As most of you know, I am a huge Michigan State football fan. Well, actually I am more than a fan, I am a FOLLOWER. Now, some of you may ask yourself, “What is the difference between a fan and a follower?” Let me explain.
Last fall, Mike Jewell, my dad, and I went to the MSU vs Penn State football game. Despite the weather forecast of storms and heavy rain, we decided to support our team and go to the game. Half-way through the game, it started to storm. To our misfortune, the refs had to delay the game. After a little debate, being the followers that we are, we decided to wait the game out.
An hour past – still no game. Two hours past – no game. Three hours past and still no game. With no knowledge of when the game would start, we began to question if we should leave. Finally, after another thirty minutes of waiting, the game finally started again.
Many seats were open and less than half the stadium was full. The people who left are the FANS, because when the rain and wind started, it overwhelmed them so they left. The people who stayed are the FOLLOWERS who persevered through the wind and rain. Realizing that there were very few fans at the game, we would have to be as loud as ever to support our team. After a long, cold game, it came down to one kick. MSU kicked it through the goal post and every FOLLOWER who stayed was rewarded.
So, you might ask, “How does this story relate to our Christian life?” During the storm, the FOLLOWERS decided to wait the game out, even after a three and a half hour delay of wind and rain. In James 1:2-4, James says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Like in my story, where the FOLLOWERS persevered through the rain, we as FOLLOWERS of Christ need to persevere through the storms and bumps of life.
Please consider Galatians 1:6, which says: “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel.”
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At the football game, the FANS left the game due to rain… Fans, but one-time FOLLOWERS of Christ who chose to leave the church because they fail to study the Bible or keep a relationship with Christ through prayer, have become too weak to withstand trials.
In Matthew 13:20-21, Jesus says, “The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.”
Christians who have no roots will not be able to withstand troubles and persecution which come their way, just like the FANS in my story…
Finally, my story ends with the reward with a win for the FOLLOWERS who stayed. In Romans 8:18, Paul says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
We cannot compare our present sufferings to our future glory which we will receive in heaven. However, if we persevere and remain a FOLLOWER, instead of just a FAN of Christ, we will receive a great reward.
Ashton Jones
