Who's the best coach you know of? John Wooden? Vince Lombardi? Phil Jackson? Pat Summitt? All great choices to be sure. But what about Jesus?
In Romans 12:1, Paul writes that followers of Jesus ought to offer their bodies as living sacrifices to God, and goes on to say that this is their "spiritual" act of worship. I'm no expert on ancient languages, but I've heard enough people over the years say that word which is translated as "spiritual" could easily be translated "reasonable" or "logical". The idea is that completely offering ourselves and our lives to Jesus just makes sense. His passion for us is beyond anything we can imagine. His care and concern for us are constant. His love for us is perfect. To offer ourselves to anything other than Him is not only "unspiritual", it's completely illogical. And yet, too often I fall short, indicating that I believe I know what's best for me and others better than He does.
It's kind of like if I were training to be an Olympic champion gymnast and I had the chance to train with Bela Karolyi and instead decided to learn gymnastics from Ryan Seacrest. Nothing against Seacrest, he's brilliant in his own way, but I don't need him teaching me how to do gymnastics.
I think we sometimes forget that not only is Jesus the ultimate lover of our souls, but He's also the smartest man who ever lived, is an expert in every area imaginable, and knows all things about the universe, both actual and possible. When you think of it that way, turning to anyone else as our ultimate source of direction is kind of silly. Thinking that I know what's best for people in any situation is worse than asking Ryan Seacrest to coach gymnasts.
Obviously, the fact that we can't see or audibly hear Jesus makes the whole being coached by Him something of a challenge. My Karolyi/Seacrest analogy certainly wasn't a perfect one in that sense. At the same time, if anything that Jesus claimed about Himself is true, then I can trust Him to lead me through the challenge of being coached and guided by Him. It's ultimately not up to me; it's up to Him. And I have to remember that He is not in the business of hiding from us.
80's Lyric
No comments:
Post a Comment