The above meme pretty much sums up my reaction to Sunday night’s Browns game.  The Cleveland Browns lost to the Los Angeles Rams.  Though the Browns had a chance to tie the game at the end of the 4th Quarter and force overtime.  But!  Head Coach Freddie Kitchens seemed to make some questionable play calls.  Sure, Quarterback Baker Mayfield threw the interception in the end zone that ended the game.  But many Browns fans (like yours truly) immediately blamed the Head Coach.  I mean, how do you not try to let Running Back Nick Chubb run the ball in?!?  But I digress. 

The point is that the Monday Morning Quarterbacking began immediately.  There’s even a sports radio show called Browns Therapy Monday, so Browns fans are exceptionally good at this.  We’ve had years of practice.  (Thinking about how things should have been different once an event has already passed.)  Let’s face it—folks do this all the time.  Sometimes we say this about one another, “Oh, I would have handled that situation so much better than him!”  Or sometimes we think about the response we should have said or the action we should have done instead of how a situation actually played out.  You know, you think of the perfect line you should have said after the conversation has already ended, of course!

When we get into this mindset of criticism and questioning (and perhaps over-analyzing) and on and on, it may help to consider a great line from the UCC Book of Worship.  “Your past is accepted.  Let it go.”  It’s written in the context of an Assurance of Pardon which is what that the Minister says to the congregation after a Prayer of Confession.  It’s helpful to consider.  Helpful for situations that are a lot more complicated than your team losing a game quite frankly. 

If you’re hung up on something right now that happened in the past that you can’t change, hopefully this will help you too:

“How we love to hang on to the past!
We get all tied up
remembering, keeping count, bearing grudges.
God doesn’t.
Your past is accepted.
Let it go.
Live in the freedom God hands to you afresh each day.
Thanks be to God.”
~United Church of Christ Book of Worship

Love,
Pastor Lauren 

(This Week’s Thoughts 9.26.19)