Underlining Virtues
Deuteronomy 27:26
“‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’”
My son just aged out of his 7-9-year-old soccer team that I’ve been coaching for the past four years, and due to the fact that many of his teammates are also nine years old, we’ve been steam-rolling other teams, winning most games by seven or eight goals. Typically, when the opposing players are much younger and smaller than ours, I try to show mercy by putting Micah on defense, so as not to run up the score line. In one such game, we were up 5-1 in the first half, Micah had already scored 3 goals, so I moved him to the back. However, the opposing team did carry one threat—a boy named Sam—and I watched Sam stealthfully sneak his way toward our goalie box in hopes of poaching a goal. I also noticed that Micah had started drifting up field again, following his striker instincts, hoping to poach another goal himself, while completely leaving Sam unmarked ten yards behind him. So I called out, “Micah—look at Sam; stay on him!” Micah looked back, nodded in response, then kept moving up field. “Micah!” I called again, more perturbed: “Go stick on Sam!” Micah again looked at Sam, again nodded, but again went the other way. This time I couldn’t hide my frustration. It wasn’t that Micah didn’t understand the command; he just didn’t want to do it. So I yelled again: “MICAH! GO guard Sam now!” And this time, with a disgruntled shrug of his shoulder, he went.
Friend, how often do we hear God’s words, smile and nod, underline a verse in our Bibles, write down notes at church, hum ‘amen’ to great sermonic points, then close the book, get up to our feet, and just proceed as we were before? How many times does God have to call our names and repeat His commission before we put hands and feet to it? Oh how artful we are at confirming God’s Word through every other means than just doing it. But doing it is the only measure of confirmation that ends in blessing.
“Be doers of the word and not hearers only,’ James wrote. May we underline God’s Word today not with pen but through practice.