Running the Wrong Way, With Eternity on the Line

I saw this video this morning and it got me thinking.
It is a video of a Kent State player, who recovers a muffed punt during the opening night of College Football!

He snatches up the ball and then displays an incredible zeal for victory and willingness to do whatever it takes to help the team win and begins tearing down the field. He sheds a few tacklers,  brilliantly stiff arms a guy and goes 58yrds in about 6 seconds. He displayed skills and speed that any team would want in a player. 

The only problem is...

He was running the wrong way!! 

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8320884/kent-state-golden-flashes-andre-parker-wrong-way-run-grabs-attention

It happens every once in a while in football. It usually involves a turnover or scrum and the man who comes up with the ball is turned around and confused as to his position on the field. The bloopers are always hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nr9hjssWwM

It is really sad when this happens, because the whole effort was IN VAIN! It didn't count!

And in fact, IT COST THE TEAM!!!!

This got me to thinking about many Christians, including myself.

We are so eager and zealous for God. We just want him to "give us the ball". We want to do great things for him, we want to help his "kingdom come". We want to be and do and accomplish great things for God. We want to help score, we want to help the Church cross the goal line.

The only problem is, a lot of times, we are running the wrong way. We are not running in the scoring direction. The direction that God, the game designer has laid out.
We are running with great desire and passion, even correct motives...but we are running against the referee's whistle.

We think that building larger Church buildings and having more attendance is how we score.

We think that cutting out more sin than last week is how we score. Sadly, some even think that winning is if the Church building uses less electric than last year.

We think that inviting a friend to an Easter service is evangelism, while failing to ever talk to them privately about their sin and savior.

We gobble up the new books from the hottest celebrity pastor, we even sign up for the next conference where we think we will hear earth shattering news that will really "give us the info we need for growth"...as if God's word hasn't already told us the MISSION and the METHOD!

All the while we have yet to pray for the 2,000+ languages that do not have a single word of God's message of truth in their dialect, or truly considered if God is asking us, no commanding us, to go or get seriously involved.

All the while we sit silent next to a neighbor who is dying apart of any true understanding of God-Sin-Satan-Salvation. 

All the while we keep singing songs "where you go, I'll go..." and his word says "Go into all the world..."

All the while asking what his will is, if we could only know...yet reading "Seated around the throne was one from every tribe, tongue and nation."

Let's get the ball.

Let's run with zeal.

Let's run in the right direction and score and score a lot!

It is really sad when we as Christians run in the wrong direction, because the whole effort (our lives etc) could be IN VAIN! It didn't count! And in fact, THE DIRECTION AND WAY WE RUN CAN COST THE TEAM!!