“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” –Proverbs 13.12
I like watching my college team win games, and I like watching my college rival lose games. I know that’s not very generous, and there are thankfully times when my sports rival matters very little to me. My dislike is usually proportional to how much time I spend with my rival team’s unkind fans. This year we lost, and the unkind fans were unkind.
I remember thinking as the clock ran out that we would be able to win the following year because of all the resources we would have returning and all of the resources that the other team would be losing. The validity of this argument is beside the point. The problem is, I had that same thought process the previous year when we lost, and it didn’t lead to anything. I was putting my hope in an event that might not happen anytime soon. My hope was not fulfilled.
So let’s go back two years. Two years ago we won for the second year in a row. I remember thinking at that time we would have the resources to be even better the following year. We would certainly win the next year as well. In this case, even though we had won two years in a row, I was still hoping in a future thing. The accomplishments my team had already achieved were not enough because there was always the subsequent year. Again, my hope was not fulfilled.
The World Cup and the Olympics are a bit better because they occur every four years. If you win then you can rest confidently, right? Not really. The morning after receiving the trophy or the medal, you have to return to work again, getting ready for next time. And for these events each competition carries more weight because you’ll have to wait four years to try again, and, let’s face it, geriatrics and sports don’t go well together. Unless we’re talking about Senior Olympics. Here again, people’s hopes are not fulfilled.
Every sports defeat leaves us longing and every sports victory leaves us wanting. Transient things cannot sustain our hope and joy. The victory that we want can only be found in eternal things. Sports are merely a shadow of those victories attained in Christ, whose triumph was good once and for all.