The College Football Playoff and the Competitive Spirit

 

I was born and bred a Gamecock fan. My dad grew up in Olympia and we could see Williams Brice Stadium from my grandma’s front porch. Being a Gamecock has been a humbling experience most of my life. As a matter of fact I tease my Clemson Tiger pastor friends that Gamecocks make better pastors, because we understand what humility and long-suffering are all about.

Not only am I a Gamecock fan, but I also very competitive.  Competition is not bad if it helps motivate you to do your best in achieving a goal. But a competitive spirit really does nothing in terms of being a fan. My competitive spirit is not going to help the Gamecocks win more games. As a matter of fact, applying a competitive spirit to things you can’t control, like college athletics, is not only fruitless it can bring major frustration that bleeds in to other areas of your life.

Another fact to consider is that college athletics are never going to fully satisfy. When the Gamecocks win, it feels good…for a little bit. And when the Gamecocks lose it feels bad… again just for a little bit. The feelings associated with a win or the loss never has any longevity. So why should I invest so much emotional energy in something that does not ultimately satisfy? I am not saying don’t be a fan and enjoy college athletics. Just don’t let being a fan have a position of influence that compromises your relationship with Jesus.

Matt Chandler in his book “Creature of the Word” explains how nothing in this temporal world is going to ultimately satisfy the deepest yearnings of the soul. Chandler says, "We sit here in our modern-day world demanding that the activities of the moment satisfy us and give us meaning. We order them to meet the yearning lack of significance and purpose that aches in our hearts..."

Nothing in this temporal world can satisfy our heart that longs for the eternal.  Solomon even goes as far as to say, “Everything is meaningless” in Ecclesiastes 1:2.  Solomon, the wisest man ever, besides Jesus, goes on to expound in the next two chapters how wisdom, folly, pleasure, and work in and of itself does not satisfy our soul that craves the eternal.

Jesus, on the other hand says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” John 10:10. The thief tempts us with the temporal. However, investing in the temporal steals joy, kills relationships and can destroy real meaning in life. Jesus comes that we may have full life in Him. Only Jesus can make your life make sense. Only Jesus can bring abundance in life. Only Jesus can provide the only way to enjoy a real and vibrant relationship with God. Jesus also said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” John 14:6.

We can still enjoy the things of this world, like college athletics, just as long as we understand that these things can’t fulfill the deepest longest of our heart. I am looking forward to the final College Football Playoff game tonight. I am sure it will be a fun and entertaining game. And maybe it is easy for me to say that since my team won’t be playing and I am not emotionally invested. But even if my Gamecocks were playing for the championship and by some miracle they won (Don’t laugh, it could happen one year, ha!), it would not fulfill me like Jesus does.