You might not think I am a Canadian. I will be watching my first NHL hockey game of the 2010-2011 season tonight. Since the NHL lockout occurred several years ago I said to myself that I would give up watching hockey games "for a while". These days, I tune in to watch an NHL game only when it is the Stanley Cup finals, and only when it is an elimination game on the line. (Just for the record, I did the same for MLB baseball when they went on strike in '94, and didn't return to watching or listening to any games until the 2004 season).
While I was driving to a doctors appointment this morning, and thinking about the game I will be watching tonight as the Boston Bruins host the Vancouver Canucks, an image popped into my head. It was an image of no particular hockey player, but one of a toothless hockey player who has given it their all to have a chance to win sports most famous trophey.
I thought about the physical trauma that the hockey players endure throughout a season - lost teeth, broken bones, bruised bodies - as players throw their bodies at other plays and drop in front of a frozen hard piece of rubber that was launched like a bullet out of a gun from a defensemen's slapshot - just to have a chance at winning a trophy that upon winning, the players are only able to sign out for a day, and have their name engraved on the side.
After having this mental image, I was immediately reminded about how God wants us as Christians to live our lives - as living sacrifices. God wants us to give it our all - to endure hardships, to endure pain, to endure trauma - towards loving others.
After all, our prize is worth much more than a cup, isn't it?
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