The Huddle

One of the coolest sports to watch is football, especially playoff football; The hype, the energy, the one and done set up, the frozen tundra which teams play on, the stars, the fans, the runs, the scrambles, everything about playoff football is exciting. Each of us has our favorite parts of the game as well. For some, it’s the amazing QB scramble, or the completion of a 50 yard pass to win the game, or the 60 yard run, or the punt return for a TD. My personal favorite is a solid hit, you know, the one where the receiver comes across the middle and the Linebacker lays down the boom stick on the wide receiver. What if we could imagine its Superbowl Sunday and the offense of our favorite team was on the field and they were in the huddle preparing a play and the QB said “break” then they all ran to the bench? Then five minutes later they came back talked about a play and then the same thing happened over and over again! How enjoyable would football be then? We would all scream “WOULD YOU RUN THE STINK’N PLAY!!” Rarely does anyone openly admit “Man my absolute favorite part of football is the huddle!” Yet, how often is our Christianity exactly like the scenario? We come together on Sunday and Wednesdays to hear a message and “Huddle up” we are told the plays that God wants us to run and as soon as we “break” we go and we sit on the bench! Then Monday-Saturday rolls on by and we “huddle up again on Sunday” We talk about living radical lives for Jesus and we sit on the bench, we talk about evangelizing to the poor, the homosexual, the suicidal, the broken, the downtrodden, the young, the old, the college aged and we get all worked up but as soon as we “break” we tend to run to the bench. For the longest time the world has rejected joining our “team” because we simply never run the plays we talk about in the huddle. Therefore, they never see a need to join. The world simply says “can you please run the plays you’ve been talking about for so long!” Jesus after serving his disciples through washing their feet stated in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another even as I have love you, that you love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”Jesus hasn’t called his team to simply huddle up and talk about running plays he actually wants His people to participate in running the play!