"But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned," (Matt. 12:36)
It doesn’t take being around me very long to know that I love college football - and that I specifically love the Georgia Bulldogs. I love the character and strong testimony of our coach, Mark Richt. But, as I sat in Memphis, TN and watched the Liberty Bowl...as a fan, I was sick. I will not go into my analysis of the game (it wouldn’t really change anything), but what I will go into are the thoughts I have had as a believer concerning the things stated about Mark Richt.
Now, in case you are thinking… "are you going to rant about football?” or “are you going make a case on your blog for your coach?” the answer to both of those questions is no. However, as this year has progressed and I have read about the Dawgs on sports sites and blogs, the passage in Matthew 12:36 came to mind. I would read these amazing personal attacks on Coach Richt, and knowing in all probability that if he is as smart as I believe he is, he doesn’t go near those blogs. It still made me think what kind of “inter-nutter” would rant about a man this way. The things that our Dawg Fanbase use to love about him (his calm demeanor for example) is now seen as a nonchalant attitude, a man who could care less about football. As I read the post about Coach Richt, I thought how differently people would probably perceive this blogger if they could see them face to face and knew their background. I mean when “Bud” can post about how bad the play calling was, but he has the body type of what looks like the child of Pee-Wee Herman and Granny from the Beverly Hillbilly’s, I imagine it would diminish his “professional” opinion. Oh, the beauty of anonymity!
I say this to bring into light the fact that when we write in this cloaked culture of anonymity, whether it is about a coach, a political figure, a church, pastor or athlete, God allows nothing to anonymity. The problem in our culture today is there is no fear of God. The argument always comes up about the right to “speak our mind” but in truth, our rights were purchased by Christ at Calvary. All of this to say, even when commenting on something as trivial as football, in light of eternity I still am called to guard my speech. I can’t say whatever I want, because I don’t belong to me!
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