Yesterday I was honored for the last 21 years I have voluntarily served the Seattle Seahawk players and organization as their chaplain. After 21 years, actually 23 counting the two years I was doing some of the Bible chapels and discipleship training before I was formally asked to become the chaplain, that chapter in my life has come to an end. It was an extraordinary and eternally valuable run, but that time is now done. Time marches on, and so does our attempt to maximize the time we have while we are still in a position to do so.
I have consistently viewed the time with the Seahawks as an eternal investment. I rejoice and praise God at the number of men who effectively walked with God during their careers, and are consistently doing so long after they have retired from professional athletics. Very few people are afforded the opportunities or platforms given to athletes, musicians and entertainers. A preacher, teacher or commencement speaker can show up at the school yard or public square to talk to an audience about religion or a theistic worldview, and they are typically censored in some fashion or asked to leave. An athlete, musician or entertainer can show up to the same venue, and the doors are thrown wide open, with people gushing to hear what they have to say. From an eternal perspective, the priorities are upside down, but from a strategic perspective, it also provides divine opportunities if those opportunities are effectively used rather than carelessly or selfishly abused.
The impact Christian athletes, musicians, artists and entertainers have had and are having across the country and beyond may not be equal with those pushing others towards hell, but it is certainly touching many, for which I rejoice.
Theoretically, free speech, the guaranteed free exercise of religious liberty (not Marxist or Muslim cleansing from religious liberty), pluralism and tolerance are supposed to be the birthright of every citizen of the USA. On paper it reads right, but in reality much of North America is intolerant of Judeo/Christian expression, even though its talking heads promote the sloganeering of freedom, justice and tolerance for all.
The USA is now thoroughly secularized. Those on the left attempting to play the role of the victimized and under-represented minority fighting valiantly against the powerful religious and politically conservative right is worse than a bad joke – it is a lie that gets played ad nauseum in schools and throughout the media and is unfortunately believed as a self-evident mantra by naïve young people and their ideologically driven leaders. Common sense is gone, and too many Christians are content attempting to blend into the flow rather than swim against it.
The accelerating collapse of our once great country is a visible indication and truism that the people of this world are often more effective creating pulpits to share their message of atheism, agnosticism, relativism and hedonism than the children of the King, who has promised to return for an inspection and judgment that is coming sooner than later. It is past time for Christians to wake up and serve as active soldiers for the cause of Christ rather than passive spectators.
As much as I have enjoyed my time to systematically equip athletes to utilize the platform God has provided them at this station in their lives, I have also consistently and routinely turned down opportunities to write and speak during the football season. I am guessing God is telling me it is time to say “yes” to some of these opportunities, or at least consider them, rather than simply saying “no” because they conflict with a game.
I think business as usual is done, and a Judeo/Christian worldview in this country is gone. The love of God, family and country is not just rejected by many, it is despised. The window for evangelism and promoting the message of salvation by grace, through faith, purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary, is closing in our country, even if it appears to be exploding around the world. Christians are being systematically murdered for their faith while the media apathetically turn their head the other way. The murder of individuals is selectively promoted across the radio, television and Internet, while Marxist and Muslim genocide against two groups, Jews and Christians, is largely ignored, all in the name of social justice. What a surprise it is going to be for the talking heads when the Marxist and Muslim murdering turns on the political and media collaborators after they have been used as useful idiots.
It is time to wake up and time to move on. I pray you are on the field and in the game rather than sitting in the stands eating hotdogs and drinking beverages, entertained by the work and pain of others.
