Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. – Matthew 10:32

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 31, 2014): Matthew 10

Garry Unger was my favorite hockey player when I was growing up. I started to cheer for Garry when he was playing with the Detroit Red Wings, and then he was traded to St. Louis Blues. To be honest I had never really liked the Blues, but all of that changed on the day that Garry was traded and became a part of the franchise. And then he went to Atlanta and the Atlanta Flames became the Calgary Flames (and I grew up in Calgary) but Garry was traded to Los Angeles, and then traded to the hated (at least from my perspective) Edmonton Oilers. It was a bit of a roller coaster ride at the end, but I never lost my respect for him as a hockey player. When I was a kid, Garry usually showed up in my church for a Sunday in the summer. He would sit in the back of the sanctuary with a couple of his friends and for that service all of us boys seemed to think that the sanctuary had been reversed, because we were not looking forward at the preacher, but backward at the hockey player sitting in the pew at the back of the church. I have never had any problem in acknowledging that Garry Unger was my favorite hockey player. (On a side note, Hockey Hall of Fame, what’s up? The former NHL Iron Man belongs in your ranks, it is time to do something about it.)

I also grew up in a church where to accept Jesus Christ meant walking the long aisle to the altar rails at the front of the church. And often it was this verse that was quoted as the reason for the walk. If you do not acknowledge God by walking to the front of the sanctuary, then when you get to heaven Jesus will not acknowledge you. The argument has some merits, but I really don’t think that that was what Matthew was meaning. The unfortunate side effect of the argument that I was acknowledging Jesus as I walked to the front of the sanctuary is that it frees me from the responsibility to acknowledge Jesus anywhere else, and I think that it was the anywhere else that Jesus (and Matthew) were really meaning.

The bottom line is that I should be as comfortable acknowledging Jesus in my life as I was (and am) in expressing my admiration for Garry Unger. I should be as willing to seek Jesus out in the various areas of life as I was as a child compelled to seek out the hockey player sitting in the back row of the church. Acknowledging Jesus does not mean that I need to take special courses to learn how (after all, no special courses were needed on how to acknowledge my favorite - anything), it just seems to happen.

And maybe that is really the point. Jesus said that “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke 6:45). That is why it is easy to talk about sports stars or movie heroes. Our words are nothing more than the overflow of the heart. But as Christians, the overflow should be Jesus. The idea of acknowledging him is not a task that we need to gear ourselves up for, it is the natural result of a heart that is overflowing for him.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 14