The NFL Fast

Most people who know me also know I am fond of watching and playing sport.  In my adulthood I have been on 10-pin bowling teams, company and church softball teams, and have played baseball during the last few years.  I used to enjoy going down to the park and playing touch and tackle football (gridiron) on weekends and holidays with my brother and friends.  Being from San Diego, I have been a Padres and Chargers fan since the early to mid-80's.  Long before I had a TV in our home, I would carry my little battery-powered radio around and listen to the Padres games.  Every year I would actually write a letter to the Padres office to request the annual schedule.  Every year I rejoiced to receive that envelope in the post, stick my new schedule to a cork board, and listen to as many games as I could.

Even now as I sit at my desk, I can see last year's San Diego Chargers schedule hanging in plain view.  As much as I enjoyed the Padres, the Chargers have been my number one team for my whole life.  The quality of my Sundays as a kid was directly impacted by the Chargers, and let's just say growing up all those 4-12 seasons took their toll.  But I was a true fan.  Whether the Chargers went to the playoffs or won a single game in a season I stuck with them faithfully in good times and bad.  I remember the day when the Chargers drafted LaDainian Tomlinson.  I can say without fail I watched 99% of every play from scrimmage he ever had as a Charger.  When I wasn't watching the Chargers, I listened to talk radio of people discussing the Chargers.  I loved the games, replays, competition, drama, strategy, and the edge-of-your-seat excitement.  I love football, what can I say?

As the new NFL season is about to begin, there is something a bit odd about my schedule:  it is the schedule of last year.  I haven't printed out a schedule of this year because I am not going to watch a single game, even if the Chargers (against all odds, I shouldn't wonder!) reach the Super Bowl for the first time since 1994.  It wasn't my idea to take a season off from watching the National Football League.  It is not because of the rule changes, issues I have with team ownership, the vast revenues and salaries, the prevalent injuries, or the culture of pride.  The reason why I am not going to watch a game this season is because I am convinced God clearly has told me not to, and the way He did it was miraculous.

Have you ever had a time when your heart was unsettled and you knew something wasn't right?  Perhaps you found you were almost arguing with yourself, trying to convince yourself everything was fine - but there was a conflict within.  I have had many such internal battles during my life.  This year, of all things, I had reservations about buying my annual subscription to NFL Game Pass.  I felt conflicted about it, and I couldn't understand why.  One day I am certain God impressed upon my heart, "Admit it.  You LOVE football."  Immediately I denied it.  "I like football, don't be ridiculous."  But then I started thinking.  Before I had a subscription to NFL Game Pass I would set my alarm to wake up at 3am to stream a game from Australia.  I checked the website daily for news and enjoyed reading the articles and watching highlights.  If I wasn't watching football, I enjoyed thinking about it.  I relished the drama of the last second field goals, the amazing kickoff returns, catches, and runs, crazy comebacks, bone-crushing blocks, and talented feats of agility and strength.  "You are right, God," I relented.  "I DO love football.  I have loved it for a long time."

The fact that I would give up virtually anything to keep watching football told me there was something wrong with my love of the game.  Football may be the greatest game ever (and without question my favourite to watch or play), but even things good in themselves can be detrimental.  You may not think my admitting I loved football was a big deal.  So what?  Don't lots of people love football?  It is a big deal because I believe the Bible is the Word of God and therefore loving things of this world is a serious problem.  1 John 2:15 plainly says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."  God used this verse to confront my misplaced affections.  My love of football - which is not an allowable exception to the truth of 1 John 2:15 - revealed my love of football was conflicting with my love of God.  Placing my affections on a game, a thing of this world, robbed God of love He deserved to freely receive from me.  That is why I initially resisted admitting I loved football.  And the implications stood:  it was either football or God.  If football demanded even a fraction of the love God intended me to demonstrate for Him, my priorities and my heart needed to change.

Even after I admitted I loved football, the resistance wasn't finished.  The battle continued as I was conflicted about what to do.  At some moments I thought God wanted me to quit watching football indefinitely, maybe just for a season, or simply to repent and to remain vigilant football was not claiming my affections.  Leading up to the Israel trip this year, I was still coming to grips with the fact I loved football.  Of all places, God clearly spoke to me in the Garden of Gethsemane during that trip.  As I sat quietly in the place where Jesus cried out to His heavenly Father facing crucifixion and death, there I was waffling over watching football or not!  I didn't want to even think or pray about the football issue, but it kept coming back.  I was disgusted.  I said, "LORD, I have the sense you are asking me to not watch football this next season.  Please clearly tell me what you want and I will do it."  Precisely at that moment, I raised my eyes and saw a small round item on the ground.  I wonder what that is, I thought.  I picked it up and began rubbing it between my fingers to clean off the corrosion.  As the face of Abraham Lincoln came into view, I was amazed to be holding a United States penny.

There I was in the Garden of Gethsemane in Israel, and to find a U.S. penny was shocking.  Faintly I could make out the inscription:  "In God We Trust."  Instantly I was reminded when Jesus was being tested by the Pharisees about whether the Jews should pay taxes to Caesar or not.  He said, "Show me a penny."  Since moving to Australia, I have not seen a "penny" for years.  The massive single cent coins in Australia were removed from circulation decades ago, and change is given rounding up or down five cents.  Jesus continued to ask, "Whose face is on the money?"  "Caesar's," they answered.  Jesus said, "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."  The latter half of Jesus Christ's answer hit me:  if God asked me to give up watching football for a year, that is His just due.  Since I have been bought with a price I must choose to honour God instead of myself.  In light of Christ's sacrifice on Calvary, was football too precious to give to God after all Christ had given for me?  It was settled then, and the peace of God filled my heart.  My heart rejoiced in God's love, and all doubts fled away.  I would fast from the NFL for a season.  I am not losing anything, for God is more than sufficient to fill my heart and mind in years past occupied with football.

God does not require us to do more than He asks.  Right now He has asked for me to give Him this NFL season.  He has not yet asked me to stop watching gridiron for the rest of my earthly days, but even if He did it is not too much for God to demand.  The question will come to us all who follow Jesus:  is there anything in your life that you set your affections on in God's place?  Are there things we are unwilling to forsake for the purpose of pursuing God?  We are told, "Do not love the world or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."  God may not ask you to lay aside the things you love, but don't forget at times He commands to lay aside even the things we need - like food!  Jesus fasted from food and drink for 40 days in obedience to God by the leading of the Holy Spirit.  The lesson is that man shall not live by bread alone but by every command from the mouth of God.  God is more necessary than food for us, and obedience to God is more important than sacrificing a century of football!  As we go through this life, God desires we forsake all other loves in response to His great love He demonstrated on the cross.  Football never loved me, but Jesus does!