A Good Year

"And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right."
2 Thessalonians 3:13 (NIV)

College football’s BowlFest, those 34 games of December and January, almost killed me.

If I wasn’t getting Clemsoned from the left, I was getting Air Forced from the right. Until bowl season, while I knew where Central Michigan was -- right in the middle of Michigan, right? -- I didn’t know they played decent football there.

But they do, and they were rewarded for it. For most of the regular season and in terms of on-the-field competition and accomplishment, they did more things right than wrong, and so they were one of 68 teams invited to play in a bowl game.

I did my part to reward their efforts; I watched bowl games ’til my eyes bled.

A once heard a good coach say this: "Never get bored with doing the right thing." The right thing isn’t always the easy thing, as some of the godly and just members of the long-ago church at Thessalonica would testify. But the right thing is always the good thing, the best thing, the God-ordained thing.

In football, the right thing is practice, attitude, and teamwork. In our Christian walk, it’s much the same thing. But what makes the journey sweeter and the rewards so much greater is the relationship we have with the Father. When we grow weary, it is because we are investing in our own abilities instead of in our relationship with Him.

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. I wouldn’t suggest anyone try to watch 34 games of football in three weeks. But there’s no such thing as "too much Jesus." We can’t out-love, out-give or out-good him. Leaning on the everlasting arms, we can instead grow and work and love through His power, and "never tire." When our relationship with Christ is right, too much of a good thing, is a good thing.

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