Superbowl Sunday was marked by black Monday – at least here in Boston – as Patriot fans licked their gaping wounds from Sunday’s Super-disappointment. One gentleman sent me the following e-mail on Monday morning, which I have posted with his permission:
Good morning, Pastor Matt.
I have to confess, I am coming off a pretty much sleepless night. It is amazing to me how emotionally involved we can become in matters such as Super Bowl wins and losses. I need to find a way to disassociate myself from sports. I get so emotionally distraught when our “home teams” lose‚Ķ.primarily the big games. Have winning and sports become gods to us? Pastor Matt, I don‚Äôt understand how we can get so wrapped up in these things. The winning affects my life in no way at all other than the “good feeling” that accompanies rooting for the home team. The flip side seems so unbalanced.
Anyhow, I just thought I’d send you a note and ask that you somehow put this into perspective for me. No family member died…..no one got hurt….all are healthy and there are no debt collectors beating at the door…..and yet after the game, there was this giant sized hole/pain. Why do we take these matters so seriously? It’s silly really.. Have a great day.
I‚Äôm glad this brother wrote what most others are probably feeling but perhaps wouldn‚Äôt say. He raises some good questions, like why is it that we get so “emotionally distraught” over a simple game? Why do we take these matters so seriously? And perhaps the most important and revealing question of all: Have winning and sports become gods to us?
I think they have. After all, what is an idol but the object of our desires? “Worship is basically adoration, and we adore only what delights us” (John Piper, Desiring God, p. 19). Bear with me for a moment, as I paraphrase a few verses from the Psalms:
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for the Patriots. My soul thirsts for the Patriots, the undefeated Patriots. When can I go and watch the Patriots?”
“O Patriots, how sweet are your wins to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
“My soul thirsts for a Superbowl win, my flesh yearns for one, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
My intent is not to be sacrilegious, but to engage in hyperbole for the sake of making a point. Isn’t it ridiculous that our enthusiasm and sentiments for a sports team comes even close to paralleling our affections for God?
The problem is not that we’re pursuing pleasure but that we’re trying to find it outside of God. The prophet Jeremiah put it like this:
“My people have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate,” says the Lord; “for my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that hold not water.” (Jer. 2:11-13)
Like C. S. Lewis said, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
We settle for football instead of Christ. If it‚Äôs not football, then it‚Äôs something else: clothes, computer games, a higher income, the approval of others, a great sex life, etc. The tragedy is that we have seen our worship of God as something separate ‚Äì and perhaps even in opposition to ‚Äì our pursuit of happiness. This is what John Piper has rightly called “the moral enemy of worship.” Says Piper, “When worship is reduced to disinterested duty, it ceases to be worship. For worship is a feast.”
Isn‚Äôt this precisely the point that our compassionate Lord makes in Isaiah 55:2, when He says, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” You see, “the great hindrance to worship is not that we are a pleasure-seeking people, but that we are willing to settle for such pitiful pleasures” (Piper). We think that football or sex or popularity or more money or a better marriage or physical fitness or the affirmation of others can satisfy the longings of our soul. The fact is, they can‚Äôt; only Christ can.
Even those who “follow Christ” must be careful to seek their pleasure in HIM, and not just His gifts. Remember what Jesus told the crowds when they followed Him after He fed the five thousand? He said, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval” (John 6:26-27 NIV).
Rather than seeing Jesus as the object of their desires, they saw Him only as a means of fulfilling their wants. Recently I read an outstanding lesson on John 6 by Paul David Tripp in his book, The War of Words. In a chapter entitled “Following the King for All the Wrong Reasons,” he asked: “If you had to write down your dream for your life, what would you write? What is your ‚Äòif only,‚Äô ‚Äòif I could just have,‚Äô ‚Äòif God would just give me. . . then I would be happy?‚Äô”
Think about that for a second. What would your answer to that question be?
