Show A Little Love

I'm new to all this Chicago Blackhawks excitement going on around the Chicago area... but not because I'm only now hopping on the bandwagon of a team that's playing well. I'm new because I've only lived in this area for three years. Hockey was always a game I found exciting to watch. Growing up near Detroit it was fun to put on the CBC and catch Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights. Those Canadians sure know hockey. It was also fun in those days to cheer an up-and-coming team called the Red Wings who hadn't won a Stanley Cup in decades. In the 80's they still found themselves on the losing end of the playoffs, usually to teams like the Edmonton Oilers.

After I left Michigan my excitement for the Wings faded, even as they became Cup monsters like the Oliers were. I couldn't get CBC on my TV in Iowa or in Ohio... and the glowing puck of the Fox TV years were too hard to bear.

When I moved to Chicago I knew I was ready to get back into the sport... especially since the Blackhawks were a struggling team just beginning to show some signs of life. (Love those up-and-comers.) What I didn't realize when I made the choice to start following the Hawks was that the Hawks fan was an abused, lost and angry soul. Year after year of abuse by the ownership had left the United Center half empty, never ever any home games on TV, and their favorite announcer sent packing for no good reason except to punish the fans.

The abandonment of the Hawks by the fans was not simply because the team hadn't made the playoffs since 2002. That year the higher seed Hawks played those playoff games in front of plenty of empty seats. What the Hawks have been missing the past 15 years has been love. Without love even a winner will not attract fans.

The Scriptures reveal that God is love. In John's Gospel we learn that God's love is poured into his son, Jesus and that Jesus then pours out this love onto us. Love defines our relationship with God. Love is our call from Jesus. We abide in Jesus' love when we love others. Now im not talking kissy kissy love or love out of pity... This is a friendship kind of love! The love Christ calls us to live by is a love that's not looking for payback. It's sincere love. It's love for love's sake.

Somewhere along the line the love between the Hawks ownership and the Hawks fans was lost. All that remained was bitterness and hate. A great NHL franchise almost was ruined and arguably began playing second fiddle to a minor league team called the Wolves.

In early 2007 I naively asked a bunch of guys, Chicago sports fans everyone of them, if we should try to get to the UC to see a Hawks game (after all there were plenty of seats available). To a man, they all gave me a look of horror and disgust... with a tinge of sadness, because they felt awful they had to think that way about their beloved Hawks.

Under new ownership things changed. Apologies were made. Relationships were rebuilt. Genuine love began to shine. You would think that regaining trust after a long separation would take a long time, but it didn't. The Hawks set attendance records this year, long before the first playoff game was played.

"I have said these things to you so that my joy my be in you and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you (John 15:11-12)." I know its just hockey... but the story of the Hawks is a lesson of love and hate, poor choices, grudges, and reconciliation. God wants us to live lives filled with joy. We can do that because of the love he has showered on us through Christ. But such joy only becomes real for us if we take the courageous step of loving others just to love them. A genuine friend lovingly sticks by a buddy to the end: that's what love is. It's not easy and because of sin its not our instinct, but man is it worth it.

Go Hawks!