I mentioned yesterday that my family moved to Dallas in 1966 when I was in the third grade. It did not take long for me to become a fan of the Dallas Cowboys. I remember going to see them play in the Cotton Bowl, and I have been a fan ever since, through thick and thin. Since that time I have lived in Nebraska, Missouri, Nevada, Illinois and Oklahoma, but I have remained a fan of the team that wears a star on their helmets.

When I was working with the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League on the National level, I became friends with Karen. She is just as big a football fan as I am, but her team was the one that used to be known as the Washington Redskins. One year her birthday was just before the Monday night game in which the Cowboys and Redskins would play. When I sent her birthday greetings, I added “Go Cowboys.” Her response was something to the effect that the Redskins would prevail.

The game was one of those that grinds out and it was not pretty. Dallas could not score a touchdown, but did manage 6 field goals and held on to win by one point. The day after the game I texted my friend to rub it in just a bit. Her response was: “It is frustrating when a team plays down to such incompetent competition! I gave up and went to bed before the game ended.” Later, she added me that there was surely a sermon topic in there somewhere.

She was right. The temptation we face every day is to “play down” to what everyone else in this sinful world is doing rather than concentrating on being the people God has called us to be in Christ. We try to rationalize our misdeeds with that tired old “everyone else is doing it.”  But that is not what God wants from His redeemed children.

Ephesians 4:22-24  You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Jesus has already paid the price for every sin by offering His perfect life. He gives us His righteousness and holiness and wants us to live in it.

My friend Karen also raised the question that if you see a car that is parked crooked in a parking space and crossing over the lines, do you park the same way or do you try to park within the lines as intended?

God has given us “lines” in His Law. We don’t have to stay between the lines to get to heaven. Jesus took care of that for us. But we know that God wants us to stay between the lines, so we should be doing our best to live that way in order to show our gratitude to God.

P.S. While that team is no longer called the Redskins, for Karen’s sake I hope they win a few games this year. Just as long as they lose when they play the Cowboys.