The Shortest 10 Weeks of the Year

It's football season once again! The temperature cools down, the arm chair quarterback begins to share his wisdom, and fans pack stadiums to watch their favorite high school, college and professional football teams chase championship glory. To celebrate this American tradition, we even have a new anthem to remind us how close we are to this game. Kenny Chesney's "The Boys of Fall" is currently being played at every country radio station, can be heard from the windows of pickup trucks and is hummed at the checkout line at Walmart.

This year in Brownwood, fans have the added excitement of their team being ranked #1 in the Class 3A Associated Press football poll. Football is good and fun, and it highlights some core values that we should all hold dear.

1. Everything in Life is Temporary - Last season's success of failure is over. Can you tell me, off the top of your head, who won the Class 2A state championship in Texas last year? Who lost last year's Superbowl? What was the record of the 1983 Dallas Cowboys? If you correctly answer these questions, you either looked it up on the internet, or are too obsessed with football. Mike Leach said it best, "That catch you made last year, well, that was last year!" Most of our accomplishments on this earth will be short lived. My grandfather desegregated the Dawson (TX) public school system, and secured the funding to build a new high school for Latexo, TX. Neither town remembers who he is. Dawson, TX, does remember their most successful football coach ever, and named the stadium after him, but they forget that my grandfather hired him. Most of what we do will be forgotten.
2. Invest in That which is not Temporary - When the Dallas Cowboys signed Terrell Owens, most fans knew that TO would only be around a few short years. Still, Jerry Jones signed the receiver to a huge contract. Even after TO was cut from the team, the Cowboys still owed him millions of dollars. That is not a wise financial investment, neither is investing in something that won't last wise. While most footballers see the value in bringing in rookie talent and developing it into superstar talent, many don't understand the value in investing in the eternal things of this life.
3. Football is for a short time, but eternity is forever - Brownwood is full of men walking the streets who played on the 1960 state championship team, or any one of the other 6 state championship teams from Brownwood. These men, for the four years they were in high school, invested every ounce of their being into their football careers. Most of these football careers ended at graduation. A few went on to play in college. While they recognize how fleeting those football days were, and how important it was to get an education and gainful employment to take them through the rest of their lives, most fail to realize the importance of preparing for eternity. My four years of high school ended 14 years ago. It seems like it was in the distant past, and it seems very short. That's how your life will appear to you when you go into eternity. The life we lived on this earth will have seemed short and fleeting, yet, just like the decisions I made in high school still affect me now, so will the decisions we make on this earth affect you throughout all eternity.

And so now we get to the meat of the matter. Isn't it sad to see a man whose best days were while he was in high school? Don't make that mistake with your life in eternity. No matter how good or bad things are in this life, they will be but a blip on your eternal existence. The key decision you need to make in this life is to repent of your sins and trust Jesus Christ as your personal savior. If you do so, you will spend eternity in Heaven. If you choose not to do so, you will spend eternity in Hell. The choice is yours.

Romans 10:9-10 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.