today 99 becomes 50

My American friends might not know what that headline means. I would guess almost all of my Canadian friends would.

Today, Wayne Gretzky, unarguably the greatest hockey player ever, turns 50 years old. I remember watching him play pro hockey when he was just a teenager. He sure was fun to watch. And I know exactly where I was when THE TRADE came down. I’ll never forget that day. That night my wife and I stayed up till midnight listening to a sports talk radio show. We were traumatized! (Well, maybe that is a little overstated!)

I’m just going to give you a few links here, then make a point. Just notice, however, that in Canada, Wayne’s 50th is big news.

• Our local paper has a photo gallery (we don’t have a pro hockey team, but Wayne’s first training camp as an LA King was here).
• The Toronto Globe and Mail, sort of a national paper for Canada, has a story.
• Of course, The Sports Network, one of our Canadian sports channels, has multiple stories, but this is the big headline one for the day.
• Not to be outdone, Sportsnet, our other sports channel has their own versions. Here is a column by Mark Spector.
• And the National Post, our other national newspaper, has numerous articles, including this one on THE TRADE.

Now, what to make of all this?

Do we not, in our society, make gods of men (and a few women) whose only contribution to our society is fleeting entertainment?

Do we not, by so doing, make these gods because of the emotional highs we get from their performances?

Shouldn’t we, as Christians, put fences around our hearts and guard where we place our affections?