Ole Miss Football and C.S. Lewis

Who can forget the most awkward, dissatisfied look from this guy when he showed off his Chargers uniform.

Sorry about the blog problem over the weekend. I'm sure our 4 regular readers were in quite a bind. Anyway, proud to say, a tekkie chat room helped me out and I'm glad there are people smarter than me out there. I remember trying to learn Java with Bo Johnson right down the hall at Ole Miss and well....thats another story for another day.

As football season approaches, I am more and more reminded of how dissatisfied I am at the end of every football season. Yes, most of that dissatisfaction probably stems from being an Ole Miss fan. I mean we are coming off a nice 3-8 season. However, if I'm honest, never once has a season finished and I felt satisfied. The Eli Manning senior season brought a little joy. But at the same time who wasn't irate over Nichols missing 2 key field goals in the LSU game, or us losing to Texas Tech while giving up 7000 passing yards. I'm getting upset just thinking about the LSU game. Every season ends, and we either look back and discuss what could have been, or look forward and talk about what might could be.

Now don't get me wrong, I hope we make it to the SEC championship one day, some day. And you better believe I will be there. But, I've said many times, lets just make it to Atlanta and I'll be satisfied. I'm lying to myself. If we make it to the SEC championship, I'll think back and wonder what would have been if we hadn't lost to SMU. I'll get mad at the BCS and talk about how we could have won the National championship if there was just a playoff system. The funny thing is, I was at the Texas/USC national championship game last year (thanks to my father in law...just in case he reads this blog), and following the greatest game I've ever seen, Texas fans began discussing next year. "Will Vince stay? How will we be without him?" It was one of those moments I realized how we are always yearning for something more, something bigger.

C.S. Lewis in his book Weight of Glory makes these comments. "Now, if we are made for heaven, the desire for our proper place will be already in us, but not yet attached to the true object, and will even appear as the rival of that object....If a transtemporal, transfinite good is our real destiny, then any other good on which our desire fixes must be in some degree fallacious, must bear at best only a symbolical relation to what will truly satisfy." I almost refuse to comment further on this quote at risk of messing with the genius of Lewis...but I will. Lewis nails it on the head. Of course we will never find true satisfaction in a sinful, fallen world. We are made in the image of God (Gen 1:27) and what we are made for, where our true destiny lies, is living in perfect communion and worship of our God and Creator. According to Lewis, a great apologetic for heaven is the simple fact that we are never fully satisfied here. We were built for something more.

With that being said, isn't it interesting how we cope with the unsatisfaction. Lewis again says, "we are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, likme an ignorant child who wants to go on making muc pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." In other words instead of turning to Christ, and finding true satisfaction in the only place I am fully known, fully forgiven, fully approved of, and fully loved (I Cor.13:12), I seem to turn to other things that were never meant to bring full/ultimate satisfaction. Sex, drink, Nintendo, sports and jobs of course are not sinful or evil. However, when we look to those things to bring full satisfaction, they simply cannot bear the weight of our hopes, desires, and dreams. In one sense we are far too easily satisfied, but in another sense, deep down inside we all know we were built for much more.

It should make those who are in Christ yearn for the day that full satisfaction will be found. The day that sin is wiped away and when "now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known (I Cor. 13:12). The great joy we experience when we engage in late night talks with friends, or experience the thrill of victory, or fill in the blank should simply point us forward to the new heavens and the new earth.

All that to say, I sure do hope we make it to the SEC championship soon. I went to practice friday, and it was nice to see a quarterback hit some receivers in stride. Now, the receivers didn't necessarily catch the ball, but thats another story. We are making proper steps. Let's go Rebs.

p.s. Mike Espy is on an NFL team? Are they crazy?