FOOTBALL

             Football is back. For the next four months, millions will be rooting their favorite teams to victory. No doubt about it, I love watching college football on television.

            A couple of million or more will attend a game in person this weekend.  Stadiums accommodate more and more fans. Between Alabama and Auburn and other smaller universities and colleges in our state, on some weekends upwards of two hundred thousand will be in the stadia.

            To purchase season tickets for either of the major universities, one must make a significant contribution to their programs, Tigers Unlimited or Tide Pride. The higher the contribution or the longer one has participated gives one a higher priority seat wise. I know some who give thousands of dollars annually.

            Add to the contributions the cost of season tickets, five or six hundred dollars each, and then add the cost of attending the games themselves, i.e. travel, accommodations and or food, and a couple or family can easily spend ten thousand dollars for a season of football. Some, I am sure, spend well in excess of that.

            I would be curious to know how many spend more on football annually than they give to the Lord’s work. Quite a few I guess in that national surveys indicate the average family gives 3% of its income (less than $2,000 per year) to all charities, including churches.

            Jesus taught, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21) Turn that around and it says where your heart is, there is where your treasure will go. Football is certainly not more important than God, but for some it would seem that way.

            “Go Team!” But pass the offering plate first.

Grace and peace.