It’s over. America’s sportsless drought is over. We’ve gone months without professional team sports and it’s finally over. Sports are back.
As an avid sports fan, I am thrilled. When 2020 did its thing and canceled sports I was devastated. In the month of March alone, I had tickets for 3 different basketball games. I was going to the MAC tournament championship, March Madness, and a G-League game where Tacko Fall was scheduled to play. I got to attend none of those games and at this point, it is what it is and that’s life in a fallen world. I’ve recently gotten over the sadness I felt in the ensuing time after those cancellations occurred and now I’m here writing about what I noticed since mid-March.
The initial shock of no sports was severe. I kept turning on my TV out of habit to watch a live sporting event only to remember there were no live sports. In my next stage of grief, I would turn on old basketball games just hoping to relive those moments. The returns on that gradually diminished and I stopped doing that altogether.
As it is now it doesn’t seem like I haven’t watched sports in months. I don’t feel like I’ve gone months without them. Maybe when I take in my first baseball game or when the NBA bubble league tips off I’ll get butterflies in my stomach but for now, I’m surprisingly not that excited!
As a note of personal reflection in terms of my perspective on life — specifically, an eternal perspective — I tend to place too much value on the outcomes of sports I have no control over. This passion, while sometimes a healthy and enjoyable hobby, can cause me to create unnecessary tension between me and people I genuinely love as brothers and sisters in Christ. Prayerfully, I’ll remember the temporal nature of the Browns and Indians* even as I’m watching my beloved teams actively rip my heart out.
I’m happy sports are coming back even if they’re going to be bizarre and eerie with no fans or crowd noise. I’m also happy knowing that Christ is sufficient, has not abandoned me, and nor will He ever! I don’t see any biblical indication that there will be professional sports in Heaven, so this was all just a foretaste of glory divine.