Spiritual Trading Cards

This week while being quiet, I have had a lot of time to think.........Then the tragedy of Nick Adenhart hit. That got me thinking some more. You see, he was just starting his professional baseball career. He had just finished pitching what was for him a perfect game of six innings. He was probably out celebrating his rising fame with friends. Then a drunk driver hit his car, killing him, another passenger and putting the driver in critical condition. Sadly, some of what is being talked about is how much his baseball card will be worth, or could have been worth.

Then I realized that we as Christians sometimes want a baseball card. We want a card that shows our stats, years of service, the good qualities about us. I am sure that there could be some fancy designs out there. Can you imagine, instead of collecting Babe Ruth, and Ryan Nolan, you collect Billy Graham, Greg Laurie, Elizabeth George, and maybe a Wetherell Johnson (very rare!). We would want the design to be spiritual of course, and highly collectible. Don't we all want to be seen as high achievers for God? People who do nothing else but devote our life to our cause and are seen for it? But that isn't the way it works. Moses didn't ask for the job. Joshua inherited it, and wasn't even in the blood line for it. Paul was recruited and then told to serve. The disciples were told to leave their families and lives with no notice and follow HIM. I think that sometimes we want the glory for the areas that we are serving but we don't want to look at what it really takes to follow HIM and EARN the card.

Professional Athletes earn a lot of money for what they do. They devote their entire lives for the dream of being the best. The put off college if they are able, they move away from their families, and move again when traded. They are told who to play, how to play, and in general are expected to get the job done, after all they are paid enough. Am I willing to put in the effort for such devotion as that for MY AGENT? When I am not paid monetarily, but eternally. These are the thoughts that have been swimming around in my mind for the past couple of weeks. Really evaluating what I am doing and who I am trying to serve while doing it. I don't want the job to increase the stats on my trading card, I want the job because at the end of the journey I want to be found faithful. A faithful servant, because if my life happens to be cut short, I don't want to be found lacking in what my card could have been worth, or should have been worth.