2 Minute Devotional – Puhleese Don’t Get Mixed Up in the World! – September 19th

​1 Peter 2:9,

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

So my dad and I are big college football fans. Actually, I just like following my alma matter’s team, that’s about it. I’m not the kind of guy who sits around all day Saturday and Sunday ignoring my family and watching “the game.” But my dad and I have had season tickets for our school for 17 years now. Well Saturday night we had a really big game. We went to the game. The hype was insane. It was on national TV, it was against a really great team, there were fireworks and amazing pregame hype video, the crowd was going crazy. Guess what happened? We got destroyed!! Seriously it wasn’t even close.

So it’s mid 2nd quarter and I’m down at Chick-fil-A in the concourse grabbing a sammich and right above the concession stand are those TVs so you can watch  the game while waiting for your food. And there’s this really bad play we did and the opposing team just capitalizes big time. The fans around me in line just erupted. It was just F this, F that, screaming curses, it was really bad. Anyway, we leave the game and there’s just violence in the air. A guy almost runs into a bicyclist and honks his horn over and over, the bicyclist screaming obscenities back at the driver. It was bad.

The place where I live, my hometown, is kinda stuck in the past. About 10-15 years ago, we had an absolutely phenomenal football team. One of the best teams ever as far as stats went at the time. And my fellow citizens here are just stuck in that “we have to get back to glory” mentality, but each year our team lets their fans down somehow by losing. It’s never enough. And the frustration is everywhere you look. These people have put glory in their hearts in a football team from a decade ago and every year  their plans to return are thwarted, it hurts  them deeply.

Football is just one example of this. For those who are reeling from a breakup, it might be listening to a certain song, reminiscing about the good days with a broken love when you felt like two were Romeo and Juliet. For those who are into money, it might be that one time when the company was just killing it and the world seemed conquerable. Others it might be your kids, or music or ministry.

The hard truth is we can’t do much outside of Jesus, we have to be connected to our Vine. Otherwise we just wither and die. Useless. No matter what the thing is that someone might be looking for to return to glory, at the end of the day if we are looking to it for life it is only an idol, regardless of how benign it might seem on the surface. That doesn’t mean you can watch football, or pursue success in a career or family, it just means don’t go to it looking for life. 

On the walk back to the car last night, I told my dad how glad I was that God kept me from becoming too obsessed with football. Because now I can move on with my life. Sure, it stinks we lost. But my joy is still in place, because my joy is in Jesus.

The takeaway is, you are set apart for God. You are the apple of his eye and he wants you, pure and holy. He does not desire for you to be mixed into the world. He wants you to come to him and him only for life and glory. He wants you to himself. That’s how special YOU are 🙂

I hope everyone has a FANTASTIC Sunday! If you have any prayer requests please comment and I’d love to pray with you 🙂 God bless my friends! You’re AMAZING, don’t let the world get you, just let Jesus wrap you up in his arms instead! 🙂