For as long as I can remember, I've absolutely loved the game of American Football. It's by far my favorite sport. In fact, I love the game so much, I've been known to watch three entire games on Sundays, and then another on Monday night. I simply can't get enough.
The athletes who play in the NFL are an extremely rare breed. Not only are they exceptionally gifted athletes, they have also spent countless hours, days, weeks, months and years training to play the game. Their continual commitment and dedication to the game is rarely questioned. After all, nobody can reach that level of performance without it.
Without boring you with the many complexities involved in each play, I have to say that as we watch at home.........as we see the quarterback take the ball, hand it to the running back, and then see a cloud of dust that doesn't appear to have accomplished much, we're usually completely unaware of what we've just seen.
For this play to work, the center has to shove the ball into the quarterback's hands, then spring up to block the 290lb beast in front of him. The two men on his left and right have to block the men in front of them. The wide receivers have to make their defenders believe they're running downfield, then block those men once they bite. The quarterback has to spin, hand the ball to the running back very quickly, then run off in another direction as a decoy. The running back has to put the ball under his arm safely, then navigate his way through the mayhem of at least 9 extremely large men who are fighting each other for leverage directly in front of him. If he makes it through that mess, there are three more men.........linebackers from the other team.......all of whom are exceptionally fast, strong, and who are looking to hit him so hard his helmet pops off.
Every play you see is choreographed by both the offensive and defensive coaches - men who have spent their entire lives learning the game of football, and who have designed each and every play in a way they believe will best confuse and beat the players on the other side of the ball.
When it works flawlessly, the running back takes the ball, a hole opens up in the line, he breaks through, all of the other defensive players are either being blocked or are outrun by the running back, and the end result is a touchdown.
Does the running back score a touchdown on every play?.........No.
Does he gain huge chunks of yardage on every play?..........No.
Is he sometimes stopped for no gain?..........Yes.
Is he sometimes tackled for a loss?...........Yes.
Are there times when he has the ball knocked out of his hands, and it's recovered by the other team?.........Yes.
If you're watching a game, and see that he doesn't either gain huge chunks of yardage or score a touchdown on every play, do you question whether or not he's a football player? If he fails to gain a yard, do you then doubt his ability to play? If he fumbles the ball, do you call him a hypocrite? Would you say things like "He pretends to be a running back, but clearly he's not......because anyone who claims to be a running back should know that the first thing you do is hold onto the ball?"
Of course you don't. Why? Because you understand that the game is very complex, and within every play, there are many factors involved, most of which are completely out of his control.
What's more complicated - life, or the game of football?
I think we'd all agree that life is far more complicated than any game.
Why then do people assume that a Christian is a hypocrite when he fails?
Why do we sometimes expect others to act flawlessly when we know that we ourselves fail so very often?
We've all seen it countless times.........A Christian man or woman can go an entire year, saying and doing all of the right things..........But they're being watched with an incredible amount of scrutiny by those around them.........and if they fail.......even if just for a moment........You'll hear the "AHA!!!" coming from others who - while they don't hold themselves to the same standards - will immediately pounce on them. They'll say "See?!?.......I knew it!!......What a phony!!!......What a hypocrite!!!"
When I was a teenager, I was attending a church in Chicago. I really wanted to believe what I was being taught there. I began to buy into it. Then, at some point, I began to notice that the people who attended this church acted very differently outside of the church. That led me to believe that they were all hypocrites, and I turned my back on the church because of it.
But here's what nobody explained to me: Just like me, these people were all human........and they would all fail at times. Those failures didn't make them hypocrites any more than a fumble would make a running back a hypocrite.
As for me, my focus should never have been on how many times these people failed to live up to some perfect standard I was holding them to. A standard, by the way, which was far higher than God Himself was holding them to. My focus should've been on how well I was living up to that standard.
You see, God knows we're human. He knows we'll all fail.........repeatedly and continually. He never has, nor will He ever, expect absolute perfection from us. All He asks is that we trust Him, believe Him, love Him, and follow Him to the best of OUR ability. How well anyone else does this shouldn't impact how well we do it in any way. Just as our faith......and our walk......is a personal one between God and us, so is the faith and walk of those around us.
If we look around at the people in our churches and we see where others have failed, it's not our job to label them as hypocrites.........It's our job to humble ourselves before a loving God.......knowing that we too have failed on countless occasions........and pray for guidance so that we might fail less often.
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