One thing that I appreciate about football season is that it gets guys together talking. I walked into the dungeon (the back room of the gym where they put all the free weights) yesterday and two guys were shooting the breeze and arguing over which football team was better. It was fairly friendly banter, I think. There was however great disagreement on how good the Bucs and Colts and Raiders really were.

Arguments are most fun when there is no way to actually prove your point. It just leads to more arguing and you can’t possibly lose. And you’ve already won in your mind, so why stop? I guess that’s the thinking.

Well the argument never stopped the whole time I was in there! But at least a little headway was made: it was better than trench warfare (how bad of an idea was that!). In order to slow down the arguing, a bet was proposed. If the Bucs give up fewer than 30 points, one dude owes the other 50 dollars and vice versa. So I guess the argument will end in a week. Not too bad.

I think the game of football gets more BS going than any other sport. I have no way to quantify my findings; its just been my observation over numerous years. I guess it’s because coaching seems to be involved more so in football than baseball. In baseball, you have one bad managerial mistake, but with football, every play is subject to question. Or maybe its because football is only played once a week?

But it just makes me laugh, this phenomenon of football. I mean, one dude who doesn’t know my name (and probably doesn’t care), is like best buds with me because we both pull for FSU and talked about it one day for 20 minutes. Isn’t that crazy? I think they should do more sociological experiments with football fans. I know the best place to start the experiments!

On the way to the church this morning, I was listening to sports talk (big surprise, I know-but I did read the ‘ticker’ at the bottom of the screen during Good Morning America so I did get some ‘real news’). Anyhow a baseball commentator was being interviewed about the New York Mets’ tragic and historic collapse: they were up 7 games with 17 games to go. The Sports talk show host questioned if the manager’s job was at stake.

They went to the playoffs last year, and barely missed them this year. But each year comes the question: “What have you done for me lately?.” How quickly we forget. And it happens in every major sport. Now I’m realizing more and more that things which are perfectly normal to think about regarding mundane everyday stuff often get transferred over to our view of God.

For instance, the coach’s job is to win, and they are obviously subject to being fired based upon a lack of wins; I understand that, and they understand that when they enter into this profession. But don’t we tend to have a “What have you done for me lately view of God?” If He’s provided graciously for a period of time, and then for reasons unbeknownst to me, I hit ‘a rough patch,’ I wonder what the deal is. He’s not performing how I would like Him to perform. I can’t fire Him, so I complain.

I look back and see all the wonderful things God did for the Israelites, and they immediately forgot and started complaining. Ultimately they had a “What have you done for me lately” approach with God. However, I’m just glad I wasn’t in their shoes. Looking at my track record, I don’t know that I would have distinguished myself like Joshua and Caleb with great faith.

One thing I do know is that I look at God like a football coach (by the way-I was ready to fire Gruden, and still am if the Bucs don’t make the playoffs). But instead of looking at the most recent of my “wins” and “losses,” I really ought to reflect more on the past. He’s delivered before, and that’s all I need to go on. He’s done plenty enough to deserve “His job” and my respect for it.