ISU Basketball and Worship

This past Wednesday I went up to Ames, IA with one of my very good buds and we watched Iowa State's milk shake get drunk by Kansas State. You can read about that game HERE . One of the things that struck me while I was there in Hilton Coliseum was this nagging question. Why can't the people of God worship the Lord like these people are experiencing this basketball game?

The environment was electrifying. The whole arena was like a living organism. When our team scored, there was undulated exuberance. The crowd went absolutely nuts every single time.

During time-outs and during half time the music and the fun that the crowd had was unbelievable. Why can't that be how we worship our amazing God?

People painted their faces, shook paper in the air, screamed unashamedly, waved flags and danced like it was the final game in the season and they are just about to win it all.

At one point one of the referees made a call that the crowd didn't like (well, just about every call they made the crowd didn't like...but this one more than others) and the entire arena started chanting something in unison. I couldn't figure out what they were saying so I leaned over and asked my buddy what they were saying. He didn't answer me. And then it hit me what they were saying.

They were all chanting "Bulls***" at the same time. Even that made me wonder why can't the church act like that? Why can't we all with one voice cry out against sin and injustice? Why can't we let this surrounding culture know what we think of it's attempts to mold us into it's image?

As we were leaving and I was telling my buddy about my thoughts he had a couple himself. He said that it would be awesome if Christians tithed like the alumni give to their Alma Mater.

Why can't we honor God with our finances like a dedicated alumni?

There was one thing that all those people had in common in the arena, they wanted their team to win. Every single person was willing their team on. Even though they lost, everyone wanted their team to win.

I wish Christians in the church would wake up and get real. We serve a great and awesome God who deserves painted faces and crazy screams from a people that desperately want to see His Kingdom advanced.

We'll see what happens tomorrow at church...