Breaking News

Yesterday afternoon was like every other rehab day for me. After eating lunch, I laid down and strapped my knee in the "legasus" - a machine that slowly raises and lowers my knee to a 70 degree angle. The Dr. wants my leg in there for 6 hours a day. Yes, I said 6 hours. So, I read for a while, then became a bit bored and turned on the tv. Immediately, I began to read the "breaking news" across the bottom of the screen. The news that Steve Pederson was fired as the AD at Nebraska.

I picked up the phone and called my brother in law as I knew he would want to hear the news. We spent time talking about the change and the others needed for the Husker program. I continued to watch as the Chancellor explained his decision, and then proceeded to answer 20 minutes of questions. Towards the end of his time at the mic, I stepped back from the situation and considered the amount of criticism that Pederson has endured. No doubt his decisions, personality, and the nature of his position brought on this criticism. But I can't imagine Pederson thought there would ever be a firesteve.com website.

That website had over 20,000 hits this past weekend, and upon hearing that, I had to check it out. But after watching the press conference, checking out the site, and really thinking about it, I wondered if the creator of that website would allow anyone to critique or judge his job, family, friendships or any other role in his life by the same measure he was judging Pederson - a man he probably has never even met. A man with a family. A man with emotions. A man with dreams.

The web designer, like countless other Husker fans who were posting on message boards and calling into radio shows, forgot about the person they were directing their venom towards. Sports do that to us. I have become caught up in my passion for a game or team and criticized someone because of it. But does that make it ok? That it's just sports?

The answer for me is no. Jesus was clear in Matthew 7 that we shouldn't judge others unless we want to be judged by the same measure. Now I doubt that my words directed at a tv screen in the heat of a game will be of eternal consequence. But I do know that a pattern of critical behavior can spread to other areas of my life and cause me to forget about the real person on the other side of my criticism. I don't want that to happen. And neither does God.