Watching ESPN from September through December and you see all kinds of news about football. Even though the World Series happens in this time period and basketball starts in that time period, ESPN fills in air time with football stats. Watching ESPN from January through April and you see all kinds of news about football. The Super Bowl happens and the Pro Bowl happens. Then commentators have to analyze the season with all the mistakes and plays and players issues. The only thing that brings a lull into the situation is the three week intervention of March Madness. Again within that time period babseball season starts and hockey season and basketball season starts to heat up but we are still hearing all the latest football news. Watching ESPN from May through August and guess what? We're still watching all kinds of news about football. After all, trades, signings, and mid-summer workouts HAVE to be mentioned, not to mention the all important 4 week pre-season events. Again basketball playoffs, hockey playoffs, the All-Star summer classic happens in the same time period but once again the air waves are filled with football news. Not to mention the other football game called soccer (but let's just talk about real sports). It gets even worse when the Olympics are thrown in. Oddly enough, out of the sports mentioned football is not one of the games held at the Olympics. But they tend to use football announcers to help cover the sports being televised. And it isn't more than 10 minutes that one of them will compare the game or match being shown to some football moment.
Anyway, this is not a shot towards the game of football. It is enjoyable, especially when The Ohio State Buckeyes rip into the team up north each year. But this is a shot towards the mentality of what we have become as a nation and a people. People love it; you could say obsessed with it. The Super Bowl actually has the day named after it; Super Bowl Sunday. We start the day at 8:00 AM with preshows and analysis of each team and how they got there and stories of their families and we uplift them to hero and demigogue status. We are glued to the TV to see the commercials and the half-time show. We throw parties and try to impress every one we know with what we serve. Why are we so obsessed with the game?
It's because our society doesn't know how to stop and look at things. We have forgotten how to take time out and appreciate things around us. We are filled with hype all the time. We want action. We feel we have to be involved and connected at all times with everything around us. In football every play involves each and every player, both offense and defense at the same time. With each play there could be something that causes the crowd to change their demeanor and each play could be the play that creates the outcome. And if this isn't enough stimulation at least there are cheerleaders in skimpy clothing and lots and lots of beer to consume. So it is with our lives. Why do feel the need to always be in the middle, or need to be part of the action? No one is satsified with waiting for an outcome.
The problem is when we live our lives like that we tend to miss the things on the side. We miss out on the little things that help make our life special. We want immediate action. We then tend to react to situations instead of thinking about the issue and working through them. If it isn't immediate satisfying then we don't want to be a part of it. And if we react right away it means we are responding to our feelings only. And unfortunatelty, Christians have fallen into this mindset as well. We are way too much part of the culture instead of driving the culture. We fall into the traps of this world and get caught in the same problems. We over react. We act on impulse like animals. We feel rage in the moment. We lose the sight of the love that we are suppose to show. And then we wonder why so much hate is in the world.
Metaphorically speaking we need more baseball thinking in life. We need to be able to wait patiently "pitch by pitch" and to be able to assess our lives even in those down times. Baseball is the only team sport that is not timed. Football, basketball, and soccer all have their time run out on them. Baseball is based soley on the opportunities to achieve its goals. Imagine what life could be if we all just took the time to see the whole picture and not just rush to get things in before our time runs out.
How about a nice game of chess?
