Fundamentals

I'm a big football fan. I love to watch a well-coached football team functioning like a precision machine on the field: an offense that picks a defense apart, or a defense that shuts down the other team's offense. I've been a fan since I was a kid, and the game has certainly evolved over the years, especially on offense: from the run-oriented offenses like the wishbone and power I formations to the run-and-shoot, west coast and spread offenses of today. But some things never change, and they're summed up in a coach's favorite word: FUNDAMENTALS. It doesn't matter how many fancy plays you have if you can't block, and all the speed in the world won't compensate for not being able to hold on to the football. Whenever things go wrong in football, one of the first things you hear coaches say is, "we're going back to the fundamentals." I love those classic coach speeches where the coach goes back to the very beginning: "this, gentlemen, is a football." It seems almost comical, but there is an important lesson in it. You can build on fundamentals, but you can never move on without them.

This truth is universal. There are fundamentals in every part of life, and they are ignored at our own peril. I think it's especially true in spiritual life, and spiritual fundamentals may be the most ignored of all. They're buried under hundreds--even thousands--of years of secondary stuff, piled on by generation after generation, each more removed from the fundamentals than the last. Eventually the secondary stuff is equated with fundamentals, and the foundational layer beneath them is lost. Jesus spoke into this inevitable drift away from the core when he established the Great Commandment. Love God and love your neighbor. Whenever spiritual life looks like a labyrinth, go back to this. Whenever you feel like you have to have a seminary degree to understand Christianity or 25 hours in a day to live life the right way, go back to this. Whatever else you're doing with your life has to be based on this to matter. You can build on it, but you can never move on without it.

Q: What one activity defines Christian living in our culture more than any other?
A: Attendance at church services.

Can you hear me screaming? Why not loving God and loving our neighbor? What is that you say? Not enough time? We have 200 plays in the playbook and no time left to work on the fundamentals.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a football: it's called the Great Commandment. We're going to live with this football for the next 60 days, or until we get it right. No flash, no glitz. No spotlights, no video, no buildings, no committees, no institution. Just love God and love your neighbor, which is actually harder than attending a lot of meetings but a lot more meaningful and fulfilling. We're going to eat, sleep, drink, and breathe the Great Commandment. We're going to learn to walk before we run. Fundamentals, people. FUNDAMENTALS!