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Football season is over. Men all over the country are in mourning.

The thing that really just blows my mind is how we as men take this thing called football so seriously.  I know men who know every stat and every ounce of information that they can possibly know about certain players or team, and the sad thing is, they don’t really even know these players personally.

If I knew everything there was to know about you and your job…like what time you took breaks and your title and how well you did your job, you’d be totally creeped out, right?   But yet we are OK with doing this with football players and sports guys in general. I think we need to take a hard look at how much time we spend focusing on these men.

Look at these verses, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Heb. 12:2-3).

I think the reason we have so many issues and hardships with men inside the church world is because our focus is on what it should not be.  We have made sports a god, and as a result, we grow weary. We put so much effort and stock in these men and these teams that when they “let us down” or lose, we grow depressed, sad, angry or weary. Why?  Because we have turned sports into something that they were never meant to be.  It should be entertainment, and that’s it. But sadly we’ve turned sports into a god.

The thing that I find really interesting is that these same guys who have memorized all of these stats about their favorite player and sports teams also say they have a hard time memorizing Bible verses.  Bottom line is, we invest and do what we want to do. Men do things for a payoff.  If we saw or viewed that there was a big payoff for spending time in the Bible we’d do it more. But the sad thing is, there is a massive payoff in time in God’s word!  We grow closer to Jesus. That’s a massive payoff.

What would happen if we as MEN approached church, the Bible and Jesus the way we approach sports?  What would happen if we put in as much time, energy, passion, resources and drive into the three things I mentioned?  What would our communities look like?  What would our church services look like? How strong would our families be?  I think if men took all of the above things this serious, everything would change!

Let’s do something a little bigger and little different in church this year!  Let’s invest!  Let’s bring men to the foot of the cross!