Buffalo Bills 34....Kansas City Chiefs 25.....(I'm Sure I Would Have Watched That Game)

                It could very well have been 1965.....December 12 to be exact....I was fifteen....the uniforms were near exactly the same....red on one team.....white with blue on the other. The same logos on the helmet....or just about the same. There was one difference in that the quarterback was no longer Len Dawson but....I can't remember his name....the polite young man for the Kansas City Chiefs.....and the other quarterback was no longer Jack Kemp....but....I can't remember his first name....Allen being his last name. I was a Buffalo Bills super-fan back then. Jack Kemp was my hero....then two decades later he was a hero again as a conservative politician! Actually he was a pretty conservative quarterback too.
                The won-loss statistics for yesterday.....the Lord's Day.....were the same as always.....as the same number of teams won.....as lost! The same number of cities are happy today....as those that are not. Pittsburgh is happy. Tampa Bay probably is not. I don't know who won the Kansas City/Buffalo game as I saw these clips on the television this morning as I was having breakfast in the hotel restaurant.
                 I'm talking about my own life here....my own history.....as a Buffalo Bills fan....and then a Steeler Fan.....and a Pitt Panther fan....and a Pirate fan....and a Penguin fan.....so many games shouting in the stands....so many celebrations.....so many curse words....so many hundreds and probably thousands of hours reading about these teams.....what a gigantic waste of that part of my life! Today it is no longer a crown of righteousness....an unfading crown of glory...a crown of life for which we race....but a perishable wreath....and this as we watch someone else race.
                 Can you even imagine.....I know that you can't....Peter and Paul on a rare off day together....where Peter says of the gladiator games that day...."I like that big guy....five cubits and a span"....whereas Paul Says...."Nah....he's too slow!" Or how about John Calvin who thought he would sit on the fence as to Scripture and the Lord's Day....what do you think he would say today about our Super Bowl Sundays and our Oscars....and general all-around family days once the drudgery of church is over?
                 One team is going to kick a ball better....or throw a ball better....or hit a ball better. One pitcher is going to win a lot of games....and then abandon that city for one where he can get more money. "Money.....money.....money"....as Sally Bowles would sing with the Master of Ceremonies.
                 There is a cozy little area in this hotel by the fireplace....and I would have sat there yesterday with a coffee and a book....but someone the night before....in the bar....after the college football game....threw up all over the carpet.....so the hotel closed it off. I can't complain though....for I been there....as I remember my buddy throwing up all over the bar....where I had to clean it up.....this fifty-four years ago.
                  Ah but the Christian life is so much easier today....for God has blessed us with all these things....walk-off homers....last second touchdowns....overtime sudden-depth goals....long putts on the 72nd hole for our Master's golf pool guy to win! But as all these years pass by....we get older....the movie actors are old....the hall of fame players off in obscurity somewhere....the rock stars are still singing....only a couple of octaves lower....the ones that aren't dead already anyway. 
                  There is one big problem though.....for as we near eighty....and everyone smiles as Pap or Pop still roots for his team....how cute....the judgement gets closer each and every game day....where we will have to try to explain.....before the Lord of Glory.....the Alpha and the Omega....and the King of Kings....why for six decades we loved our sports team more than we loved Him!