everyday adventures Spectator Sports “What happens in those years between third grade and 30 to rob us of our courage?” May/June <strong>2012</strong> • 42 If you want to get kids fired up, ask for a volunteer. If you want to freak out a room full of adults, do the same thing. I’ve taught kids in church for the past sixteen years, and without fail, whenever I’ve asked for someone to come up front and help tell the story, I’ve seen nearly every hand in the room shoot up like a rocket. It doesn’t matter if the kids are from the country, the suburbs or the inner city. Rich or poor, black or white, preschool or fifth graders, kids are wired to participate. They love it. On the flip side, ask a crowd of adults to volunteer, and you get blank stares. You can take the most rambunctious crowd you know, invite someone to come up front and help with a presentation or answer a question, and you’ll hear nothing but crickets. After a couple of awkward minutes, with much hesitation, the first brave soul will raise their hand. Then, if you’re lucky, two or three others may follow suit - mostly motivated out of guilt or pity for the guy asking for volunteers. Just as kids are wired to participate, adults are conditioned to watch. That’s why we build sports stadiums with thousands of seats in the stands and room on the floor for only a handful to play. That’s why our theaters are packed with chairs, while the silver screen is reserved for only an elite few. That’s why we have 500 channels of cable TV, and we fight over who gets the remote. If you think about it, it’s kind of weird how we’ve created these industries around professionals we pay so we can watch them do stuff. We have a professional class of everything - athletes, movie stars, musicians, politicians, priests - and we love to both idolize and criticize them all. As adults we don’t want to be the ones to take the risk and put ourselves out there, vulnerable to criticism, but we thrive on playing armchair quarterback. We are not just a culture of spectators but of critics and connoisseurs. I love this quote from Teddy Roosevelt taken from his speech, “Citizenship in a Republic”: It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. So, what’s the deal? How do we end up as “cold and timid souls?” What happens in those years between third grade and 30 to rob us of our courage? What steals our desire to jump up in front of our peers and be right in the center of the action? I believe it’s because on the way to adulthood we all learn the fine of art of fear. We become self-conscious and afraid of getting the answer wrong, dropping the ball or performing poorly. We watch others blow it and see the ridicule that is their reward. It’s like a bunch of prisoners who’ve seen too many of their friends getting shot trying to scale the wall in the prison yard. As we grow older, we learn to keep our heads down and play it safe. That’s why I love working with kids. Kids don’t care what everyone else thinks. Kids just want to have fun. Kids just want to act and play and move and do. Maybe that’s one of the reasons Jesus said we should have faith like a child, because a child has the guts to act on what they believe to be true. Adults just talk it to death. Life is not a spectator sport. God did not make us to sit back and watch others live. He made us to do the living ourselves. The more I read the Bible, the more I realize it’s a book of action. Jesus said anyone who hears His words AND puts them into practice is like a wise man who builds his house on a rock, a rock that survives even the strongest of the storms. The Bible also says that, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” I remember the first time I read that verse thinking, “Are you kidding me? Following God isn’t just about avoiding bad stuff? I actually have to do something too?” The fact is I can I say I believe all kinds of things about God until I’m blue in the face, but unless I’m willing to put it into practice, I’m just another guy in the stands watching a great game. Ever notice how much a church looks like a theater? There are plenty of people in the audience, with a paid professional up front under the lights. It’s just one more place we can sit back, offer our critique and enjoy the show. Unless, of course, you’re a kid. Then you’re next door in children’s ministry, your hand stretched high in the air, saying, “Pick me! Pick me! I want to play.” Who knows? Maybe some of them will forget to outgrow it. Those, of course, will be the ones who will change the world while the rest of us applaud them. • Jason Byerly is a writer, pastor, husband and dad who loves the quirky surprises God sends his way every day. He believes life is much funnier and way cooler than most of us take time to notice. You can catch up with Jason on his blog at www.jasonbyerly.com or follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jasondbyerly.
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