I went to a sports bar to watch some football after church while I traveling in North Carolina today.  The place was great.  Great food, great atmosphere and tons of tvs (they were even showing the Browns game).  I was doing what lots of guys do in a place like that which is try and watch like 8 games at once.  As I was watching them, I saw several ex-Ohio State players on various teams.  These former Buckeyes would make a play for their NFL team and I would be happy.  It was like they were validating to the world that OSU was good.  They were each personally giving me artillery to tell OSU haters to stick it.  It was weird…I had this abnormal loyalty to these Ohio State guys.  It was like they were my kids or friends or family or something.  I wanted to pick a fight with everyone in the bar/ restaurant (except this one guy – he was huge and had already had several drinks) and say, “Don’t mess with my Buckeyes….see how awesome they are….look at them represent.” 

Then something hit me.  Something that should seem totally obvious.  I am loyal, in fact, aggressively loyal and protective of a bunch of men I have never met.  I mean I have not met one of them.  Not one.  And I never attended THE Ohio State University.  Not a class.  Yet, I was loyal to these guys and excited for them as though they were tied to me by blood.  Weird…no, not just weird…really silly.  I felt like an Usher groupie or someone defending a movie they never really saw.  

S0 here is the real thing.  Am I loyal where I should be?  Do I protect the stuff I ought to?  Am I rooting for the people I know with the same passion I root for a bunch of strangers.  Do I leave groups or ministries where there are actual blood ties from the cross just because of a trial or disagreement?  Would I pick a fight for my church and my loyalty to it?  What about my wife?  My kids?  Here is what I came to….it is quite silly that many of us are loyal to what is really nothing, while being disloyal that the things that really are everything.