I really enjoy sports. I like to play them and watch them. Recently the University of Michigan played for the college basketball national championship.
They lost.
I remember the last time they played for the national championship.
They lost.
My reaction to these two games are totally different. For many years when my teams would lose I would be angry. I mean, slap your momma angry. I would be in a funk for days. My emotions were completely caught up in the moment and the team and experience. Sports would arouse my affections.
They captured my heart.
A few years ago I began wrestling with this reality. It started with a conversation in my basement with a good friend, Ken. I think we were talking about the Cardinals loss to the Red Sox in the World Series. He asked if we should be so emotionally invested in a sports team.
I had never thought about it.
That was 2004.
Here we are nearly a decade later, and my heart isn’t broken by a loss. I wish Michigan had won. It would have been fun. But they didn’t.
And you know what? The sun will come up tomorrow and I will get to spend another day in service of my king.
The difference between then and now is that my heart has been captured by someone greater than sports. My emotion and affections are more connected to someone who leaves me in awe of his work in my life and the lives of others. Now I understand that who I am, my identity, is caught up in a mission that I get to be a part of.
You see, I get jacked not by sports but by seeing God at work and living in community with amazing people. My heart races when I see my kids communing with others and when my friends children rush to the communion table to serve. I am filled with joy to hear people pray for one another.
My heart has been captured by Jesus. For the first time in my life, I am beginning to understand what that means because it isn’t in my head anymore. It’s in my heart.
For the first time, life is thick. It is rich and full of meaning and purpose.
The best part is that God brought me to this place at a particular time so that I can model this for my son and daughter. I hope they never see the man I once was. He is dead. He was nailed to a cross.
Who or what has your heart? What grabs it and raises your affections? My prayer is that you to will be captured by grace in face of Jesus.