Ahhhh…’tis the season. Crisp mornings where we  see our breath. The changing leaves shine in their crimson and golden majesty. We are in the full throes of pumpkin spice, harvest décor and football games on every channel and in every stadium.  Even from my front yard on Friday nights I can hear the high school band playing and football fans cheering at the nearby High School.

Imagine paying for college or professional football tickets. You’re in the stands, greasy food in your hands. You’re adorned in your favorite teams regalia, the fans are cheering, momentum is building….Your favorite team runs onto the field and gathers in a huddle. The huddle lasts for 10 minutes, then 20, then 40, then one hour! Then they walk off the field. What would you do? How would you respond?

Is that what we do on Sunday mornings as Christians—huddle for one hour and go off the “field”? Ouch.

How do you think God reacts when He sees us all “huddled up”? I am guilty as charged, sometimes also staying in my Christian huddle of friends and family. Many of us “huddle” from one Sunday, one week to the next. We often don’t actually “play the game” of our faith– loving our neighbor as ourselves, fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28) and serving the “least of these” in Matthew 25. We can go to all these seminars, retreats, and conferences year after year, collecting binders of information on our shelves, which only collect dust. When are we to “play the game”?

I moved to Charlotte, NC in 2015. In September 2016 Charlotte experienced rioting within the uptown. It was terrible. Unlike what the news covered, we came together as a city to unify and reconcile our differences.

Two years later I see so much progress. I see a revival and movement of the Holy Spirit. Over 70 churches of all denominations came together in September to pray and do a 4-part sermon series called “For Charlotte,” including a Sunday School curriculum. Each week outlined what we are for: For the Gospel, For the Church, For our Neighbor, and For our City. The Wednesday before the series started in our churches, all the pastors of all ethnicities came together to pray for our city and for the body of Christ. (https://forcharlotte.org/)

This is what it means to get out of our holy huddles, friends.

Matthew 22:34-40 says, “Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.  One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ^‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’  Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’”

The enemy is trying his best to divide us, do divide our churches, divide our homes, our families. Let’s not let him.

How are we loving our neighbors? How are we getting out of our huddles, our comfort zones? How are we humbling ourselves and making the effort to make peace? How are we bridging the gaps?

I am so guilty of staying in my huddle, of playing it safe as a Christian. How are we, how am I intentionally interacting and serving with those who are different than me? Who think different? Who are in a different socio-economic status level as me?

I admit I have been in a “huddle”. I liken our churches, our Sunday School classes to Spring Training or Boot Camp to condition my/our spiritual muscles for the “game of ministry.” Yes, we all are being trained.

“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” –1 Corinthians 9:25

Fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, we are conditioned, we are prayed up, we have done our calisthenics. Let’s get out of the holy huddle now and play this Game of Life. Let’s go serve. Let’s go share the love of Jesus with them. May it be so.

Reflect:

–In what ways are you still in your comfortable huddle? Please comment.

–How will you execute your plans from the huddle and play the game of Life?

Renew:

–“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'” –Matthew 25: 40 NIV

–Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…’” –Matthew 28:19 NIV

Recharge:

–Name three “Fields” you will play on this month.

–What is one way your family can help “the least of these’ or your neighbor?