Last Sunday, 123.4 million people tuned in to watch Super Bowl LVIII. It could be argued that Super Bowl Sunday should be a national holiday in the United States. Fans spent around $17.3 billion on food, gathering with friends and family to watch the big game and cheer their team to victory. Our house was one divided – I am forever a fan of the 49ers, and my husband was rooting for the Chiefs. I will say that despite the final score, it was a great game and both teams fought hard.

Last Sunday, our pastor asked in his sermon, “Will there be participation trophies in heaven?”  Think about that for a moment. I am not talking about earning your way into heaven through works. Think about all the time, discipline, and training that it took for those two teams to reach the Super Bowl. How many hours of studying game footage, memorizing plays, studying your opponent’s offense and defense? How many grueling hours in the gym, lifting weights, running sprints? How many sore muscles? Patrick Mahomes made it to the Super Bowl, but he didn’t win, without some exceptional effort, time, and sacrifice. That my dear friend is the point of this week’s blog.

As a believer in Jesus Christ, I know that I have an eternal place in heaven. My salvation is secured. I cannot be snatched out of the Father’s hand. I did not earn my salvation. It is a free gift from God, solely through His death on the cross.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!

Romans 5:8 ESV

Ask yourself this question? As a follower of Christ, how should I be living my life? Should I sit back on the couch and relax? Should I spend my days coasting because I’m guaranteed entrance into heaven? NO! We are to live life with purpose, with our eyes set on the prize. We are to run the race! I always thought that running the race meant works. But now I understand that it isn’t works that saves. It is only through Christ. Running the race means living each day for the One who chose to save me.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV

Look back at the Super Bowl again. Each of those men spent countless hours in preparation for that day. When they started the season, they worked and poured out their blood and sweat, with their eyes on the prize, to be able to say one day, that they were Super Bowl champions! Do you see it? Heaven is our prize! I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to arrive in heaven, out of shape and riding the bench! I want to be one of the MVP’s. I want to make an impact for God, through my life. I can’t make any impact without preparation.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.  

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

But whatever you do, find the God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated passion of your life, and find your way to say it and live for it and die for it. And you will make a difference that lasts. You will not waste your life

― John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life

Let us begin each day as we would if we were preparing for the Super Bowl. Let Christ be our prize. Let His holiness and righteousness be our trophy. Let us pursue God as we would pursue that promotion, how we would pursue that raise, how we would pursue that title. And let each of us within the body of believers, strive to be God’s MVP, focusing always on Heaven and the God we long to be with. – Amen

“We never grow closer to God when we just live life. It takes deliberate pursuit and attentiveness.”

― Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God