A new school year means many things. To some it’s a new backpack or pair of shoes. To some it’s a new schedule or a new locker combination. To many of us, it’s a new competition season.
Volleyball, swimming, cross country, golf or football.
Even if there’s not a kid competing in a fall sport, lots of households in our community get excited about what time kickoff is for the Iowa Hawkeyes this weekend.
We love rooting for our team. We love the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. We love a good competition.
Every day, in every season, we all experience a relentless spiritual competition for 1st place in our hearts. What’s most important? What is most valuable or fulfilling? What makes you happiest? What has your attention? What do you love?
The Bible teaches us that if our answer is anything or anyone other than God, we will never be truly satisfied.
Throughout the centuries, Christian thinkers have wrestled with this concept and sought to persuade followers of Jesus to give only God first place. They’ve said things like:
“He who loves rightly, all things are ordered rightly; he who does not love rightly, all things are disordered.”
—St. Augustine. Confessions, Book XIII, Chapter 9
“When the creature is loved more than the Creator, it becomes an idol and takes the place of God.”
—John Owen, The Mortification of Sin
“To love anything more than God is to choose misery and discontent over joy and peace.”
—Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits
“Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.”
—Francis Chan, Crazy Love
“We must not allow anything to rival the love of God in our hearts, for only He can rightly occupy that place.”
—D.A. Carson, The Gagging of God
Jesus is absolutely greater than anything and anyone. It is absolutely in our best interest to acknowledge that reality in our hearts and minds and give nothing greater allegiance or attention than Him.
So next time you put on a team jersey or head to the bleachers to cheer for your little player, remind yourself that by far greater than the Hawkeye or the Cyclone or the Warrior or the Wolf, is King Yahweh, Lord of all.