Ok, I'll admit it...
I have a minor addiction to fantasy football.
For those who do not know what fantasy football is or how it works, let me break it down for you real quick. Thousands of groups of football fanatics gather together and form leagues. Then in August they sit down at their computers and draft real NFL players onto their fantasy football teams. Once the NFL season begins, each fanatic competes in a head-to-head competition with another fanatic to see who can score the most points and win the match-up. Points are accumulated based on how the players on your fantasy team perform in real life. Depending on how well each player does in his game determines how many fantasy points he gets you. For example, if 25 passing yards equal 1 point and every passing touchdown equals 4 points, then if the quarterback on your fantasy team throws for 100 yards and 1 touchdown in real life then he gives you 8 points (4 for the 100 yds and 4 for the TD) in your fantasy match up. The whole game is based on real life. Here's the hard part though, you only get to start a certain number of players each week and you have more players on your team than you can start. Any players you don't start have to sit on your bench and any points they score don't go towards you total. So if you have two quarterbacks on your team, you only get points for the quarterback you start each week, the one on your bench earns you nothing even if he scores more points than the quarterback you start. This is the real strategy of the game, knowing who to start and who to sit each week. It's also what drives fantasy addicts to the brink of insanity. Anyways, that's the gist of it. In reality, the only "fantasy" aspect of the game is that the players you draft for your team are not actually on the same team in real life.
And for what its worth, I don't care for the title "Fantasy Football." It makes me think of games played behind a computer screen in imaginary worlds that slowly waste away your ability to socially interact in the real world (Insert World of Warcraft joke here). Fantasy football is not that, but it can be just as addicting. I think a title like "Stat Addict Football" would be more fitting, but alas, that is not an alliteration nor is it nearly as catchy as "Fantasy Football."
But I digress...
Let me share with you the event that led me to write this post. It was week 5 of the NFL regular season and I was a woeful 0-3-1 in my fantasy football league. I was nearly ready to give up on the season, but had not quite yet reached the point where I could lose interest in something I typically love simply because I was doing terrible (as has happened to me me with guitar, basketball, rapping, and many other ventures), so I pressed on for a win. Along with my pitiful record and sinking self-worth, I was also facing a very important decision that could make or break my future. I had two quarterbacks and was unsure which one to start! I looked at their completion percentages, the opponents they had faced, the quality of the receivers they were throwing to, and much more. Even after all my in depth research I could find nothing that made one stand out from the other. To make matters worse, I was also preparing to teach a Sunday School lesson at the church I work for and found this fantasy football dilemma very distracting to my concentration!
I know, I know, I must be a terrible person to let something as inconsequential as fantasy football prevent me from being able to concentrate on my much more important Sunday school lesson...but I'm trying to be real here, so welcome to my life.
Now back to the story...
As these two issues grappled for control of my mind, I began to feel very convicted.
(See, I do have a moral compass!)
In the midst of this conviction though, a strange thought entered my mind. I asked myself, "Marlin, why don't you just pray about which quarterback to start?" The moment this thought crept out I immediately shrugged it off as madness. I said to myself, "God doesn't care about my fantasy football team, and besides, asking for Him to reveal which quarterback to start would be wrong, wouldn't it?"
This was such a trivial matter that asking someone like God to help me out with it seemed like being best friends with Michael Jordan and asking him to teach me how to play gin rummy instead of how to improve my jump shot (although I don't think even Michal Jordan, himself, could help me out there).
Of course I would ask God for help if something terrible happened to me or someone I love, but something as simple as fantasy football just seemed out of his realm of interest. I mean, there are lots of people going through very difficult situations, they should take priority over fantasy football, right? Wouldn't it just be a waste of God's time?
But no matter what I told myself, I could not get the idea out of my head. So you know what? I did it. I gave in. I bowed my head and asked God for wisdom on which quarterback to start. After my prayer, I looked at my roster, chose one, and immediately felt at peace about the entire situation. From that point on I was able to concentrate fully on my Sunday School lesson without any distractions.
So Sunday morning came around, I taught my lesson, went to the service, and came home ready to revel in some fantasy goodness...And guess what happened!?
The quarterback I started scored more points that the quarterback I benched!
Turns out God really might care about fantasy football after all...
But I still lost my match-up, bringing me to an 0-4-1 record and making me the only winless team in my league.
Turns out God also wanted to humble me and keep the idol of fantasy football success at a distance...Oh well, you can't win 'em all.
But this interaction with God did get me thinking. I began to wonder why I thought it would be so wrong to pray to Him about fantasy football. Was it because fantasy football is fun and I do not think God wants me to have fun? Was it because I didn't think God cared about it? Did I not believe He had anything to do with it?
