SHARED IGNORANGE

I probably don't have to restate that I am a Georgia Bulldog fan. Perhaps since I have moved to Alabama I have become even more so. And being a Georgia means an almost automatic distaste....nay.....loathing for the Florida Gators. While that game is last week's news, I heard something on television today that reminded me of the big win we executed over our rivals. You see the big win was thrust even more into the media with a somewhat controversial call (though I would rather classify it as brilliant) that Georgia coach Mark Richt made.

Georgia has not played their best ball in the last few games leading up to what is dubbed "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party". So Coach Richt decided that the team needed to play with some emotion. He told the team that if they didn't get a penalty for excessive celebration after their first score, he would personally be so mad at them that he would make them run on Monday's practice.

Well UGA scored first, and after the touchdown, the entire team cleared the sideline and went to the end zone where they danced, pranced, and subsequently got an excessive celebration penalty. While the call was brilliant and probably had something to do with Georgia winning the game, not everyone was thrilled by the call, least of all Florida and the president of the SEC. So Mark Richt issued a public apology. No fines or such punishment deemed necessary. And no real harm done.

However, today, every football commentator on TV has been asking "Was Coach Richt's call brilliant, or in bad taste." One commentator put it best when he said
"Coach Richt has enough Character Equity built up in college football for that call to have done no damage to his own reputation or the reputation to the Georgia Football program." I thought that was a great testimony to Mark Richt (a professing Christ-follower) and the respect that most people have for him. And it made me hope that people can say the same thing about me....that I have a good amount of Character Equity.

I also used this story last week as an example for my choir. I told them that many times we approach God in the same way the UGA had been approaching football; emotionless, a going-through-of-the motions-for-whatever-reason, a detached weekly to-do, etc. However, our God is to be worship and loved with "all our heart, soul, mind, and strength." Which includes our emotion. Now I'll be the first to say that you can't worship God with emotion only. Just as you can't worship him with intellectual reason only. But when we combine our emotional response (remembering that we approach every other relationship with some form of emotion) with the truth of who God is, his word, and the direction of His Holy Spirit, we have a winning combination for life-altering, mission-breeding worship. Maybe we could all use a dose of "excessive celebration" in our personal, and corporate worship!