I used to love when the coaches would gather at our house after a game or practice. I loved the smell of those nights…the football talk…losses commiserated…and victories celebrated. I remember going to the games with my mom. Yelling with the crowd. Never getting to run crazy with the other kids under the stands. We were there to watch the game. I remember when my dad coached with his hands bandaged and his eyebrows gone! They had fueled the homecoming bonfire with gas and he was too close when he lit it.

And the celebration of sport and team! Hands in the air. Yelling ’til our lungs were worn out. Stomping on the bleachers ’til they created a deafening roar. What fun. What joy. With the team. With the crowd.

Why don’t we worship Jesus like that? When we gather together in our churches why don’t we worship with that same passion, zeal and fervor? Why don’t we throw our whole bodies, our whole voice, our whole being into corporate worship? Up on our toes…hands held high as if we were reaching heaven itself. Jesus is worth it. We see from how we celebrate at sport or other performance that we are capable. Let’s go for it! Who said church should be a quiet place? God didn’t!

Let’s celebrate the shadow…I do! But with a greater intensity let’s celebrate the Son. Let’s get close (yes, really close…God made us for that)…let’s get singed by the fire of our Holy God…so that we might be changed!

The shadow proves the sun (I heard it from CS Lewis…and Switchfoot put it to music). What’s in us to celebrate the things of this world prove it’s in us to respond to God in the same way. If you’re a follower of Jesus it’s in you. It is! Let it out. Let the world know that Jesus is the greatest thing!

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