A couple Saturdays ago something pretty interesting happened at youth group – actually it was more than interesting, I hope that in some ways it was life changing. It was trivial but at the same time important, it was secular but at the same time spiritual, it was easy but at the same time difficult… the story has to do with 7 pairs of soccer shorts that were nothing more than a gift.
So as for context… about 8 months ago two friends from college came down here to San Jose and they were like the talk of town. They came to visit just as the group I’ve been trying to form was starting to take shape and in fact, the group back then was even bigger than what it is now… I guess that anything new can draw more crowds… anything new and somewhat American may draw even more.
And so my two friends: they came down and they’re even more new and more American than I (except for one who’s like Guatemalan, so actually… I guess that that would only make one of them American, but I mean they were both new and the other is pretty straight up American too it’s just he doesn’t look like it), but anyway, they came down and they were like the talk of town, right?
So we do the meeting – it was amazing actually. The youth group that night stands out in my recollection as being one of the coolest youth group’s we’ve ever had. Afterwards (at about 10 at night) all 25 of us go to the soccer court to play a pick up game… I mean this group breathes soccer.
Now jump seven months ahead.
I go to the States for a wedding and meet up with the same Guatemalan friend and he asks me how the group is doing. I tell him about it you know, that it’s a bit smaller; some have left, some have matured; we all definitely know each other more and I fully believe that many even know God a lot more… and that well, that soccer is still a pretty big deal as well.
We go to Sports Authority and my friend decides he wants to buy the group some soccer shorts. I tell him that’s awesome and that the group would be thrilled to get a present like that and so I help him pick out 7 really awesome royal blue Adidas soccer shorts.
My friend’s name is Pepe by the way [I’m telling you that just because this is getting really annoying trying to describe him without using his name, and so that’s his name – Pepe – and at three o’clock (that’s a military way of saying to your right) you can look at a picture of him].
…So I get back from the States to San Jose and rumor has it that I had met up with Pepe and that he bought the group some soccer shorts. I had told him from the start that he should write a card specifying who they were for because I totally knew that it was going to be somewhat of a big deal for me to try to determine who should get the shorts; but you know – the wedding and all, hanging out with all our old friends – it sort of slipped our minds; and so just as we’re giving each other a big hug and saying good bye he tells me to figure it out on my own and just tell them all hi for him. Telling them all hi for him, that was easy.
At first I start thinking we should just have like a soccer camp or something where anyone who is interested enough and who loves soccer enough could work really hard and then at the end of the day we would give out the shorts to the 7 that try their hardest, have the best attitude, and play the best.
One of the best players however, (this guy is named Franklin and he’s probably my best friend and, like Pepe, on the left a picture of him for you as well), he tells me he doesn’t work that way. That if we have a camp like that, that he won’t go because he knows that everyone is going to try hard and everyone who goes should be able to get a pair and he doesn’t want anyone to feel left out.
Fair enough. That’s a pretty valid argument but I still have the shorts and I still have to give them away and so my next idea is that if our team thinks we’re so bad and everything (when I say ‘bad’ like that I actually mean that we’re pretty good and it’s kind of goofy and it really doesn’t make any sense but sometimes it’s just cool to talk like that, that’s all)… but if we think we’re so bad, then maybe we should just play a game against another group of guys that I’ve kind of been getting to know, and then whoever wins, that team gets the shorts. There are 7 from our team (5 starters and 2 subs) and so that works well, and the other team, well, if they win, then I guess they can just figure out the whole shorts thing for themselves.
But then our team captain (Eliecer is his name and he’s Franklin’s brother and he’s definitely also one of the other best players on the team), now HE tells me that HE doesn’t work that way and that if Pepe sent the shorts for the people in the group, then they should stay in the group.
Ok, so that’s another really valid argument and so by this time I’m running out of options and so it starts to dawn on me that what Franklin and Eliecer are saying is totally right. That a gift is a gift and that you can’t play around with it and neither can you make it conditional.
All right, so my next great idea is to just hand the shorts out, just like that. But the thing is that there’s like 20 people in our group and yes, 7 of us make up the soccer team, but of the 13 that remain, probably another 7 of them not only play but likewise enjoy soccer and there’s simply not enough to go around. The 7 that aren’t part the team, they’re not part of the team but they’re still eligible for the gift. And Pepe never said that the shorts were just for the team, he said they were for the group, and so I have to be fair and offer the shorts to everyone, and so I guess the way it should work is that whoever really wants a pair can just go ahead and take one.
So that’s my plan. That’s my plan, and that’s what I’m going to do and so I take the shorts with me to the youth group and that night I speak from Romans 3:21-31.
The bulk of the message is that if we are justified (in other words, declared good) by grace (which means, by a free gift) through faith (or else, by believing), than it is no longer by works (or by trying to be good or by trying to not be bad) so that no one can boast (be arrogant or proud)… and another important verse by the way is verse 31 which says, “Do we then nullify (erase) the law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish (more vividly draw) the Law.”
