The Big Game

Here we are and it is Super Bowl Sunday and most of America is excited about the big game.  Most people that are excited about the game are cheering for their favorite team to win.

I am cheering for the Seattle Seahawks to take home the trophy.  Not that I have any particular ties to Seattle, Washington although Microsoft, Inc. is headquartered near there and a co-worker at another company went to work for them and encouraged me to do the same.  I thought better of it at the time.

However neither do I have any particular tie or rivalry with the Denver Broncos although Denver is a couple of hours north of Colorado Springs, Colorado where I actually did have a firm offer from a company that I turned down and ended up in Richmond, Virginia instead.  Denver, CO might have had another appeal in that Seymour Cray had moved there and was doing some exciting work with bio-molecular memory.  Sadly, he died in an automobile accident a few years before I had the opportunity to move there.

No, I am looking for a Seattle Seahawks win simply because in conversation with my cousin I discovered he was cheering for the Denver Broncos and I couldn’t possibly let that stand, now could I?  I had picked the Seattle Seahawks as a favorite for the Super Bowl rather early on in the season though.  And everyone likes to pick a winner.  It doesn’t hurt that my neighbors a couple of streets up (whom we will be watching the big game with) are from Denver and are cheering for the Broncos.  A little friendly rivalry will make the game all the more exciting.  As for my cousin, we have a bet (a gentleman’s bet between family members) for some Rocky Patel Cigars.  Specifically three Rocky Patel Edge cigars.  Winner take all, no spread on the points.  My cousin is not a cigar smoker so I’m not sure what he was thinking.  If he wins, he’ll probably just turn around and send them back to me for my birthday.

As an amusing aside, someone at work did point out to me that both states that have now legalized the recreational use of Marijuana are the two states that are sending teams to the Super Bowl.  I’m not sure what that means other than the fact that fans in both states are going to wake up tomorrow morning wondering if their team won or not.  Of course I suppose the same could be said for alcohol use, but that is a thought for another time.

No, as I was saying, I turned down the job offer in Colorado Springs and took one in Richmond, VA where a few years later I had the opportunity to make the acquaintance of Terry McAulay who is the referee in today’s big game.  You can find Terry’s career stats here.  Terry is also a graduate of Louisiana State University where my sister is a College Professor today.  It is interesting how choices in life work and how things tie together.

Thanks for wading through my past life choices.  If you’ve made it this far and I still have your attention, what I wanted to get to was the Big Game.  And by that I mean the Big Game of Life.  Sure the Super Bowl is exciting, however we all have the opportunity to play in the most exciting arena of all each and every day.  And that is the arena of Life.

When I was in grade school I was an avid reader.  One of the most impressionable books I remember reading is Get in the Game by Bill Glass.  Bill Glass was a Defensive End for the Detroit Lions and the Cleveland Browns.  Bill wrote a book about his NFL career, but more importantly he wrote a book about the game of Life.

His point in the book was you can never win the game if you never play the game.  Many people will complain about never having the opportunity to play.  And Bill talked about that in the book as well.  He pointed out all the players in the NFL that sat on the bench and never took the field.  But they were IN the game.  They went to practice, they worked hard, they were with the team, and they were there, ready to play should the coach decide to put them in.

In Matthew 25:14-29 Jesus Christ likens God’s Kingdom to a rich ruler who entrusts his talents to his servants while he is away.  When he returns, the servant he is angry with is the one who did nothing with the talent he was entrusted with.

We are all entrusted with talent in life.  We did not necessarily get to choose which talents we were given.  However we are all responsible for the talents we have.  And we cannot do anything with those talents unless we get in the game.  This is primarily one of the reasons I started this blog.  Because win or lose, I at least want to be found to be in the game.

I don’t know if your team will win or lose today.  I hope my team does.  I don’t even know if you have chosen a team or if you even care about the game.  What I do know is we are all responsible for the Game of Life.  And there will come a day of reckoning when we all have to give an accounting for the talents we’ve been entrusted with.  And unless you Get in the Game, you may have a hard time with the coach.