September 3

Day 173: Off Season

As an admitted sports fan (junkie) I will also admit to liking the off season/s almost as much as the game season itself. Off season is when players get drafted, traded, released.

Baseball calls it the "Hot Stove Season." (I know not why.) The NFL calls it the Draft and the Free Agent Signing Period. Soccer doesn't call it anything, but the entire world pays attention none the less. (Full disclosure: I look at these signings every morning.)

Every sports fan is hoping the glamorous new signing will result in a new golden age for their team. Problem is, it doesn't always turn out that way. We're talking about very young (potentially very rich) athletes.

Baseball players seem to play well into their 30's. Same for hockey. A football quarterback or place kicker can play sometimes into their 40's. Golfers can play until they drop. (I don't care about NBA players.)

But not so soccer. The people who do the buying and selling of players regard anyone over the age of 30 to be a risk. Hence, those over 30 are usually only offered one year contracts.

Our culture values and exalts youth. We all want, for our favorite athletes and for ourselves, chronological youth, combined with the wisdom and experience of the aged. But we also all assume a well-deserved retirement in the future. Where all we will do is garden and fall asleep in the early evenings.

But our Bibles tell us otherwise.

Psalm 92 is becoming more and more real for me each year. The notion in this psalm is not one of maintaining a protracted career, or fighting against our own aging, but of flourishing in whatever life stage we find ourselves in.

"The righteous flourish like a palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green."

Sounds nice. Hope it's true of me. But it's not a question of how long, even how productive, but one of purpose.

"...to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him."

Ever notice how the majority of people God used to reveal His power and glory were actually super old? How God waited until way past someone's shelf life before He even started talking to him?

Christ-followers do have a shelf life. It's called death. Until that time, all of us are called to flourish, to be fruitful, to be continually renewed on the inside. So we can continue to flourish and be fruitful.

That we will continue to declare that the LORD is upright; that He is our rock; that there is no unrighteousness in Him.

Until the day comes when someone else will have to close our eyes for us. And our eyes will then be opened to see the glory of our Savior in His presence.

Until then, no offseason.

-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau