Response to Josh’s blog post “If Sports is Religion, Then I Must Be Job”

Well, first thing I would like to note is that we have similar favourite teams! (But that’s pretty irrelevant to my response).

We all know the story of Job, right? Pious man tested by God to see if he will still worship him despite God allowing Satan to inflict tremendous punishment on Job. Why am I the sporting equivalent of Job?

http://buddychristsjesuspiece.blogspot.com/2011/03/if-sports-is-religion-then-i-must-be.html 

I definitely think you pulled up an interesting comparison between yourself and Job, however I believe there are even more differences. In view of this, although you may be similar to Job, I would not consider you a Job. 

Job was a man who had a lot, he started out with many sons and daughters and thousands of possessions. If you look at these teams, and the idea of sport being your religion, I would venture to ask what has it tremendously ‘blessed’ you with? Can you say that these teams you are a fan of at one point produced masses of championships? You said yourself, that you were not even alive the last time some of these teams won championships. Even though you said you had it ‘pretty good’, Job was considered to have the best. 

In Job, the devil is portrayed to have a conversation with God, telling God that Job would not honour or worship God without all the masses of the blessings and possessions given to him. This becomes why Job suddenly faces all these trials, a true testing of faith. There is a reason to why God allows the devil to inflict suffering on Job. Is there a reason to why the ‘sporting gods’ decided to test your faith? Were you going to be able to be used to show something significant?

Lastly, Job was quite different than the average person. I mean, if what happened to Job was real, then I know that there would be no way I would be able to react the same way in patience and without complaining. In the end, you equated yourself with all the other sports fans. Job was definitely not easily equated to any other person who might have gone through similar trials. 

All that said, it was definitely an interesting comparison, and I like your enthusiasm and optimism. =)