Friday night lights. Saturday tailgating. Sunday Redzone. Monday nights. Thursday nights. Fall means football and the NFL, high school and college football are in full swing. We see fans don their favorite team gear, even paint themselves in their favorite team colors. We see highly conditioned gladiators going at it on the field, and we see the guys with the whistles and striped shirts go “under the hood” to “review the previous play”.
We are kicking off a new series at Real Life Church called “Under Further Review”–we thought it might be a good idea for us to maybe take another look, a closer look at how we are living and relating. Perhaps stop, rewind, go to the monitor and take a deeper, inside-out look at our character. The good news is–that God is for us in this process and He always makes the right call. This series will really help us do a deep dive into the stuff in our hearts that ruins our relationships. We’ll put our hearts under further review.
That being said, this series comes from a phrase that’s often said during football games. After a crazy play where an official makes a call, sometimes a coach will ask for it to be reviewed. It is at this point, that the officials let the crowd know “the previous play is under review.”
While I was preparing for the message, it occurred to me, that some in our audience may not understand some of these football references. So I began to think, “How would I explain this to my wife?” So, in the spirit of good fun, and in an effort to #makereallifesimple, here is my best attempt to communicate the language of football in the language of HGTV.
| Football | HGTV |
| The goal is to score more points than the other team. | The goal is to come in under budget. Or as Chip Gaines says “Right Sized Up.” |
| Touchdown! | When your designer says “We added French Doors.” Score! |
| Extra point | “We used shiplap around the French doors” Value add! |
| A Field Goal | “We took down the ceiling fan” Should be a gimme. |
| Safety | “We added an herb garden” Rare, but cool. |
| Rivalry | Realtor David and Designer Hillary |
| The Dallas Cowboys | Flip or Flop |
Maybe you don’t know football, maybe you don’t know HGTV, but we all have things in our lives we need to put under further review. The Psalmist writes “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24(NIV)
Whether you care about football or not–you care about your relationships, and you care about your heart. So I invite you to check out this new series with us realifechurch.org.