In the river; on the ball

Now I follow the results of another team besides Inverness Caley Thistle. Seoul E-land, based in the South Korean capital is near the top of the K League (2^nd division) and hopes to win promotion by the end of the season in November.

My friend Brian Irvine, the former Aberdeen and Scotland football star has given up his Inverness-based job, and gone to Seoul to work with E-land until the end of the season.  He’s supporting the coach, fellow-Scot Martin Rennie, and acting as informal chaplain to a squad which includes several Christians.

Brian is not receiving a salary for this work, though his expenses are met, and there is no guarantee of a job next season. But after two shorter visits to Seoul earlier in the year, he became convinced that God was calling him to work with the team there and, as he puts it, ‘when God calls I must obey.’

‘How can you be sure?’ we might react. ‘Is this some kind of mid-life crisis?’ To which Brian points to his growing sense of the ‘rightness’ of going to South Korea. He speaks of ‘green lights lining up’ as circumstances beckoned him forwards. And this was confirmed on his arrival:  the club director told him he’d been invited back because of the ‘strong sense of the Lord’s presence’ when he was last with the team back in May.

What was a challenge to Brian was also a challenge to his family, who have let him go with their blessing to the other side of the world.

But can we be sure that an idea has come from God? For me, some possibilities present themselves with a heady clamour and excitement, but ultimately seem hollow and unrooted. Others open up gently, but with a sense of inevitability, accompanied by energy and life. These are the possibilities I suspect are God-given.

Brian is part of Hilton Church in Inverness, and he’s been keeping us up to date with his schedule on the church blog. He’s talked about coaching and scouting; time spent chilling with the team talking about football, and life and God; visits to crowded Korean churches.

Seoul E-land reserve team match

He has shared some of the lessons he’s learned. He’s come to recognise that ‘each day brings new challenge in the Lord.’ I like it! How do I view a new day? As a wearisome repeat of yesterday? Or as a God-given gift, 24 hours of possibility. Each day invites us to embrace it with joy, to live it with courage, giving and receiving love. Again, it’s about living out of the river of life within us, rather than the stagnant waters of routine.

Secondly, Brian has spoken of his need, away beyond his comfort-zone of being sustained by God, and this inspires those of us who feel it so hard to embrace each day with joy. Brian quotes St Paul – ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me.’ It’s alright to feel vulnerable and fragile, even in the macho world of soccer, for in acknowledging our sense of vulnerability we are opening our hearts to the God who comes to us in that life-giving river.

Brian’s also been encouraged by another visitor working with Seoul E-land – Dr Aaron Treadway who heads up Ambassadors Football, a US-based organisation which aims ‘to communicate the good news of Jesus to all people through football.’

I used to be suspicious of what was known as ‘sports evangelism.’ (Evangelism simply means sharing the good news of a God who loves us boundlessly.) I was suspicious because I’d got the impression that people regarded evangelism as a project, and saw football (or any other shared interest) as a pretext to draw near to people and so convert them.

I was wrong. The truth, in most cases, is thankfully different. We are all passionate about the things we’ve been given to do – in Brian’s case, football; in mine writing – which flow from that river within. God is in the writing! God is in the football. God shares our passions.

Others who share your passion should see an attractiveness in your life as a Christian, and when you talk about the deep things within you, your focus will be on God. And so they will come to realise that the river of life within them too has God as its source, and is wider and deeper than they had ever imagined.

It must be a temptation for a former international player like Brian to feel that the glory days have departed. As Christians, we believe that the glory days lie ahead, when God makes all things new.  But not just that: for these are the glory days, days when, secure in God’s love we entrust ourselves to the living waters.

(Christian Viewpoint column from the Highland News dated 24th September 2015)