Back to the Future

Today millions of people will gather around TV sets to see the Seattle Seahawks take on the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII. Despite the fact I enjoy watching NFL games, I plan to avoid certain parts of the telecast. One of them is Queen Latifah singing “God Bless America” before the kickoff. This is the same woman who at last Sunday’s Grammy Awards officiated a mass wedding that included homosexual couples. The Super Bowl halftime shows also had a couple of profane incidents by their performers. Although the commercials are often clever and entertaining, I’d rather just watch the football game.

Prior to previous Super Bowls, my mom and dad often asked me to make a prediction. Usually, I haven’t come close to the final score but there have been exceptions. Prior to Super Bowl XXXVI, I picked the St. Louis Rams to beat the New England Patriots 20-17. However, I also told my parents that the game could go into overtime with the New England Patriots pulling off an upset. As it turned out, the Patriots won 20-17 on a last-second field goal. That game almost went into overtime.

A similar thing happened seven years later when the Arizona Cardinals faced the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII. Wanting to see Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner win another Super Bowl (as he did once before with the Rams), I picked Arizona to win 27-24 but had a feeling they would lose. Sure enough, the Steelers won by an almost identical score of 27-23.

Years ago I used to think it would be cool if one could know in advance the results of major sporting events like the Super Bowl. Some of you might remember the movie “Back to the Future II” in which Marty McFly travels in Doc Brown’s time machine to the year 2015 (which is now only one year away). At an antique store, Marty bought a sports almanac with the intent of bringing it back to 1985 and become rich through gambling. Marty’s plan backfired when his nemesis Biff Tannen temporarily stole the time machine and gave the sports almanac to himself. It resulted in a disastrous change of events that could only be corrected by going further back in time.

In real life, people ruin their lives by attempting to access future information through satanic means such as horoscopes and fortunetellers. The future ultimately belongs in the hands of God. Some people attempt to discern future events through hidden codes in the Bible. These folks should get to know the actual author of the Bible by reading His word. 2 Peter 1:19 (KJV) says that we have “a more sure word of prophecy.”

One of my favorite Bible verses is Joel 2:25, “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.” In her book “The Secret to True Happiness”, Joyce Meyer points out, “With God, ‘plan B’ can be even better than ‘plan A’ would have been.” So even if you made many bad decisions in the past, you don’t need the aid of a time machine to turn your life around. Put your total trust in the Lord.

“Remember the things I have done in the past.  For I alone am God!  I am God, and there is none like me.  Only I can tell you the future before it even happens.  Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.” - Isaiah 46:9-10 (NLT)