When I was in middle school, my younger brother was still in elementary school and he played on the youth league basketball team. Much like the leagues today they would travel to the other surrounding small towns and play against their teams, and they would travel to our town to play also.
One time the parents were called about a local town having a tournament that his team was in and the tip off time was 11:00am on Sunday. The coach spoke to the parents about this, and they were all in agreement that they would all be in church (they all attended different churches) and would not be able to make the game at that time. The youth league hosting tried to coerce the parents into having the kids play at that time by telling them that they would forfeit the game and the parents responded with a consolidated response of … “OK”. They never argued but stood their ground that this was not going to persuade them to skip church.
At the time, I was really puzzled by the idea of missing this basketball tournament because of it conflicting with church because we went to church every Sunday. I didn’t think it was a big deal to miss one Sunday and that all the parents were making a really big deal out of nothing. Just skip one Sunday, no big deal, and let the kids play basketball.
Looking back on that moment I realize that my parents, along with all the other parents, were right. Skipping church for a basketball game was a ridiculous request and they did the right thing by standing their ground and forfeiting the game if need be. Luckily the people running the tournament changed their mind and rescheduled the game so the kids could participate.
Another time while in the opening of church, they asked for announcements and a woman stood up and announced that youth group would not be held that day because unfortunately the Sabbath isn’t holy anymore and the kids had sports and activities on that day. I understood that as the Sabbath is holy unless there are sports for the kids that day. Looking back, I can’t believe the nerve it took to say that during church.
I am picking on sports in these examples, but I think this applies to almost everything that we put before Jesus. The first commandment in Exodus 20:3 states:
You Shall Have no other gods before me.
As a kid I always thought that meant worshiping idols, or mythological gods but as an adult I have realized that can mean almost anything: sports, movies, family time, catching up on sleep, your car, career, even another person.
Of course, things happen, and people do get sick and have to miss church but just remember the next time you are tempted to skip church that the enemy is using “stuff” to lure you away; don’t let him win. We need to have a backbone and stand up to pressure from society and stand our ground and not “skip” church services that are important to us and our families because once we start caving in to the pressures, it gets harder and harder to stand our ground.
