Growing up in the south, football, especially college football, is an obsession. Sickness may be the best word to describe. Anyway, it's definitely a disorder. People get their team's logo tattooed onto their bodies, have their cars custom painted to match that atrocious Tennessee orange & name their kids & pets after their favorite players. Some people even go so far as to think God somehow gets caught up in this hysteria. Now personally I've always believed that God has bigger things going on other than making sure Kentucky somehow managed to beat Ole Miss (the fact that either won could be argued as a miracle), but I'm beginning to think I might have been wrong.
Thursday night a guy who has been an obsession for a lot of people since he was in high school changed my way of thinking. In the name of full disclosure I must tell you I am one of the fanatics here in the south. I LOVE the Florida Gators, & Tim Tebow is like a national treasure for Florida fans, but even in all his years at Florida, I never thought God really cared who won or lost a football game. Then Thursday night, Tebow led the Denver Broncos to yet another win & to make it better it was against the Jets, a team no one expected them to beat. After the game, not only did they talk about Tebow, but they also talked to Tebow who took every opportunity to share his faith. If that weren't enough, after he left the set, the guys on the NFL Network continued to talk about Tebow's character & faith. With TebowMania hitting a fever pitch in Denver, Jesus actually got most of the spotlight.
So maybe God does care who wins a football game, if it's going to put His Son in the spotlight. If winning something as insignificant as a football game will allow Jesus to somehow get the glory that our world wants to throw at a guy who can run & throw, then maybe God does have a team or a player that He pulls for. After all, the Broncos were an absolute mess a few weeks ago, & they still look ugly for about 95% of the game, but then it's "Tebow Time". Then when the dust settles & the post-game flattery begins, the player in the spotlight deflects it all toward His Savior. So yeah, maybe God does care about a football game, just like He cares about that 3rd grade class you teach, those patients you see, that business you run, or that ministry where you serve. Perhaps leveraging whatever platform you have for the glory & fame of Jesus draws your Heavenly Father's attention & gets Him involved. Just a thought.
