missionary wherever God has planted you, being the church wherever God has placed you to your neighbors, your coworkers, your friends. It is meeting needs, loving your neighbor, sharing the hope of Jesus with those who have no hope. It is being an excellent employee because you do your work heartily, as unto the Lord and not to men. It is being a mom who loves your kids, who teaches them about grace as you yourself have received grace, and sows the seeds of the gospel rather than merely correcting behavior. It is living with humility, being a peacemaker, seeing the hearts of others, having a countenance filled with joy, being kind. It is loving the sick, the prisoner, the homeless, the refugee, the least of these. It is caring about the things that God cares about, it is loving the people whom God loves. It is listening and doing the thing that God calls you to do, whatever that might be.

But always, always, this doing stems first from the knowing. From believing that Jesus sought you when a stranger, as the old hymn goes. In knowing that Jesus died for you when you were still a sinner and an enemy of God (Romans 5:8). That Jesus chose you as his bride when you were a harlot, He redeemed you when you were a slave (Hosea). He loved you before you were ever created (Ps 139). He died for you before you were even born. Because He wants a relationship with you.

I encourage you to examine your own heart. What are you eager for? Does it have you wandering toward God or away from Him? What are you chasing after? Approval, acceptance, love? Success, prestige, recognition? Significance, achievement, freedom? Health, happiness, family? Great and many are the desires of our hearts. Psalms 37:4 gives us this beautiful encouragement... "Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart." Vertical first, then horizontal. Don't run after the things of this world, but seek the true bread, seek that alone which will satisfy, seek the life that is truly life, seek Jesus.

Now that you know it's coming, you can expect the trick play and not be fooled. Unless of course someone decided to run the fake punt of first down. No one would see that coming.