Sports Are the Key to Our Happiness (or are they...)

National WW1 Memorial

I live in the Kansas City, Missouri metropolitan area where there are, "More parks than Paris and more fountains than Rome."  This is the heartland of America: the hometown of President Harry Truman, the home of the National World War 1 Memorial, and the greatest barbecue in the world!

Kansas City is a great place to live.  The people here are friendly, the real estate is affordable, and the overall quality of life is great.  This past week this ordinarily hard-working, nose to the grindstone community of nearly 2 million souls, who I have come to love as a transplant, has been busting out with an unusual amount of pride and excitement.  And it all revolves around sports.

It began last Saturday, September 27 when the Missouri Tigers football team journeyed from their home in Columbia, Missouri to Columbia, South Carolina to battle the Gamecocks at Williams-Brice Stadium.  In front of 80,00+ screaming, passionate South Carolina fans, our unranked Tigers upset the 13th ranked Gamecocks in a heart-attack inducing ballgame.  While there are many Kansas Jayhawk fans in the KC metro, they allowed the Mizzou fans to bask in the glow of the SEC upset victory. A special thank you to all Kansas fans out there!

Land of the Free, Home of the Chiefs

Next up was the Chiefs game on Monday Night Football.  The Chiefs have some of the best fans of any NFL team, but they have been deprived of a playoff victory for almost a generation.  Their last victory in the postseason came on January 16, 1994 against the Houston Oilers.  I don't think my seventeen year old daughter, who loves sports, even knows who the Oilers were!  Anyway, the Chiefs showed up ready to play in front of 77,000 faithful at Arrowhead Stadium on Monday night.  They donned the red jersey and red pants--and they came to play-- destroying the New England Patriots 41-14.  The entire community was beaming with pride on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday, September 30, was important for Kansas City sports fans for another reason besides their beloved Chiefs Monday Night Football victory.  The Royals (the Chicago Cubs of the National League) were hosting a one game, winner takes all, wild-card playoff game against the Oakland A's at Kauffman Stadium.   The Royals, whom I have come to deeply appreciate (not sure I love them yet) had not been to the postseason in twenty-nine years, when they beat my beloved St. Louis Cardinals to win the 1985 World Series.  The game was a twelve inning nail-biter--one of the most exciting games I have ever watched!--and they won!  They begin a "best of five"playoff series against the AL West Champion Anaheim Angels tonight in Los Angeles. Good luck Royals!

Union Station Lit Up for "Red Friday"

We have lived in Kansas City for about five and a half years.  Throughout our time here, Kansas City has been a red-colored-wearing community in support of their Chiefs.  Every Friday before a Chiefs game is designated as "Red Friday" and the community responds to that call.  It is a lot of fun to watch the city support their football team.  For the last week or so, a strange occurrence has been happening in Kansas City.  The color schema has been dominated by blue clothing, rather than the traditional red, as the folks here rally to support their long suffering Royals.

[A team I haven't mentioned in this post but which is gaining enormous popularity in this traditionally football-baseball town is Sporting Kansas City, the reigning Major League Soccer champions, who sell out every home game in their 19,000 seat stadium!]

Again, I am happy for the good people of Kansas City.  When it comes to football and baseball they have been long-suffering and patient in their teams year in, year out, mediocracy.  Sometimes it takes a catalyst, like sports victories, to bring a community together, and I hope that Kansas City grows stronger as a city as they share together in the joy of their teams victories.

I am reminded, though, throughout this happiness, about an email I received from my friend and colleague Dr. James Goodloe IV, Executive Director for the Foundation for Reformed Theology. Dr. Goodloe regularly sends out devotional material via email, and this particular one was title, "What Are We To Enjoy?" The devotion contained this quote from Augustine of Hippo (354 AD-430 AD),

There are some things which are to be enjoyed, some which are to be used. . . . Those which are to be enjoyed make us happy; those which are to be used assist us and give us a boost, so to speak, as we press on towards our happiness, so that we may reach and hold fast to the things which make us happy. . . . If we choose to enjoy the things that are to be used, our advance is impeded and sometimes even diverted, and we are held back, or even put off, from attaining things which are to be enjoyed, because we are hamstrung by our love of lesser things.
To enjoy something is to hold fast to it in love for its own sake. To use something is to apply whatever it may be to the purpose of obtaining what you love.
The things which are to be enjoyed, then, are the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. [On Christian Teaching, translated with an Introduction and Notes by R. P. H. Green (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 8-10.]

As a Christian, I found this quote troublesome.  I have been guilty of enjoying what I am to use, and using what I am to enjoy (Thank you Augustine for pointing this out to me in a time when I was feeling pretty sure of my joy!).  I suspect that many well-meaning people who love the Lord are guilty of the same things.  So let us gladly enjoy what we are to enjoy and use what we are to use. Conversely, let us not enjoy what we are to use or, worse, try to use what we are to enjoy. 

It is wonderful to passionately root for our favorite teams, but we must remember that they are there for us to use...not to truly enjoy--that is reserved for the joy of knowing the Lord Jesus.  In him may we find true joy, true happiness, and true satisfaction.  Amen.