My family made a spectacle of watching football on Sunday. Every Sunday wasn’t treated like Super Bowl Sunday, but it was given an awful lot of attention. We would have a rotating cast of between 12-25 people show up at my mom’s for Minnesota Viking watch parties. There would be multiple hors d’oeuvres and a couple of entree’s and usually a well prepared dead cow of some variety. There was a lot of cheering, eating, drinking, and laughing. A good time was had by all, even if the Vikings lost, and they often did. It was a community. We shared good times and bad times. What wasn’t shared was faith. This Easter I was reflecting on a post my mom made on Facebook. A lot can change in three days, in reference to Christ’s resurrection. It was brilliant. It was also never mentioned in years of Sunday afternoon football. One person broke the pattern, my friend Jeff. He asked me one day in the midst of the greatest season in Vikings history to come to his Monday night Bible study. I politely declined. I had gone to church up until my mid-teens; Catholics have an opt-out clause called confirmation that I utilized. We often would throw darts as we sobered up on football Sundays. The wins piled up for the Purple and so did the invitations from Jeff. He eventually brought me a new proposition; former Minnesota Vikings middle linebacker Jeff Seimon was speaking to his Bible study and he asked if I was interested. I replied, “Of course.” I went and what I heard changed my life and my afterlife for eternity, all because he asked and kept asking. Who are you asking? Who are you afraid to ask because they might say no, or think you’re weird? Is there a life connected to your life that needs changing? I asked my mom to my second baptism at the church Jeff got me to go to. I asked my family members to my new church in Oklahoma City. Some came, some didn’t, no one’s life was changed, but it wasn’t for lack of asking. My mom came to my Community Group (you can call it a small group or life group) and is Facebook friends with several of them to this day. A small change, but nevertheless a change.
I’m going to Heaven, (I’m pretty sure not technically my call.) I am hoping to bring some folks with me. I’ll ask you this question on your trip to the ever after, who’s coming along?