Fan or Player??

If you know me at all, you will know that I am a true football fan.. Every Saturday afternoon you will definitely find me either at a Chadron State football game or curled up on my futon flipping through the ESPN channels watching all the different college games between timeouts and halftimes. Though I keep up with several teams, I of course, am a true Husker fan. I watch every game that I am able to, listen to the game on the radio, or at the very least continue to text people to update me on the score. Well lucky 'ol me got the privilege last week to go down to Lincoln and actually watch the Huskers play in Memorial Stadium! It was truly an amazing experience for me. (Though now that i got the taste for it, I think I'm addicted and have recently considered transferring to UNL. Ok, maybe not seriously, but it is truly tempting.) But when I first walked into Memorial Stadium such a rush came over me that I can barely even explain. One of the most amazing things is the all famous "Red Sea" of Nebraska fans supporting their Huskers by wearing every piece of red attire they own just to show their support and pride. I was also left in awe and amazement as the crowd clapped, cheered, booed, etc.. Now as the time went on in the game the boos became louder, the cheering became fewer, and the stands became scarce. We truly got our butts kicked, but it didn't even matter. I left that stadium with a smile on my face and still with Husker pride and my red attire.

Now, to get to the main point of all of this babble, when I got back from the game everyone back home kept asking me so how did WE do, or yeah WE got our butts kicked, or man OUR defense sure sucked! These are very common statements right? Everyone says this, including myself, but if you really think about it, isn't it funny? WE got our butts kicked!! WE?? This is completely indicating that we are Nebraska Husker football players. That we made some kind of impact on the losses and wins. When in reality, we did nothing, but watch. We all consider us Huskers, but we did not go through the strenuous practices. We never actually experienced the sweat, blood, and pain, but we still consider ourselves Huskers? We do not deserve this title at all, we should just leave it at Husker fans, but have no right to say WE lost or WE won. Why I write this is because of a recent discussion at Chi Alpha a few weeks back. So many "Christians" have this same view and outlook on life. They wear Christian tshirts, WWJD necklaces, fish emblems on their cars and may "represent" a Christian, but in reality have not put out any effort to actually "be part of the team". Just like in football we can wear our Husker red shirts and fake jerseys, but this does not make us Husker football players. We need to earn our position on the team and give it our all to deserve such a title. We must go through the sweat, blood, and pain to actually make a difference in the outcome of the "game". If we don't give it our all and make an effort we are just fans sporting the attire, but not a player helping the team. So what are you and what do you want to be? Do you want to be a fan, possibly looking good, but making no impact or do you want to be a true player fighting every second and being the best you can be in whatever you do?