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 I remember seeing my Father score goals in football from the half-way line, not just once, but repetitively. In fact, I doubt there was a place on the field he has not scored a goal from. When he played professionally, he just had that goal scoring instinct. I can remember going to a children's park as a youngster, and people wanting photos of him. A newspaper even ran a story and photograph of the occasion.
Everyone loves the goal scorer! Even after his pro days, when my Dad and I played in the local league together, he hardly ever missed. As for me, I got to play defender and sometimes goalkeeper, not on the glamour end of the field. I drifted from the soccer field into the cycling peleton some years ago, but my role has hardly changed. I'm not the one who wins the final sprint. My job is "domestique", the dometsic helper of the team. It is the domestique's job to ride all day to help the team leader, keep him out of the headwind, and make sure that his opposition riders do not break away. The domestique carries water for the team leader, fetches his food and will offer up his bike if the team leader has a problem. By the end of the day, the domestique is too tired to contend "King of the Mountains\" or sprints, and sometimes too blown to even finish himself. Have you ever heard of Lance Armstrong? Yes? I thought so. How about Manuel Beltran? No? Ok, how about Floyd Landis? No? All are cyclists in the same team, each brilliant, each with a different job. You've probably seen Lance in his 5th Tour de France Winner's Yellow Jersey. Did you know that without the efforts of team mates like Manuel and Floyd, he probably would never even have won one? John 4:36 He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit to eternal life; that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. Let us call the domestique and the defender the "sowers", and the team leader and goal scorer the "reapers", as John 4:36 describes. Each are fundamental to the other. No effective team could consist only of "reapers", no effective team could consist only of "sowers". To this day my Father, Bernie, is still a "reaper". Daily he harvests the fruit of his and other people's spiritual labour, by offering people the chance to begin a new life through Jesus Christ. If you have read the extracts from his daily encounters at the All Africa Games this month, you will see that it is his gift to be the "reaper". It is possible that you too find yourself at the "reaper" end of the spiritual sports field, and if that is the case, well done, go for it! If you feel more like the domestique, the tireless "sower" of spiritual seeds, then keep at it. Sow with all your strength, tirelessly and diligently. You may not think that it is the most glamorous position on the spiritual sports field, but as Jesus says in the above verse, you can rejoice along side the "reapers" with every life given to the Lord.
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