Super Bowl Champs!
I remember random things from my childhood. I’m sure we all do, but I am really glad I have this memory. I was about 6 or 7 and I was in my brothers bedroom and Monday Night Football was on. My mother was making me go to bed and I told her I wanted to stay up and watch more of the game. The team that was playing had this cool logo on their helmet. I decided right then and there they would be my favorite football team. (She made me go to bed)
So if you are ever on Jeopardy and Alex reads the previous paragraph you will know to buzz in and say “What is how Wes Howard became a Saints fan?”
I stuck with the “cool logo” team for the next 21 years. Every year I would have all the hope in the world about the upcoming season and every year they would fail miserably.
So you can imagine my excitement when the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl.
Finally, they were the champions.
Finally, cheering for them paid off.
Finally, my team was the winner.
After my jumping up and down subsided and the game went off the TV. I walked upstairs, brushed my teeth and got into bed. My life wasn’t going to change. I had already gotten back into my routine. The Saints winning it all did nothing but add temporary happiness to my life.
I’m not saying that cheering for sports teams are a bad thing. Not at all. I have so much fun cheering on this team, but pursuing happiness and joy in anything other than Christ leads to temporary results.
If I can only get this job, everything will be hunky dory.
If I can only date this girl my life will be complete.
If, If, If…
Once you realize that these things will bring you temporary happiness and they are not the end all be all, you can focus on making every moment in your life a chance for increased intimacy with the Creator. There’s no “if” when it comes to Christ’s love.
Go Saints! Super Bowl Champs!!
Cheering for the other team
There are times in my life when I catch myself looking at someone less fortunate than me and thinking, “I am glad I am not them.” I continue on my way in my Banana Republic clothes driving a Ford Edge and pulling into a card access only parking lot for work.
It wasn’t until church one Sunday night at Cross Point Community Church that my attitude changed. I walked in to see over 200 ex-cons and homeless people in the sanctuary. At first I was taken back a little. I sat down and waited for the service to start. The band got up and started playing then the next thing I knew I was worshipping the same God with people I thought were “less” than me.
I learned that night that everyone would be on the same level ground when looking up at the cross. Which brings me to a story that I read earlier. It’s a story of a football coach at a High School that has all the best equipment, great support, and “good” kids that wanted to do something nice for a football team under different circumstances.
He arranged a football game against a maximum-security correctional facility. Not only did he do that, he asked that half the crowd cheer for them. Treat the criminals like they would their own sons. Treat them “normal”. Something most of us would not do.
A game where cheering for the other side is better than winning
