Many avid football fans approach this week with mixed feelings. There is incredible joy because the Super Bowl has always been promoted as the football game to end all football games. Actually that might be closer to the truth this year. There is also great disappointment because it signals the end of the football season. I must be counted among this group.
Several observations:
Among those who will fill the stadium will be Christians who had attended worship prior to going to the game. Many will lose their voices as they shout and scream their team on to victory. And yet, their voices are too often silent when it comes to witnessing to their relationship with Jesus Christ.
Along with losing their voices they will spend large sums of money for their seats and eats – more than they would have dropped into the offering plate that morning. One fills the coffers of multi-million dollar organizations that pay obscene amounts of dollars to a few men to play a crazy game. The other, the offering plate stuff, supports outreach ministries that changes lives and heals emotional wounds. Something is terribly wrong about this particular picture!
Then there is the comparison of face painting and outlandish costumes worn by followers of a particular football team along with magnetic signs placed on their vehicles and/or fly those window flags which communicates to everyone which team they support vs. them stating that they wouldn’t dream of witnessing to their relationship with Jesus Christ out of fear of the possibility of offending someone.
Another perspective, at least within the financial picture of professional football, was captured by an unknown author who wrote: Imagine another world looking down at 60,000 people who pay $900,000 to sit in a stadium that cost $45 million to watch 22 men being paid $7 million a year dispute the possession of a ball that costs $16.95.
Having said all of this I will confess that I will be in front of my TV Sunday evening rooting on the New Orleans Saints. I actually do not have a “dog-in-this-hunt,” but after hurricane Katrina and the fact that the Saints have never been there … why not? I just pray that I become as excited about my faith as I do about a silly little game played on a pasture of green grass and watched by millions of people.
Quote for today: “Breathe a prayer of gratitude. And give those you love an extra measure of affection. Life is fleeting and love is precious. Cherish both.” Galen Guengerich
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