Fiesta Bowl Spirit

You may not be a football fan, uneasy with the physical violence and competitive nature of the sport, but if you gave this BSU/Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl game even a dispassionate cold eye, you might end up with a tear in it.  “Wow” breathes the spirit of this game!

Now “wow” doesn’t just mean the final score, 43 to 42 (in overtime), though for some I’m sure it’s a part of it.  For me the “wow” was in the whole of the game … the many windows to our nature: human and spiritual.  

The David and Goliath image or the “Little dogs” trying to run with “Big Dogs” metaphor both apply to this match.  Boise State, with 1/5th of Oklahoma’s football budget, fewer players and a second-rate conference were literally UNDER-dogs. And, whether it be the sportscasters, public or players themselves, they were jeered as mighty Goliath might have jeered little, meager David. 

But there was so much more.  First of all, there were all those unseen experts, micromanaging from the booths high up above … analyzing players on the field, looking for weaknesses, passing down plays to the field to take full “advantage” from that bird’s eye perspective!  Might life be so carefully managed by powers up above?  Hummm…

Then come the actual players!!  Oh, no!  Individual performers on both side make serious mistakes: fumbles and interceptions.  Hands fly up in disbelief!  Mouths drop open!  Dramatic reversals spring from fumbles and turnovers.  What really happens turns out to be unforeseen, unplanned and often undesired!  No one could down from those booths to council or “fix” the players any more than the players could right their mistakes through some magical replay.  All had to deal with those personal mistakes and discouragements and keep doing their best.  And so here I’m wondering if there might be a spiritual metaphor.  God in his “booth” up above sends us lots of good game plans (commandments and wisdom) which we foul up!  But even when our human nature upsets God’s best intentions, God doesn’t give up on us.  Like a good coach, grace is applied:  Learn!  Be forgiven! Get up!  Play ball!  Yet, there’s more …

There was pure chance!  A punt hits nose first, kicks straight back and bounces off the leg of a BSU player only to result in a turnover near the goal line for Oklahoma.  Another ball is tipped and flies right into the hands of an Oklahoma player in the end zone!  Unfair advantage to Oklahoma?  What about the tipped pass that flew directly into a BSU player’s hands that also resulted in a touchdown?  The unforeseen and unfair happen to all.  How did BSU and Oklahoma deal with their share?  Quit?  Walk off the field?  Hardly!  They kept playing with determination.  Lesson:  Stuff happens.  The game moves on.  So must we.

And what about all those people in the stands?  For those who got to watch the game on T.V., it was clear that it wasn’t just the players and coaches who were going through various emotions.  Flashes into the crowds reflected faces of elation and dejection … on both sides.  Cameras captured gestures that seemed more like prayers … hands folded.  People praying for a victory for their side?  Oh, really?  Might God really care who won?  Even if God did, it sure wasn’t clear through most of the game.  Like Jesus’ words, “God sends rain on the just and unjust,” both sides played their hearts out regardless of their jersey!  Lesson?  It may be human nature to implore God’s blessing for our side, but we’re all the same.  Root for a good game, not a win.

And there, perhaps, might be one of the better spiritual lessons from this amazing game.  It’s not WHO won that matters but indeed, the spiritual quality of the game.  Facing fortune and misfortune, elation and dejection, believing and hoping that victory would yet be possible … in a sense, both sides won.  Sure BSU is honored for their tenacity, ingenuity and obvious skill in facing what was supposed to be a superior team.  Yet Oklahoma is also to be honored for not giving up when it looked like they weregoing to lose.  Both sides never gave up, played their very best, and were fervently cheered by all.  And … Win Or Whatever (WOW) … all won my deep respect and likely that of millions of others who will consider this amazing game to be one of the very best, ever.  Wow, but, oh, be gracious!  God is in that Spirit, making us fully alive.

Pr. Dan J