Road Wins

Last night, the Mississippi State Bulldogs did something very rare for a Southeastern Conference Basketball Team. They won "on the road," defeating LSU (61-39) in Baton Rouge.

Visiting hoopsters are always at a disadvantage. Visitors must travel, sometimes great distances, on a cramp bus to play their rival in inhospitable environs. The Home Team is accustomed to their court. The host combatants are able to keep their normal routine by sleeping in their beds and eating in familiar surroundings. The "Homers" practice everyday shooting at the same basketball goal in their gym, while the visiting jocks have only a few minutes to get acquainted with the nuisances of the unfamiliar rim.

In the Fall of 1987, as a proud tuba playing member of the Famous Maroon Marching Band of Mississippi State, I traveled with my fellow musicians to Baton Rouge, LA for a football game. Did you know they take football seriously in Louisiana? Well, have no doubts about it.

As the band marched into Tiger Stadium (affectionately called "Death Valley"), a gauntlet of LSU fans lined our path. The frenzied Tiger Fans yelled at us all along the route. Shockingly, I was "cussed" by a 7 year old boy and a 70 year old woman. During the game, since my tuba made an easy target, I was pelted with debris. Before I boarded the bus to return home, I emptied my burdensome horn of enough trash to fill a small garbage can. LSU, this year's Football National Champs, has a definite home field advantage.

(O.K. How is this preacher going to relate this to a spiritual truth? Don't rush me.)

In John 15:19, Jesus said, "If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you."

We should not be surprised that there is hostility against the gospel. However, Jesus scheduled our lives as Christians as away games. In Matthew 28:19-20, he gave what we call the Great Commission, which begins with the word "Go." Whether it is to the Australian Outback or to the folks in Greene County, Mississippi who live out in the woods, we are to go to them. Around the world or across the street we must be on the road sharing the gospel in word, as well as deed.

Furthermore, remember that Jesus does not force us to travel alone. He is right beside us. He said at the end of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20, "I will be with you always." Through the victory Christ won over the grave, we can have the confidence to serve him in any environment--any time, any place.