The Crown and The Glory

-“You know, a basketball hero around here is treated like a god…I’ve seen them – the real sad ones – they sit around the rest of their lives talking about the glory days when they were seventeen years old.

-“Most people would kill to be treated like a god – just for a few moments.”

-“God’s come pretty cheap nowadays, don’t they? I mean, you become one by putting a leather ball in an iron hoop. And I hate to tell you this Mr. Dale, but it’s only a game.” (Hoosiers)

“Most people would kill to be treated like a god…” Not the sort of statement you would expect to hear coming out of the mouth of a well-trained Christian, is it? Certainly not the sort of casual chit-chat you usually hear passing around the lobby after the Sunday service: “How’s it going with trying to get your new secretary to worship the ground you walk on?” “Good, good – and you? Are your children offering you the homage you deserve before being tucked into bed each night? “Well, yes actually; things are pretty good on that front. It’s just my wife who can’t seem to get on board with the whole treating me like a god thing.” “Hmmm. Sorry to hear that. Must be quite a heartache for you. Have you considered sending her to Counseling?”

No, quite to the contrary of this, if being a Christian is equated with any one specific character trait or virtue, it is most closely tied to the veneration of Humility. Above all else Christians are to be humble. Or at the very least they know that they are supposed to be, and they keep a tight watch against any hint of the manifestation of Pride in themselves…and an even tighter watch on those around them.

To be sure, there is plenty of support for this obsession with Humility being the most “Christian” of virtues. The Bible tells us that our Race fell into sin out of the desire to “be like God.” It tells us that “God hates the Proud, but gives grace to the Humble.” It reports that the ancient Foe, the Prince of Darkness who bends all his fearsome will and mighty strength towards the destruction of every good thing that exists – was once the best and highest of all created things himself, until he fell into madness, driven by his great pride to believe that he could become equal to God Himself. And last of all, the Bible tells us that the Son of God shrouded His glory in the most impressive display of humility ever imaginable during the years of His earthly ministry.

And yet…

And yet, despite all our teaching and training and admonition, something deep inside our hearts and souls continues to dream of glory. Whatever the Church may say, we cannot help but long to be known for something at which we are uniquely skilled, to be honored, to be praised. Despite the high regard accorded to Humility, we continue to give ourselves over to an imbalanced obsession with sports because the winners receive their “one moment in time” that no-one can ever take away from them, that moment when they are honored above all other men as the “World Champions”. We revel in their glorious victory…and dream that it could somehow one day be ours.

Mostly we have taken this inability to shake the deep longing for “glory” to be a clear indication of our sinfulness – an internal proof that Men are deceitfully wicked and depraved beyond all measure; an ever-present reminder that the core of our being has yet to be changed by all these things we profess to believe. But living this way keeps us perpetually torn in two, feeling as if we are fighting against our very selves when we attempt to act the way God wants us to against the deep longings of our heart. Some “good” Christian boys and girls learn to ignore these longings – usually by learning to distrust and ignore their hearts altogether. They are the one who follow God dutifully, in the sunless gray of a somber obedience…and leave the whole world thinking: No thank you. Stop and take a look at them yourself: do they look like “the Hope of the World” to you?? Do we?

But can a man or a woman long for “glory” in a Universe whose Maker has proclaimed that He will share His glory with no other?

To choose to walk The Warrior’s Path is to answer: Yes. For there is a glory that is due to God alone, and there is another kind of glory that has been reserved for His children, His image-bearers, His victorious remnant who will stand (always by the grace and strength of the Christ that is given to them) unconquered on that Final Day when the skies are peeled back and the mountains fall into the sea.

The somber religious crowd will remind us that even then we are told that we will take our golden crowns of Victory and lay them at the feet of our Lord – proving that Humility will never be out of fashion, even in the Land of our Great Reward. True indeed: for Christ’s glory will always outshine our own “as daylight doth a lamp.” But in order for this glorious scene of humility to ever happen, how could we have missed that we must be honored with crowns to begin with before we can lay them at our Lord's feet?

Even humility, taken to its extreme, can become a destructive tool of the Enemy, keeping us from rising up to live from our glorious potential as adopted Sons of God for fear that we will be accused of Pride.

To walk the Warrior’s Path is to flee from the sinfulness of the Pride of Man while hungering for the glory that is to be revealed in us according to God’s good pleasure and timing.

So don’t worry too much if you get choked up every time Jimmy Chitwood makes the final shot at the buzzer to win the Indiana High School State Championship at the end of Hoosiers and the fans rush the court in a joyous frenzy.

What awaits “those who stand firm to the end” is going to be a lot like that scene.

Only so much better.

Every athlete who has ever played any game has been in pursuit of the shadow of something they know they want, but will never find. We need to stop thinking about sports and start thinking about the Kingdom. “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get crown that will last forever.” (1 Corinthians 9:25)

The Crown and the Glory…

You want them. Even before you knew that you wanted them you wanted them. That’s what’s been boiling deep inside you all your life that you’ve been trying to shut down in order to be a “good, humble Christian”. This isn’t just your “flesh” rearing its ugly head. You are a Son or Daughter of God. Stop listening to everyone around you and listen to the voice of the Great Apostles who knew our Lord the best:

It’s okay to want them.

It is the destiny you were made for.

Now go get them.

Pressing on to win the Prize,
Derrick and David