Sigh.

Here we go again.

I have been relatively spoiled over the last two decades. My favorite football team, the Philadelphia Eagles, have been competitive since Andy Reid became their coach in 1999. Though he has gone on to earn three Super Bowl victories with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, the Eagles have continued to enjoy a measure of “success”, culminating in their 2018 Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots. The Eagles returned to the Super Bowl in 2022, losing to Andy Reid’s Chiefs in the final minutes.

However, the Eagles suffered one of the greatest collapses in sports history last season. They were 10-1 before losing six of their last seven games including a playoff loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It wasn’t just the losses – it was the way they lost the games. They were dominated.

The Eagles made coaching and player changes over the offseason to ensure that they would contend for the Super Bowl once more. A week one victory over Green Bay suggested the Eagles had a good season ahead of them. However, they suffered another epic collapse on Monday Night Football this week, losing in humiliating fashion in the final minute. Their defense looks poor to say the least and it is most likely they will be 1-3 as they have two road games coming up against two very good teams.

Reader, can you feel the intensity of my passion for the Philadelphia Eagles? Can you sense my deep frustration with them?

Well, guess what. I have desired on many occasions to lose my obsession with professional sports. I have prayed about it. I envy those people, like my wife, who not only don’t care about sports but know nothing about them. It must be so nice to not care if the Eagles, Phillies, Flyers, and Sixers lose.

However, being a sports junky is an addiction for me. I can’t let it go. I even tried switching allegiances to the Boston Bruins or Boston Red Sox. Nope. I’m married to my Philly teams and a divorce seems impossible. My obsession with and allegiance to Philadelphia sports teams is deeply engrained in me. My brain has been rewired to long for a Philly sports team victory every day of the year.

The moral of this blog post is that we cannot change our hearts and minds without God’s help. In fact, it is impossible. Do you think you can turn into a good person on your own? Do you think you can be nicer without God’s help? Do you think you can overcome an addiction by your own strength? Can you really change your heart by simply reading a bumper sticker that says “Be nice”?

No. You can’t. We are addicted to self-centeredness. We are addicted to rebellion from God. It’s how we are wired in our sinful nature. A change of heart requires literally a miracle of transformation that only Jesus Christ can accomplish through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, you are foolish to believe that you can change your ways and somehow impress God enough to let you into heaven by your own good works. If you are doing good works at all it is because He is using you as His messenger of love to someone else. It is Him doing the work through you because your true heart nature longs to shout obscenities and scream at the star running back who dropped the football in the last minute of the game.

Photo Credit: An Eagles fan celebrates as confetti falls on the field at Super Bowl 2018, Minneapolis MN. The photo was taken by Laurie Schaull