Running Out the Clock

It's football season.  Between high school, college and prod there is a game most days  going on somewhere.  There comes a point in most games where one of the teams is ahead and they are trying to run out the clock.  Their goal changes from scoring to keeping the ball and letting time tick away.  It is such a part of the game that announcers talk regularly about clock management.  But for the fan it isn't that interesting to watch.

I like watching the final drive, when the team is down and they need a score.  Time is ticking and every play counts.  There is a long pass that sets up the goal line stand or that 50 yard field goal.  Now that's fun.

Baseball is different.  There is no clock.  If you want to win, put up some runs and get 27 outs.  It doesn't matter how long it takes.  And many times it goes longer, much longer.  The extra innings can go on and on, and sometimes this is tough on fans too, but there is no stalling.  As Yogi Berra once said, "It ain't over till it's over."

I think that too often Christian behave like we are running out the clock, and not on the final goal line march.  We are ready to take a knee and wait it out not go for the Hail Mary Pass.  The great commission says that we are to go and make disciples, but we stay inside and guard the walls.  We go through life with a mentality that says, "I don't want to lose what I've got, and not losing is good enough." 

We are called to be advancing the ball, moving the kingdom forward, trying for one more score. Some Christians are more wired for the methodical drive down field and others for the long pass, but we are called to move forward.

 And here's the thing about taking the knee and running out the clock.  Every time a team does it, they go back a few yard.  They think it doesn't matter because the game is ending.  They go from 1st and 10 to 2nd and 12 to 3rd and 13.  That's how it is in football and in life,  if you aren't advancing, you are losing ground.