Where On Earth Is Crawley?
I didn’t know where Crawley was before I used the ever so useful Google Maps to locate it on my behalf. Apparently it’s one of those new town type places and there’s nothing much coming out of Crawley. There’s no big deal about Crawley, except of course for the people who live there.
Anyway at around 4pm this afternoon on Sky Sports News they covered the draw for the fifth round of the FA Cup. For the uninitiated in the list of priorities for a top football club, the FA Cup comes third after a European competition and the Premier League. It is the English domestic trophy of note especially for lower league clubs and those in the Premier League who are unlikely to win anything else. Obviously for those who don’t care about football, it doesn’t mean anything.
In fact, even for those who love football Crawley and football don’t mean much again. Until today. Crawley are a non-league side who have been the recipients recently of considerable investment in the hope of making them a League side coming from nothing. Against all odds they have defeated three league sides to make it into the draw for the fifth round. And now as they wait in the draw they are hoping for a great tie. They are hoping for a Premier League club, and in the whole scheme of things, hoping against all hope, some are even considering one of the real big clubs.
A group of the fans, players and club officials have gathered together to see who they get in the tie. Only in English football can something like picking a name out of a bowl cause such a fuss. And so it was that the dreams of Crawley fans came true as they got all that they hoped for in being drawn against Manchester United at Old Trafford. It was as if all their Christmases had come at once. The reaction of the group gathered was as though they had won the Grand National, Derby, National Lottery triple rollover and also discovered they would be getting five official days of holiday for free from their employers who was also giving them a 120% pay rise with bonuses attached. The sheer jubilation and delirious delight was a scene to behold.
Now bear in mind Crawley not only are not going to win the FA Cup, they are also not going to beat Manchester United. That may sound an audacious statement with the many FA Cup shocks that the game has seen, but seriously – no chance. Maybe a replay if United play complacently and Crawley play out of their skins over 90 minutes. Maybe. But a club of the calibre of Manchester United with a manager like Sir Alex Ferguson committed to winning as if it is his oxygen, most Crawley fans know that they are going for a great day out at the biggest club in Britain.
And yet here they are going crazy at being drawn against them.
What Does That Have To Do With Anything?
Today I sat and heard someone read scripture and then someone explain some aspects of the scripture that came across as fresh, insightful, convicting, invigorating, life-transforming and challenging. It was incredible. It was amazing. It was so much more than hearing a club get drawn against Manchester United and yet I was surrounded with the kind of response that I would expect to get from non-football lovers who hear Manchester United will play Crawley in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
I could not respond to the word I heard in the same way, because I know what it had done to me. I knew my life could not be the same. I know that in the light of the word I heard there would be changes. Note, I didn’t say there would have to be changes. I said there would be changes. I know that. It has happened before on occasions where the word that I heard hit me straight in the heart. It’s not so much that I have no choice as the choice has already been made and I follow.
That’s my understanding of responding when God’s Word is spoken. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not just talking about hearing the Word in a sermon, I mean whenever the Word is heard – when reading, in a song, through an encouragement or testimony, through some incident in regular life. It evokes something in the realm of the emotional and mental as well as the spiritual. It’s like supporting a team so much and seeing them gain something people never thought possible. You cannot see something like that and just react as though it’s a regular thing.
I agree that the Christian experience cannot afford to be about emotionalism and seeing it almost like a buzz that you get that you live for, without any substantial difference to your life. I know people can be suckered into that way of believing that charisma is the key and being overly emotional is next to godliness. I want to avoid any extremes that miss the point of what following Jesus is all about. Yet if this word that we heard has such power and deep meaning, then it is not surprising that it merits that kind of response.
It makes a mockery of our other emotional responses to things from anger or annoyance at things not going our way, or excitement over things like a new birth or indeed winning that lottery to not give any emotional response to a Word from God. The reason why it’s so important is that the Word is not just for me and my life, it is for us and life together!
Put it this way, what is of more eternal benefit Crawley facing Manchester United in the fifth round of the FA Cup or being rescued from eternal damnation to enjoy the fullness of life now and the promise of the glorified body and life without pain, injustice, tears and death?
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 