Run Your Route!

     Saturdays and Sundays during the fall in America, millions of people are glued to their TV sets watching college and professional football. It is during this football season that men will gather in packs and discuss briskly the wins, defeats, possibilities and plausibility’s of their favorite teams and hated foes. But, have you considered how much like football the Christian life is.


     My favorite football player is Tim Tebow. I not only like him for his athletic ability, but I heartily applaud him for his high Christian standards by which he guides his life on and off the field. Yet, as good as Tebow or any other quarterback is, the game is not won or lost by one man. It takes an entire team dedicated to one purpose for that team to be successful. Yeah! You're talking about winning, huh? No, I'm not. I'm talking about being a team player.

     A team player will always listen to and take his instructions from the coach. The coach is the one charged with guiding the team to win. I remember when Tim was touted to be the starting quarterback and then someone else was given the job. He was ridiculed about being third or fourth string. However, when the press questioned him about it, he said that it was, indeed, the coaches job to make the decisions and not him. His desire was not to be the starting quarterback but the do whatever the coach asked him to and to do it with a good attitude. That one statement of his brought me down several notches. Like many of us, I tend to get upset when someone with lesser abilities gets promoted, not only in the secular sector but also in the church. If the truth was known, there's a lot of people out there that need to repent of that sin as well.

     What we need to understand is, that God, our head coach, knows us better than we do ourselves. If we consistently listen to and obey the coach, then He will see to it that we get promoted. Take the center of the football team for instance. He touches the ball just as much if not more than the quarterback. How many times have you seen any reporter run up to a center after the game and ask him how does it feel to be the most valuable player of the game? Right. None. At least, I've never seen it. But, if the center copped an attitude like the rest of us might, he might become sloppy in the way he delivers the ball to the quarterback or the punter. I have seen times when a miscue by the center cost teams plenty. So he is invaluable.

     How about the guards or tackles that line up on both sides of the center. They NEVER get to touch the ball. On the contrary, they make physical contact with an opponent on every down that they are in the game. No lime light there, is it?

     How about the receivers and backfield who bust it down the field and run their routes and never get the ball thrown to them? They could have been wide open but it seems like the quarterback never looks their way. They trot back to the huddle huffing and puffing only to have to do it again.

     We could go on and on. It would be easy for each one of the players to take offense at how much they are not in the spotlight of the press. It would be easy for each one of them to kind of take the edge off of their game and not play up to their ability. Several things would happen when they do that. They could miss their assignments and help the team to lose. They could cause the other players to work harder to take up their slack. And, do you think that the coach doesn't see it? You'd better believe he does.

     God sees our hearts, too. Sometimes the assignments He gives us are not spotlight assignments. Maybe there's not the glory or glamour in what He asks us to do that we thought there should be. Maybe this is the last test he is going to put you through before he either promotes us, benches us or decides to put us on waivers. Ouch! That could hurt.

     The bottom line is, do as the coach asks you to. Whatever assignment He has given you, do it with a good attitude. Give your assignment your all. Run your route. Run it hard as if this was going to be the touchdown play. Even if it looks like He didn't see you, run the route. Cut to the inside or the outside like the play calls for. Even if you think it's a dumb play to call. Trust the coach. Do what He asks and do it with a good attitude.

     Remember, He didn't pick David to be the king over His people because it looked like he was the best choice or that David was doing good at his outstanding job. Remember, he was only tending to sheep. David's characteristic that brought him to the head of the line was his heart. He had a heart that was tender towards God. God saw that this little shepherd boy could be trained. And he saw that David would run his route all the way to the end.

     How about some scripture to back that up.  In John's gospel, the 21st chapter, Jesus commands Peter three times to feed his sheep/lambs.  Peter looks over at John the Beloved and basically asks Jesus if He's going to pick on John like that.  Jesus told him in verse 22--Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what [is that] to thee? follow thou me.   In other words, Jesus told Peter to worry about running his route and let John worry about running the route that Jesus will pick out for him.  Paul said in 2 Tim 4:7--I have fought a good fight, I have finished [my] course, I have kept the faith:  Paul said that he had put everything he had into running the route that Jesus had set before him.