Daily Prayer, 27 January

Before I was deployed with ships I pastored a small group of Orthodox Christians stationed in Okinawa, Japan, where we had our own dedicated Orthodox Christian chapel as part of the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps facility there. Instead of daily evening prayers, like during shipboard life, I shared weekly devotional thoughts with my congregation via our weekly bulletin. I want to work these into the Daily Prayer rotation because, while still applicable to military life, they are more specifically Christian. I chose the following devotional to prove what I wrote yesterday that I can write about sports other than baseball. I updated it a bit and added the prayer, may it be a blessing.

“When you get to the end zone, act like you’ve been there before.” It’s been said so often that no one is certain who said it first (though I’m told legendary coach Tom Landry made it law during his time as Dallas’ head coach), but it’s good advice. I often wonder why professional football players prance around the field dancing or gesturing. I have heard a few explain themselves by saying football is an emotional game and they get carried away. Fine, but we’re not talking about pumping a fist in the air or arms being raised in triumph. Emotions of the moment can’t explain all of the elaborate choreographed displays and movements.  Well, some say, the NFL is entertainment so they’re just playing to and for the crowd. But if watching top tier athletes competing in tests of skill and strength on the field of play is not enough to gain my attention, what can amateur dance and pantomimes add that would? I know there may be some who enjoy seeing it, but these things demonstrate two things to me.

First, if you celebrate everything, then you really celebrate nothing. In our common usage we’ve become so used to superlatives that everything is awesome, terrific, or amazing and we no longer have a sense of what it means to be truly struck with awe, or terror, or to be truly amazed. They’re merely words that we toss off without a second thought. This is why before each significant feast in the Church calendar is preceded by a fasting period. Without the cycle there is no celebration, it’s simply more of the same. But not every touchdown or sack means the same, some are meaningless while others change the course of a game or even a season – those are the ones to celebrate.

The second thing is that what we celebrate reflects who we are and to what we’ve become accustomed. A team that scores a lot becomes accustomed to it and doesn’t need to celebrate each time. What becomes noteworthy are those things that stand out from the ordinary, because what’s unusual grabs our attention. Are we used to getting our way? Do we always get what we want? How we respond when we don’t will give you the answer. Are we always right? How do we act when we are AND when we aren’t? In one episode of the TV show “The Middle,” teenage son Axl Heck has an opportunity to gloat over his father’s inability to use social media. When his Dad asks him if he is going to he replies, “Nah. My dad taught me that when you’re right, act like you’ve been there before.”

Ultimately, “act[ing] like you’ve been there before” is simply manifesting humility. In the The Sayings of the Desert Fathers the story is told of a monk being told by his Elder to go to a cemetery and praise the dead. The monk did so, then returned. “What did the dead respond?” asked the Elder. “Why, nothing of course,” said the monk. “They were dead!” “Then go back and curse the dead,” said the Elder. The monk again obeyed and returned. “What did the dead respond this time?” “Still nothing. They’re dead!”  The Elder concluded “I want you to be like those dead, giving no response to praise or blame.”

When we win or when we’re right, we need to act like we’ve been there before. Then when we lose or we’re wrong we need to act like we’ve been there, too. Not in the cavalier attitude that says “been there, done that,” but in the loving attitude that says I can be satisfied in both places, because our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ is. He “who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” In our highest highs and our lowest lows and at every point in between God is with us. We should act like it.

LET US PRAY

Lord Jesus Christ our God, keep us always in remembrance of our death, so that whether we meet with triumph and accolades or failure and derision, we can greet either in the confidence that the whole of our lives have been redeemed by Your death and resurrection. We no longer need fear—nor even care—what men may do, because “in all these things we are more than conquerors through [You]” who love us, and have already conquered death by Your death. Convince us anew that “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us” from Your love, Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, and for this we give You praise, thanksgiving, and worship, together with Your Beginningless Father, and the All-Holy, good and Life-Creating Spirit, now and forever, and to the ages of ages

AMEN