1. There is a clock that goes off, and that is the end.

Really the end. We live in an age of coddled people whose specialness immunizes them against accepting verdicts. In most NAPARC denominations, litigation to the N^th degree has become the norm. With the escalation of social media platforms, the irritating habits of whining, complaining, and pleading for extenuating circumstances have become high art, cloaked with a faux nobility.

Coaches may protest, but games are not reversed. Occasionally, bad calls are made. But there is this thing called a scoreboard, and although fans can stick around the field after a gut-wrenching loss on Friday night or Saturday, the score is still the score. Upsets by Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Minnesota, and others happen and are beyond review.

Maybe the close games in the first days of November could teach us a lesson about politics: play hard, use any advantages your team has, but stay in bounds—and defeat happens. Conversely, watch the gloating or excessive celebration. There is, to be sure, a legal end to the game. At least, we can pray that our elections will end . . . sometime.

2. Elections are team events.

Except for a few events in track and field, most athletic contests involve many individuals. Sometimes, one’s team may not be the most talented. Still, we have to learn to work together as a team. Also, maybe do not keep running the same play when it is not working. 

Football is the ultimate team sport. Due both to the number of players and to the wide range of schemes, plays, and talent, a football game requires each person to play his role well. One missed block, one dropped pass, a fumble, or a bone-headed late hit can cause the team to lose. Accordingly, head football coaches would probably stress the need for cooperation, trust, and mutual effort in a political campaign.

Joe Namath once opined, “Football is an honest game. It’s true to life. It’s a game about sharing. Football is a team game, and everyone has to work together.”

3. There is more to life than a single game or election.

Cultivate some balance in your life and do not reduce the glorious days the Lord gives us into one narrow field. On the first Tuesday of November, many candidates will lose. They will have to move on with life. The same is true in ministry. One setback to a particular desire does not end valid ministry. Indeed, sometimes the Lord of the church refines us through these (Jas 1:2–4; Rom 5:1–3). Perseverance is essential.

I have been trained to lose. Historically, my college team would often come close, but either lose or simply have the clock run out. I also am a loser in picking political candidates. Try as I might, I will watch election returns on election night—and like many I hope that my team either holds on or comes from behind. Though, most post-election weeks, I have to review that scoreboard (see the first point above) and grapple with the reality that my cheering did not really affect the game.

Of course, one could simply switch parties, loyalties, or stadiums, but that is no fun. For a believer who confesses the sovereignty of God over all rulers (Prov 21:1), we ought not lose heart. Moreover, there are many races that may have more impact than the top-of-the ticket race. For example, if one candidate is elected but the Senate belongs to the other party, it will be very difficult to pass legislation or confirm judges. Mature believers should know our constitution well enough to know that presidential elections are not the only things that matter. Similarly, quarterbacks are not the only players.

Maybe this is your reminder not to put all your eggs in one basket. Christians live in their own nation but are “resident aliens” (Epistle to Diognetus, 5:5, 10; 6:10). Moreover, maybe we need to relearn to pray like Tertullian, who left us this wisdom in his “Apology” (c. 200).

We offer prayer for the safety of our princes to the eternal, the true, the living God, whose favor beyond all other things, they must themselves desire. They know from whom they have obtained their power . . . Let the emperor make war on heaven; let him lead heaven captive in his triumph; let him put guards on heaven; let him impose taxes on heaven! He cannot. . . . He gets his scepter where he first got his humanity; his power where he got the breath of life. . . . Without ceasing, for all our emperors we offer prayer. We pray for life prolonged; for security to the empire; for protection for the imperial house; for brave armies, a faithful senate, a virtuous people, the world at rest—whatever, as man or Caesar, and emperor would wish . . . [because the emperor] is called by our Lord to his office . . . on valid grounds I might say Caesar is more ours than yours because our God appointed him. Therefore, as having this propriety in him, I do more than you for his welfare, not merely because I ask of him who can give it, or because I ask it as one who deserves to get it, but also because, in keeping the majesty of Caesar within due limits, and putting it under the Most High, and making it less than divine, I commend him the more to the favor of Deity, to whom I make him alone inferior. But I place him in subjection to one I regard as more glorious than himself.¹ (emphasis added)

Praying as instructed in 1 Timothy 2:1–2 cannot be wrong.

4. Great contests have an ebb and flow; winners must learn to come back.

Watch a great football game—the classics will most likely have several see-saws. One team is in the lead, but the team that fights back from behind may have the win at the end. It does not matter how many times a team or candidate is behind in the runup to the voting. Political contests, as with football, sling mud, have opposition research, feature rallies and cheers, and showcase a back-and-forth as one team is ahead. Recently, #4 Alabama had #1 Georgia down by over 20 points at halftime, but Georgia came back and for 13 seconds toward the end took a one-point lead. However, too much time was left on the clock and ‘Bama scored. But wait, with less than a minute remaining, Georgia got the ball back and drove to the ‘Bama 20-yard line with ample time to run four plays. That would have sent this epic game, which several commentators called the best college game of their life, into overtime, except Georgia threw an interception.

Then, the next weekend, #1 Alabama visited cerebral Vanderbilt, “the only safe place in the SEC to play,” according to former coach Nick Saban, and Vandy had the Tide down by 20 points in the first half in Nashville. But it is not who is ahead at halftime that matters. Alabama came back, but Vanderbilt would not give up; they kept pressing for the goal. All the experts (compare to pollsters) in America thought the underdog would cave—as they had for the past sixty contests with top-ranked teams. But guess what? It was the future grad students from Vanderbilt who kept battling and who took down their goal post, depositing it three miles away into the Cumberland River, only to be fined a well-worthwhile hundred grand.

For the final month of this year’s elections, be sure that there will be turns and twists, seemingly insurmountable leads, and many winners will battle from behind.

5. Do not try to change the rules while the game is being played.

Edward McSpedon’s fine column on the Electoral College draws a great analogy for those who wish to dispute elections. He argues, “If the rules had said that the winner of the game would be determined by whoever gained the most yards, then the play of the game would have been entirely different. Under a most-yards-wins rule, if Team A is pinned down on its own 2-yard line facing fourth and 8, it would always pass or run the ball because either of these plays could help it to gain yards.”² He continues: “If Team A failed to make a first down and turned the ball over inside its own 10-yard line, Team B would have terrible field position—a very short field in front of it, which would severely limit the yards it could gain. If Team B made a touchdown, it would score less than 10 yards, after which it would have to kick off again.”³

He correctly concludes: “In every football game one team or the other will gain the most yards. But since the teams are playing for points, not for yards, it is impossible to tell from the results who would have gained the most yards had that been the objective of the game. That is why football fans understand the Electoral College.”⁴

Maybe more people love sports than politics right now. Maybe there are good reasons. One realm, however, can teach us about the other.

Notes

1. Tertullian, “Apology,” Ante-Nicene Fathers, Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds. (1885, rpr. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1995), vol. 3, pp. 42–43.
2. Edward McSpedon, “Football and the Electoral College,” Wall Street Journal, Sept. 16, 2024, A 17.
3. McSpedon, “Football and the Electoral College.”
4. McSpedon.

©David Hall. All Rights Reserved.

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Post authored by:

• David Hall

  

  Reverend David W. Hall is married to Ann, and they are parents of three grown children and grandparents of eight grandchildren. He has served as the Senior Pastor of Midway Presbyterian Church (PCA) since 2003. Previously, he served as Pastor of the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (1984–2003) and as Associate Pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Rome, Georgia (1980–1984). He was ordained to pastoral ministry in 1980. He was educated at Covenant Theological Seminary and is the editor and author of several volumes.

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