In the end all these questions led me to the heart of the issue, I had separated God from other areas of my life. In my mind I had compartmentalized Him, and the realm of fantasy football had nothing to do with the realm of God. The two coming into contact never even crossed my mind. That is why it seemed so strange to even consider praying about it.
And that was my great sin.
Does God not care about the little things in life? Should I try to separate Him from other parts of the world, creating the secular realm where God is absent and the spiritual realm where God is present?
I believe the answer to this question is an emphatic "No!"
There is no way we can read about God's sovereignty and believe he is not intimately involved in every aspect of our lives.
Psalm 115:3 - Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases
Proverbs 16:33 - The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord
Ephesians 1:11 - In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will
Yet we do not live as if this were true.
There is a disconnect between what we say we believe and how we act.
It's ok to admit it, we often do this without even realizing it.
So who is the culprit behind all this? Well, it's everyone who has bought into the belief that there is a disparity between the spiritual and the secular, myself included. This is the heart of the problem.
We divide our lives. On Sunday morning, Sunday nights, and Wednesday mornings (if you are extra spiritual) we go to church, experience a service/Bible study/prayer meeting and leave believing that our spiritual needs bar has been filled for the week and will last us until the next service. From there we go back into our secular lives and do secular things in secular ways, hardly paying any attention to what God might think of our desires, actions, and motives. We believe we've already done our time for Him on Sunday, the rest of the week is for us!
And why wouldn't we think this way, everything in our society encourages it. We are taught from a young age that there must be a distinction between the secular and spiritual. Separation of church and state proclaims that there is no room for spirituality in the sphere of education. Science is portrayed as God's arch nemesis, as if God and science are opposed to one another and cannot coexist.
Spirituality is relegated to one particular realm of society, entertainment. Sunday morning services are judged primarily on how entertaining the music and sermon are. Now there is nothing inherently wrong with a talented music team or a well-delivered sermon, but when we think of Church only according to these standards we begin to equate Church with other forms of entertainment such as movies, novels, and music. This view of Church renders us completely incapable of even considering God being involved in any other parts of life. We compartmentalize God and never consider that we are missing out on the most greatest relationship we could ever be a part of. We sin against the very God who died to make us His own, treating Him like a mere morsel of entertainment that we can choose to indulge in or toss aside based on our own selfish motives.
The world implores us to divide the spiritual and the secular, but that could not be farther from what God desires of His people.
I recently saw a Church marquee driving home from work that read, "GOD WANTS FULL CUSTODY, NOT WEEKEND VISITS." While I am not a huge fan of cheesy Church signs, I do enjoy the ones that catch me by surprise with a witty take on the world, and this one fell right into that category! And even though it's funny, it does convey the truth we are dealing with right now. God doesn't want us to glorify Him on Sunday only, He calls us to glorify Him everyday in everything we do. If we only give God our attention on Sunday and won't even give Him the time of day Monday through Saturday because we have too much work to do, too many people to see, or too many other priorities, then we might as well sleep in on Sunday. God won't give a flip whether or not we show up if our hearts don't belong to Him. God desires full-time worshipers, not part-time lobbyists trying to get on His good side for their own selfish ambitions.
Paul puts this very simply in 1 Corinthians 10:31 - "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
This verse reveals to us that what God really wants is a committed relationship that involves everything we think, say, and do. It reveals that it is indeed possible for us to bring glory to God in even the most simple tasks. It also leaves us without an excuse as to why God is not intricately involved in every part of our lives. If I can involve God, and even bring Him glory, in eating and drinking then I must be able to do the same in fantasy football/playing guitar/going to class!
This truth puts to death any belief that there is a divide between the spiritual and secular. Everything we do, from going to work to eating lunch to spending time with our friends and family, can and should be done with God in mind. He is there, he is present, and there is nowhere we can go that he is not.
This truth not only shatters a worldview in which God and the secular are separated, but encourages us to adopt a new, truthful, God-centered worldview! With the knowledge that God is involved in every realm of our lives, we can joyfully approach him in even the most simple tasks (i.e. fantasy football) for guidance, wisdom, and communion!
This truth has the power to revolutionize our spiritual lives if we will only put God's word into action. As I said earlier, we have a bad habit of knowing truths on Sunday but refusing to trust in or implement them Monday through Saturday. We must strive to apply this truth into our daily lives if it will have any affect or bring God any glory. Let us pray throughout each day that God would remind us that He is involved in even the smallest things we do. I believe that anyone who does this will discover a newfound richness in their relationship with God unlike ever before.
May we be a people who does not merely worship God with our lips, but with our lives! - Psalm 50
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