The World Cup

by Jake Kline

This past week, I found myself doing something I usually don’t do: watching soccer.  Soccer can seem boring and pretty pointless at times (like when it ends in a 1-1 tie) but I love the World Cup.  If you don’t know what the World Cup is, all the nations of the world gather in one place and take part in a huge soccer tournament.  This happens every 4 years and this year it is taking place in Brazil.  For about a month, we are going to see nations become unified because of sport.  Say what you will about sports in our world, at times they can be overbearing, but very few things have the power to unite generations for one common goal.

As I was watching the United States play Ghana on Monday evening, they would continually show the reactions of groups of people watching the game.  By groups I don’t mean a couple friends at a bar or a home, but thousands of people. In the last few minutes of the game, with the score tied, Team USA made an incredible goal. The fans reacted like any fan would when their team pulls it out. Check it out.

Doesn’t that video give you chills?  A nation, united with one goal, regardless of age, race or gender, all kinds of people unified in one moment.  Beautiful.

It got me thinking, what if my relationships were unified with one goal?  I’ll be honest, I don’t always agree with the decisions the people closest to me make and that disagreement has caused division.  We have all been there, right? There is some conflict, and it’s just enough to drive a wedge in the relationship.  It’s not that we don’t like the person, we just say things like, “we are going in separate directions,” or, “we grew apart.” I understand this happens in life, but what if we intentionally tried to stay unified with our friends instead of letting life dictate who our friends are?  Why is it that divorce within the church is just as common as divorce outside of the church?  Why is it hard for us to have true authentic relationships?  Aren’t our relationships supposed to look different?  How come I look around the relationships in the church and see no difference between them and the relationships portrayed on daytime sitcoms?  Then I remembered something that Jesus says in John’s gospel,

            “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

As I was thinking about this, it hit me that the unity of my relationships with other people, no matter what kind of person they are or what kind of decisions they make, will be how they recognize me as a follower of Jesus.  Something should be different about our relationships as followers of Jesus.  Unfortunately mine tend to look a lot like everyone else’s.  Sure I may have healthier relationships than normal, but there are still relationships in my life that look a lot like everyone else’s.

What I love about the World Cup and the Olympics is that for a short time, the things that Americans argue about are going to be put aside.  Instead, we will be united as Team USA.  As I processed this, it led me to a very powerful question.  What would happen if followers of Jesus were united with one goal and one purpose: to go and make disciples of all the nations?  Instead of focusing on our division we focus on the one thing that brings us together, Jesus.  How would our community change if our church were unified in this way?  How would our families change?  How would our life circumstances change?  How would our relationships change?  Ultimately, how would our world change?