The moment of opportunity

For those of you who know me, you know I've been getting into the sport of rugby during the past couple of months. It's a difficult sport to get into, because its not readily available on American TV. Most of the time, I'm consigned to watching highlights on-line. However, during the Rugby World Cup, which is currently in its last week, I've tried to make an effort to find opportunities to watch more full-length games.

One of these opportunities came up this past weekend when Liz and I were able to go over to our friend Walter's house to watch one of the semi-finals in the world cup (Walter randomly had this very obscure channel, so it was very providential we were able to watch it). The semi-final was between New Zealand and Australia. For those of you who don't follow rugby, or haven't heard me rant about it, this was a match-up of the number 1 team in the world (New Zealand) and number 2 team (Australia). New Zealand is a rugby mad nation, with the sport occupying a pretty central place in the culture of the country. When the Rugby World Cup was started in 1987, New Zealand won the very first tournament as expected. However, since then, they have always come up short despite being consistently billed to be the favorites at every tournament.

So, to put it mildly, the country and the team are desperate to win this time around, and on Sunday night they showed it. They played with an intensity I've never really seen any team of any sport play with. For 80 minutes, they gave everything they had, and because of that, they're now in the final this coming weekend against France, with the opportunity to win their first World Cup since 1987. On Sunday night, against their greatest rivals, New Zealand's desire to win led them to a dominant victory over their opponents. Their intensity on the field really struck me, not just for the amazing rugby it brought about, but for its example as a situation when desire was the determining factor.

New Zealand's quest for a World Cup reminded me of St. Paul's words:

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. " 1 Cor. 9: 24-25

These men I watched on Sunday have trained their whole lives for these moments. They have denied themselves legitimate goods, disciplined their bodies, suffered injuries, and fought through pain just for a shot at this temporal glory. And it leads me to wonder, how serious am I in my quest for eternal glory?

That rugby game on Sunday made me realize how focused we should be on Christ, on gaining heaven. So often we slack off and believe we are doing "good enough." We don't strive for much more than where we are, we don't try to grow any closer to Christ. But what is our reward if we do? We become closer to He who loves us beyond all others. And, unlike the New Zealand rugby team, we are not alone in our quest for Glory. Whereas they must go through their workouts and challenge themselves on their own, we have the company of Christ. If we make the slightest increase in our efforts to become closer to Christ, He will pick us up and take us further into His Heart than we could have imagined.

All it takes is that we try, that we rely on His Mercy more and more each day. And though New Zealand now has a once in a life time shot at glory, we have a daily, hourly, minutely shot at Glory. Every moment of every day we're able to become closer to Christ, if we only really desired it. Each moment is our moment of opportunity, but our lack of desire keeps us from taking advantage of these opportunities. We lose sight of the great opportunity for love we have because these moments of opportunity are so repetitious. Because we are constantly presented with the opportunity to love God, we figure we'll do it at some other point!

However, if we truly desired the Glory the comes from loving Christ, then we would recognize every moment as another opportunity, one more chance, to love Jesus. Like New Zealand, we would rise to the occasion, give each moment 100%, and be victorious in our quest for Christ. We must ask Christ to give us this desire, we must rely on Him to inflame us with a determination to run the race to the end. After all, if a group of men can be so determined to gain a rugby championship, shouldn't we be exponentially more determined to gain the crown Christ wishes to give us?