Letters from the Soul: This Month's Newsletter Column

(I imagine this post takes on a slightly different tilt after the thorough drubbing the Donkeys experienced at the hands...claws? of the Seachickens.  Winning a Super Bowl will only expand the proverbial bandwagon, I am sure.  Such is life. =) -E.A.)

February 2014: "Joining the Bandwagon"

Dear Church,

 

As I posted on my Facebook page last week, I will indeed be cheering for your beloved Seahawks in the Super Bowl this month against the Denver Broncos.  But it is not because I have somehow grown to like your Seachickens, oh no.  It is because of how deeply my Kansas City-bred self is programmed to root against the Donkeys.

 

I mean, the Broncos.

 

And now, everywhere I go in town--even to this Starbucks from which I am writing my column to you--I see pro-Seahawk signs popping up that hadn't previously been there.  And hey, if you have been a fan for years and are now feeling bold enough to outwardly show the colors of your allegiance, more power to you.

 

But if you are hopping aboard the bandwagon just because you want to cheer for a winner...then might I gently say, on behalf of diehard sports fans everywhere, please try to avoid being a fair weather fan!

 

I realize that many of you do not follow sports, and so the entire premise of this column may appear odd, even frivolous.  But I firmly believe that this lesson from the relatively small world of sports actually is very applicable to variety of aspects of our life: including our lives as Christians.

 

We are not supposed to just casually jump on the God bandwagon, or to decide to be a fair-weather fan of God.  But altogether too often, I think we are.  We are quick to praise God when things are going well--we are happy to be His fans when things are going great for us--but when the inevitable losing streak kicks in, when things stop going our way, when the momentum of our lives shift, we are no longer so quick to sing His praises.

 

And yet, God tells us, through Solomon in Ecclesiastes, that time and chance happens to us all.

 

In other words, expect for bad things to sometimes happen.  That doesn't mean God wanted it or willed it or made it happen to hurt you, any more than your favorite sports team blew the big game simply to make you miserable.  No matter what happens, God is still--and always--worth your praise and your love.

 

And with that, I am off to go ask God for forgiveness for comparing Him to a favorite sports team...

Yours in Christ,

Eric