Pay Up!

Luckily the famous players lockout of the NFL ended soon enough for us to have football last year. Unfortunately though, there is another, lesser known lockout going on RIGHT NOW. It has definitely gained more attention recently though. The refs are on strike and have been replaced for now. It has been said that the temporary refs could start the season. Well I watched a little bit of preseason action, and I must say they were horrible last weekend. I know they were probably nervous, but there is no way they will be nearly as good as the actual refs (who many thought did a horrible job as it is). I don't know how far apart the two sides are, but it can't be that big. I just can't believe the NFL would be willing to compromise its product. The quality of the football games will drop if this isn't ended soon. I can remember a few terrible pass interference calls that were made. These are game changers because in the NFL it's a spot foul, so it ends up being like a 30+ yard penalty (by the way they should definitely change it to only 15 yards like college). It seems to me that the NFL has gotten kind of arrogant in thinking that they don't need the refs and can do it all on their own.

That brings me to another point. Do you see any similarities in your life? As human beings, we inherently try to take the credit for ourselves. We try to do things on our own. In doing so, we sometimes shun God from our lives. Everything will be going well, and it's times like that that are the most dangerous. Often times, it is the times when things are tough that we lean the most on God for help, but in times of prosperity, we kind of ignore him. We don't need him. We've got it all under control. That creates kind of an oscillating wave motion where we continually move toward and away from God, with peaks and valleys. That is precisely the kind of motion we want to avoid. Just as the NFL needs to see they can't do it on their own and compromise with the officials to maintain the quality of football that we're all used to, we need to see that we need God in all we do in order to be all we can be. God never stops loving us, so why do we stop loving him. God and love are eternal, not just our crutch.

Now I don't know how great that connection was between the NFL and God, but I am starting to think more about God in these everyday events and how we draw connections. I am very big on analogies, so there will definitely be more to come.