As a kid/young man I LOVED basketball… I would have been classified a “gym rat.” I liked all sports, and played everything competitive that I could… baseball… softball… soccer… tennis… a little football… bowling… even backyard whiffle-ball tournaments. Yet I would always find myself making my way back home to my basketball goal in the backyard… or a goal at the local school playground… the park… the YMCA… we even rented gyms from churches in order to get a run in.
I read in one article that “gym rats” are becoming extinct… and I would agree. We live in an age of more trainers and clinics than we ever dreamed of when I was young… in turn most playing takes place in organized, scheduled times; fewer games are simply taken up on driveways or at parks. And honestly I have seen a lot of players that have great mechanics and not a clue of simply how to play… When youth don’t have a scheduled event they tend to stay in the house and commit to smart phones… or X… or Snapchat… or video games… etc.
As a “gym rat” I guess you could say I was fanatical about hoops… I played religiously. I’ve even told my own kids at times that they have liked something but not loved it… LOVE LEADS TO OBSESSION! And I mean that in a good way... the word obsession has the idea of something or somebody you think about all the time… the idea of being motivated or compelled… “Gym rats” get after it even if there is not a scheduled practice or game… they are there if the lights are on or off… working on their game. (I can remember many nights playing in the dim light cast off the corner flood light of our school cafeteria, and would illuminate one of the playground goals.)
I made sure I took care of business in every area of my life… giving my best effort to my studies and to each of the other sports I played. Yet my mind always looked toward getting to the court. I wanted to be excellent! As a result, I had some pretty good success when I laced them up! I was definitely a “gym rat” or maybe you could have labeled me a “hoops freak.” Most people did not understand my obsession…
In the church world, many decades ago, we started hearing the term “Jesus Freak” in relation, usually to hippies and used in a derogatory way… commenting on their radical approach to Jesus’s teachings. Oter terms that have been used for radicals, that still are used, would be “Bible Bashers”; referring to someone that is obsessed with the Word.
Well, just like I have spent many years in the hoops world, I have also spent decades in the church and Christian school world. And what I have seen over and over again is that anyone that “religiously” wants to live for Jesus is labeled a “freak” – or in most circles they try to make it sound like the person is wrong on the basis of “legalism.” And my fear is that in our teaching platforms that warn of legalism, we in turn encourage, and even applaud, mediocrity.
First note that “being religious” and “being legalistic” are not synonymous…
Legalism simply means a strict adherence to law. And teachers, myself included, will use te book of Galatians to warn about being law-driven, as though that is how we obtain God’s favor. IT is really easy to discredit legalism… because “if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” (Galatians 2:21b)
Religious, on the other hand, is simply defined as faithful devotion to a deity… AND FOR AS WRONG AS LEGALISM IS, BEIGN RELIGIOUS IS RIGHT! Why are we, in church and Christian school circles, so afraid these days of the idea of someone being sold out for Christ and His word?
Do you love Jesus? Then you will obey Him… that is not being
legalistic… it is being devoted or obsesses with the One that you love… it is
about thinking about Him all the time… it is about being motivated or compelled
to sere Him and serve others… IT IS OK TO BE A FREAK OR A RAT!
Jesus’s words: "If you love me, keep my commandments.”
(John 14:15)
Obedience and Obsessions are driven by love not law…
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