The number of people that watched the Super Bowl last Sunday was in the ball park of 100 million.  I was one of them.  It is also estimated that thousands of pounds of guacamole and salsa were eaten.  I also contributed to that figure.  Super Bowl Sunday is my favorite sports day of the year.

Millions of people rooted for the underdog New Orleans Saints to finally win the big one.  A city that has experienced the horror of natural disaster, and is still rebuilding, rallied behind their beloved Saints.  Catching the Who Dat fever, I too, hoped they would do it.  And they came through.  One of the many contributing factors to the win came in the form of kicker Garret Hartley.  As the first field goal kicker in history to hit 3 FG’s over 40 yards in a Super Bowl, he kept his team scoring and kept momentum going.  He had to go deep – and came through each time.

I’m going to take that “going deep” football phrase and shift gears to apply it to our faith life.   Before you switch off thinking that “Yes, I’ve heard the ‘Go deep with God’ message before,” I’d like you to stay with me a minute.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I bet you haven’t thought about it in quite the way I’d like to present what it means to go deep in your faith.

One common usage of going deep means that we ‘know more.’  That we have more Biblical knowledge and are really good with applying relevant scripture to life situations.
Another is that we believe that going deep relates to our spirituality.  That we have spent  much time reflecting on what we really believe and are in touch with our values and how they influence us.  In other words, we really have good knowledge about what we believe.

Yet another application of the term can relate to the amount of time we spend in prayer.  We all know people who we would call “pray-ers.”  The time they spend praying may give us reason to believe that they have a deeper relationship with God than someone else.

My friends with whom I consider to have deep friendships know me well.  They know how I think, what I like, what drives me nuts, my history – and I know the same about them.  We have knowledge of each other.  So definitely going deep does have a component of knowledge.

I also have friends with whom I spend much time.  We talk, we laugh, we communicate – so going deep does have a component of time spent together.

But is it possible to know a lot about someone, spent time together and not have a deep relationship?  I think about some of the people who were around me when I spent 8 – 5 every day in an office.  We had knowledge of each other’s lives and spent a lot of time together – but there was no depth.  So what was the missing component?

I’d like to suggest that it was the amount of my heart that was invested in the relationships.

Here is an example.  The guy that sat three offices down from me had a wife named Ellen.  He had two boys ages 8 and 10 and he was an Iowa State alumni.  He drank tea (not coffee), played golf on weekends, shopped at Harry Rosen’s and wanted to go parachuting some day.  We joked about college football; I ribbed him about being a “candy pants” for not drinking coffee, and we occasionally had lunch together. (We both loved Schlotsky’s sandwiches).  To an outsider, it may have appeared that we had a depth of friendship with each other.   However, when I got a new job, I left the company and never had contact with him again.  My day to day life was not any different and I doubt that his was either.  We shared some knowledge about each other and time together during the work day – but was there depth?   I’d say not.  So this begs the question, why?  If time spent together and knowledge do not automatically equate to depth, what does?

I don’t mean this to sound harsh – but there was no depth because my ability to get through my day did not matter whatsoever on my work buddy’s presence (or absence) in my day.

How much of my existence is reliant upon someone else?  THAT is where going deep takes a radically new meaning.  I have true depth with friends whom I call often throughout the day because I value their input into my life.  I can’t wait to celebrate good things with them.  I need to pray with them over not-so-great things.  I rely on them emotionally to get me through a struggle.  Those are my deep relationships.  When I think, “I can’t wait to tell _____ about this…” – I know we have some depth.

So what does going deep with God have to do with this?  I might have knowledge about God and the Bible; I might spend time praying to Him; but if I can live my life making decisions without involving Him; I have no depth.  If I don’t seek out what His Word says on a matter, and simply give my own opinions; I have no depth.  If I can do my own thing and just touch base with Him later; I have no depth.

Here is the lesson in this:  You can do a quick check of your depth of relationship with God by asking yourself – How much of your day can you get through without relying on Him?  The more that you rely on God to get through your day – the good, the bad and the ugly – the deeper your relationship.  Your reliance will come as you seek to do nothing short of making decisions that will please Him.  The more of your heart invested in that – the deeper you’ll be.  Bible reading and prayer are key components of it – but if you do not want to walk in a way that pleases Him, those things on their own won’t do much good.

At one point in my life, I only touched base with God at night for prayer time.  The rest of my day, I was on my own.  Now, I barely can get through anything without talking to Him about whatever is happening in front of me.  That doesn’t mean I am perfect – far from it.  I am a sinner, saved by grace.  But I have no doubt about my depth with God.  We go deep.

The Saints were victorious last Sunday – and fellow saint in Christ, I pray that you too will be victorious as you seek to go deep with Him. Cheesy parallel, I know, but nonetheless, I had to tie it back to football!

Peace.