Hello,
I, along with
millions of others, and maybe even you, watched the Super Bowl yesterday. As Super Bowls go, I found it to be quite an
entertaining game as well as a game that made a lot of people happy. I say that because I saw a pie chart posted
on Facebook this week with a small black sliver of that pie indicating the
number of people who as Eagles fans were hoping that the Philadelphia Eagles
would win. The entire rest of the pie
chart was a light green depicting the vast percentage of people who were just
hoping that the Patriots would lose. I
know that the pie chart was a joke, but I have a feeling it wasn’t too far from
the truth. For a lot of reasons , the
Patriots have become a team to hate.
This morning as I
was in my car with my radio on, the Public Radio station was doing a story on
the Super Bowl. As part of the story,
the reporter was interviewing some of those folks that comprised that small
black sliver of people who as Eagles fans were hoping that they would win.
One woman
interviewee said this, “Yesterday was the second greatest day in my life. The first was the day that I married my
husband. Yesterday I saw my Eagles finally win the Super Bowl, and that was the
second greatest day in my life.”
“Wow,” I thought
to myself, “either that woman’s life is really miserable, really empty, or
really shallow.” After all, it was just
a football game. Now in saying that, you
need to know that I am a big fan of sports….any kind of sports. My wife will vouch for me by informing you of
two things: the almost locked-in reception our TV has to ESPN, and the existence
of my orange and blue, Oskeewowow Illinois man cave in our basement. For all the sports that I watch, especially
the Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois, I would find myself pretty
excited if the Illini ever (and I mean ever…ugh) won a national championship,
but I am certain that if they (but they won’t!) ever do win a national
championship it would rank far down my list of the greatest days of my life.
The thing that I
like about sports is its ability to be a great diversion in life. After all, running a ball across a goal line,
hitting a home run, scoring a goal, making a basket, sinking a put hardly
comprise matters of life and death. Sure,
the discipline and hard work put in by those who do these things best is worthy
of admiration and emulation, but the end product is really a piece of
entertainment and diversion. It gives
those who watch, and play, a chance to lose themselves in something of limited
consequence so that that of greater consequence isn’t quite so
overbearing. And I believe that we all
need these sort of diversions in life.
Thing is, though,
that like all diversions, life’s diversions are only temporary. Sooner or later life hits us smack in the
face, and when that happens something deep, not shallow or trivial, needs to be
there to keep us from getting crushed or swept away. And I find myself counting the advent of
those things in my life as some of the greatest days in my life….the day that I
married my wife, the day that each of my kids was born, the day I graduated
from Seminary, the day someone said to me “you saved my life”….. on and on I
could go. Thankfully, unlike my fear for
the interviewed Eagle fan, my life has been neither miserable, empty, or
shallow.
But greater than
all of these days, one day yet stands out as the best: the day that I got hit
with water….water that alerted me that it was me that was being spoken to…spoken
to by the one whose power spans the universe, who holds it together, who permeates
everything that is and isn’t…who is bound by nothing, not even space or time…..that
that one was speaking to me and saying, “Jerry, it was for you that I died and
rose, and I won’t let anything…and I mean anything….ever….and I mean ever....take
you away from me.
Now that was the
greatest day in my life, a day that makes every day great!
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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