Tim Keller always says that you have got to know your city’s idols so that you can effectively expose and replace them. I live in Omaha, Nebraska. You don’t have to be a missiologist to know that one of the Big Idols for the people is the Big Red.
Case in point. The team is going through two-a-day practices this week. This basically means that there are innumerable media types swirling around the University like ants trying to make off with a crumb from a picnic. Every day it is the same old thing.
“Who has the edge in the QB race?”
“How does the Defense look?”
“Why did Bo make them run after practice?”
Whenever Pelini gets a redundant or especially stupid question he gives the reporters a glare and some curt answer that the causes the reporter to immediately drop into the journalistic fetal position. You have got to see it. Pelini is like the Dog Whisperer on these guys. Amazing.
Well, they (the media) crossed the line yesterday. The broke the etiquette. They thought they could run off from the picnic with a hamburger of a story instead they got whacked in the back of the head from an angry coach. Some reporters let folks know about an injury they saw through the windows. This was reported on message boards as well as reputable newspapers. As a result Pelini has turned the football practices into Ft. Knox. In essence the program has ‘gone dark’.
And you should hear the outcry.
Reporters are whining and crying. People are in a bad mood. Some folks have commented that they have nothing to talk about. Geesh.
Well, welcome to Nebraska in August.
I am sure the climate is similiar in your area for another program. As missionaries we need to think about these opportunities, examine them, and prayerfully make opportunities to talk about the heart’s desire for worship and glory. This is a great chance to show that we were wired for worship. We are, like Paul David Tripp has said, ‘glory junkies’. None of these things satisfy; they just leave you hungry and hurting (even if they go undefeated and win a BCS title). At the end of the day, they idols, as Keller says, can never satisfy. They cannot deliver.
But Christ can. And he does.