Monday, February 4, 2008

THE DAY AFTER

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen"  (Revelation 22:21)

Dave Milley was Senior Pastor of Christian Life Center in Walpole when I was an Assistant Pastor there back in the early 1980s.  Milley was always a charismatic, captivating speaker.  One thing I remember him saying during services was, "Friend, I read the back of the book and WE WIN!".  That's true. The above verse is the very last verse of Revelation and of the New Testament.  Almighty God and His children DO win and live in peace, happiness, and fulfillment for all eternity.

As a New England Patriots fan, I need to remind myself of that verse today!
It was an exciting game last night, but the loss was very disappointing.  Many of you know, that I'm a "perfectionist".  The thought of "a perfect season" was absolutely intoxicating to me.  I've gone to several of the Super Bowl victory parades in past years, and I was SO looking forward to that for tomorrow.  I really wanted to see the Patriots win number 19 for a perfect season.  It didn't happen.
Well, that's life.  I'm still very proud of the Patriots.  They gave us an OUTSTANDING season and a lot of excitement.  It was wonderful to have them in the Super Bowl again.  The Giants are a great team, but the Patriots are the better team. HOWEVER, the Giants DID give it 200% on Sunday night, and, yes, managed to beat the stronger and better team.  That's kind of hard to take, but we do have to give Eli Manning, and Tom Coughlin and all of 'em credit.  Now, I might point out what happened in the regular season when the Pats beat them in the final regular season game, but, would that be kind of unsportsmanlike...?  Maybe.  So, it's hard for me to get the words out but, "cccooonnngggrrraaattt...uuu...lll...aaa...ttt...iii...ooo...nnn...sss, Giants."

The Giants are having their day in the sun.

I hope the Patriots will be back and win the Super Bowl next year.

And, my consolation is that as a born-again Christian, like Dave Milley, I read the back of the book and we win!


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bob, I too was very disappointed, but not as much as I thought I would be.  Because as you reminded all of us, as Christians we do win in the end.  Some of my thoughts on the game: TOO MANY COMMERCIALS, as good as some of them were.  The Giants had only ONE strategy and that was to bring Tom Brady down wn as much as possible.  They knew that he was the superior quarterback and could only win by  literally knocking  him out of the game.  To me the Patriots were the real winners, playing against a team that could only win by putting all their focus  on Tom Brady.  They may have won the Super Bowl, but the Patriots had an unblemished season, winning every single game, without having to use the tactics that the Giants used last night.  The Patriots are by far the classiest team in the NFL .

Jennie

Anonymous said...

To JENNIE :
You are 100% correct.  That was WELL said.  
ALSO, YES way too many commercials.
Sadly, the best team did NOT win last night, but there ARE many spiritual lessons in this.

Anonymous said...

you should have seen my when i had to go into work tonight and face the guys...

at least it was an entertaining game.

Anonymous said...

waa.... whatever, Giants... so we lost 1 game... we are the superior team anyway. enjoy winning the superbowl, but beware next year...

Anonymous said...

What the heck? Does Jennie follow football with any objectivity?

"The Giants had only ONE strategy and that was to bring Tom Brady down as much as possible."
Yes, Jennie. That's called "playing football": Pressuring the one most important opposing player so that he is rushed into making mistakes. Should the Giants have stepped back and allowed Brady to throw at will? (Which is basically what every other team in the NFL did this year.) If they did, and batted away every throw before it reached its intended destination, would you complain that "the Giants had only one strategy: to knock down Brady's passes as much as possible"? If they (gasp) intercepted a pass, would you whine that "their only strategy was to deviously steal his passes in a most unsportsmanlike manner"? As the kidz say these dayz: Pul-eeze. Finally facing a defense that LEGITIMATELY did to him what every other QB faces on a REGULAR BASIS, Brady was proven to be mortal (albeit still a dangerous and talented field general).

Anonymous said...

"They knew that he was the superior quarterback and could only win by literally knocking him out of the game." Excuse me, but I don't recall Brady leaving the game. I distinctly remember him valiantly attempting to salvage his team's chances to the very end. As for implying that the Giants were once again playin dirty pool: Where in the NFL rulebook states that you have to treat opposing players with tea and crumpets? Last I checked, the object of the professional football is to knock the holy begeezus out of the other team. How were the Giants guilty of sabotaging this goal?

"To me the Patriots were the real winners ..."
Wrong again, Jennie baby. The winners are defined by who has the most points when time runs out. Reviewing basic arithmetic, 17 > 14.

"... playing against a team that could only win by putting all their focus on Tom Brady."
I don't get it. Again, where is it written or implied that focusing all your energy on your opponents' strong point is dirty pool. Would you have rather the Giants focused on the Patriots' weaknesses (which they did: they exploited New England's amazingly overrated offensive front line to get to Brady time and again); would that have bought your admiration, or (d)evolved it into claims of sneakiness and cowardice on the part of the Giants. I mean, one cannot win with your level of analysis.

Anonymous said...

"The [Giants] may have won the Super Bowl ..."
Yes they did, Jennie. Yes they did.

"... but the Patriots had an unblemished season, winning every single game ..."
Well, every game ... EXCEPT THE BIG ONE, BABY!!!

"... without having to use the tactics that the Giants used last night."
Again with the implication of playing outside of the rules. Somehow I feel that if the Pats had sacked Eli Manning five times, you would champion their guile and relentless attack instead of claiming their success was the result of perceived cheating.

"The Patriots are by far the classiest team in the NFL ."
I suppose. Unless you count the truly unsportsmanlike habit of running up the score to punish your critics. (I find it interesting if not outright hypocritical that the author of this blog elsewhere condemns the unprovoked and unfair attack of a caller by a talk show host and yet champions a team who likewise flogged surrendering opponents with unnecessary, embarrassingly excessive force.) Unless you count the classless acts of its head coach, culminating in his leaving the field of battle before time ran out so he wouldn't have to face the ignominious end of his team's season, selfishly leaving his players to bear the brunt of the experience themselves. And of course, unless you count the two and perhaps several countless times that your New England Patriots CHEATED their way to the top not by playing by the rules -- exploiting the opposition's weakness, attacking their strength, scoring more points than you alllow -- but by ILLEGALLY and illicitly TAPING other team's practices to gain an UNFAIR advantage, and despite EXPLICIT WARNINGS and THREATS by the NFL commissioner to CEASE and DESIST in such activities, nonetheless REPEATEDLY cheating in said fashion, in no doubt effectively SPATTING in your authority's face. Yes, THIS is class DEFINED: Ladies and gentleman, YOUR NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS!!!