Triple Option

By Michael Maynard

Published 9/6/19 @1:45 PM CT

“Then God spoke all these words: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall not have other gods beside me. You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or serve them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their ancestors’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation; but showing love down to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.” -Exodus‬ ‭20:1-6‬ ‭

In the book of Exodus, through Moses, the Lord gives his people Ten Commandments that they are to follow. Thousands of years later, those Ten Commandments remain ten of the fundamental principles of morality. We are commanded to show love for family, not to steal, not to kill, not to cheat, not to be envious, but most importantly, through the first three we are commanded to live our life giving respect to the Creator who makes everything possible.

In my college football article on Week 2, I included my rankings of the top 25 teams. The system I follow, and the system traditionally adhered to by the CFB Playoff, the coaches, AP, USA Today, and whoever else wants to rank teams. The scale puts #1 as the pinnacle, and then decreases in prestige going down the list.

While not a perfect analogy, I believe God worked in a similar way he gave Moses the list of Commandments. I find it hard to fathom that the same God who structurally and carefully organized the universe would just make a grocery list of rules to give to Moses. While he wasn’t power ranking football teams, I think he did order the rules that were important to him.

Of course all the Commandments are of significant importance, but there is a significance to the order. Everything plays into the First Commandment. If we can’t put God before all else, then how do honor His name and day? If we can’t respect our ultimate creator, how are we supposed to respect our earthly creators? Or avoid falling into the destructive vices he then describes, specifically killing, cheating, stealing, lying, and coveting.

So for my first faith-based article, I wanted to emphasize the importance of the First Commandment; Put God before all else. On the surface, it seems simple enough. If you’re a practicing Christian, I’d expect you to say God is before all else. At least that’s how it is for me. But it’s one thing to say it and another to live it.

So how do we live it? Back to the Commandments. God gives us nine additional tasks we can follow to help achieve the First Commandment, which ultimately gets us to Heaven. But that isn’t the only part of the Commandment we’re called to. Re-read the second and third sentences of the Exodus passage. Christianity is monotheistic, so of course we worship one god. But the idea of idolatry is more than meets the eye. Idols are the objects of this world that we value of more importance than God. That doesn’t mean specifically a molten calf, it can be anything that takes us away from God. The one I have to battle and I’m not alone is the battle with sports. Sports can be good; they unite people, they require teamwork and sacrifice and hard work to achieve a goal. Those are virtues, and those are the reasons I involve myself in sports. But they can also be a distraction from our faith.

I can say I put faith before all else, but there are instances where my practice of faith is limited to one hour on Sunday. That’s not even 1% of my weekly time. On top of that, many Saturdays during football season I blindly submit to watching college football all day. Is that inherently evil? I wouldn’t say so, but most of the time it’s not bringing me closer to God.

Acts of faith can be intentional. It can be me going to mass or taking time for prayer writing an faith article. But for the most part, our entire life of faith isn’t always direct. This brings in Matthew Kelly’s concept of Holy Moments explained in “The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity.” The book focuses on what we can do in the majority of the time when we are not actively professing our faith. How we can find “holy moments” in the everyday moments of life. Maybe a short prayer of gratitude. Or a short prayer in moments of frustration, that we may keep our composure. Or during physical exercise, a prayer thanking God for the physical strength he has given and ask for the physical and mental graces to complete the exercise. Or the most common way; by living life following the laws of morality God laid out for us. By living virtuous lives, we live out our faith.

Of course I’m still going to keep watching college football, in large part, because I want to be able to write about it, and it’s possible I have career options associated with sports. But my goal is to look for more opportunities to practice holy moments. Maybe during a commercial, instead of flipping to the game ESPN2 or checking to Twitter I can say a quick Our Father, or pray for the intention of the athletes on the field that engage in a forceful activity that pays for their education.

Back to the excerpt from Exodus, if I’m not putting God at the forefront of my life, then not only does He become outraged and personally offended, but I am also harming my own soul. That’s my purpose in all of this. I practice my faith because it helps my soul. So why would I do anything that doesn’t support that?

The topics I write about in a way reflect what I value. When I take time to write an article, much of the purpose is so I can think through a topic. Yet I’ve invested all of my efforts into writing about sports. So with these F3s, I’m looking to balance the subjects I write about. If I take as much time writing about my faith than I take recapping college football, it’s a way for help follow the First Commandment, and ensure God is at the forefront of my priorities.

Have a blessed weekend!

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