Fan or Follower: Which Are You?
We are just hours away from the kickoff of Super Bowl LIX, arguably the biggest sporting event of the year. This year’s game, being played at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, is between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Swifties, oh sorry, I mean Chiefs, who are hoping to become the first team to three-peat in the Super Bowl era. The Green Bay Packers are the only team to win three NFL championships in a row. They won the NFL championship in 1965 and then won the first two Super Bowls in 1966 and 1967.
The game that we now know as the Super Bowl was created as part of the 1966 merger agreement between the NFL and the competing league, AFL. The game was originally called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. The Super Bowl moniker was adopted in 1969, Super Bowl III, in which “Broadway” Joe Namath guaranteed his New York Jets would beat the NFL’s Baltimore Colts, and did so 16-7.
Not only will more than one hundred million viewers watch the game on television, the amount of food and beverage consumed is second only to Thanksgiving for food consumed in one day. According to the National Chicken Council, Americans will consume well in excess of one billion chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday. Those wings, along with cold cut subs, pizza, chili, and potato chips and dip, will be washed down with more than 300 million gallons of beer. Not surprisingly, antacid sales dramatically increase on the Monday following the big game.
You might be a fan of one of the two teams, maybe you are simply enjoy the game of football, it could be you watch the game just to see the commercials, or possibly you are looking forward to the halftime show headlined by Kendrick Lamar. It was in the early 1990s that pop music acts began to perform at halftime, first with New Kids On The Block in 1991 and then Gloria Estefan the following year, but it wasn’t until Michael Jackson took the stage in 1993 that the halftime show began to morph into the spectacle it is today. It was during 2004 halftime show that the world witnessed Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction.”
During this year’s Super Bowl, ordinary people will turn fanatical and pour every ounce of their existence into cheering for their team. Not only that, but many will also be dressed from head to toe in their team’s logo gear. But when the game is over, and the last chicken wing is eaten and the last swig of beer swallowed, these fanatics become ordinary people again, with ordinary lives, ordinary families, ordinary jobs. The word “fan,” shortened version of fanatic, is defined as an “a person who is extremely enthusiastic about or devoted to some interest or activity.”
Sadly, many of us relate to Jesus that same way. For an hour or so when we go to church or small group meetings we are like those fans during the Super Bowl; we go wild for Jesus, but when the service is over, we go home and become “normal” again.
Fans cheer while followers learn from their teacher and then help in spreading the good news of that teacher. Jesus calls us to be more than fans. He calls us to be followers (disciples). The dictionary defines a disciple as “a pupil or follower of any teacher or school of learning, religion, art, etc. and one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrine of that teacher.” This person is a convinced adherent. So, in other words, a disciple of Jesus is someone who seeks His guidance, follows His plans, and then shares that goodness with everyone they meet.
So, today, be a fan of your favorite team and cheer like mad during the Super Bowl. Also, commit yourself to being a disciple of Jesus, allowing Him to change you and in the process begin to make you more like Him. Don’t just be a fan of Jesus, be His follower!
If you are encouraged by this or any of my writings, you can subscribe to be notified by email when I post something new. To subscribe, click here. Once you put in your email address you will then get an email confirming that you wish to subscribe. Thank you.