Are You In The Right Place in Church?

A couple of weeks ago, BJ (my fourteen year old) and I were at a Major League Baseball game.
We were - let me be honest - in the cheap seats. They were decent, and the food service options were good, but we could not see the main scoreboard and we could not see deep rightfield.

But who cares about deep rightfield, we reasoned.

Comes the fifth inning, and a batter for the visiting team hits a towering fly ball to deep rightfield. It's a sure homer, we thought.

Until, out of our sight, something happened and a huge roar went up for the homefield team.

But we could not see what happened and we could not see the replay on the main scoreboard video panel.

We scratched our heads and wondered.

Then we got back to our hotel later that night and turned on ESPN and SportsCenter. And saw that the rightfielder had made a catch so amazing that it was one of the Ten Top Plays of the Day.

We had to laugh. We had been in the ballpark, eating the popcorn and hot dogs, soaking up the atmosphere, watching the show.

And we had missed it. Because we were not in the right place.

In church, where is the right place?

Serving, volunteering, Giving Myself Away.

If I am not doing those things, the best I can be is a clueless bleacher sitter or a carping critic.

If you are serving then you are in position to see the great plays - the small encounters and conversations and the life-altering decisions.

If you are not, you are huddled with a hot dog, Cracker Jacks and a warm overpriced beer, out of view of the action and the big screen.

Choose the view!