In the King's shadow...
Today I want to talk about something that is a issue that the whole world faces but that starts in our hearts and is becoming more and more evident in our public lives. It is also becoming more and more "acceptable" in our culture, which should be disheartening to the body of Christ. Today I want to talk about Kyrie Irving. More specifically I want to talk about Irving's recently rumored desire to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers. Irving is technically under contract with the Cavaliers until the 2019-2020 season. Irving is also due to get paid 18 million, 20 million, and 21 million each season for the next three seasons until his contract is up. Which, by the way, is RIDICULOUS for an adult to get paid that much to play a game for a living. Don't get me wrong I love sports but the salaries that professional athletes "earn" are indicative of the greed and messed up priorities we have in our country. But the money isn't the issue I want to talk about. Kyrie is, by telling the team he wants to be traded, saying that he doesn't respect them or the contract he committed to. Irving's request also says that what he wants is more important to him than anything else. That his desire is the top priority. Therein lies the problem that is killing and wounding hearts today, selfish priorities.
"Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." - Philippians 2:4
Today as a young youth pastor I have a front row seat to the problems that our young people face. Majority of them are intensified because of the attitudes that we face these problems with. Our priorities rather than being focused on others are self-revolving and because of that we want what we want and we want it now. We don't care what we have committed to that getting what we want might interfere with. We don't care about what price it may cost ourselves or even others to gain what we selfishly desire. Life is short, might as well get as much as you can before it's over, right? Might as well ask for that trade regardless of the team and the fan-base that has been loyal to you since you entered the league, right? Might as well forget the people who have paid and sacrificed for you to get where you are at their own expense, right? Wrong. We're so sinfully wrong.
Now you're probably thinking "Luke, a basketball player asking to get traded isn't sinful. You're off the deep end this time." But hear me out, especially now that more has come out about why Irving has supposedly requested this trade. One of the rumored reasons is that he simply is done being the "Robin" to a better player's "Batman" role (see LeBron James). The second reason that I have seen reported for Irving's desired departure is that he is upset that the team talked about including him in trade packages earlier in the summer. These may seem legit reasons for wanting to leave and if his contract was up then I would understand too. But here's where the problem is, his contract ISN'T up. And this isn't a post about basketball, it's about the desires of our hearts and how they change the way we live.
Kyrie Irving isn't the only person on earth who is guilty of this, not by a long shot. Irving is however in the public eye and his actions make for easy comparison to what God's Word warns us against falling into. I want to begin by addressing the Batman/Robin scenario and what pride does in our hearts. Too often we become creatures of comparison with the wrong measuring sticks. We compare ourselves to friends, television characters, or our family and we feel a need to cement our superiority over them. Let me let everyone in on a small truth that I have learned the hard way in my own life, life is not about being better than other people. Jesus never commanded us to "go forth and be fishers of men who out-fish everyone else". That's a ridiculous thought for a Christian to cling to. It forces our hearts to go to places they were never meant to go. We pressure ourselves to the point of exhaustion instead of resting in God alone and allowing him to do the good work in and through us. We should rejoice in being the side-kick because our superior savior is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. When it comes to playing Batman and Robin, I think we should be humbled to join in the cause of Christ in the smallest ways knowing that he is capable of doing above and beyond what we can imagine.
"When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom." - Proverbs 11:2
"He must become greater; I must become less." - John 3:30
The second reason Irving is using is an excuse that is heard all too often in the church...
"I want to leave because someone did something that hurt my feelings."
If I had a dollar for each time I have encountered this in my short time of being a youth pastor I would be making more that Kyrie with his ridiculous contract. But all jokes aside this is one of the main cancers to the body of Christ today. We allow what we feel to dictate and override what we know to be the truths of the gospel. We think we know better or we feel something that we allow to cloud our judgement. What we are doing is claiming to be a member of a family that is based and born from loving one another and then loving ourselves more than anyone else in the midst of hardship. We are blowing out the idea that we love the person who hurts us and instead just focusing on loving and making ourselves feel better. That's a normal human reaction but the thing is we aren't living "normal, human" lives anymore. We are saved members of the sanctified family of the Living God. Our priorities no longer begin and end with ourselves. They begin with God and end with God. The Lord is our everything. When we see him as such we aren't able to get too hurt by others because we know we caused much greater pain to Jesus and he forgave us anyway. Our priorities change when our hearts do. If you aren't a new creation in Christ then chances are you won't have a new priority list. You will be a church person that gets bitter and hurt and you will withdraw until you eventually leave the church all together. I have witnessed it firsthand and the problem isn't just the issues that go on inside the church but the hearts of those inside the church as well. Here is how God sees it...
"Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins." - 1 Peter 4:8 (ESV)
"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." - 1 Peter 4:8 (NIV)
"And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins." - 1 Peter 4:8 (KJV)
I chose to include three different translations of the same verse for a reason. 1 Peter 4:8 says that same thing in each translation but in different ways. The ESV uses the words "keep loving" to imply a existent love that needs to continue on between us in the church. The NIV uses the word "over" to show exactly where love reigns in respect to sins. The KJV may be my favorite translation of this verse for one reason, "fervent". Fervent literally means "having or displaying a passionate intensity" and that is how we are to love one another. Our hearts should not focus on ourselves when we have such a commandment as this to obey. To love one another continually, in spite of our sins, and more passionately than we can imagine will fix our priority problem. We won't be concerned with what happens to us as long as we see the people we love being blessed. We won't struggle with humility when we are placing God and others before ourselves in a passionate manner. We won't be trying to get traded and find a way out of situations we have committed to in the face of problems when the actions and beliefs we live by are grounded in the foundation of love.
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." - 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
