Victory on the field is fleeting. Each year, there will be a new winner and a new loser. But there is NEVER a winner when we stand silent while the next generation stands in chains.
Photo Credit: Stadium – Free images on Pixabay
Super Bowl
Behind the Super Bowl Scenes
As the masses prepare sports-holiday feasts and prep the media shrine for gridiron glory this Super Bowl Sunday, it seems the only newsworthy events of the weekend will be the final score, the halftime show, and the genius commercials in between. Unfortunately, there’s another side of the Super Bowl that rarely makes headlines. While multitudes gorge themselves on pizza and hot wings, guzzle beer by the gallon, and allow the highs and lows of the game to govern their emotional well-being, there are slaves waiting fearfully in the wings, knowing that at the close of the show they will be devoured as some sports-themed commodity.
We may think Sunday’s event is all about two teams battling for hard-earned victory. The fact is, many of our sports “heroes” will participate in what has been called “the single largest human trafficking incident in the United States.” Those fans in the stands? Some are there for the sheer enjoyment of the game. But too many have other plans for post-game “entertainment” that involves the degrading of innocent human beings. 
Does the thought make you shudder? Or would we rather don our sports gear, snuggle under a cozy blanket, and pretend our favorite pastime is not a nightmare to thousands of teens abducted and trafficked each year?
Yes, it is a fact. The Super Bowl is an insidious magnet for the trafficking industry—an industry that notoriously victimizes hundreds of thousands of our precious children.
How is it that we boycott everything that infringes on our own comforts and preferences yet turn a blind eye when the rights of our nations youth are squandered in the name of athletic triumph? Victory on the field is fleeting. Each year, there will be a new winner and a new loser. But there is NEVER a winner when we stand silent while the next generation stands in chains. 
I couldn’t care less who wins this Sunday. What I do care about is the fact that children are enslaved to the evil desires of men while our justice system stands strangely silent on their behalf. As long as the Super Bowl remains the primary draw for human trafficking rings, there are NO victors on the field or off.
Until we do all that it takes to put an end to this tragedy, we aren’t doing enough.
Victory in the Field of Broken Dreams
It’s fascinating to watch the most stoic of sports fans erupt in various displays of emotion over their favorite team’s plays. Forget the game—I’d rather grab some popcorn and watch that typically passive guy become a drama king when the ref makes a bad call. The spectacle is far greater than the most exciting of sports competitions. And when the team wins? You’d think nothing could surpass the exhibition of sheer elation. And that’s for the pre-season games. Just wait until the play-offs.
So, the underdog team overcomes the odds and wins the big game. What next? There will always be another game, another season, another chance to win or lose. And believe me, emotions will be spent on those wins and losses.
What about the daily game of life? Emotions aren’t so readily displayed for the wins and losses encountered on a daily basis. If we’re honest about the latest news headlines, we see a lot of defeat. It can get pretty discouraging. Super Bowls come and go with different teams taking the ring, but still there’s news of unprecedented human trafficking centered around the event. The Final Four makes another round, yet would-be fans refuse to travel certain states due to bias and fear. Another team will take the NBA Championship this year, and still nothing can dispel the wars and rumors of war around the world.
I was around for the Chicago Bulls three-peat and four-peat and so on, yet in the years to pass witnessed different teams come and go. In sports, no victory is lasting. In life, the forecast seems increasingly grim. The world is a field of broken dreams.
What has the power to overcome the evil, fear, and hatred in this world? Martin Luther King Jr. once so eloquently stated, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Love alone has the last word, the final victory. As we celebrate Good Friday, we think of the words of the man who died on the cross for the sins of the world: “Father, forgive them—for they know not what they do.” Words of forgiveness. Words of healing. Words of love.
Words of victory.
Yes, this world is filled with unimaginable suffering. Most often, this suffering stems from the hardened hearts of men unwilling or unable to love. Yet in the midst of such suffering, consider these words of Helen Keller, “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” And what is the one, lasting victory in this world of hate? LOVE.
“And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)
True Love…OVERCOMES (Day 50, #50ShadesOfTrueLove)
This Life & Beyond 
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