What I Write About

I write about the infinite number of intersections between every day life and the good news of the God who has come to get us.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Dealing with Disproportionate Disappoinment...Like Carolina Basketball

Sometimes things just go wrong. And of course, there's disappointment. But sometimes things go wrong and many, many months (or even years) later, we're still as ticked off as ever. What's up?

It seems to me that when we experience obviously disproportionate pain in the aftermath of some sort of disappointment (break-up, job-related, our "performance" in relating to a friend, co-worker, child or spouse) it's indicative of a deeper issue. It's indicative of our worship.

Everyone worships something. Whether you'd call yourself a Christian or not, to be alive is to worship. We can't help it. We were made for it. If you're alive, you're breathing. If you're alive, you're worshiping.

And when we worship anything apart or alongside or over and above God, that's sin. That's called idolatry.

And when those things that we worship let us down (as they are often wont to do) we feel the effects disproportionately. Whenever we wrap our worship up in our work, relationships, achievements, sports (lots of Carolina fans are feeling the disproportionate effects of basketball worship this winter) we set ourselves up for disproportionate pain.

So if you're carrying something around right now that makes you wonder "what's my problem? why can't I get over this?" Maybe the real issue isn't the thing itself, but the heart's disposition towards that thing.

And the biblical solution for idolatry is always the same: repent, turn around, change your mind about the nature of your worship. And ask for grace to redirect the current of your worship to the place it was intended to flow towards.

And on behalf of a basketball-crazed Carolina nation, I'd like to thank the guys in blue for giving us all plenty of opportunity to repent of our worship of sports success.

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