Getting a Grip and Remembering: Every Game Isn’t Everything

By Tom Gilson Published on November 11, 2017

Today’s a big day. Today my college, the Michigan State Spartans, takes on the Ohio State Buckeyes in a game that’s expected to determine who will win the Big Ten East Division.

This is a Big Deal Football Game.

It’s a Big Deal Game especially since two weeks ago everyone thought Penn State had a lock on it. The Spartans were out of it for sure. Then Penn State lost two games — tragically for them, I’m sure, but fine for both the Spartans and the Buckeyes — the two teams that beat them.

It’s also a Big Deal Game because I live in Enemy Territory these days, in Ohio. I’m going to have to face Buckeye fans in church on Sunday morning. Will I come in showing off my green and white? Or clothed in colors of mourning?

Everything!

It’s set for broadcast on FOX, which has been telling us in their ads, “Every game is everything.” But surely this can’t be true. Not every game is the Spartans roaring up out of nowhere to take on the Buckeyes for a division championship. Other games don’t mean much. This game might be everything.

Or maybe I need a better perspective.

Other games don’t mean much. This game might be everything.
Or maybe I need a better perspective.

My family might think so. There have been times when I’ve been so ticked off at something stupid the Spartans did, I ruined the whole family’s day. That was quite a while ago. I’ve learned to leave the living room, maybe even get away from home. It’s better just to hear the disappointing final score when it’s over than to suffer through it while it’s happening. 

Perspective From a Spartan Dad

Even that was out of perspective, but my dad has helped me see reality. Now, you have to understand, we’re a Spartan family. My two big sisters were practically born on campus, while Dad was attending there as a recent WWII Army vet. The other three of us siblings all graduated from MSU.

Dad and Mom held season tickets to MSU football for more than 25 years, driving 90 miles and climbing high into the upper deck for nearly every home game all those years. Twice I’ve struggled into my old Spartan Marching Band jacket to wear it to major bowl games, the 1988 Rose Bowl and the 2000 Citrus Bowl, courtesy of Mom and Dad’s season ticket privileges.

And what did Dad tell me about my perspective? Simple as can be: “I’ve lived long enough to realize it’s just a game.” It’s a lesson I think I’m finally learning, too. That FOX Sports slogan? Think about it. What word really belongs in the blank: “Every ____ is everything.” Game? Hardly. A game is, by definition (I’ll stick with the obvious here) a game. It’s for fun.

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And unless your scholarship or athletic career depends on it — or the money you’ve got riding on a bet, which is really not well advised — a game doesn’t mean much more than that.

Remembering What’s Really Everything

Which seems plain enough, yet when the score is close and the clock is winding down, it’s still easy enough to forget. But here’s what helps me even more than, “It’s just a game.” It’s remembering what really belongs in that blank; what really is everything.

Life in Christ is everything. 

Life in Christ is everything. (What follows here flows from that.)

My relationship with my wife is everything.

My family is everything.

My outreach in Christ’s name to others is everything.

My maintaining a heart and mind of love and wisdom is everything.

Other people’s flourishing in Christ is everything.

Those are the sorts of things that belong in that blank.

And here’s where that perspective really helps: when I’m not watching a football game, but I’m getting mixed up over something else that seems like “everything.” Like when I think, “Getting that next speaking gig is everything.” No, actually it isn’t. Or, “Getting an iPhone X is everything.” Nope, not even close. (Not even the S8, if you prefer that route.)

Because it isn’t just sports that can confuse us over what really counts. I’m sure you could fill in this blank for yourself: “Every ____ wants to tell me it’s everything — but it isn’t!” We all need to remember that these things really aren’t everything after all.

Now, That’s Everything!

The apostle Paul had his perspective straight. As he wrote to the Philippians, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Phil. 1:21

And,

I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Phil. 3:8-11)

Now, that’s everything.

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