This quote is from an old article by the CBC, but it rings ever more true today than 4 years ago:

"The arena is their temple, the players are their saviours, and those who worship them pray that the sacrifices made on the ice — of blood, sweat and tears — will lead them to glory."

As people who love the game of hockey, our local teams, and favorite players, we have to be very careful of how much attention they are capturing in our lives. We found Jeremiah 2:11-13 a stirring reminder of the danger in replacing God's Glory with the glory in our idols:

"Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,”declares the Lord.“My people have committed two sins:They have forsaken me, the spring of living water,and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water."

This verse tells us that the people of Israel have traded or exchanged their "glorious God" for "worthless idols" and that causes the heavens to shudder with great horror. It aptly describes the danger of building for ourselves idols that can't sustain any living water. God's spring of Living Water can only do that.

It is absolutely not wrong to cheer for your favorite players, celebrate goals, or root for your team to hoist the Stanley Cup, but when those things start to become your god at a heart level, it is something that we would be wise to reevaluate. It has become too easy to get consumed by this mentality around us in the hockey world. Let us not be like the Israelites in the Old Testament. Let's learn from their misteps and keep God and His Glory above all else


Questions for thought:
What things in your life have taken too large a priority?
What things can you do to help gaurd your heart as God's alone?