A Fan or an Experience?

I started watching the Chicago Cubs on WGN in 1980. I was a fan. In some seasons a huge fan.

But before last Friday I had never actually been to Wrigley Field and been part of the excitement in the stands, the aura of being part of Wrigleyville and the Cubs family.

For 30 years I had been a 'fan' in the shadows, I even bought a couple of caps and shirts, but I had never experienced the Cubs!

Alright, some of you are thinking: 'He's really freakin' out on this whole Cubs thing!'
Hang on a minute because I think it's a great picture of how we can fool ourselves into becoming a 'fan' of God but never experiencing God!

There are so many folks who like the whole idea of God and His Son Jesus dying for us and the power of the Holy Spirit. Maybe it's the comfy smell of family church traditions that keep them engaged. They enjoy talking about the Bible and spiritual trappings . . . But they never experience God!

What a waste.

In John Stuart Mill's 1859 essay "On Liberty" he was trying to explain how words lose their meaning. He then offered Christians as the best example of this phenomenon. He observed that Christians 'seem to have the amazing ability to say the most wonderful things without actually believing them.'
Like: 'blessed are the poor and humble' . . . 'love your neighbor as yourself' . . . 'he who is faithful with little is given much' . . . 'He must increase and I must decrease' . . . . . .
Mills concluded: "The sayings of Christ co-exist passively in their minds, producing hardly any effect beyond what is caused by mere listening to words so amiable and bland."

It took some effort to actually finally go to a Cubs game. And others had to help us as many of you provided the trip for our family. But in the end we had to go! Now I'll never watch a Cubs game the same.

Some of us are still waiting to 'go'. And what I mean is that you're content with watching God from the shadows, with buying a goofy Christian t-shirt and having the latest Christian-fad Bible . . . and you're missing the whole stinkin' game! Your missing the power and experience of God right in the here and now.

"The Kingdom of God is not just fancy talk, it is living by God's power!" (1 Cor 4:20)
The Kingdom of God is now! The Power of God is now!

What is God saying? Where is He asking you to follow? Don't settle on being a fan. Go.