The football weekend consisted of exciting storylines and top teams proving their dominance, but there were also several surprising upsets in both college football and the NFL.
Normally, the assumption in a football game is that the team with the most total yards wins, but that isn’t necessarily the goal. It’s great to have more combined passing and rushing yards than the other team, but the impressive stats don’t matter if you lose in the end.
Oftentimes in games, there are hollow stats or empty yards that a team compiles, but it’s not leading to touchdowns and ultimately a victory. They are gaining yards, but not winning.
The San Francisco 49ers had a huge day with racking up yards. However, they lost 21-28 to Seattle even though they had 457 total yards to the Seahawks’ 234.
In college football, Oregon was ranked third in the country but lost to Stanford in overtime on Saturday night. Oregon had more total yards (414-354), but it wasn’t enough.
On Sunday, the Titans lost in overtime 27-24 to the previously winless New York Jets despite gaining 430 total yards to the Jets’ 355 yards, including outrushing them 177-66.
The 10th ranked Florida Gators lost for only the second time in the last 35 matchups against the Kentucky Wildcats 13-20. After the game, Florida’s head coach, Dan Mullen, was asked about how the offense seemed to sputter and if he thought he was outcoached by Kentucky’s Mark Stoops.
His response made mention of the total yards as he sarcastically responded, “No…382 yards… I guess that’s sputtering…we had 382 and they had 211 yards…so I wouldn’t think that would be the case…”
Coaches can talk all night about having more yards than the other team, but the goal is to have more points. The focus should be on winning the game instead of the empty stats that result in a loss.
Oftentimes in life, we get caught up in accumulating total “yards” or bragging about how many “yards” we’ve gained or believing a good day is racking up a ton of “yards.”
In other words, our lives can appear impressive on the stat sheet because of our success, wealth, intelligence, popularity, power, or pleasure, but they turn out to be empty stats and hollow numbers that don’t ultimately matter and can never be enough to give us lasting victory.
Matthew 16:26 asks us this in the following translations:
“What profit is there if you gain the whole world—and lose eternal life? What can be compared with the value of eternal life?” (TLB)
“And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (NLT)
We can talk about our impressive stats all night, but the point of this life is to know God and place our faith in Jesus, so we can experience true victory both now and for eternity.
John 17:3 (TLB) says, “And this is the way to have eternal life—by knowing You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one You sent to earth!”
In the Bible, Paul is a strong example of someone who had an impressive resume based on “total yards” that turned out to be “empty stats” once He met Jesus.
In Philippians 3:7-11 (NLT) Paul explains, “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
“For His sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with Him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.
“For God’s way of making us right with Himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!”
Today, let’s not be consumed with accumulating worthless yards or gaining the world but remember that true winning is placing our faith in Jesus and knowing God intimately.
I’m Bryce Johnson and you can UNPACK that!
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for satisfying my soul. I know that true life is found in Jesus and I pray I’d stop placing so much value on worldly things and accomplishments. Help me to live in a way that truly matters as I seek to know You better and experience Your grace and love more and more. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.
Discussion Questions for PACKS:
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What “stat” do you find yourself dwelling on or pursuing?
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What did you used to consider valuable that you now consider worthless because you know Jesus?
