Are You In the Arena?

We all have favorite quotes that we pick up in life, perhaps from our parents or grandparents. For example, my wife’s mother taught her, “What goes around comes around.”

We have seen this saying play out in the drive for gender equality in sports. In the 1970s, across the United States, women sought to invade areas that had been exclusively male-oriented. Girls wanted to be on boys’ baseball, football, and basketball teams. Female reporters demanded access to men’s locker rooms after games, reasoning that without such access they would not get the best postgame insights.

But what goes around comes around. Today, men who think they are women (but are not!) are invading seemingly everything female: not just women’s changing rooms and restrooms, but even women’s sports. Activists promoting their idea of “inclusiveness” can easily intimidate shallow-minded people who lack backbone and a moral compass, and these ideas are often allowed to pass. Thankfully, pushback seems to be gaining traction in many venues.

Some quotes come from great speeches. U.S. President Ronald Reagan, standing before the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, famously challenged the Soviet president: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” And who can forget Jim Lovell’s line as given in the docudrama Apollo 13, “Houston, we have a problem”? That was a slight alteration of Lovell’s actual words, “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” but the film’s expression is now often used to call attention to any form of trouble.

Dare to Try

Some quotes are longer and not so easily memorized—but still carry great meaning. One of my favorites comes from former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. The quote is summarized as “The Man in the Arena,” a short title that brings to mind the richness of his message.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

As inspiring as we may find Roosevelt’s words, we must not allow emotion to blind us to their greater significance. We all live in various “arenas”—job, school, family, and other secular pursuits. However, there is a far greater arena—one that reveals the purpose of life—and it will ultimately be the only arena that counts. Jesus Christ spelled it out for us: “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:31–33).

No Sitting on the Sidelines

Roosevelt saw that many people are satisfied while sitting on the sidelines—content with an easy life of security and comfort—while others are in the arena, putting it all on the line. We at Tomorrow’s World see this every day. Through our magazines, booklets, telecasts, and other media, we reveal the pagan and worldly traditions found in modern Christianity. We show from Scripture that God is not pleased when His people borrow from paganism. Yet, how do many respond? With complacency.

Many readers and viewers of Tomorrow’s World recognize that today’s professing Christianity is rife with non-biblical doctrines—but they are fearful of going against family and friends, so they continue on the path of tradition over the Bible. Yet Jesus rebuked those of His day who put tradition over God’s word (Mark 7:6–7). He described them as being satisfied with building their homes upon sand—before coming to ruin (Luke 6:46–49).

In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John recorded seven messages to seven first-century congregations of the Church of God. These represented seven stages—or eras—through which the true Church of God would pass from the first century until Christ’s return. The last two eras are clearly extant at the time of the end. One is zealous to walk through open doors to preach the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. The other, filled with the attitude that is dominant prior to Christ’s return, is complacent, compromising, and self-satisfied. These are the lukewarm Christians who are watching the game but are not in the game’s arena.

Jesus spoke of these people in the Parable of the Minas. There we read of a Nobleman (picturing Christ) going into a far country (Heaven) and in His absence giving three of His servants a task—to multiply what He left with them. When He returns, He rewards two of them with different degrees of rulership, but He confronts the servant who sat on the sidelines: “‘Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’ And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas…. To everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him’” (Luke 19:23–24, 26).

The Parable of the Talents conveys a similar message. Those who are in the arena multiply their talents and are rewarded. The one who sits on the sidelines loses out entirely.

Then he who had received the one talent came and said, “Lord, I knew you to be a hard man…. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.” But his lord answered and said to him, “You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed…. Take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents…. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:24–26, 28, 30).

Don’t Be a Religious Hobbyist

Many professing Christians have little more than a vague hope of going to a glorious reward when they die, though they are frankly not all that excited about a future in paradise compared to their daily lives now. Others are “religious hobbyists” who pick and choose to form their own brand of religion, different from what Christ really taught. Such people, feeling self-satisfied with their imagined personal relationship with God, are most often on the sidelines, not in the arena. Others are in an arena, but one across town from where they ought to be.

Dear reader, is it not time for you to get into the arena? The right arena? Contact us at the address nearest you, listed on page 4 of this magazine, if you would like to know more about Tomorrow’s World and how to get more involved with the Church behind this Work. We have ministers around the world who are willing to help—but you must be willing to ask.