257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105
(262) 763-3021
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We have purchased land on Highways A & W and are planning to build soon! Drive by and take a look at our future home!
“Eternity to the godly is a day that has no sunset; eternity to the wicked is a night that has no sunrise.” Thomas Watson
February 7th, 2010
Prior to Super Bowl VI between Dallas and Miami in 1972, Cowboys’ running back, Duane Thomas, was asked by a reporter what it felt like to be playing in the ultimate football game. Thomas replied, "If it's the ultimate, why are they going to play it again next year?" In one simple sentence Duane Thomas forced football fanatics and pop culture junkies at least to consider keeping some perspective on the annual "super" event. Nearly thirty years later, it seems like his comments have been completely ignored.
The Super Bowl began rather inauspiciously on January 15, 1967. That first game was part of an agreement between the well-established National Football League and its new rival, the American Football League. The terms of their agreement included a game that would pit each league's champion in an "AFL-NFL World Championship Game." In 1970 the two leagues finally merged. The first world championship contest took place between the NFL's Green Bay Packers and the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs. Not quite 62,000 fans gathered in Los Angeles' 100,000-seat Memorial Coliseum, and an estimated 60-million watched the game on television. Ticket prices for the Green Bay-Kansas City match-up ranged from $6 to $12 and a one-minute television commercial sold for $75,000 to $85,000. Halftime entertainment at the "AFL-NFL World Championship" consisted of performances by the marching bands from the University of Michigan and the University of Arizona, as well as an appearance by trumpeter Al Hirt. And just for the record, the Packers defeated the Chiefs 35-10.
Fast Forward to Super Bowl XLIV, the Indianapolis Colts will take on the New Orleans Saints in Miami. The crowd will fill all 74,000 seats in the Sun Life Stadium. The face values for tickets to this year's game are about $1000 (remember, we're in a Recession). However, many of those in attendance will have shelled out up to five times the face value. Advertisers will spend $3 million for a 30-second spot and an estimated 100 million will watch the game via television. It's estimated that companies lose nearly a billion dollars in lost wages as Americans focus on the Super Bowl. The unproductive time will include chatting about the game, planning parties, organizing betting pools and researching big-screen TVs.
The Super Bowl is hyper-hyped as the crowning achievement in professional sports. In fact, in many fans' minds a player's career cannot be considered a success unless he triumphs in the "ultimate game." However, one of the main reasons for the Super Bowl's success lies in the fact that so many Americans live without a sense of purpose. In a life that is void of meaning or purpose, only experience holds any real significance. A person that has no meaning or purpose motivating his or her life seeks to find fulfillment in experiences. So a big event, like the Super Bowl, becomes an opportunity to share a moment, something significant that will add value or a sense of meaning to life.
Sports provide a wonderful outlet for those drifting through life without purpose. There is always the next game or the next season in which to look forward. Some even live vicariously through their favorite players. After this year's Super Bowl many fans will boast, "We won," when the only effort they expended was to walk to the refrigerator for a snack. On Monday the "ultimate game" will be talked about and individual plays will be rehashed. However, the only lives that will be richer for experience are the players that participated and the Miami businesses that benefitted from Super Bowl spending. The day after the Super Bowl many will have shared an experience, they will have enjoyed a game, engaged in a gaudy distraction, but few lives will have been changed. The Super Bowl is, after all, only a football game.
I have to agree with Duane Thomas – if the Super Bowl is so ultimate, why will it be played again next year? And when it is played next year, how many actually will be able to recall this year's ultimate experience?
The Super Bowl is just another game. Who wins or loses will make little if any difference in eternity. What we are doing here at Grace though has eternal significance!
This morning as we work through The State of the Church Message, please pay careful attention. Please determine to be a doer of the Word, not just a hearer. Let’s join together in doing something that really does matter and matters, not just for this world but for all eternity. Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:19-21).
Please enjoy the game tonight. Remember though, it is just that – a game! What you and I do as believers invests in the real world and that counts for eternity. Let’s determine to invest together in that which has eternal significance!