Stadium

A Stadium is a unique place where so much happens, mostly significant. It is many things to many people - a game venue, a place where sporting contests take place, a 'colosseum' as it were, a place of community, a place of fun, a place of 'worship', a place of wealth, a place of pain and tears, a place of victory and loss and a place of history. Most of us have been to a sporting match at a stadium. We usually come away with memories of the colours, sounds, the music, the spectacle, the actual match and of course, the score line.

Whenever I attend a sporting contest at a stadium, I always see it as so much more that kicking a ball around, batting, bowling and catching. It is somehow bigger. It is as if the whole match represents something larger than ourselves, almost transcendent. It's like the contest is so much more than the sum of its parts. A bit like life, really.

We are born. We mature and enter the 'contest' of life with some training. We step onto the field. We have a coach. We have a rule book. We have fans (some might say 'witnesses'-family, friends and colleagues). In this game, we work, we create a community, a family and wealth. We 'worship'. We win. We lose. We weep and we face challenges and we celebrate victories. We have fun and we make memories. But it does come to an end...game over, as it were. What happens then?

Have we played the 'game' by the rules? Have we followed our coach? Have we placed priority on things that were not important? Have we been enamoured by all the spectacle and missed the substance? Are we on the winning side?

There is much to reflect on, here. I pray that as the 'siren sounds' on this 'game' (the Game of Life) you will know where you are going. Jesus (your coach) is calling you to Himself. He is calling you to rest in Him. There's nothing left to do but say yes.