Tripp goes on to share insights from John 6, centering on our struggle between physical bread and spiritual bread: “In the middle of this struggle is the Deceiver, who would have us believe that life is all about physical bread, that spiritual things are of little consequence.” Tripp then goes on to share four subtle but persuasive lies that Satan puts before us. Time and space forbid me from expounding on all four lies, but they all culminate in the fourth deception, which is: Life is found in physical bread. Read carefully Tripp‚Äôs comments on this vital point. It will be well worth your time:
This is the lie of lies–that somehow, some way, life can be found outside of a relationship with God. This was the lie told by the Deceiver in the Garden, and it is the lie told countless times again every day. Feeding on physical bread only leads to more hunger. It is only as you feed on Christ by faith, receiving his life, that you can ever be satisfied. He is the Bread. He is life! All other offers of life outside of Christ lead parched people to drink at dry wells. He is the True Bread. He is the river of life. Follow him and within you will flow rivers of living water (John 4:13-14). Without him you are dead, even though you physically live (Eph. 2:1-10).
It is so easy to buy into the lie that life can be found in human acceptance, possessions, and positions. It is so easy to have your life controlled by dreams of success in your career. It is so easy to believe that nothing else satisfies like romantic love. It is so easy to fall into pursuing the idol images of Western culture–big suburban house, luxurious car, lavish vacations, etc. When we do this, we quit feeding on Christ. Our devotional life begins to suffer. We pray less,
and when we do, we pray more selfishly. We find our schedule doesn’t leave much time for ministry, and we spend more time with our colleagues at work than we do with brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. Functionally, we are feeding on the world’s bread, not on Christ.
Our entire life will be determined by which bread we pursue. There are no more dangerous lies than the ones that lead us away from a loving hope and surrender to the Creator we cannot see, and toward a bondage to an endless, unsatisfying pursuit of what is passing away….
We fall into spiritual depression when [Christ] removes the physical bread so that we would hunger again for the Bread that really satisfies….
To the degree that you have based your life on something other than the Lord, to that degree God‚Äôs love and the hope of the gospel will not comfort you. You will not be comforted because you are hungry for another kind of bread. You long for a king who will give you the bread you crave….
As we look at our own lives and all that we are living for, we need to ask, Whose dream, which bread do we seek?…
Perhaps many of us, even though we have not physically forsaken the King, have lost our enthusiasm for his grace and mercy because following him has not led to the fulfillment of our dreams….
This can be something as “silly” as a Superbowl win or something more subtle but just as superficial. You can find your satisfaction in physical bread, or you can find it in Christ, the living Bread. You can pursue your own dream, what you think will make you happy ‚Äì or you can pursue Christ and His dream for you — “the good portion, which will not be taken away from [you]” (Luke 10:42).
Certainly a timely and very true message. I was thinking as well that a situation like this just goes to further show that ONLY God is perfect. In some ways, I was relieved the Pats lost as it helped to bring that message to light more.
It’s always a struggle to walk in the light and yet still live within the world without being corrupted by it.
Only by listening to the Holy Spirit and following His direction can we focus on the spiritual instead of sporting event or other worldly distractions.
I’ve been thinking about these things too, and what follows below is the main thoughts of the journey I went on as I pondered these matters independently.
Football, of course, is a meaningless activity when viewed against the backdrop of eternity, and the possibility of using one’s life to advance the kingdom of the Lord. I too felt sad when the Patriots lost, but my sadness this year was less than that of years past, for example, in 2003, when the Red Sox lost to the Yankees. For me at least, the pain was less because this year, because during the season, I had not invested as much time in watching the Patriots as I have in years past. I’m sure that if I had watched the Patriots more, it would have bothered me more when they lost in the end. Still, I did watch this game, and it did hurt me for a couple of hours when they lost.
Later, I figured that if I could spend a few hours watching a bunch of men fight over a pigskin, and be rewarded with watching a team from New York celebrate a victory, then maybe I should spend a little time in God’s Word and see if I can at least learn a lesson or two from the experience. So, I got to thinking. What book, from the Bible, do you think of when you think of meaningless activity? I think for many people, the Book of Ecclesiastes comes to mind.
