Wanted: Apathetic Lutherans and Calvinists (No Experience Required) -- By: Michael S. Horton

Journal: Reformation and Revival
Volume: RAR 03:2 (Spring 1994)
Article: Wanted: Apathetic Lutherans and Calvinists (No Experience Required)
Author: Michael S. Horton


Wanted: Apathetic Lutherans and Calvinists (No Experience Required)

Michael S. Horton

About seventeen years ago, my brother, then an assistant football coach at Arizona State University, introduced me to Danny White, who was at the time the star quarterback for the Sun Devils. I was only twelve years old and in awe of White. Meeting him was one of those moments when you are aware of every movement you make, of every nervous gesture. As we walked toward him on the football field where he was running, I would feel my feet become lead. Fear gripped me and I almost wanted to go back, but there was no turning back now. With a dry throat and clumsy handshake I met White—just when my brother announced that he needed to take care of some business with the trainer. So here we were, Danny White and this awkward teenager who was unusually short on words. But Danny immediately broke the tension when he said, “Hey, Horts, how about a few passes?” “What’s he talking about?” I wondered, concerning what would be a fairly straightforward invitation were I not so nervous. “You mean passes to a game?” “No,” he replied, “I mean throwing some passes here on the field for awhile.” For the next twenty minutes or so there we were, Danny White and Mike Horton, throwing the ball around and getting to know each other—not just as a fan gets to know a hero by following his career, but as one person gets to know another.

Since then, I have had the opportunity to meet some other people who make me feel pretty nervous: other sports stars, actors, writers, and a few foreign dignitaries. But no meeting presents a greater challenge than when we meet God in the person of the Holy Spirit. It is a wonderful opportunity, to be sure, but it is also a challenge. We do just fine in the stands, shaking our heads at the unbelievable skill and energy of the Holy Spirit, and we follow His work closely through the years. But to actually meet Him? To get to know Him, not just as an awe-struck fan meets a celebrity, but as two friends out on the field together? We often find

such intimacy beyond what we can (or should even attempt to) reach. But it is at God’s invitation that we leave the stands, walk out to the field, and befriend Him through the person of the Holy Spirit.

God the Father longs to have a relationship with us. He loved the world so much that “He gave His one and only Son” so long ago to save us. When God the Son took on flesh, suffered, died, and rose again, He brought us everlasting peace with God. If it were not for the Holy Spirit, we would still be up in the stands, unrelated to God as anything other than an admiring fan. It is through God the Holy Spirit that the Father’s initiat...

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