) Then I proceeded to tongue-lash someone who really didn't give a rip what I had to say. [All this behavior is not the way I relate to people, by the way. I shocked myself!] And it became obvious to me in the dream that I'd completely made a fool of myself and that what I was saying was nonsense in the first place.
That woke me up to the point I couldn't sleep. So, I came in the living room to pray. I asked God to help me say little, listen lots and for long, and to say everything to everyone very kindly and deferentially today. That's for one. And, then I thought, "Well this is no mystery. I know what this is about." And, it is not pretty.
I have a real, deep seated spiritual problem. And, it is one of the stupidest things ever, but it is real and it is pervasive to the point that I am forming the opinion that this topic is a very effective spiritually blunt instrument used to bludgeon believers to a very real kind of death in this state.
College football.
Before you laugh too much or think I've lost my mind.... I KNOW it is February. If you don't live in Alabama, you won't understand. College football is more of a religious faith here, held deeply and sincerely and zealously, than even Christian faith. And, I feel so ashamed about that for myself.
You've heard by now about the poisoning of the oak trees in Toomer's Corner in Auburn, Alabama. One goofball redneck, possessed by this "college football spirit" (I don't really know of a better way to say it, although that may not be theologically correct), apparently by his own admission poisoned the trees a couple of months back. The trees are sacred to Auburn University students, alumni and fans, and are part of their traditional victory celebrations when they "roll" the trees with TP.
Instantly, and I mean like a combination between an atomic shockwave, lightning and a virus all rolled into one, when the news hit earlier in the week that the trees were going to die from this poisoning, this state went into an uproar like .... I don't know what. I'm envisioning the prophets on Mt. Carmel, alright? Utter madness. And I jumped right into it. Both feet. Never checked up. Just easily fell right into it with everyone else.
I have defended Alabama (when, truly, it was not "Alabama" per se that did that to the trees, but just one fan, but how honest I'm being when I say that there is a widespread "gotcha" inside so many Alabama fans), I have whipped out the historical record of vandalism and violence by Auburn people (and, there is that record but it is not an excuse for anything), I have joked about what they'll do next (I've said they'll have to roll Pat Dye now since he's the next oldest thing there; I've said they can remove the trees by having Nick Fairley chop block them down; I've offered suggestions about how they'll probably retaliate; I've just gone on and on.....). All to my shame and all while absolutely blowing right past the big yellow flashing lights and persistent tugs of the Spirit of God to not get involved in it.
This comes a few weeks after I fasted three weeks from .... college football. See, I even recognized last month that this whole thing, this whole cultural way of being that exists here, was a weight and sin in me. And, now, I see that it is true for this whole state. It is this -- College football is a pagan faith in the state of Alabama, and it is corrupting believers in Christ. I truly believe some people are actually deceiving themselves about whether they are in the faith and one reason why they are deceived is their worship of either Alabama or Auburn. There, I said it.
In Auburn, you've got people worshipping trees and going crazy in them to the point of gathering around them in large numbers, yelling at the tops of their lungs, and throwing toilet paper into them. A foreigner observing it would think they've gone bananas (and, foreigners and sojourners we believers are). Likewise, and just as pagan, Alabama has a grove of idols by its largest temple -- the statutes of coaches who've won national championships outside Bryant-Denny Stadium. It is the "desecration" of the "idol" of the "chief god" among them, the statue of Bear Bryant, by an Auburn fan after the Iron Bowl this past season when he published a picture where he'd put a Cam Newton jersey on Bear's statue, that supposedly "provoked" the fellow who has appparently confessed to poisoning Auburn's pagan oak grove at Toomer's Corner.
And, I'm just going to say -- I repent. I'm sorry that I've allowed my heart to get mired into this mess. And, I honestly don't know of a way to stop it except to just stop it. That may actually mean unplugging from college football altogether. As silly as it sounds, it is a real distraction and a demonstrably spiritual corruption of myself but not only myself but practically the population of Alabama. I know for believers, it is a real problem.
I've thought so much lately on Psalm 2:1. "Why do the heathens rage? Who do the people imagine a vain thing?" It applies so much in so many things we see. Riots against governments in Arab nations when all they're going to do is turn around and institute some other corrupt form of government. People in an uproar here in America about all the government stuff, when all they'll do is replace it with another form of power-grabbing corruption that benefits their own constituencies. And right here in my own backyard over football, trees, statues and the whole outfit, a tug of war between two equally dark cultures that is manned by so many people who profess Christ. I'm checking out of it. I enjoy football, love it. Just absolutely love it.
Maybe I don't need to love it. Maybe I have to learn to despise it.
I don't know. I do know, no maybes, that if I'm going to watch it that I have to unplug from the utter deep seated, from-the-heart devotion to Alabama football. That's more a part of this culture than even being an American. It can't be so pervasive in my heart, in my life, if I name Jesus as my Lord and the leader of my ways. It has to simply stop.
And, Lord, there may be any other number of equally pervasive weights, distractions, sins and besetting objects of affection in my life and in all our lives. I pray that I (and we all) will repent of any form of idolatry and seek only your Kingdom, Lord. This football thing will evaporate to nothing one day. Please heal your people in this state from our affection for it, and deliver us from its evil.
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