Making the Team--part one

I'm not a Clemson fan.  I don't hate Clemson.  I'm just not a fan.  It doesn't bother me when they win (well... it bothered me a lot on August 31).  I don't lose any sleep over it when they lose.  I grew up in Georgia, and I cheer for the team in Athens.  Some things don't change and that's one of them for me.  The Dawgs are my team.

Having said that, there is a tradition in Clemson football that means an awful lot to the Tiger faithful and has become known as "The Most Exciting 25 Seconds in College Football."  Many of you know what I'm talking about.  It's when the team clad in orange (hopefully it's orange because those purple jerseys are just plain out ugly) gather at the top of the hill that leads into the stadium, rub their hands across "Howard's Rock" and then storm down the hill, ready to take on their opponent of the afternoon.

Not just anybody can run down the hill.  Fans don't get to run down the hill.  The Marching Band doesn't get to march down the hill.  The opposing team certainly doesn't get to run down the hill.  The only people allowed to run down the hill into "Death Valley" are the players.  You've got to make the team in order to rub the rock and run down the hill.

Only a very small percentage of would-be football players have the chance to play major college football.  Out of the thousands of young men playing Pop Warner, Middle School, and High School football... all with aspirations of playing for their favorite college team one day... only a select few will ever have that opportunity.  On average, college football teams, like Clemson, offer 20-25 scholarships per year.  In order to qualify for an offer, a potential player must be skilled enough, strong enough, fast enough, big enough, and agile enough to garner an offer.  Academic records are verified, and many drop through the cracks because of a low grade point average.  The bottom-line is, more players don't make the team than do.

If it is so difficult to make a football team, is it even possible to make God's team?  If major colleges only offer a few, highly-skilled elite athletes; who would a perfect, holy God be willing to offer the chance to join His team?

Interestingly, although none of us qualifies to make His team, God makes an offer to any of us who will sign up!  Jesus makes a plain-stated offer to all of us, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).  This is remarkable!  The God of this universe makes an offer to all who will join Him!

Major college football teams offer young men whom they deem as worthy.  God makes an offer to us, because to Him, we are worth it.  Although most of us will never have the opportunity to play football, or any sport, at a major level, every one of us has a standing offer from God to join His team.