Is God a Seminole?

As I write this it is the morning after the NCAA Division I FBS National Championship in which Florida State University came back from the dead to beat Auburn University.  With about 2 minutes to go in the game I turned to Debby and said, "I guess we'll now see which side God is on."  She merely groaned an inaudible response.  

Since I did not have a dog in that fight (I pull for Alabama and Clemson in that order,) I thought it an interesting way to view the last part of the game.  Why do we assume that God is always on the side of the winning team?  Does God not care about the losing team?  Did they not pray enough or give enough in order for God to bless them?  Why is it that God always seems to favor the team with the bigger, stronger, faster and better prepared players?  Does God not care about slower, weaker, and smaller players?  Are these teams always reduced to "building character" through accepting loss?  Does David ever beat Goliath?  Not on a consistent basis it seems -- although Georgia Southern did beat the University of Florida this year.  

Earlier that Monday a particular golfer won the PGA opening event in Hawaii.  While being interviewed he said to the effect "I want to thank my family, friends, supporters and my Lord."  I am glad that he has a good relationship with Jesus Christ.  However, I am saddened to think of how attributing winning a golf tournament cheapens our understanding of God, faith and Jesus.  Does Christ Jesus really care about who wins a golf tournament when thousands of people are dying in Syria, the Sudan and countless other war ravaged areas of our planet?  When children starve to death around the planet do we really think God gives a whit about athletics?  When millions die from the lack of potable water, does making a six foot putt rank high on the list of divine priorities?

It is high time, I believe, to divorce faith from football in particular and all sports in general.  God does not care who wins a football game or a golf tournament -- at least the God I know through Jesus Christ.  Yes, having a relationship with God through Christ can give us peace and acceptance along with the ability to put the goals of the group ahead of personal achievement.  But, at the end of the day, God does not sit enthroned in the heavens and decide to pick winners and losers.

What God does care about is how we treat one another, how we live with one another, and how we touch "the least of these."  What God does care about is the ethics we share, the love we express, the relationships we develop and the care we give to one another.  God wants us to get out of our tribes, i.e., Seminoles, Tigers, etc., and relate to each other in love, encouragement and mutual support.

I have been a life-long fan of college and to a certain extent professional athletics.  I do believe that these can have a positive role in our communities -- but it seems to me that the tail is wagging the dog.  When we start invoking God on our side we have so trivialized God that we make a mockery out of all that we claim in the name of religion and faith.  When poverty and poor schools ravage the lower socio-economic groups while we spend billions on college and professional sports -- and then attribute winning to God -- we have taken the name of the Lord in vain.

So, pull for your team and cheer them on to victory!  There's nothing wrong with that.  Please, however, leave God out of it.  Somehow I think God would rather have it that way.