Just five short years ago, when I was still the President of the Buckeye chapter of the Browns Backers Worldwide, I spent almost every waking moment working on chapter related issues and/or studying everything I could about the National Football League. Rosters, schedules, injury reports, etc. I had to do everything I could to be an expert in the field. God got what was left over in my life, which at that time, was ZERO. You could say that at that point in my life, I was worshiping a false god (football.) Football, especially the Cleveland Browns and The Ohio State Buckeyes, came first in my life. I was following a whole separate "Great Commission." I was to go out into the world, and convince any and every Steelers fan I could meet, on why being a Browns fan would get them saved. I wrote letters to politicians, trying to convince them to pass laws that would criminalize marriages between Browns fans and Steelers fans! Saying that I was obsessed is a gross understatement!
Now, five years later, I am doing everything I can to get back into a right relationship with God. If you were to ask me now what my top five priorities are, it would no longer be football first, but would go as follows:
- God
- Family
- Church
- Friends
- Career
God commands and deserves to be number one in every Christian's life. He is worthy of that spot! God sent His only Son to die on a cross, in order that I (we) may spend an eternal life in Heaven. But not just looking at the afterlife ... being a Christian makes life so much more bearable while here on Earth as well! God "never promised us a rose garden", but I can no longer even imagine being able to spend just one day without being comforted in my relationship with Him and praising Him for all He has done for me personally!
Family comes second, because that is where they are supposed to be. Not more important than God, but more important than everything else in life! Personally, I may not have an extremely close relationship with my own family, but they are definitely more important to me than anything else in life, with the exception of God!
Some people feel God and church are one in the same. But they aren't. Scripturally, the purpose of going to church is for believers to come together to study His word, and to hear God's instructions on how to go out and live for the rest of the week. In today's world, there are many churches that subscribe to the theory that the church is not to be a school, but to be a hospital to the wounded in life. I am not here to argue that point. Although I personally feel that outreach should take place outside the walls of church and discipleship should take place within the church, both are very important and I am sure God is going to bless both types of churches.
Fourth are friends. I love my close friends as though they were my own family. There are three people in my life right now that I have no doubt would have my back in any given situation. One of them has moved from Ohio to Northern Virginia, but we stay in contact on a daily basis. One lives in Cleveland, OH, but again, daily conversations. The third lives in Columbus, but if either of us were to move cross-country, or even to another country, we would still stay in contact. God gives us friendships because He doesn't want us to walk our journeys alone. To read more on this, see one of my prior blogs, Friendship and Accountability.
Career comes fifth. Without being able to provide an income, how are we able to tithe? How are we able to put food on our tables and roofs over our heads? Careers should never come before God, family, or church (some will argue whether it should come before friends), but without having a job and providing for ourselves and family, we would fail miserably.
Now that I've set my top 5 in stone, the rest are trivial. But for me personally, football can now come number six! I LOVE FOOTBALL! And that is okay with God, as long as we put that love in the right order of priorities!
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