I have to confess that last night's Super Bowl contest between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants was a marvelous football game.  The outcome was very much in doubt until the very last few seconds.  The lead changed hands several times in the fourth quarter, and the perfect Patriots are perfect no longer.  The once down and almost out Giants are now the champions of the National Football League.  Improbable?  Yes.  But in the business of sports those who are underdogs can with effort and breaks beat teams which are rated over them.

You can find many lessons for life in last night's game.  You have the importance of preparation and hard work.  You never amount to much if you don't prepare and work hard.  I guarantee you your opponent is going to prepare and work hard.  You also need to improve and get better.  You may be a good and gifted player, but that isn't enough in the NFL today.  Even the most talented players must improve and grow.  Then there is competitiveness.  Even if you don't start your season so well, it is far more important how you finish than how you start.  The Giants were wobbly at first and then got stronger and better as the season neared its conclusion.  There is no doubt that they were playing their best football of the year last night when it meant the most.  On the other hand, New England started well and played well all year.  They played well last night but not well enough to win.  The Giants had found some weaknesses in the Patriots in the last game of the regulation season.  The San Diego Chargers found some weaknesses in the Patriots which they pursued but not enough to win.  These weaknesses showed up enough in last night's contest to cause this magnificent team to lose.

Oh, well, I think you can see the application in things spiritual, can't you?  Preparation, hard work, improvement, growth, competing against an adversary your whole life and not just at certain phases of it.  These are all spiritual applications.  There is one more spiritual application:  Is the Super Bowl worth changing the church's schedule?  Some do not change the schedule.  Others do.  We do and have always taken notice of the game.  At one time we had a big screen set up with the game on after church was over.  For the last several years we have done a winter Bible study until mid afternoon and then adjourned for the evening so that people could do as they pleased about the Super Bowl.  I'm not sure that this one football game warrants changing the church's calendar, but at our place, I'm not sure anyone would have been here had we not done that.
   
This is one of those issues of accommodation with the culture.  Some accommodation issues are much more serious than this one.  I suppose we do it because I am a football fan as are a great many of our members.  Isn't that a good enough reason?  I'm not sure.  I do know that you have to draw the line somewhere so as not to give in all the time to the culture.  Where do YOU draw the line?