Are you a player or a fan?

I find it hard calling myself a Christian when the word seems to have lost all meaning because of the lives of so many who have little or no faith. It’s like calling yourself an Edmonton Oiler (NHL team. You know – Gretzky’s heydays) when you’re just a fan.

When it comes to Christianity, are we being fans or players? Are we getting down on the ice in the mix of things or just cheering from the box seats? More so, would the owner see us as his team or just fans?

If you ask, close to 80% of North Americans would state their faith to be “Christian”. Now, I know this is a little myopic in the world view but, regardless of the percentage, when Jesus comes back will he find faith on earth? (Luke 18) Similarly, fans outnumber the players 100:1 (or more). I think you can be really, really, really committed and still not be a player – ever seen those guys with no shirts and painted in the team colours?

For the sake of this post I’ll call the believers fans and those with faith the players, to contrast the view of belief and faith. If Jesus comes back today, would we be seen as having  faith or just belief? The difference is eternal.

Believing is something akin to agnosticism: “I believe there is a God, but I don’t know what to do about it.” Whereas faith is living your life inside of those truths. Many believers will go through life giving various levels of credit to God such as “Pfftt, of course God will help my team win”, but someone with true faith lives in complete obedience and changes their life according to His teachings (the scriptures). Most fan-bases are filled with bandwagon jumpers. Fans can be there when things are great and off the bandwagon when things aren’t going well. Then there are fans that won’t give up regardless of how poorly the team is doing – like Maple Leaf fans (haha). Yet, they are still not players. If the players don’t follow the rules, they’re cut.

I find it interesting that the word Christian is only used three times in the Bible. Contrast that to the word Disciple which appears 294 times in the NIV New Testament. The word Christian was a derogatory term and came into use to describe people who imitated and looked like “little Christs”. The people who were called Christians were clearly living their lives so closely to that of Jesus Christ that they were called Christians by those who observed them. How evident is the life of Jesus in self-proclaimed Christians today? Should they be called Christians at all if they don’t actually live their lives according to his ways? This is the question for you and me as well if we are to be called Christian and, dare I say, have faith.

James (the book of) says “…But how can I see your faith apart from your actions? Instead, I’ll show you my faith by putting it into practice in faithful action” (CEV). If we have faith something is true, do we not take action to live it out? Do we work hard enough to get onto the team or just cheer comfortably from our seats.

So, back to faith. When Christ says in Luke 18 “…when the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?” I believe he’s asking if people will actually be following the scriptures or their own version of what they believe. It takes faith to live in obedience to the bible. You have to be willing to surrender your own understanding (what will happen if you do it your way) and trust in what God has in store for you… regardless of the outcome. You have to have discipline and years of effort to be a part of the team. You have to get into action and practice, to work hard and be tireless. If you want to be a fan, you just have to cheer when it’s convenient and it’s something you like. It’s easy to criticize when you’re a fan.

What ways do you see to be more of a player than a fan?