Most of us are familiar with what happened a couple of years ago in the NFL. Football players started taking a knee in protest during the playing of the national anthem. Cameras were always focused on the players--showing them taking a knee. A few started it, then more followed. Teams had to address the issue of what they were going to do. One player who decided to stay in the locker room until after the anthem was played, slipped out and stood at the end of the tunnel leading to the field to be there for the anthem. There was a big deal about “taking a knee.”
I got to watch my second favorite team in the NCAA tournament reach the championship last Monday night. I wasn’t real excited about Texas Tech's win over Michigan, but was about the victory over State. But it wasn’t something in that last game that caught my attention; it was what I saw after the semi-final game that stuck with me. The cameras were all over the place, doing interviews, watching in the locker room, and in the halls leading to the locker room. It showed the winning team waiting for the coach to come into the locker room to celebrate, it showed the coach hugging people as he made his way, it showed him running to get to his team, and it showed him coming into the locker room. Then seconds after arriving, the producer shifted from the locker room camera to the post game hosts talking about the game.
The cameras usually stay focused in the locker room, maybe to see some words of celebration spoken by a coach or player or a fun dance the coach does with his players. One coach I saw did a hand stand. All kinds of celebrations that take place, but not this time. CBS chose to switch away from the locker room. CBS decided to switch away from the team that was not celebrating as most did, but instead were taking a knee. But this knee wasn’t in protest of anything going on, but in honor of our Heavenly Father. They took a knee to pray and the cameras went away.
Now we could get all upset about this and threaten to boycott CBS. We could start an online petition to show our displeasure with what they did. We may even be able to make the news with our concern about why they did what they did. But most likely not. So we sit back and let the cameras focus on players kneeling in protest, then just accept that refusing to show a college basketball team honoring God in a prayer is just the way it is. The media choose to not focus on a team that took a knee to honor our Heavenly Father after winning the biggest basketball game in the history of their school. It is just the way it is.
But it doesn’t have to be; however, the avenue to change isn’t where most people go. We have to accept that we live in a country where the God we worship is not respected. Yea a lot of politicians will bring up His name on the campaign trail. Others will talk highly about Him, but then act in a way contrary to following Him. We could start a political action committee to raise money for those who will stand up or grab a sign and join a protest or start one on the corner where many people will see it.
There is a way to protest, but do we really want it?
I suggest that we do protest. We do take it to the streets. To the political realms. But we do it one person at a time. You see the people who live in this country aren’t going to change because of a protest in the streets, but only when we truly stand up in the way our Savior taught us--one person at a time. And this next week is the perfect opportunity to do just that—with one person. We have a special day coming up, a day when more people attend a church service than any other day of the year.
So I would suggest you do take a knee, literally or figuratively, and pray for that one person you are going to invite. Then get up off that knee and do something.
On my knees,
Randy