Football and Folly

In previous posts, I have shared a lot about our apathy, and how we need to get passed it and start caring about what's going on in the world. Without trying to beat a dead horse, I feel that I need to share some thoughts this morning as I sip my coffee.

My morning routine is almost always the same. Sleep in too late, rush to get ready, make my coffee, and head to work. Once at work I turn on my computer, take care of anything left on my desk by the attorneys the evening before, and then read the news.

And for the last 3 mornings of this week, there have been a lot of news articles about the foibles of the refs who have replaced the striking regular refs in the NFL. (Striking as in they are on strike, not that they are striking in appearance. Although, I don't watch much football, so for all I know they could be striking in both ways.) All over facebook, twitter, google+, and whatever other social networking site one uses, people are angry about the dumb calls these refs are making. They are worried about the future of this football season if the NFL doesn't make concessions to the refs so that they come back. There is some talk of the football players going on strike as well. America is on edge waiting to see what is going to happen.

All over football.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not knocking football, or any other sport. If this was happening in college basketball, I, too, would not be happy. But what strikes me is how fired up we get over things that are utterly meaningless. Yes, it's fun to watch a game, the ups and downs of seeing your favorite team play. But let's keep things in perspective, folks. Whether or not the replacement refs blatantly make the wrong calls is not, in any way, shape, or form, going to effect humanity.

So I have to ask. When is the last time you got as angry over the injustices in the world as you do over {insert meaningless thing that makes you angry here}. Our God is a God of righteous anger. I truly believe God is angry when his children are abused, mistreated, sold in slavery, abandoned, etc.

Sure, it's frustrating to see the outcome of a game botched by incompetent refs. But I think it's time we got angry over the fact that there are more people enslaved today than the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. That children are left in the street by their parents who refuse to take care of them, or are orphaned because of drugs, alcohol, and STD's. Get angry about the things that God, in his righteous way that we will never understand, gets angry about.

But don't stop there. Anger as the end is not righteous. Anger as the means to change, anger that fuels reform, that is what should be taking place in our lives.

(disclaimer: all the things that I post about are ways that God is working in my life, and prompting me to share in the blog-o-sphere. they are not, in any way, personally pointed at any reader, but instead personally pointed at me, with the hope of sharing how God is working in my life with my readers.)