Super Bowl Reflections: Can Everybody Be A Star?
Everybody is a star
I can feel it when you shine on me
I love you for who you are
Not the one you feel you need to be.”
-Sly and the Family Stone
I am a lifetime LA Rams fan (who yes I did abandon them when they moved to St. Louis) but was true to them when they came back to L.A. (okay, except when they played the Seahawks!) I really loved that they won the game and the way they did it last month. You can’t believe how hard it has been to be a LOS ANGELES Rams fan for all of these years. They were always being knocked out of the playoffs before they could get to the Super Bowl and the couple of times they made it to the Super Bowl they of course lost. This team showed true grit and determination in overcoming a game ending injury to one of their star receivers and a terrible “non call” to start the second half that put them in a big hole. But like life, what is the most inspirational thing to see, when someone overcomes adversity and perseveres, and is able win against all odds at the end. For me the game was like healing ointment of years of playoff frustration of being a Los Angeles Rams fan.
Another bright spot was the wide receiver Cooper Kupp’s story. In 2019 when the Rams lost to the Patriots the young rookie was injured and had to watch from the sideline. God gave him a vision that they would go back and he would be MVP. This is exactly what happened to the Super Bowl’s MVP, Cooper Kupp. God’s light always shines through darkness for those who can see it. What he said in a post-game interview shows a valuable spiritual truth he understood and applied. He said, “I didn’t have to fight FOR victory, I fought FROM victory.” This the truth about being a “star” in God’s eyes. It is available to all who will receive His love, His bestowed Identity. It is something that can be gratefully RECEIVED, not needed to be striven for and ACHIEVED.
However, for most Americans the actual football game was more of an interruption from watching crazy funny commercials. It was a night when “the stars came out.” The stars were on the field, scattered in the stands and performing in a giant structure on the middle of the field at the half time show. You could feel the adulation that magnified these few stars. But what is the message for the most of us who are not “stars” but are rather common, ordinary people? What do we begin to believe about ourselves? We think that there are only a very few “stars” in this world. The rest of us can only fantasize, what “could be someday” while we are young or mourn over what will “never be,” when we are older.
When my kids were young, I gave them some monetary motivation whenever they were able to “spot the lie” in a commercial. The entire Super Bowl was a subtle lie that ordinary people are not significant. That what we do in our daily hum drum lives is of little consequence. That the world is made up of a very few elite “winners” and the rest of us just have to be like the 31 other NFL teams who didn’t win the Super Bowl, the “losers.” Being a “star” is something we think we need to strive towards, to be recognized, to receive adulation becomes something that we just crave. We envy the stars, hyper focus on them and when they show human weaknesses we turn on them out of our own jealousy and insecurity.
The church in North America has mirrored the culture’s lie, not shining much needed light upon those in the darkness. We worship celebrity pastors by buying their books and exalt mega churches so smaller churches can learn their secret and emulate them. The few are blessed and the rest depressed. It is like a giant pyramid, few winners on top and the rest on the bottom. This is really our fault as it demands so much less of us to be a spectator than to be playing in the game. The message is not that “everybody is a star” but only very few are. The rest of us are condemned to be only “star gazers”, the many who are the spectators watching the very few, living vicariously through them.
But what is “the church” really? Is it fair for us as members of it to in a detached manner criticize it? No! The church is US who are Christ-followers! And it is made up people who are either biologically or spiritually parents or grandparents, children and grandchildren (families). It is the leaders of these families’ mission to pass on to the upcoming generations the counter-cultural message that greatness or stardom is not elusive only available for the very gifted, the elite or the very few. But Because of Jesus Christ, He has made it possible for everyone who puts their trust in Him, who will dare to follow Him, to be a shining star pointing to Him, to shine brightly for him in a dark world.
This message is the anti-venom to the serpent’s lie we must personally deliver to our children and grandchildren by word and example…that they are special (who better than a parent or grandparent can speak that into their lives?!) and that they have a unique destinies to fulfill. This is based on internal, lasting character imparted through faith in Christ, not external, fleeting achievement accomplished through mere self-glorifying self-effort.
Here is an excerpt from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians. “Don’t be selfish, don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had…Do everything without complaining and arguing so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, SHINING LIKE BRIGHT LIGHTS in a world full of crooked and perverse people.” Philippians 2:3-5,14-15
Dear Father, Please help us to enable our children and grandchildren to fulfill their destinies as the SHINING STARS that they have been created and redeemed to be!
Jamie Bohnett
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