I love fantasy football. It is one of life’s greatest joys for me. The time we share destroying one another week in and week out, the brotherly (and sisterly) love that is shared through the constant smack talk, and the eventual crowning of a fantasy football winner. Truly, these are good times.
Recently, there was a big fuss in a league I am in. According to a few of the “managers” (people who administer the teams), there are two managers who are trading with the expressed intent of collusion, simply put: cheating. Now this could have been dealt with right away with a quick phone call or email, but it blew up. I have to tell you, I am not a big fan of drama, but once it starts going, it can be a little funny, though sad, especially between grown men and women. I always thought going the Matthew 18 way, and confronting a person was the way to do things. In this circumstance, it blew up on messages, smack talk notes and posts on the league bulletin board. Bottom line, there was no collusion, but now there is an air of distrust between a few people. Somehow, somewhere, the lines between reality and fantasy became blurry.
When we are dealing with our struggles, this is often the common denominator- we struggle through things, most often because our lines have become blurry. What is the difference between right and wrong, and how are we going to confront this?
If you have eyesight issues, much like my wife and her contacts will tell you, then you most likely have blurry vision without a little help. On the flip side, you can say you have a focus issue. Think about it: blurriness is not the issue; it is merely the consequence of a lack of focus on behalf of your eyes. What a huge statement: We have “a lack of focus”.
There are all these scriptures that talk about this, such as keeping your eyes on the prize, or how to keep guard over what you have been taught, and to avoid even the slightest appearance of evil, but the main focus in this is to keep and stay focused. There will always be things that cause us to take our eyes off the prize; to forget what we have been taught and sure, we will fall into temptation. But we should never stay there. The more time we spend there, the more our blurriness becomes more obvious, and in fact, commonplace.
In light of this, go back and read or reread what Brian had to say here last week. Even more so, and I think Brian would agree to this: flee from what is holding you back, keeping you a prisoner.
“But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses,” 1 Timothy 6:11-12.
May you see clearly that which is of God. May you flee from the desires of youth and live in the fullness God has to offer. May you bring what what is dark into the light, in the presence of your friends, family and God. And may you, in His strength, live the call to which He has called you. A call that is more important than we will ever know. Have faith in yourself- because He has faith in you.