The Beautiful Game

What it means to practice the Christian life

Photo by Nigel Msipa on Unsplash

Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie were Dutch Christians who, during World War Two, helped smuggle Jews out of the country. They were eventually caught and imprisoned in the Ravensbruck concentration camp. They managed to sneak in a Bible, and read it together and with other women as often as they were able.

One night in a new barracks, they realize the place is swarming with fleas. Corrie starts freaking out; but Betsie remembers a passage they had just read – “Give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18) – and persuades Corrie to start thanking God for everything they can think of. Following that command leads Corrie to experience peace instead of distress; it also leads to them seeing an unexpected blessing even in the fleas.¹

In our last piece, we considered the value of practicing the way of Jesus: of “putting on” what we see in the Word, after we “put off” sin and are restored by grace. Since we used a soccer theme to open that one, we can think of these as the specific skills a player needs to play well. Soccer is called “the beautiful game” partly because more than many sports, it depends on serendipity: players combining skills and opportunities in a fairly uncontrolled environment into incredible moments like these. In the same way, life can be chaotic and free-flowing; but practices like these can prepare us to live it as a beautiful game under God.

We might² …

1. Worship an attribute or action of God

2. Trust a promise or warning

3. Follow a command or example

4. Ponder wisdom for my decisions

5. Reflect on God’s work in our lives

6. Pray a prayer

Worship an attribute or action of God

We were made to worship: to be in awe of glory, whether it makes us sing or dance or fall on our faces in silence. More specifically, we were made to worship God, who is the most awe-inspiring being in the cosmos. One of the primary activities in heaven, where God is fully seen and fully known, is worship:

Behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God. (Revelation 7:9-11)

The Word might reveal an attribute of God (“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious”) or an action of God (Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead) that merits worship. We might pray; we might sing a song that celebrates it (out loud or in our minds); but worship is a way of practicing the Word.

Trust a promise or warning

The Word might reveal a divine promise (“There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”) or warning (“If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers”) to trust.

Divine promises can give us joy and hope. If God has promised never to condemn those who are in Christ by faith, then He has promised to accept me despite my past, present, and future failures. That passage goes on to say that I’m his son, though I remain a sinner too. Living that promise means trusting that God has changed me from his enemy to his beloved child.

Divine promises can also strengthen or sustain us. If I believe that a tough course of chemotherapy will cure a cancer that would otherwise kill me, trusting that promise will fortify me for the difficult days ahead. In the same way, the promise that God will win his war against death and sin, including in the battlefields of my body and soul, can strengthen me to repent and practice the truth even when it’s hard.

Divine warnings can spur us to quit licking the bug spray or to stop flirting with evil. At our best, we warn our children against situations or behaviors that endanger their body or their soul. If grumbling really can kill your soul like cancer kills your body; if lust really will make you numb to people you should love; if it really is true that if you don’t abide in Jesus now, you’re choosing an eternity of loneliness, darkness, and pain, then those warnings aren’t acts of divine joy-killing but divine love. Trusting God’s warnings can keep us from shipwrecking our lives now and forever.

Follow a command or example

The Word might give me a command or example to follow (or an example to avoid). These are easier to see in the New Testament, because we live in the same act as the New Testament Church. When Jesus says, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (quoting Leviticus!), we determine what that means for us and we try to do it. When God strikes Ananias and Sapphira dead for pretending to be more generous than they are, we consider how we can be truthful instead of deceptive. Applying a command or example in our day may take some cultural study or prayerful creativity; but they’re vital to living the Word.

The Old Testament can be trickier, both because the cultural differences between them and us are so vast and because we’re in a different act of redemptive history.³ When in doubt, a study Bible or commentary might help us make sense of a head-scratcher. We can also tease out some threads of meaning and see if we can figure out how they tie to us today. And if I’m still not sure, that’s okay – I can just move on.

Ponder wisdom for my decisions

Many decisions in life aren’t clearly moral, with a definite right or wrong. What career path do I pursue? How much do I budget for eating out? How can I try to bond with my wife more deeply?

Sometimes, the Word provides wisdom that informs our actions in these gray areas. The Proverbs and Jesus’ parables are clear examples of these; but the Scriptures can give us wisdom in all areas of life.

We can ask, “what would it look like for me to work (or coach or grocery shop) with this text in my heart today?” The more we practice living our whole life coram Deo (under the face of God), the more we’ll find ourselves hearing God’s wisdom informing our steps.

Reflect on God’s work in our lives

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
    you hold my lot.
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. (Psalm 16:5-6)

In this psalm, David shows the practice of reflecting on God’s work in his life. He notes the grace of God and gives thanks for it.

The doctrine called the providence of God asserts that because God is in control of all things, “for those who love God all things work together for good” (Romans 8:29). That doesn’t mean all things are pleasant, or that it’s always easy to see what God has done. Our time horizon for “good” is in the new creation, not five years from now.

But it does mean that God is at work in our lives, even now. It means that he is working good in us and through us, even now. And he is maturing us, growing us into the image of Christ through his Word and his Church, even now. Reflecting on how God has guided, shaped, and filled us helps us see and savor his grace more deeply.  

Pray a prayer

The Word might present us with a prayer to pray, or some other meaning that inspires us to pray. The psalms are a great “prayer gym” that lead us to pray things we might not otherwise. Or a passage might generally lead us to rejoice, repent, or request in response to what we hear from God.

This is a great place to “end” a meditation session: by letting meditation be a living bridge to prayer. My lead pastor recently said that meditation lets God start the conversation of prayer; God’s Word is also a perpetual invitation from God to grow closer to him. However the Word leads us to respond, talking back to God from what we’ve seen will lead us deeper in our relationship with him.

1. Corrie tells the story in her autobiography The Hiding Place; you can read a summary of this episode here (including the surprise blessing of the fleas!).

2. Some of these are from Donald Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.

3. I’ve got a piece coming soon on some ways to read “act 2” (Israel’s story) from “act 4” (the Church era).