Little and Much

My nephew came upstairs yesterday with tears in his eyes. His voice cracked as he gave me the news.

“Germany lost..”, he mumbled, a little embarrassed by his emotion, even for a 6 year old.

Germany? Germany as in the country across the ocean? What in the world did my 6 year old nephew care about Germany?

Now please understand this: I have nothing against Germany. I’d go visit in a heartbeat.

But we are not Germans. There is absolutely no German blood in our Phoenician descent. My nephew has never been to Germany. In fact, until last week, I don’t believe my nephew had seen an entire soccer match….Excuse me, I meant to say “Football”…And now all of a sudden he’s crying because Germany lost a soccer game?

I’m still a little baffled by my nephew’s response to this tragic event, but it got me thinking about how quickly we tend to jump on a bandwagon. It doesn’t matter what that bandwagon is. If a handful of people are on it, well, darn it, we’re jumping on it too.  The irony is that most bandwagons people jump on matter very little in the big scheme of things. Yet they cause tension and anger, and drifts in relationships of epic proportion.

Think of the last time your team failed to make it across the winning threshold you thought they would. Feels like the end of the world, doesn’t it? You may still be licking your wounds over it, and don’t worry, I won’t ask your spouse about it. The answer may just be too painful to hear.

I’ve seen it happen a million times. We make much of little and little of much.

I’m not suggesting you stop watching sports, or turn off all allegiances to your favorite team. And I do understand that there is a spirit of unity and community that stem from such allegiances.

But when was the last time you were gripped with sadness over the plight of orphans in Asia, or the starving children in Africa? Or when was the last time you grieved over the millions of babies being murdered here in our own country? Or the billions dying without Christ?

I don’t know where the line must be drawn.  But I think the question needs to be asked.

Are you making much of little, and little of much?

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