Written in Heaven

Every year during this time, a special event is taking place – the NFL playoffs (something NCAA division one football could learn from, but I digress). During this time, the cream of the NFL rises to the top, while everyone else, to quote Mike Tyson, “fades into bolivian.” What amazes me about this time even more than the competition, are the fans. These fans are insane! They are crazed, they pay hundreds of dollars for a ticket, they arrive hours early and tailgate in below freezing weather, they wear expensive authentic jerseys of their favorite stars, they paint their faces, they scream until their ears bleed, and they yell at others for not screaming enough on 3^rd down situations. They are on fire for their team.

Inevitably, only one of these team’s fan bases gets to celebrate the fact that their team won the ultimate prize, while the rest will always ponder, ‘if I just would have screamed louder on third down…’

What I’ve noticed about these fans is that it’s hard to be around them without getting equally as excited in the game. For me, if I like the team they do, I gain more interest in the game and root even harder for that team. If I dislike the team they’re rooting for, I inevitably root even harder for their competition. Human nature I guess.

I’ve found this to be the case with all sorts of stuff, especially Jesus. When I first arrived at BridgeWay, I had a fire in my heart that I thought was burning hot – then I met the worship band. After a couple weeks rubbing elbows with those guys, it was like someone threw gasoline on the fire of my heart.

When we lead people, they inevitably become passionate about the things we are leading them in, or not, depending on how we lead them. If we’re not on fire for that thing ourselves, no one else will be either. But as we get more and more on fire, in this case for Jesus, it’s inevitable that that fire will rub off on those around us.

In Dale’s blog recently, he posted the question: if you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? The same applies here. Do people know what the passion of your heart is? Are people more on fire, passionate, or curious about Jesus after you’ve spent time with them? Let’s make the answer to those questions a resounding “YES!”