One of the greatest joys in my life is when I am asked to share. I guess you can take the preacher away from the pulpit but can’t take the pulpit out of the preacher! Last Sunday I was honored to share with the Dream Team at church prior to the service.
I used a quote from Mia Hamm. Mia Hamm was the face of women’s professional soccer for years, 2 gold medals, 2 world championships. She said, “Somewhere behind the athlete you’ve become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back… play for her.”
I also used a quote from Jesus to the Church at Ephesus. First, He acknowledged what they were doing. “I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance … You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.” But then He told them … “You don’t love me as you did at first.” Or as some translations say, “You have left your first love.”
I am at that stage of my life where my body will not allow me to do much anymore. The “hard work” is behind me. But I don’t ever want to hear the LORD say to me … “You don’t love me as you did at first.”
For me, it is no longer “DOING,” that characterizes my life. It is “BEING” a child of God. Finding my worth in His love, my Joy in His presence. If I may paraphrase Mia Hamm: “Somewhere behind the maturing Christian I am becoming and the work God has asked of me and the mentors who have pushed me – is a young woman who fell in love with the LORD and never looked back… I play for her.”
