An Odd Spirituality

Some of the most vulgar places I frequent are a couple of unofficial Detroit Lion’s online forums. I like to keep up with the thoughts and perceptions of my favorite football team but most of those who participate use absolutely filthy language and so I assume that God is rather far from their minds.

It was interesting, then, when one of the major contributors to one of the forums announced that he wouldn’t be posting for awhile because he was to have cancer surgery. The response from the forum surprised me. There were tons of posts encouraging the man. Over half the posts said that the posters were praying for him. Several of them wanted to know if there was anything practical they could do.

Over the following weeks the man’s wife would post an update on his condition. Again the response was similar. If I didn’t know better I would have thought that our little online forum had developed into a Christ-like community filled with compassion and love.
It was an odd mix. Again, let me emphasize that these guys are extremely vulgar and graphic most of the time. Most of them have also never met each other. Yet when there was a crisis with one of their community they responded in a most unusual way. I’m scratching my head trying to figure it all out.