“Don’t lose your grip on Love and Loyalty. Tie them around your neck; carve their initials on your heart. Earn a reputation for living well in God’s eyes and the eyes of the people.” (Proverbs 3:3-4 The Message Bible)
At some time in the past, I have shared stories about the two years I served as the Trainer for the basketball and football teams at a local high school, over fifty years ago. Without taking a single course in sports medicine, I did my job well, largely due to studying an old first aid book that was on the small bookshelf at my parent’s house. I could wrap an ankle so well; it would like a cast when I was finished. I could apply heat, ice, mix gallons of Gatorade for games, tighten cleats, and turn on the whirlpool. That was about the extent of my duties as the Trainer. I’ll be upfront with you. I did not do one medical diagnosis. I never prescribed exercises to treat parts of the body, parts which contemporary, certified trainers can identify by the correct anatomical term. To me, a leg muscle, regardless of the location. It was just a leg muscle where heat rub was the prescribed treatment. Knee injuries were not analyzed. I knew nothing about such parts as the meniscus. Therefore, knee injuries got the same heat rub treatment, a ragged wrap, or a recommended trip to the whirlpool, metal tub that looked more like torture mechanism than a medical-treating apparatus.
Oh, there was one more main task. I had to get the uniforms cleaned. For example, on any given game day, at the end of a football game, players would turn in their dirty, soaked in sweat uniforms. If the team won, they were presented to me in a nice manner. If the team lost, the uniforms were thrown into the trainer’s cage with disgust, disdain, and by disrespecting the fact that I was not only the trainer, but the teacher too. On Monday mornings, a couple of days after the end of the game, I would have to take the uniforms to a nearby dry cleaners and ensure they would be ready for me to pick them up on Thursday morning. Did I talk about humility yesterday? I think I did! Well, even though I performed my task, I did it begrudgingly and internally I had to work on humility. To be blunt, believe me, I hated it. Yet on Thursdays, after practice for the Friday game, I smiled as I passed out the players jerseys. Team members were able to wear their jerseys around school on game days. You remember those times. Even the player that never got in and remained regulated to the sidelines walked around with pride during the day on Friday. Even though that player did not have hope for playing, he strutted the walls with a hype of presence on game day. It was good for their self-esteem. Bless their souls.
Let me get to my point. After the end of the game, after players turned in their filthy, dirty, muddy, and sometimes bloodied uniforms, they would go out and forget the team for the weekend, favoring partying and hanging out with friends. Their whole demeanor changed without their uniform. Now, that was not the case at every school. That I am sure of. But where I was the Trainer, I concluded that is what took place after overhearing the players talking about their planned, post-game escapades before they left the locker room.
The point, the point; you are still waiting for “the point.” Here it is! At the end of your “game” tomorrow, a most serious occasion; a “game” more appropriately called Sunday worship service, a “game” where, when you take it serious and your worship is for real, you can come out a winner, feel more like a conqueror, and let me add, you MUST keep on your uniform. You have a “Trainer,” but He does not want you to tun in your uniform. You will need it on the field, the battlefield during the week, after the “game.” But for a moment, thank God for a “Trainer” who specializes and can treat every condition. Thank God for the “Trainer” who can clean your uniform up while you are still wearing it. Do you understand me? Listen! You just need to turn to heaven, repent, seek forgiveness sincerely, and He will forgive you for soiling or messing up the sparkling, crisp look, and the cleanliness of your uniform, but He will cleanse it for you, again and again!
So, tomorrow, after the “game” which you must definitely be present because your name is on the roster; tomorrow, after the game, you must keep your uniform on. Hear me out! Keep your uniform on! Wear it all week, every single day, from the rising of the sun until the going down of the same! Hold your head up high! Parade the hallways of life with your holiness standing out for all to behold! You are on the Lord’s team! Act like it! Be blessed!
“…if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former way of life, you are to rid yourselves of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you are to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” (Ephesians 4:21-24 NASB)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King