God doesn’t need casual fans

By: Pastor Raymond Desadier

MARK 12:29-30 “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all they strength: this is the first commandment.”

In sports you have two kinds of fans. The more common kind is the casual fan who hopes their team wins and proudly displays their team logo on their shirt, cap, or the occasional team logo on their vehicle. Then there are your die-hard fans – the ones who let the team they love consume their life to the point it is all they think about and all they talk about.

I used to be one of those die-hard fans for the Houston Astros. I never wanted to miss a game. I wanted to own every piece of Astros merchandise available. I had an entire room in my house covered wall to wall with Astros posters and memorabilia. I wanted to talk about them to everyone and I constantly checked the news to see if they had made any roster moves or trades. I wanted to have all the answers and never wanted to miss a thing.

While I would never encourage such an obsession over earthly things, an obsession I have mostly recovered from, I think God wants this kind of passion from us. I do not know if “obsessed” is the right word, but I definitely believe we should be consumed by all things Godly.

We should never want to miss an opportunity to worship or serve God. We should want to own every Christian virtue available. Our entire heart and mind should be covered wall to wall with the love of Christ. We should want to talk about Him to everyone and always be anxious to hear from others what things God has done in their lives. We should want to have all the answers, never wanting to miss a thing.

Instead, too many of us settle for being the casual fan. We may wear a Jesus t-shirt or a God cap or have a Christian bumper sticker or a fish (ichthys) on our car. We root for God and like to see him win some battles in life but this is as far as it goes. We fail to let His spirit consume us in everything we do and we do not let lost souls burden us as we should.

While God certainly appreciates all the praise we have to offer Him, He does not want us to merely voice our praise for Him but also bring Him glory through our actions. What He is looking for is the die-hard Christian. The one who has a burning desire to serve Him every chance they get.

It is a shame there are so many people willing to become consumed over teams of overpaid prima donnas, yet so few willing to be consumed with the God Who has done so much for them. Maybe Jesus should have been an athlete instead of a carpenter.