Monieca and I were eating cheeseburgers on the River City Cafe deck last Friday at Surfside Beach when two golf carts parked below us caught my attention. As you can see in the photograph below, one sported orange with the Clemson Tiger paw on the side while the other was black with the South Carolina Gamecock on the hood. I found it amusing that they were parked side by side since I know some very passionate fans of each school who seemingly loath the other school.

The passion of sports fans can run deep. I know because it runs deep in me. But sometimes it reaches a ridiculous extreme that causes people to instinctively dislike one another and spout exaggerated inaccuracies about a rival school’s fans.

Thankfully that is not the attitude of most fans. There really are mature fans: those who are passionate, but not disrespectful and rude.

Seeing those two golf carts sitting side by side was a picture of how it should be…indeed how it can be. As followers of Jesus Christ, we know God values kindness in place of rudeness.

Sports is not the only venue where extreme passion displays itself as rudeness and does damage. We’ve all seen its ugly face in politics, families, churches, and community groups. At times we’ve all been guilty of being ugly and rude to another person. Perhaps we would do well to remember the Bible’s guidance that “a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1).

It was actually kind of neat seeing those two golf carts parked side by side. I wonder what God thinks when He looks down at us and observes how we walk with other people.

Pastor Steve Hogg