The best defense

by Pastor Tom

“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:8

I’m sorry I can’t remember the exact source for this story, but a while back I read a magazine article about when Mike Kollin was a linebacker for the Dolphins and a graduate of Auburn University. His former college coach, Shrug Jordan, asked him if he would do some recruiting for him. Mike said, “Sure, Coach. What kind of player are you looking for?”

Coach Jordan said, “Well, Mike, you know there’s that fellow, you knock him down and he just stays down.” Mike said, “We don’t want him, do we Coach?”

“No, that’s right. Then there’s that fellow, you knock him down and he gets back up, but you knock him down again and he stays down.” Mike answered, “We don’t want him either, do we Coach?”

Coach Jordan said, “No, Mike, we don’t want him either. But then, there’s the fellow, you knock him down, and he gets up. You knock him down again and he gets up again. Knock him down again, and he gets up again. You keep knocking him down, and he keeps getting up.” Mike said, “That’s the guy we want, isn’t it, Coach?”

The coach answered, “No, Mike, we don’t want him either. I want you to find the guy who’s knocking everybody down. That’s the guy we want.”

It’s always a great thing to have a good defense. But it’s the offense that scores the points.

Sadly, a lot of what we Christians do is defense. We hunker down in our churches and whine about how bad things are. We hide out and pout. We ask for God’s protection, and then are surprised when the problems we never really did anything about come knocking on our door.

Following Christ means a lot more that being able to get back up when we’re down. It also involves some knocking down type activity. When Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church, he was most certainly assuming that the church will do more than sit on the bench.

The problems facing our community will never go away on their own. We should get on the offensive, which by the way doesn’t mean that we are to be offensive. It means that we will act to score some points against the violence and other plagues working full-time to destroy families and neighborhoods. Certainly, we need to pray, and we need to put feet on those prayers.

There are many things we can do. We need to get to know our neighbors again. We need to be involved in community efforts. We need to support our elected officials and leaders. We need to be willing to mentor our young people and provide active role models. We need to get out of the pew and into the stew.

We can begin by believing that there are answers to our problems, and that God will help us solve them if we are willing to be used to that end. And then, we need to begin moving toward the goal.