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The Men of Iron Minute

by Chad Zueck | Director of Content Creation

Don’t be a Spectator


The air is brisk, the lights full, and the crowd is full of life. With over 30,000 in attendance, the energy and excitement of Cardinal Nation swelled with every pitch. I had not gone on a pilgrimage like this for 17 years, and on this night, my daughter and I are soaking up her first St. Louis Cardinals game. The seats in section 235 provided a full view of the action on the field and a great view of the crowd off the field. The snap of the catcher’s mitt made us sympathize with a catcher’s hand after the repeated thumping of the mid 90’s fastballs. We made a great memory, and we got the win. We will return as spectators of America’s pastime.

A little imagination allows you to drift from spectator mode into participant mode. To be a participant means you experience the game in a new and different way. Up close and personal. You could run your hand through the well-manicured grass, admiring the lines etched with near perfection. You could feel the rush of the crowd saying your name after a single or the eruption after a double play to end an inning. Being in the seats offers no rival to standing on second base under the lights and in full view of 30,000 people cheering your name.

Spectators experience in part, and participants experience in full. Spectators enjoy it from a distance, and participants experience it up close. Spectators can only hope, and participants can fully enjoy. Spectators admire. Participants get admired. There are no spectators in the Kingdom of God! Everyone participates by faith. Hebrews 11 offers an incomplete list of believers who participated with God to do amazing things. God gives this insight.

 

“These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” Hebrews 11:39-40, NIV84

 

Only together. Did you catch that?

This isn’t baseball, and this is life.

 

Be a participant in the Kingdom.

 

Be a mentor

Find a mentor.

Be a better man.

 

[1] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Heb 11:39–40.

 

 


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