Football season started back up last night. And I couldn’t help but wonder if we idolize sports and the athletes? I didn’t change my routine last night, my wife and I still read our Bible’s but afterwards instead of turning on a cooking show, our normal routine, I tuned in to the NFL Thursday night opener, pitting the Houston Texans against the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
I’m also into fantasy football, I know something else that could potentially take my attention from worshipping God.
I prayed that if I’m not to watch football that God would cancel the season and give me a clear answer. I certainly don’t want anything to take away from my worship. I don’t plan on missing church or, neglecting Sunday School preparation, or taking away from our nightly Bible reading because of it.
One could argue that if you allowed it, anything could take time away from your worship time. Not to toot my own horn, really, but I quit drinking alcohol about a year and a half ago because I felt like it was hindering my walk with Jesus, and I do feel closer to God as a result of my sobriety. I’m not saying you can’t enjoy a drink or two and still worship God, but for me, I feel like it was the right choice.
If you look back in the Bible, it talks about false idols a lot. Now, I don’t worship football, or sports or athletes, but I also don’t want sports to get in the way of my worship time and putting God first.
Zechariah 13 says “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.” (Bible Gateway 2020)
And in Zechariah 10:2
“For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd.” (Bible Gateway 2020)
I’m sure I could write an article about the football players kneeling and social injustice and our feelings about that today, September 11, 2020, the 19th anniversary of the insidious attack on the United States. I served 22 years in the military and I personally don’t like to see kneeling during the National Anthem. I say stay in the locker room or kneel the entire game if you want, but not while the flag is on the field and the National Anthem is playing and the airplanes are flying over. They taught us to stand at attention and salute the flag during the Anthem. It’s certainly not bringing us closer together and uniting us, it is bringing us further apart and dividing us, but I digress. I won’t charge you for my two cents, at least I got that out of my system, and I won’t bring it up again, whether you agree or disagree. It’s not my intent to start a debate, certainly not that type of debate with this article.
However, I did listen to an article with Dak Prescott today, where he was praising God for allowing him to be blessed with the skills to play football and I enjoyed that very much.
And the Kansas City Chiefs owner, Clark Hunt, is a devout Christian also and they won the Super Bowl last year, so sports can be a good thing, if we allow it.
The point of this article is to not put anything before God, whether it’s football, sports, athletes, alcohol, drugs, our jobs, even our families. God allows us to have all these things, our careers, our families and our health.
We’ll see if there is a football season or if it is cancelled and I may have just answered my own question with the above links. It could be all in how we watch or allow ourselves to be entertained, because that is what it is, entertainment. There are two examples of two Christians associated with football above, God Bless and thanks for taking the time to read my article.
Carry the Load 