I’ve been having a lot of insomnia recently. I’m not sure why, and I wish it would go away; but a few weeks ago, at least, God used it to speak to me. I was awake late one night a few weeks ago - too tired to accomplish anything, but too awake to sleep. I turned on the TV, and the show, “4th and Long” was on. Now please understand, I’m not a fan of “Reality TV.” I enjoy “The Biggest Loser” because I like watching people change their lives for the better; and I like watching “So You Think You Can Dance” because of the really beautiful dances choreographed and performed by really talented choreographers and dancers (the ballroom routines are my favorite!). Other than that, I don’t like the reality shows. Framed like that, now picture that on the list of reality TV shows I’d choose to watch, this one ranks near the bottom. “4th and Long” is hosted by Michael Irvin, and consists of a bunch of “never was” football guys who are competing on a reality show for a spot on the 2009-2010 Dallas Cowboys. Are you kidding me? Still, in my tired but sleepless state, I decided to watch it.
After about 20 minutes of boredom, I heard something that has haunted me for many days now...the contestants had just been put through a long, grueling workout that made most of them throw up. Michael Irvin was addressing them and said something like this:
“You guys only train for the 1st Quarter. You lift weights till you get sweaty; you run sprints in your T-Shirts and Shorts and claim to run a 4.0 forty. You are 1st Quarter players - then you’re spent. You’re no good after that. To play in the NFL, you’ve got to play 4 Quarters; sprinting in full pads, play after play going 100 percent. The 4th Quarter is where the game is won.”
Again, I was REALLY groggy at this point, so this is a loose interpretation of what I heard, not even necessarily what he said! But that doesn’t really matter to me because it wasn’t Michael Irvin that I was listening to...it was the Holy Spirit speaking to my heart.
I think that many of us are 1st Quarter Christians. We go to church, we hear the Bible preached, we sing the worship songs, and some of us may even read the Bible on our own a time or two during the week. We think we’re good Christians. We think we really got a handle on being “spiritual.” Like those football guys on the reality show, we think we’re conditioned and ready...but in reality, we’re only training for the 1st Quarter. When trials come, when temptations arise, etc., we’ve got just enough to make it through the beginning - then we fall to our knees and throw up, crying to the God of Heaven to make the pain stop. Makes me feel sort of pathetic when I look at it like that. What about you?
The truth is, walking with Christ consists of continual training, continual practice, etc. We’ve got to PLAN for the 4th Quarter. We know that satan will come after us. We know that we’ll face trials. We know that it’s not always going to be easy...the Bible tells us that, right?
So where does your faith, trust, hope, etc. in God fall on the Michael Irvin scale? Are you a 1st Quarter Christian? 2nd? 3rd? 4th? How does your “training program” (your walk with Christ) stack up? How do you react when life gets difficult and taxing on you?
More importantly...what are you going to do now to make sure you’ve got what it takes for the “pros” and power through the 4th Quarter?
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