So we get into that passage and interpret it and talked about how in heaven there will likely be a lot of bad people and that in hell there will likewise and likely be a lot of good people, but that being good or being bad is irrelevant. That it is only the ones who receive the free gift of God that will be saved… that the criminal that died on the cross next to Jesus was declared righteous and so consequently, that day that the criminal died… well he was still going to die, but he was going to die and then meet up again with Jesus in paradise… that even though salvation is by faith, that doesn’t mean that we then nullify the law and live recklessly in sin once we have attained our salvation. Right?
Right. So after explaining all of that I picked up my bag and placed it in the middle of the circle and said that if Pepe sent these shorts for the people of our group who play soccer and that if he sent them as a gift; then anyone who wants a pair, all they have to do is get up and get one.
At first nothing happened. They all just sat there silently and looked to the middle at the bag of shorts. Then the first to get up was one of our second string players that hadn’t come to the group in like 3 months but happened to be there with us that day and so he got up and grabbed his pair and then sat down. Next went the other second string player and so there were 5 left. The thing was that our team captain Eliecer wasn’t there and so he couldn’t go to the middle to get one, and then I wasn’t about to get up and get one, and so to keep tabs, that left 5 shorts and 3 starters. At that moment there were 2 guys that aren’t on the team but that play soccer and who definitely wanted a pair and so they both got up and were kind of laughing and were like, well, if all I have to do is stand up and grab a pair then sweet, let’s do it – free shorts!
At this point you could fully tell that Franklin and Harrinson (the other two starters excluding the goalie), fully understood what was going on but there was no way that they were going to get up and grab their corresponding pairs of shorts because I guess that they just don’t work that way (haha, just kidding) no, they weren’t going to get up and grab their pairs of shorts because they aren’t proud players and neither did they want Eliecer nor I to be excluded. So then what happened was that the goalie got up, grabbed the remaining three pairs, took one for himself, and gave the other 2 to Franklin and Harrinson.
I started talking again because I wanted to make another point, but Franklin just couldn’t handle it anymore and got up and like moved the chair in front of him and left the room.
I asked everyone else how they felt, if they felt kind of left out because they didn’t get anything, and a few people said that even though they didn’t get anything they still thought it was really cool that Pepe had thought about them in that way and so in that sense they felt honored, but yeah, a lot of them just remained quiet.
So I was like see, just like what you’re feeling right now because you didn’t get a gift, so there will be a lot of people that will die without having received the gift of salvation that will feel a million times worse. So we need to go and share the gift with them as well.
I told the two guys that weren’t on the team that maybe they could share the shorts if we ever had a game where we all had to be in uniform but I mean the point is that there was a giver – Pepe – but that then there needed to be someone to take the gift to the receivers – and in this case it was me, but on a spiritual plane, that needs to be all of us.
And so then I shared a little from John 3:16 and yeah, I didn’t even get into it because I still don’t fully understand it, but the illustration could even be taken further if you were trying to talk about predestination and pre-condemnation, but yeah, I mean that’s really heavy stuff, and like I said, I guess I fully don’t understand all of that quite yet either.
But what I do understand is that God is not one to show partiality (having favorites)… but that in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him (Acts 10:34-35). And that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed (spoken) and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things that he could not be freed from through the law of Moses (Acts 13:38-39). And that God is now declaring (speaking) to men that all people everywhere should repent (change directions) (Acts 17:30). And that to be saved we must believe in the Lord Jesus (Acts 16:30-31).
And so that is what is really awesome, and that is what I’m working towards here in San Jose. I know that there are some in the group that have already taken hold of these promises and they’ve repented of their sins and they now live in the freedom that’s offered through Christ and so that’s really exciting. But I also know that there are some who perhaps still don’t know Jesus and so the message goes out to them.
But what I think was really interesting was to see the different people’s responses to the gift of shorts and it was so awesome how the guy who hadn’t come to the group in like three months was the first to get his pair. He told me numerous times beforehand that he had wanted to go but he felt embarrassed in going because it had been so long since he had. Apparently his embarrassment for standing up to be the first one to receive a free gift wasn’t that great and so maybe he’s likewise already received the gift of salvation despite the fact that he doesn’t come to our group.
And the two who don’t play on the team but still play soccer – perhaps there are many in this world who don’t necessarily fit in with the status quo of contemporary Christianity, but yet deep inside they have a real relationship with Christ and they joyfully, perhaps even hysterically, believe in him.
An interesting fact is this: the second string felt no shame in standing up to receive their shorts and this speaks strongly to me because perhaps in Christianity I’ve never been the second string. Perhaps I’ve always been part of what would be considered the first string, part of the privileged elite, and in the times of Jesus it was those guys that were actually the ones that had the hardest time believing…
Am I too proud to get up there in total recognition of my desire for the free gift of salvation because I know too much? Are you? Cowardly sitting in a chair to watch others go ahead to receive something you desperately want and need is far different from politely and sacrificially sitting in a chair to let others go ahead and receive something of which there isn’t enough to go around. The first is a fatal mistake that will result in eternal damnation; the second is a true sign of leadership. And I’m talking about salvation in the first, and I’m talking about shorts in the second.
This story is dedicated to my sister Betsy who’s birthday was on the same day I wrote this.
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