Saviors, Lovers, and Good Old Cleveland

I keep thinking about the LeBron thing. I have a lot of thoughts. There are a lot of layers. There is the action of LeBron, the reaction of many fans, the re-reaction of other fans to the irate fans, the response of Dan Gilbert, the reaction to the response of Dan Gilbert, the response of people who see this as a symptom of what is wrong with our country. The whole thing is pretty amazing. Here is my thought. Whether LeBron intended to be or not, he became a savior of sorts. He was going to put all of us on his back and bring us to the Holy Grail of a Championship and release us from the dungeon of sports losership where we have languished since the 1950's. I hope I have mixed enough metaphors. That was exhausting. Ezekiel 16 is an allegory. It is very raw and if it were not in the Bible it would be profane. In the allegory there is a groom who courts a young woman. He does everything for her and makes her ravishing in her beauty and her apparel. She uses that to attract other lovers and has sex with one after another breaking the heart of her husband. At the end of the chapter God comes out to say the allegory is about him. He is the groom and we are the unfaithful woman who looked for love everywhere else. Then God says that her lovers will come and cut her to pieces. It is a strange thing to say. God isn't the one who will cut her to pieces. All her lovers will. God warns us that we are prone to give our affection, to place our hope for self worth on things that are not worthy and will not last. He tells us that those lovers will eventually turn on us and break our hearts. I saw photos of people sobbing at the news that LeBron was leaving. I have sat in my office with grown men who are inconsolable after being fired from a job they had given their lives to. I have seen mothers sob over a child who is breaking their heart. If you are as old as I am you have felt your heart break and sometimes it is a greater and deeper breaking. It is a lover coming back and cutting us to pieces. It is someone or something we have made into a Savior. Someone or something that will make our lives worthwhile. I keep thinking about LeBron but I keep thanking God for the One savior who promised me he would never leave and never forsake. And here is the good news...He is still in Cleveland.