March Madness

This week begins the annual “March Madness” that is the NCAA college basketball tournament. That means that a lot of people who seldom follow and know little of college basketball are busy filling out their brackets and predicting the winners. My completed bracket is sitting on my desk, and in case anyone is interested, I have North Carolina, Villanova, Duke and Arkansas in the final four. I have to pick Duke every year or else Angelynn (a huge Duke fan since she was about 3) won’t speak to me. And I always pick Arkansas on the theory that one year I have to be right! (I’m now glancing over at my 1994 Arkansas National Championship commemorative Coca-Cola bottle… the year they beat Duke for the title!)

A couple of things hit me as I was filling out the sheet. First, I doubt that I would have a much better winning percentage if it was last year’s brackets I was filling out. I do seem to remember that North Carolina won, but aside from that, last year's results are pretty much a fog. The spotlight will be focused on college hoops over the next several weeks, but in the end what will it matter? A lot of things that seem to matter an awful lot right now don’t really matter at all. My old Greek teacher used to say, “If something won’t matter in a million years, then it doesn’t really matter, does it?” Of course, he usually said that after I complained about a grade.

Second, these brackets would be a lot easier to fill out if I could read the sports section of the newspaper three weeks from now. What makes predicting the future so hard is that it hasn’t happed yet. (If I’m getting too profound for you, please let me know and I’ll slow down). One team will get hot at the right time, raise the level of its play and have its stars shine through for “one shining moment.” And that’s why they will win the tournament. The hard part is knowing which team will do that. In the contest that really matters, that between good and evil, we already know who will win. John wrote in Revelation about the forces of evil aligned against the Lamb. He wrote in Revelation 17:14—

They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.

Filling at the brackets for the ultimate battle between good and evil is
easy. The Lamb will overcome… and so will we if we remain faithful to
him.