This is the third of four essays on rivalries by former University of North Carolina wrestler, AIA staff person, and pastor, and is currently president of the Gospel Underground, Reid Monaghan. In each of these reflections, Monaghan wants us to consider the place of rivalry in our lives, examining them for both their positive and negative effects on our soul.

Human beings are worshipping creatures. We love things, we love stuff, we create and love gods and goddesses—and we love our sports teams. Love and worship are built into who we are as the human race. We cannot help ourselves. We were made to have our passions aimed somewhere. The crucial question is always where we will place our highest praise and highest loves.

It might seem silly that people would worship their college sports teams. As if the performance of 20-year-olds on a football field on a Saturday in November would somehow make our joy complete. Yet anyone who has experienced the roar of tens of thousands of people losing their mind over a long touchdown run, punt return or pick six will give testimony to the collective power of sports. 

The problem: No matter what we worship on earth, our gods always seem to let us down.

The new job that once thrilled gets stale. That new phone that made life exciting gets boring. The new boyfriend or girlfriend turns out to be quite human. The rivalry game that once brought the thrill of victory just devastated us with the agony of defeat.  When the things of this world let us down and when things don’t go our way, we do find out something about ourselves.

When I was a freshman wrestler at we lost to our bitter rivals in a match we were favored to win. After the match coaches were punching walls, one of our captains was screaming and crying in tears, and everyone seemed to have lost their minds. What happened? Our gods had let us down. Our sport disappointed, we disappointed ourselves and we were left hurting with desire to get back out there to redeem things and make the world right again. 

A devastating loss to a rival can show us something about our hearts. A defeat might show us that we have actually placed something too high in our hearts. I’m not saying we shouldn’t care. An athlete should care deeply. But we are not our sport and we need to learn that sports make a bad and counterfeit god.  

Pastor Timothy Keller defines an idol, a counterfeit god, in this way:

What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give. A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living…

...An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, “If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I ‘ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.” There are many ways to describe that kind of relationship to something, but perhaps the best one is worship. (xvii and xviii of Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters)

When our idols fall, we fall. When our team loses the big game, we can sink in our soul. Why? Worship has been misplaced. As you strap on the pads to play the big game this week, or paint the face to go crazy in the stands do enjoy the spectacle that is in the arenas of sport, keep your heart and your loves aimed high but at the right Person. There is someone to worship but it certainly is not the QB. 

Reid Monaghan received a Bachelor of Science in Applied Computer Science with a minor in Physics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While at UNC he also competed on the wrestling team for the then perennial ACC Champion and top ten Tarheels. He also holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Apologetics, a multidisciplinary degree involving Philosophy, Biblical studies, and Theology. After college, he spent eight years serving alongside his wife Kasey on the college campus with the ministry of Athletes in Action. Along with a team of friends, Reid planted Jacob’s Well, a theologically driven, multiethnic, and culturally engaged church in Central New Jersey. He is a traveling speaker where he addresses students and athletes on various campuses throughout the United States.