Football season! Yep, it is that time of year around my house. I am a football fan. I am more interested than ever now that my kids have friends who play.
It is so much fun to watch and follow all the different kids that I have happily adopted as mine at the different schools. It makes me a fan of “a lot of schools!” It also makes it more fun for me to watch and follow if I have a personal interest. Just today while I was sitting on the back porch–a beautiful, breezy Saturday afternoon–Bill shouts to me to inform me of the thousands of people who showed up at Midnight last night at Texas A&M to practice being the “Twelfth Man” for today’s big game against Alabama! Haha! The “Twelfth Man” was trademarked by Texas A&M in 1990, but has been around since the 1920’s. It is the “fan base”. Yes, the “Twelfth Man” is noise and cheers created by the fans that can potentially help the team. LOVE IT, especially being a former cheerleader. No, I take that back. Once a cheerleader always a cheerleader!
It sounds so familiar, in some ways, to golf. There is said to be a “15 club” in golf. Golfers are allowed to have up to 14 clubs in their bag and almost all golfers do. The “15 club” is known to be the “mental” game of the golfer.
With the Christian, there is the “FIRST MAN”. Yep, that would be Christ. He is there to cheer for you, teach you, comfort you, encourage you, protect you, discipline you, strengthen you. And if you do not know HIM, He is the one to offer salvation through the death and resurrection of His son, Jesus, who offers eternal life. It is a free gift that only requires us to accept it. “I seriously do not know how people live life without the “FIRST MAN!” I have been a Christian (asked Jesus into my heart at nine) most of my life and I just cannot imagine life without Christ. I believe life without the “First Man” has no purpose. And without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has NO SIGNIFICANCE OR HOPE.
I believe we have a Creator, who is God. He created us to fulfill a specific purpose with our life on earth. Ephesians 1:4, “Even as He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.” I do not believe we are here by chance and, even if your parents didn’t plan you/me, I believe God did. I believe God’s purpose took into account human error, and even sin. I believe we only discover our “purpose in life” when we put God at the center and HE is our reference point, the “FIRST MAN!” The Bible says that in the end of time we will each stand before a HOLY GOD and give an account of our life and how we spent our time on earth. Our works and actions will be tested by fire. We will not be able to hide. God knows our hearts and the motives behind our actions.
AS I have lived for Christ, it hasn’t prevented me from pain, loss, or heartache but it has given me the HOPE that this “life on earth” is not all there is, there is eternity. Christ has guided me, strengthened me and given “joy” and “peace” that cannot be accurately described unless you experience it. The only way to truly experience it is to have a relationship with Jesus. Don’t get me wrong. I have loved life and am thankful for everyday. What I am saying is that life is hard at times and no one, Christian or not, is immune to life’s harshness. But God is the answer to living life with purpose and the provider of all things especially for the harshness that comes just from living.
John 3:16 best describes the “First Man”, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son [the First Man], that who so ever believes in HIM should not perish but have eternal life.”
Is Jesus the “First Man” in your life? If He is, take time to stop now and thank Him for all that He is in your life—Cheerleader, Encourager, Teacher, Discipliner, Protector,______. You fill in the blank.
If Jesus is not the “First Man” in your life, I pray that you would not let another day go by without inviting Him to be First in your life.