Tonight, most around the country (almost all around the South) will tune in for the BCS National Championship game between the Auburn Tigers and the Oregon Ducks. As an avid Alabama fan, I'm in a strange perdicament...
Who to pull for?
Oregon? Pulling for Oregon makes sense. Auburn is Alabama's hated rival and thus the last thing I should want is for Auburn to win the game. It makes it particularly hard when Alabama won it just one year agon.
Auburn? Although a heated rival, Auburn represents the entire Southeastern Conference (Alabma is also a member). Thus pulling for Auburn is like pulling for the SEC and helps solidfy the conference's domination as the country's best football conference.
This interesting scenario is the same choice that we face in church life. Many churches view other churches in their town as competition. If another church sees success, instead of celebrating with them, we find things to nitpick and complain about. When our church succeeds, we highlight why we're better than the church down the street. We compete rather than cooperate, and in the end, the Kingdom of God suffers because we are selfish rather than selfless for the sake of the Gospel. We refuse to cheer and help the church that is in our very own conference. May we see that the Kingdom is better than the address on our letterhead.
By the way, I'm not pulling for Auburn...I'm pulling for the SEC.
1 comment:
Awesome! My own thoughts exactly (well without the football analogy). :-) Hope you all have a safe trip and a blessed weekend. Praying that it will be a blessing for all who go, and that all will be drawn closer to Jesus. Almost makes me wish I was a little younger and knew how to ski. :-)
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