If the game doesn’t keep score, most men don’t want to play. If you don’t know how to keep score, then it’s just confusing. And that’s where most men have landed in this ever-shifting and chaotic culture. What's the score - am I behind or ahead?
I was casually shooting baskets with a couple friends. Making some shots on a basketball court that was in the back of the church we were at. Then one suggested we play “horse”. Well, that’s a game in which one man makes a shot and you have to match that exact shot – so you’re trying to create impossible shots that he will miss – he’s doing the same against you - and then he gets an “H” for the miss … until he’s finally spelled ‘horse’ and he’s out. Or you’re out.
Keeping score changed everything. Just hanging out and shooting a few hoops was fun until we started keeping score. Then it became an intense battle to create crazy shots and desperately make the shots they had set up for you. We each wanted to win.
What's the score? That’s what most men don’t have in life. So, they come up with a score sheet – more money, bigger car, stronger muscles – anything to make life have meaning, to get fired up enough to work hard. It makes every other man in the world an opponent. Someone trying to put you out.
So here’s the box score from the Word of God;
Micah 6:8 “The Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Jesus simplifies and emphasizes it when he says this in Matthew 22:37-40, “Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
In this crazy world that plays by the rules of selfish gain and slippery rules of justice, Jesus and His Word give us the true scoresheet.
Do the right thing, love people, walk with humility, be kind, live with integrity before God and man. That's a win. Be that man. We win when we help other men win.
