A fair weather fan is a fan that is eccentric when their team is winning, but once the team starts losing, a fair weather fan abandons the ship real fast. No one wants to be a fair weather fan, but sadly many of us are. No one wants to be a fair weather fan, but sadly many of us are. We may not be a fair weather fan of a sports team, but many of us are fair weather fans of God's team.
As I write this, it is the start of Passion week--where Jesus enters Jerusalem before the crucifixion and resurrection. If you open your Bible to John 12, you can read about the story of Palm Sunday. John tells us that when Jesus’ ‘fans’ welcomed Him to Jerusalem, they worshiped Him. They shouted ‘Hosanna to the King,’ and they laid down their cloaks and palm branches for Jesus to pass over. At this time, Jesus’ fans all seem like die hard fans... you know, the ones who get big tattoos when their team wins the championship.
Flash forward seven chapters to John 19. A week later, those same ‘die hard’ fans now want Jesus to be crucified. Events didn’t go their way, so they quickly turned on Jesus. Even Jesus’s own disciples left him when the going got tough the night Jesus was betrayed.
Jesus tells us that in this world we will have suffering (John 16:33). In many places in scripture we find the reason for this (James 1:2-4, Romans 5:3-5, Hebrews 12:5-11) - God has a plan to grow us, strengthen us, purify us, and bless us. Fair weather fans that jump ship when the going gets tough miss these blessings.
It’s hard to be a Christian at times. When life gets hard, we have two choices. We can either abandon ship, or batten down the hatches. As followers of Jesus, it is our job to make sure we are not fair weather fans.
Do you only follow God when it’s easy?
Think of a time when you chose to follow Jesus in a difficult situation, how did you feel? What was the outcome?
How can you grow in trusting Jesus in difficult trials?