Swap Blog

This is the re-post and slight edit (we fixed a few punctuation issues, but did not change the wording) of the first post that was ever put on Team Swap. For those that care that was way back in the week of September 16th, 2002. With school starting up in a few weeks, we thought it would be a good time for this to be re-posted. It is a bit long (around 1,350 words), but it is worth the time we think.

________________________

College was a new world for me, lots of new and exciting things to see and experience. High school had been a good time for me, but I did not have a normal high school experience. You see, I attended a high school that was not good in our most visible athletics (football and boy’s basketball). We were, however, very good at other sports (boy’s baseball, girl’s softball, volleyball and track), but few inside or outside of our school ever seemed to noticed that.

Our football team was so bad that most students did not go to the game. They would just save the cost of a ticket, and go straight to the local pizza buffet to hang out. Eventually the team, cheerleaders, and band would arrive. Generally, these times were more social events then celebrations of athletic achievements.

Even with athletics not being a source of pride at my school, people that earned athletic letters wore their letter jackets. They were proud to be members of a team, weather the team was a scoreboard success or not. The jacket designated them as members of a team, even if it did little to gain them additional respect from other students.

Even while I was in high school, I realized that my experience were very different then most. At most schools lettermen/women are respected and even honored. When I was out in the community I would see athletes from other schools. They seemed to carry themselves differently. Other teenagers at the local malls, or at high school hangouts, seemed to give them a bit more room. The jacket wearers, and their close companions, had a swagger, they were confident, and it appeared as if they were in control of their world. In cases like this, their jacket was a badge of success. It showed membership to a select group. Such membership is a powerful thing to a young person, and membership in select groups remains as a badge of honor even as we get older.

Humans are basically social beings, and we love to feel included in a group. In high school it may have been the football team, the debate team, the key club, the National Honors Society, the chess club, 4H, FFA, or FCA. Today it is the right country club, a certain professional organization, a specific hobby group, or maybe even the right church. We like the world to know that we have earned a spot in a select group within our chosen interests. The jacket, shirt, hat, bag or pin of our club, sport, association or organization shows the world that we belong to something, and that is important to most people.

I remember that after I left high school, and went to college, the world was different for the letter jacket wearers. The first few weeks at college I noticed several people in their high school jackets. A large portion of them seemed to be from smaller schools in nearby rural areas. I have no way of knowing, but I would assume that at their schools their jackets had made given them some status. However, the pervious stares of respect were now replaced by ones of amusement at their lack of understanding, naivety and immaturity.

As most people know, college was and is a new world. The things of high school are not longer important. In college, your respect and honor among other students and faculty is based on your accomplishments in college, not what you have done before. Those that are still looking to their high school successes to earn respect are not seen as fully mature. They are still teenagers in a world of young adults and tenured academics.

Accepting Christ is like leaving high school and going to college. The world is new and different. The things that use to get you respect and honor are now looked on with less respect and as less honorable. Becoming a Christian is about putting away the things of old and becoming a new person. The maturing Christian is not powered by the ego of peer respect, but by the power of God looking into their lives and guiding their path. The life of a Christian is about becoming what you are called too by God, and is not about becoming the person that is popular due to personal achievements.

People that accept Christ, but continue to live in their old sinful ways never mature as Christians. People that are really living for God, i.e. one that make a full change to following God, look at such people with amazement and wonder why these people do not understand they are now members of a new world, and that they have a new life.

Those that live like this have a full and abundant life that they are not fully enjoying. These people are between two worlds that can not co-exist. A person must be either for God and His ways or against Him, as one is either in college or they are not. God calls us to decide, and then follow our decision.

The great thing about God is that He is like a college with open enrollment. Anytime we change our mind and realize the mistake of ignoring Him, He is there to take us back. He is there to fully enroll us in our new lives, with new goals and a better future. The key is that we must realize our mistake and come to Him. Many times people are kept from their new and better lives due to pride and excuses. The truth is that God is there, and He is ready to take us back anytime. He does not want us to just live for Him via our personal actions, but to thrive in Him via His actions through us.

Another interesting parallel between the change from high school to college, and the change from being lost to becoming a Christian, is that we are no longer members of our old groups or our old clubs. We are now members a new and greater group. One that is completely team focused and one that desires us to thrive. God does not call us to leave the things of old without the promise of replacing our old lives with new and better ones.

In Christ our membership is not shown by what we wear on the outside, but is shown by our heart and how we live our lives. He takes our dirty, worn previous life and replaces it with a perfect, new life that is spotless and clean. We are now clothed in His glory and righteousness, and not in the pride and selfishness of our actions.

Today is great simply because God loves me and is actively guiding my life. His death for my sins allows me to live fully in a new world of salvation. He allows me to have a bright future. I am not longer restrained by a life of success determined by physical prowess, intellectual achievements, academic awards, professional accreditations and organizational memberships. Now I am judged as a success by my membership in the body of Christ.

There are many times I fail, and many times that God has to carry me, but I know that He loves me and that He is actively working to make me a success. Like a coach in a sport, God wants me to succeed. God wants me to be better, and He wants me to thrive. He expects a lot of me because He has given me a lot, but if I try He is there and He is always working for my benefit, even when I do not understand why. He gave me a letter jacket on His team the moment I prayed for salvation, and told me that I was a starter before the first time I ever walked on to the field of spiritual battle. He does not ask me to win every battle to keep the jacket and stay on the team, all I have to do is give Him my best and He will make it a victory.

- a mid 30’s success story

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 27th, 2006 at 11:55 am and is filed under Faith, History, Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.