Off the Reservation

Philippians 1:27 ESV

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

How often do I ‘hang out’ with people not like myself? One of the ways I justify my Disc Golf hobby/sport/problem is that I meet many people that have no or slight interactions with the church and even less with Christ. Even in this I was pushed this last week end. As I say and justify spending my time playing a game and leaving the kids with Kelly, no break for a homeschooling mom, I don’t know that I want to play this tournament again. Playing down in Marquette, Kansas it was a tightly wooded course with a very technical feel and a lot of ways to get in trouble or look simply amazing depending. It is a great course and a lot of fun to play.

Even as I ask the question about people “not like myself”, I must admit that the majority present would be, white males 20-40 years old with a few older and a couple younger (all the good guys), and one solo female competitor. So, in one since (the one the media likes to focus on) they were all just like me, but once you start playing, and getting back into the woods, it all changes. Tobacco, chewed and smoked, mixed with vaping of some flavor, combined with a hint of what I assume to be a substance legal in Colorado but not in Kansas, starts to fill the air. Drinks ranging from Gatorade, to niche market bears, name brand bears, and even Captain Morgan & Coke start to fill the competitors. Having been in multiple Tournaments were this variety was not the case I can only assume that the tightly wooded course in a small non-county seat town with no police department led to much of what was being done.

It is easy to falsely believe that people, because they are happy and having fun, are “doing all right” but God tells us that they are “dead in the trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1). In the reality that matters there were two vastly different people at this tournament, the living and the dead. How does one walk in the midst of the dead? As our society continues to fall apart, and illegal substances become legal in state after state, how are we going to live a “manner of life…worthy of the gospel of Christ”? Is it best to remain sequestered in our communities only interacting with the dead when they look “like us” in their actions?

The moment finally came on Hole 15 when I was offered a ‘dab’, after I declined, the two that had played with me before educated the third man as to my status as a “preacher”. At this point the apologies and stories of how he had worked with pastors before and they were some the best guys to work with started coming, apparently, he was unaware that “preachers” go off the reservation now and then. To say I then educated them on the sins of loose lips, drunkenness, and wizardry (mind altering drugs), would be false. We played the rest of the round. I walked in a manner worthy of the Calling of Christ and God was glorified.

As I look at Christ, I find great interest that his conversations at the homes and parties he is invited to are largely not discussed. What is recorded would be a five-minute conversation or less and is normally in response to what someone is thinking not what was said. Why was the majority of what Jesus said not recorded? First, because we don’t need to know, but second probably because it was just simple normal conversation with people. Much of the salt and light we can be in normal conversations and regular interactions when we go to the dead and behave worthy of our calling is simply that. Let us walk side by side as we declare life to the dead. “Live in a manner worthy of your calling” and that calling is to be light in darkness, not a bulb in the lighting section of the hardware store. WE must scatter every week that light can confront darkness and then gather back together that we might grow in our faith and do it again next week.

CORAM DEO