When our eight kids were in High School and college my greatest enjoyment in life was attending and watching their games. I would yell until I could hardly talk, and I would pray for the ones who were playing asking God to bless them and give them strength. When they were in College Sam and Seth played basketball at Multnomah Bible College and Shelly and Hanna played volleyball. I don’t how many times we drove to Portland to watch games, but it was a lot. When the kids got out of college I started watching basketball and football on television. I am very conscious of wasting time so I don’t watch a lot, once and sometimes twice a week. I have my favorite NFL teams, NBA teams, and college teams.

Hebrews 12:1-4 seems to suggest a stadium where spectators are watching a track meet. It illustrates running the race of life faithfully and with endurance. The point being that watching sporting events appears to have been a regular part of the culture in Jesus and Paul’s lives. I enjoy watching my favorite teams play and rooting for them as I watch.

Paul used sporting events as illustrations for numerous spiritual lessons and truths in the Bible, and as I watch games it is easy to see all kinds of character traits and practices that are obvious keys to winning in football and in life.

Character traits like endurance, diligence, self-control, patience and faithfulness are a just a few of the qualities that winners have. Almost all of the various illustrations in the Bible using sporting events suggest that the pursuit of goals is a major part of accomplishing great things with our life.

Well now, I think that I will watch the NFL playoffs and the a super Bowl with new purpose and interest.