How sweet it is

My beloved Lakers whom I have been following since I was about 7 years-old, just won the 2010 NBA championship last night over our NBA arch-enemy, the Celtics. Over my lifetime, the Lakers have won 10 championships now - wow!Last night, I had praise practice at church so I ended up coming home at about 9:30pm. I felt confident that the Lakers would win, but I was emotionally prepared for a loss or so I thought. When I came home, Sandy did not immediately tell me the score. That made me nervous. I checked the score online, only to find out we were losing by 6! And had only scored 36 points by half-time (For you non-basketball fans, that's an insanely low number)! Though the deficit was small, panic was setting in.

Since we don't have any tv reception, I listened to the game on the radio. The 3rd quarter started, and the Lakers went down by 13. I was in shock. But as the Lakers started their come back and eventually won the game, I am now more amused that I was probably the only person in the USA who was listening to this game on the radio!

This morning, the first thing Andrew did was ask who won. I wondered what his reaction would be so I had Sandy videotape me telling him the dramatic second half. He was stoked but nothing worth filming. Oh well. We casually talked about the game over breakfast when Emery, very nonchalantly, said, "Dad, didn't you say the Lakers were an idol to you?"

I have been working at simply liking the Lakers (and all sports for that matter) as an amusing hobby that won't take much time or dictate my emotions for many years now. A couple of months ago over a game, I had a moment of despair and confessed my sin to Andrew and warned him about following my poor example. Apparently, Emery was listening! The Holy Spirit speaks from the mouths of babes!

Tonight, I went over to a friend's house who recorded the games on their DVR. He told me that something had happened to the recording and that it only recorded the second half - no problem, the first half didn't sound like it was worth watching. I took the boys over and we sat down and started watching. I was looking forward to seeing what I had only heard about the night before. The game started in the middle of the 3rd quarter, right when the Lakers started making their comeback - perfect! Then as the Lakers were about to take the lead and finish them off with 4 minutes left in the game - kaput! Recording ended! I guess the Lord loves me too much to let me get too excited about these games. No big deal. It's just a game...right?