Hockey, Spiritual Warfare, and Leadership in Crisis

No, those three things don’t normally go together, but hear me out…even if you don’t like hockey 😊 Yesterday, I was watching a game between my two least favorite teams, because they are both incredibly talented and no one else that I liked was playing. Towards the end of the first period, there was a terrible blindside hit (a headshot into the boards) by a Capital’s player on a Bruin’s player. It was so bad that Carlo (the injured Bruin) had to be helped off the ice and went straight to the hospital. In the middle of this – the referees never called a penalty. They didn’t even review it. Let me tell you – I’ve never watched 40+ more minutes of hockey with more fights. People were getting major penalties for fighting (and it has to be bad for those to get assessed in hockey). It was bad, but in the middle of the chaos, a few thoughts came to mind.

1. When Carlo was injured, the rest of his team immediately rallied around him. They defended him when he couldn’t defend himself. They fought for him (literally). As Christians, I’m not saying that we should go around punching people and we definitely don’t want to make the mistake of thinking that our weapons are as carnal as fists or sticks. However, we should stand in the gap. Before his injury, they were leading 1 to 0. By the end of the night they had won 5 to 1. When people struggle with sin, circumstances, pain, or whatever else that might be happening, we shouldn’t sweep it under the rug, nor should we abandon them to their own devices. God placed us into a body for fellowship, admonishment, encouragement, and to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2).

2. When leadership fails, everything else will fall apart. The referees should have called a penalty. It was an awful hit and Wilson (the really terrible Capital in this scenario) will likely be suspended by the Player Safety Board – even though he wasn’t punished during the game (at least not for that hit). When leadership failed to act, the players took that as permission to mete out their own justice and to assume that anything would go. See, these same refs failed to make a call on a hit a couple of nights before – between these same two teams. They were setting a precedent that they would not act. The players responded accordingly. The Bruin’s Captain can be seen putting the Capital’s team on notice at the start of the 2nd period, and they followed up on the threat. God instituted church leadership for a reason, and he gave very specific guidelines for the character of these leaders (1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, Acts 6, among other places). When leaders fail to lead in truth, fail to edify the body, fail to guide instead of follow cultural trends, fail to be bold witnesses, fail to be faithful, fail to put God’s Word above the preferences of man, the church will suffer. There will be fighting, there will be division, there will be pettiness, and the main thing (God’s glory) will no longer be the main thing.

3. There is a higher tribunal. In this case, there is a committee called the NHL Player Safety Board. Now, who knows what they will ultimately decide – they may let Wilson go with a slight slap on the wrist. However, everyone who watched last night’s debacle unfold took comfort from the fact that the NHLPS would intervene even if the refs did not. Sure enough, Wilson got a call from them this morning. He will have a hearing in the next few days. Even if there were no immediate repercussions, there will be judgment. We are tempted to see our immediate circumstances and feel that there is not justice, but we have a Divine Father who is so much more righteous, powerful, and loving than any committee. He never makes mistakes and he will always do right. It will be on his timetable not ours, but he is the Judge of the world (Genesis 18:25). And in the end, he has the final word.