The women’s soccer team at Grace finished their season almost a month ago and the questions of offseason workouts, training, and preparation for next season start to be entertained by the players.  It is clearly good to have a few weeks to process the past season, evaluate life, and consider future decisions about the sport.  The offseason is the time for athletes to separate themselves from the pack through hard work and constant touch on the ball but few do it.  All players improve during the regular season but only the driven individual set on being their best will dedicate the offseason to the sport they love.

Soccer parallels life in so many ways but having an offseason is not one of them.  As disciples of Christ the question is, “Are we constantly striving to live for the glory of Christ or are we buying into the world’s ideas of an offseason?”  (time for yourself, time that you deserve, you’ve worked so hard.)  Is there an urgency in the way we live or do we just go through the motions day in and day out?  Do we truly believe the words of Romans 14:10-12 that we will all stand before the judgment seat of God and be asked to give an account of ourselves before the Almighty?  If we do, certainly our lives will display the fact because time is short and the fields are ripe.

Imagine coming into preseason training camp next fall after having totally neglected physical fitness and not touching a ball since the previous October.  The coach is disappointed, your teammates have been let down, and the chances of making an impact on the field are minimal.  Now imagine the opposite.  You come into camp a physical machine, mentally prepared to battle, and with the touch of Maradona.  Everyone around you realizes that you have sold out and are a force to be dealt with.  How much greater the impact on Judgment Day?  Can you imagine God Almighty saying to YOU, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”?  This is what’s at stake – take no offseason and be one that stands in the gap for God.  Now is the time to take back what is rightfully the Lords and to glorify Him at all costs.