absolutely the WORST post you have EVER read...at least for the moment

today i have been pondering the current tendency in our culture to state that whatever is most current is most important. i'm not real good at making grand sweeping statements about culture (at least accurate ones) but i will give it a shot.

this was all brought on by a baseball game, of all things. last night my beloved san diego padres were playing their rivals, the los angeles dodgers. the padres took a 4 run lead into the bottom of the 9th (at which point i went to bed) and it looked like the padres would be adding to their very slight lead in the nl west. improbably, the dodgers came back and won the game in the 10th inning. in doing this they took back the lead in the nl west and did it in dramatic fashion.

i listen to sports radio and read sports websites regularly and the dodgers comeback win was all over the place. they were talking about the "historic" fashion in which the game was won, that this was the "BEST" baseball game of the year, that this was "heartbreaking" for the padres and a "landmark win" for the dodgers. an example of this can be seen in eric neel's piece on espn.com.

granted, this was no ordinary win. this was a fantastic win. and i love neel's recounting of it, even as a padre fan. but i wonder...what does it matter now? tonight the padres beat the diamondbacks and the dodgers lost to the pirates. now the padres have moved back into first place. and tomorrow morning the talk will be all about the next hottest story, whatever that might be. and this "magical night" will be a memory that will fade faster than my backyard did this summer.

don't get me wrong, i'm not a dodger hater. but i grow tired of being treated like a child whose parent thrusts a shiny toy in their face once they have become bored with the last one. words like "fantastic", "epic", "historic"...they are all losing their edge in the name of ratings, sales, or attendance. and i'm not just talking about baseball or sports in general. it's on the news, when you hear breathless blondes talking about the latest "teacher sleeps with student" or you hear advertisements proclaiming their virtues via commercial or you see some reporter talking about the oncoming hurricane that will hopefully subside, but you know they really want it to be devastating, because then more people will watch.

i guess this is all my reaction to the fear that somehow i will lose that sacred ache that chills my bones and thrills my heart when i read the words of Jesus, or hear rachmaninoff's piano concerto no. 2, or see my daughter laughing or feel thunder booming over the ocean. i don't want to wake up every day and look to the television or a website or a newspaper for the BEST or WORST news i have every heard in my ENTIRE life.

as derek webb says in his song 'medication':

don't lie to me
tell me something true
'cause i'm only free
when i look at You

just tell me something true...not some hyped up hyperbole that occupies my mind for a moment and then vanishes as the next mirage appears.

tonight, these words from psalm 104: 31-32 encourage my heart:

May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works,
who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke!

i pray that i would learn to look for those long enduring things and learn to tremble and rejoice rightly.