Saturday, July 24, 2021

SIGN ME UP FOR SIXTY

 

Why not 18 and 0?

Some years ago, when our newly hired soccer coach Rick Jacobs held his first meeting with the St. Benedict's Prep soccer team, he walked into the room with a piece of chalk his hand and asked, 

“What are your goals for next year? Let’s say we have eighteen games; what do you want our record to be?” 

The kids were coming off of a losing season the previous year, so some kids answered, 

“Well, better than .500.” 

“15 and 3!” added another player.

“Uh huh. That sounds pretty good,” Jacobs answered. Then he looked around at the young faces, all of them showing curiosity as to what was next. Then he asked them,

“Why don’t you want to be 18 and 0?”

The kids sat there mute for a few moments, digesting that new way of approaching their season. His teams were to do a lot of 18 and 0’s over the next many years, but even when they missed that goal by a game or two they were still pretty good. 

Why not a hundredfold?


"But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.(Mt 13:23)."

Imagine Jesus looking around at his disciples after telling them the parable of the sower and the seed (Mt 13:18-23). With the sound of the last sentence (quoted above) still echoing in their ears he looks around, and begins to question each of them individually: 

"Peter, what can I sign you up for? 30? 60? 100?" 

"Lord, you know me! Put me down for 100!"

"Good. Who else? Thomas?"

"Well, I'm not sure about this whole business yet. Put me down for 30."

And You: How About You?

Now we come to the crunch -- it's my turn. He turns to me and looks into my eyes.


"And what about you, Albert? What have you been aiming for in living the gospel lately?"

He looks into my heart and can see that I think I've been doing pretty well with this following the Gospel business. So he's not surprised when I puff out my chest a little and report,

"Lord, I think that, thanks to your grace, I've been bearing well over sixty-fold." There's a twinkle in Jesus' eye because he knows that I actually rate myself much higher than sixty, but I don't want to come across to the others as being arrogant. 

“Uh huh. That sounds pretty good,” he replies, sounding eerily like a soccer coach. Then he pauses for a moment and looks at me again with that loving gaze and asks me,

"Why aren't you aiming for one hundred?

I sit there mute for a few moments, digesting this new possible approach to living the Gospel. 

Like some kid going out for soccer, I ask myself, "Am I ready for that kind of total commitment?" 

I'm still thinking about my answer.

Why not a hundred fold?


No comments:

Post a Comment