As I am sitting at my dining room table we are about 2 minutes from the start of another NFL Season. Chiefs v. Lions. I don’t know why, buy I am really looking forward to this season. Opening week of the season means everyone is tied for first! Everyone seems to have an equal chance of winning it all! Everybody’s future is bright! Every fan base is optimistic, even the Lions! There is just something about a new season, a new day, that brings with it a new hope. Last year is in the rearview mirror, a distant memory soon to be forgotten. The Colts have a lot of new this year. New head coach, new quarterback, new back field, renewed optimism for the future. In many respects the Colts are a new team. And I am ready to cheer them on for the next 17 games. Win or lose I am on their team!

The start of the NFL season is not a whole lot different in my mind than what Paul told the Corinthians about what it is like to follow Jesus. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:18) Did you catch that? Placing your faith, your life, your future in Christ, acknowledging him as your savior, becoming a true follower is like having a whole new season in front of you! Last season, all of the sin from your past, all of the mess-ups, all of the rebelliousness of the past, is in the rear view mirror. Jesus takes it all and makes us a new creature, a new teammate on a new team. A team with hope for the future because now we have a new coach in Jesus Christ. He begins to call the plays. We have new team mates who are lining up beside us. Some are veterans and have been following Christ for a long time. We need to listen to them, learn from them. The writer of Hebrews says that we are surrounded by a grandstand of witnesses, who are cheering us. These are saints that have played the game before us and have left us lives of faithful witness, again for us to learn from. 

We are also aware of the fact that with all of the newness that comes with following Jesus that we may not win every game. There will be times when we fail. The chances of the Colts going undefeated and winning the Super Bowl is pretty slim this year. They are going to make mistakes, fumble the ball, miss a tackle, allow the enemy to score. When we give in to temptation and follow the old way of life, John tells us that “if we confess our sins, He (Jesus, the coach) is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This just simply means that even when we are trying to follow Jesus and play the game right, there will be times when we fail. We will undoubtedly at times sin again BUT if we confess, come clean with Jesus, he will forgive us just like he did before and restore us with his righteousness. Every day is a new day with Jesus! Basically, we will be like preseason with a new hope, new start. Making confession a regular rhythm of our life means every day is filled with hope!  And like every player this weekend, we can’t go out and fumble on purpose, or run the wrong route on purpose, what kind of teammate is that? But it might happen for whatever reason. So we bring it to God through confession and receive his renewing forgiveness. Daily confess and daily our sins are forgiven and we start fresh.

And if one of our teammates fumbles, if another follower of Christ is running the wrong route, what do we do? We extend them the same grace and forgiveness that Jesus extends us. And Jesus told Peter it didn’t matter how many times they fumbled, even 490 times, which would be a new NFL record (Matthew 18:22). This is what makes a team strong. It is what makes good teammates. We are all just trying to follow Jesus. And none of his will go undefeated! This year we may need to extend some grace to our beloved Colts but more importantly we need to extend grace to our beloved brothers and sisters in Christ! So let’s cheer each other on, pick each other up if someone should fumble.  Our goal Paul tells us is to live in such a way as to win the Super Bowl (or something to that effect) Win or lose, I am on your team!

“Colts Strong!  Jesus Stronger!!”