When I was in middle school, I played football for the Fairview Falcons. Take a guess where I started for our team. I was small and probably weighed seventy-five pounds soaking wet. If you guessed center, you would be correct. One of my jobs as center was to call the huddle. The huddle is where the offense gets together and calls the plays. After an offensive play, before we ran another, I would lift my hand in the air and yell, “Huddle!” In that huddle the play would be called, we would be given the snap count, and we might encourage or warn each other about someone on the defense. Then, if I remember correctly, we would say, “One, two, three, break!” and clap our hands. We would break the huddle, go out, line up, and run the play.
What would you think of a team that never broke the huddle? That would be silly. You guys are here to play a game. Break the huddle. Does the church do this? We get in our holy huddles at service times but never “run the play.” Do not get me wrong. I am a firm believer that we should be meeting together as the elders present opportunities (Hebrews 10:25), but if all our religion consists of is only Sunday morning Bible study and worship, Sunday night worship, and Wednesday night Bible class, we have a pretty sorry religion. Let’s get together and get our directions from God through His word, let’s encourage one another and warn each other about our opponent, but let’s break the huddle and go out and live it. My encounter with Jesus at those service times should impact how I deal with coworkers on Monday afternoon, people at the ballpark on Tuesday night, getting my kids ready for school and taking them on Wednesday morning, my trip to the store at lunch on Thursday, my interaction with my neighbor on Friday evening, my Saturday hobby, and everything in between. Jesus calls us to be salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16). Let’s call a huddle and be there, but let us also break the huddle and go out and live it.