{"id":5428,"date":"2026-05-12T10:01:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T14:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5428"},"modified":"2026-05-12T10:01:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T14:01:06","slug":"get-into-the-game-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/get-into-the-game-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Get Into the Game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast<\/em>,\u00a0click here<\/a>

Just outside Kyle Field \u2013\u00a0Texas A&M University’s\u00a0football stadium in College Station, TX –\u00a0stands the bronze statue of a young man named E. King Gill.

Gill was sitting in the stands of another stadium in Dallas on January 22, 1922, as A&M (known by a different name at the\u00a0time) played in\u00a0the first-ever major bowl game in the Southwest.

A&M was in trouble. During the first half,\u00a0one\u00a0running back after another was sidelined by injuries.

That’s when Coach Dana X. Bible remembered Gill, an undersized but gritty running back who had failed to make the traveling team.\u00a0Before the game, however, Gill had said, “Coach, I’ll be in the stands if\u00a0you need me.”\u00a0The coach dispatched someone to find him.

Gill suited up for the second half.\u00a0Although he never took the field, his eagerness and availability\u00a0launched Texas A&M’s most hallowed tradition: the Twelfth Man.\u00a0

To this day, members of the student body remain on their feet throughout every home game, symbolically declaring their readiness to take the field in case one of the 11 starters on offense or defense goes down.\u00a0

Just before the 1983 season, A&M coach Jackie Sherrill even created the Twelfth Man Kickoff Team.\u00a0This\u00a0group of 11 non-athletic scholarship students would wear\u00a0the home team’s uniform and hurl themselves recklessly at their opponents’ kickoff returner.\u00a0

Unsurprisingly, they became known as the Suicide Squad. Surprisingly, they were actually quite\u00a0good.

Ike Liles made the Twelfth Man Team\u2019s first-ever tackle on opening night against the California Golden Bears. “We were slobberin’ hungry to go hit somebody,” he said. He will never forget the ovation that arose from the stands when he brought down his opponent. \u00a0

The essence\u00a0of the Twelfth Man is that leadership doesn’t always have to come from\u00a0“proper channels.”\u00a0A key player\u00a0can seemingly come from out of\u00a0nowhere and make a difference.

That’s what happens in Psalm 110, one of the Old Testament’s Messianic texts.\u00a0It looks forward to the One who would save Israel and ultimately rescue\u00a0the whole world.\u00a0Concerning\u00a0this future Messiah, the psalmist writes,“You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek”<\/em> (110:4).\u00a0

Wait. Who?<\/em>

This Melchizedek seems to come out of nowhere.\u00a0He had been mentioned just once before, in Genesis 14:18-20, where the patriarch Abraham honors him.\u00a0So why\u00a0does a shadowy one-and-done pagan priest\u00a0like Melchizedek suddenly take center\u00a0stage in the Psalms?

Author Tim Stafford notes an analogy to the three branches of American government.\u00a0Our Constitution carefully separates the authority of each realm.\u00a0When the system is working in a healthy way, Congress makes laws, the Executive enacts laws, and the Supreme Court interprets laws.

Ancient Israel recognized\u00a0three\u00a0“branches” as well. There were prophets, priests, and kings.\u00a0Prophets proclaimed God’s will.\u00a0Kings carried out God’s will.\u00a0Priests represented the people to God\u00a0and God to the people.\u00a0

During Old Testament times, it was understood\u00a0that no single figure could assume all three roles, especially since\u00a0kings had to come\u00a0from the family of David and priests had to come\u00a0from the family of Levi.\u00a0\u00a0

Psalm 110 is basically an announcement that something new is about to happen.\u00a0

The Messiah would indeed be a royal figure\u00a0from the line of David.\u00a0But he would also be a priest – not from the line of Levi, but from the “line” of Melchizedek, a spiritual Twelfth Man who suddenly\u00a0steps into the picture and sets the stage for\u00a0Jesus becoming\u00a0a one-time-only combination of prophet, priest, and king.\u00a0\u00a0

The only other mention of Melchizedek comes in the middle chapters of the New Testament book of Hebrews, where this idea is explored in depth.\u00a0\u00a0

Interestingly, Melchizedek was not\u00a0a Jew.\u00a0He wasn’t a member of the Chosen People.\u00a0Yet, as Stafford points out, he embodied the kind of leadership that Israel (and the whole world) would need in the person of Jesus.\u00a0

In our resume-driven culture, the spotlight tends to shine on a handful of\u00a0leaders who have been blessed\u00a0with the best\u00a0training, the deepest experience, and the most glowing\u00a0recommendations.\u00a0We must not minimize such essentials.\u00a0But it’s amazing how often great leaders seem to “come out of nowhere” at moments of need.

That’s especially true within the gatherings of those who follow Jesus. \u00a0

Concerning gifts or abilities provided by the Holy Spirit, Paul writes, \u201cNow to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good\u201d (I Corinthians 12:7).\u00a0

You might be gifted as an administrator.\u00a0Or a listening ear. Or someone who loves teaching children.\u00a0Or who offers encouragement.\u00a0You might be gifted with a hammer and saw on a Habitat for Humanity work site. Or with a laptop, offering writings that inspire other people.\u00a0Or with a guitar.\u00a0Or with a financial ledger, making sure your congregation pays its bills on time.\u00a0

The variety of such Twelfth Man leadership \u2013 making use of your gifts at just the right moment \u2013 is endless.

Many of us, however, are afraid that our gifts aren\u2019t sufficiently important or spectacular. \u201cI can\u2019t pray out loud, so don\u2019t ask me to do that.\u00a0I could never teach a Bible lesson.\u00a0And I\u2019m terrified of walking into a hospital room and spending time with someone who\u2019s just gotten bad news.\u00a0I can\u2019t do anything<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0

But God refuses to let us define ourselves by what we cannot do.\u00a0Paul is adamant that while the Spirit\u2019s gifts are different, every one of them matters.\u00a0

Nor are we to spin our wheels in the emotional bog of gift envy.\u00a0\u201cIf only I could sing like him.\u00a0Then I\u2019d feel useful.\u00a0If only I could lead the way she leads.\u00a0Then I\u2019d be happy.\u201d\u00a0

To put it bluntly, \u201cNo, you wouldn\u2019t!\u201d\u00a0Each of us has been specially gifted and specifically wired to serve in particular ways \u2013 ways that have been prepared in advance by the Holy Spirit.

The drama of discovering our own call is too marvelous to squander by wondering what life would be like if only we had someone else\u2019s gifts.

Real discipleship, after all, is not an invitation to sit comfortably in the stands.\u00a0

God\u2019s call is that all of us should get into the game.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Just outside Kyle Field \u2013\u00a0Texas A&M University’s\u00a0football stadium in College Station, TX –\u00a0stands the bronze statue of a young man named E. King Gill. Gill was sitting in the stands of another stadium in Dallas on January 22, 1922, as A&M (known by a different name at the\u00a0time) played in\u00a0the first-ever… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1112,508],"class_list":["post-5428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-melchizedek","tag-spiritual-gifts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5430,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5428\/revisions\/5430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}