Football is a god.  Football is an idol.  All sports taken to an extreme level are gods.

I was sitting at a “pivotal” football game last night in Columbia, Missouri.  My team lost.  Oh well.  I don’t care too much about it. 

 On July 7th, 2007, I was sitting in a different football stadium at an event called The Call Nashville.  The leader, Lou Engle, mentioned that it was really sad that people could fill football stadiums weekly to cheer on their favorite team.  Yet, people consider it weird to fill a football stadium to worship Jesus.

Think about it.  Most people would think it normal to clap, do the wave and chant in unison in support of their favorite team.  Yet, if someone is at church, they may struggle raising their hands in abandon to praise their Creator.  It’s no problem for people to scream in support of their favorite team to cheer them on for several minutes at a time at the top of their lungs.  Yet, if in church, many people are reluctant to scream their praise to God.  People feel embarrased to shout out words of thanks for Jesus Christ.

On another similar tangent, there’s crowd theory.  If a few people start clapping, soon thousands will clap.  If one side of a stadium chants the letters to a team name, then the other side will follow.  If there’s an inebriated man shouting degrading remarks about the opposing team, soon others will follow. 

It’s infinitely saddening for me to think about how people can have so much faith in a football team, yet little to no faith in God.  They spend thousands/millions/billions of dollars in support of their favorite team.  They invest hours upon hours in travel, watching and critiquing the games.

Fans put so much faith in their team.  They praise and curse as they watch the game unfold.  They rationalize in their head, “Oh, if they could just win the division or just win the National Championship, then life would be better.  I wouldn’t be so sad.  Things would be looking up.”

When people put faith in anything but God, they will be disappointed.  At some point, their favorite team will lose.  Believing in a team won’t lead to salvation.  Giving millions of dollars to a franchise won’t secure a spot in heaven.

Football (insert any other sport here) is a god.  People worship it.  It is their idol.  They bow to the schedule.  They plan their life around the next game.  They put more emphasis on watching a game than spending time with family.  Fans get drunk and beat up their wives and kids because their team lost.  Men and women get together to “drink their cares away” all in the name of football. 

And then there’s a whole ‘nother attribute to this madness.  Fans who worship and focus extremely on teams often hate the opposing teams.  They curse other states or cities that house opposing teams.  It’s like an uncivilized civil war.  Nebraskans profess hate for Coloradans, Oklahomans, Missourians, Texans…just because of football, and the other teams profess hate too.

That leaves an open door for Satan to spur up negativity, lies, deceit, hate, maliciousness, envy, jealousy, murder…all kinds of things.

Last night I was very grieved for the heart of God.  70,000 (and often so many more) people can show up in support of football teams weekly…but it would be a stretch for that many people to show up to support Him on a frequent basis.  I was ruined for ordinary last night.  I used to love football.  I was a die hard Husker fan.  Now I don’t want anything to do with it.  I have no desire to spend money on a ticket.  I have no zest for the Husker Nation.  I was just so upset at everything and so grived in my Spirit by the backwardness that I saw. 

People should be worshipping God with that much fervor.  People should shout His praises as loudly as for their favorite sports team.  But they don’t.  Some do..yeah.  But so many don’t.

Although it sounds like (or reads like…ha) I’ve totally given up on sports…I haven’t.  Something needs to be done about this.  Some Spirit-filled believer needs to confront this sports-fanish-idol-worshipping madness and show these people the Truth.  I don’t know how that can be done…but it needs to be.  I know a few people have mentioned this issue, but I’ve not seen a huge movement against the worship of the god of football…and the hero worship of the players/teams/coaches.

Maybe the person to rise up against it is me.  Maybe I’m the voice.  I’m not sure.  I’ll wait on God to tell me what to do next.