Ecclesiastes is a wonderful example of a negative lesson. Using the NIV version of the Bible, I open to the first chapter, and see these words:
‚ÄúThe words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: ‘Meaningless! Meaningless! Says the Teacher: Utterly Meaningless! Everything is meaningless!‚Äô‚Äù
Turning to the end of the book, we see these words instead:
“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”
So, in reading Ecclesiastes, we follow the journey of a man who spends a lot of time in vain pursuits, and learns in the end to live for the Lord. During the journey, we come to various stops, such as this one in the ninth chapter:
“I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong. Nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.”
The Patriots were sure that they were going to win the game. Many of us watching were sure too, because they were the stronger team. Instead, the Lord gave us an object lesson, in a few hours, of a truth: ‘success’ in these types of activities is uncertain. The Patriots were the stronger team, and ‘should’ have won the game, but by some ‘chance’ plays, that team from New York won the game instead. Looking at things from our perspective, rather than the all knowing eyes of God, it appears to us that time and chance happen to us all. To the eyes of God, of course, He knows what will happen, He is in control, and there is no chance to His plan.
The Patriots were stronger than the Giants, but may have forgotten that the Lord God is stronger than both teams. Did God in His wisdom cause the Patriots to lose? He may have been concerned about the souls of men who might otherwise become very proud at an accomplishment, and think more highly of themselves than they should. When bad things happen to you, such as losing something precious to you, it tends to increase your fear – maybe it will lead some to the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of all wisdom. (Proverbs 1:7). By way of contrast, remember that God mocks the proud, and gives grace to the humble. (Proverbs 3:34)
What happened to the Patriots in a few hours can happen to us in decades of meaningless living, if we are not careful to put our trust in the Lord Jesus rather than our own skills. Maybe we’ll spend our lives wearing ourselves out trying to become rich. Even worse, maybe we’ll make some real money, discover it isn’t enough, and decide we need to make more.
As Ecclesiastes 2 10-11 says:
“I denied myself nothing my eyes desired. I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”
So, I felt better, and learned a couple of things.
But why did it have to be a team from New York that won the game?
Some outstanding insights, Eddie! Thank you for sharing them with us!
Excellent blog, Pastor Matt.
What struck me is that for many Christians, the heroes we choose for ourselves may cause us to stumble into a form of idol worship.
Many Believers have heroes: children may look up to parents, teachers and coaches; adults may admire bosses, spouses, and pastors. Often, we’ll have great respect for the heroes in our lives, and will find great satisfaction and pleasure in trying to learn from and emulate their finer qualities. However, human beings are bound to fail. Daddy might work too much, and miss my graduation; coach may let his son start games, even though I’m a better player; and my boss might promote the pretty girl, instead of me.
So, too, might the professional athletes we follow become heroes to us, as we admire their abilities. Put in proper perspective, though, the benefits we get from them are dubious. As our Brother who emailed Pastor Matt pointed out, what real joy do we get from a the Pats win, except perhaps some sort of pleasant entertainment?
If we look to men for our satisfaction in life, we are sure to be let down more often than we’d like. Nevertheless, we can recognize that God puts us in places in life where we CAN know great, accomplished people, and can receive great benefits from our relationships with them. But our satisfaction should ultimately be not in knowing the people, as such, but in knowing God and being grateful to Him for putting such people in our lives.
As applied to the professional athletes “in” our lives, we can glory in God for making the Pats faster and stronger than the competition (well, usually). We can also thank God for the great entertainment we get in watching the talent He’s created put to use. But, beyond that, we might too easily run the risk of following in the footsteps of those of whom Paul wrote, in another context, that fell into “worshipping . . . the creature, rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever.” (Romans 1:25)
Let us labor in holy diligence to remember that it is God alone Whom we worship, adore, and in Whom we find all joy, peace and rest.
Amen. Thanks for your comments, Robert. They are consistent with Scripture and therefore profitable to all who will heed what they read!