Obsessed

Have you ever been obsessed with anything? This time of year in the US we become obsessed with 22 men trying to move a ball from one side of a field to another. We call this game football. We are a nation obsessed with this game. We start on Thursday night with a game of the week, Friday night is similar with a big game then we have all day Saturday with college football, all day Sunday with professional football and wrap things up with Monday Night Football. We take Tuesday and Wednesday off and start back over again. We do this until some time in January or February. Six months of what seems to be non-stop football. And we don't simply watch it, we dress in our favorite team's jersey, or team colors, we might paint our bodies in the team colors and we often spend hundreds of dollars on tickets, food and souvenirs. Surely you cannot watch the big game without a $249 Nike Green Bay Packers Aaron Rodgers Elite Team Color Jersey - Right!

So where am I going with this rant about football. As I was reading this morning I came across an interesting, yet somewhat bizarre passage of scripture. Take a look:

John 6: 53-56 - 53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 

What Jesus is saying is that we have to be obsessed with him. We have to be consumed with him and what he has done for us. Christ does not want to be an afterthought. He does not want to be a Christmas ornament that we bring out once a year to set on our mantel for a few weeks. He wants first place in our lives. 

Colossians 1: 15-18 - 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

Take a look at the end of that last sentence - "in everything he might have the supremacy" He does not want to be our spiritual leftovers. He wants and has a right to be our obsession. We should have as much excitement about worshiping him as we do worshiping our favorite player on the field. We should be as excited, if not more so, about going to church to worship the everlasting Prince of Peace as we are about going to the local wing joint to watch a game that will be meaningless one day.

The schemes of the devil will always try to make Christ an afterthought but only through the power of the Holy Spirit can we renew our enthusiasm for the things of Christ. We should make our prayers similar to those of Paul's to the church at Ephesus:

Ephesians 1: 15-17  - 15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  

In other words, I pray that you will continue to be more obsessed with Christ. What an incredible place this world would look like if we could grasp this concept. God help us!