Dying Every Day  

        

NEW JIMMY: Hello again, old self. Remember when you did your own thing...playing when you needed to study...choosing who to like and who not to like...and...

OLD JIMMY: Yeh. Yeh. I miss the simple days when my teams were all good and the other guys were all bad.   

Your passion for sports crowded out most everything else.

Except on Sunday mornings.  

We always went to church.                              Jimmy's Double Vision, No. 3

Lived a double life, did you? 

Well, so do lots of people. Christians play pro football and baseball on Sundays...the new sabbath.

Whatever God thinks about that, Christian athletes have a witness most of us don't.  

If that helps young fans stay out of trouble, I'm good with that. 

That's a benefit, old Jimmy, but new life is way more than behavior.

Here it comes. Another sermon.

You know what Paul wrote to the Galatian church: "I was crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." 

How can that be? Paul was alive.

When ultra-orthodox Saul was so converted by Jesus, who called him Paul, he said he "died daily" to his inclinations and to trusting the law for salvation. I'm supposed to consider myself crucified also.

Oh man. What are you doing to me?

Hold on. I haven't mastered this new life. I don't compare myself to Paul or anyone. Just stick with me a while longer. God means it for good.

Based on Galatians chapter 2.