December 28, 2009 - Be the "ONE"!

Here we are approaching another New Year. It is time for people to start making their New Year’s resolutions. (Notice I said they will “make” them. That is the easy part. It is implementing them that is the problem.)

What are resolutions? They are simply parts of one’s “game plan” for the year.

Imagine with me that we are in the locker room before a game. I give the game plan for the night that includes assignments – (i.e. who is starting, who is guarding who, what offense we are running, etc.)

Now it is game time and 2 of my starters stay on the bench when it is time to go out for the jump ball. They say to let someone else do it. Of the guys that start the game one gets a minute into play and looks at the bench to ask for a sub – he says he is already tired. Another goes a few minutes and then motions for a sub. Only one of the scheduled starters is in it for the long haul.

You might be thinking that scenario sounds crazy. Players want playing time not bench time. And you are right. Players want to be on the floor because they have made commitments and poured their sweat (and sometimes blood) into practices to prepare. They don’t want to be spectators. One of my favorite quotes says that “the harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” (Vince Lombardi)

Yet it is not just the hard work that has been put in. There is also a game clock that creates a sense of urgency. Players know that time on the floor is limited. They realize that time on the bench is something they can’t get back.

As we embark on the new year and are faced with the questions of setting our game plans, I ask you to consider a few things:

What are you truly committed to? (Your health, your family, your church, the Lord)?
Do you realize that “time is ticking away, tick-tick-ticking away”? (Yes I stole that line from DC Talk)
It is a common belief that around 20% of the people do 80% of the work of the church. Like the game scenario – only 1 in 5 is ready and willing to get the job done. Are you the “one”?

The Scriptures are full of “resolutions” we should make concerning our lives. Some are personal resolutions on conduct. Many are commands to be reaching others with the truth of the Gospel.

I am no expert on end times, yet it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the world is going down the drain. I believe it is clear enough that we should “play with a sense of urgency.”

I will often give instructions to my kids. It can be something very simple that I need them to do. They know to say, “Yes Sir.” Yet they don’t always get straight to it. They tend to meander that way, or even go back to what they were already doing. When I question them about it I typically get a response like, “Well I was going to do it Dad after I…”

I am often heard saying, “I meant today!”

I am not sure what your resolutions will be but I do believe God is seated in Heaven screaming at us, “I meant today!”

Be committed to the things of the Lord; with a sense of urgency!

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. (James 4)

35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! (John 4)

This year: Be the “ONE”!