As some of you may know I’m a huge outspoken Cubs fan. I love the Cubs and have been a fan since I could remember. There has been a lot of years of downs and a few years of ups. But being a Cubs fan has taught me so much about the Lord and his character.

If you know anything about baseball, you might know that the Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908. We have not won a world championship since Joe Tinker and Johnny Evers were turning double plays and Three Finger Brown was hurling for the boys from Chicago. There has been so many years that the Cubs have looked full of promise and then fallen on their face. 1969  it was the stinkin New York Mets. 1984 it was Steve freakin Garvey and the San Diego Padres. 2003 Steve Bartman and then the Florida Marlins. 2007 and 2008 we ran away with the division and then got trounced in the first round of the playoffs.

This year started with so much promise. We had just signed Jon Lester and Joe Maddon and I was so pumped. But the talk was that we were a year away. That it would be 2016 when all the pieces would fall into place. We had the #1 prospect in baseball in the minors, Kris Bryant, and we had 3 other kids that were in the minors that would most likely see action for the big league club. Well we won 97 games and exceeded expectations. We won the wildcard game and then beat the hated St. Louis Cardinals out of the division round. We ran into a buzzsaw of the New York Mets (again) and we got beat out of the postseason. I was crushed. Not because we had gotten beaten out and would not win the World Series but I was so sad that this season which had been so fun was over. This was the year that I had seen our guys have so much fun playing for a manager who allowed them to be themselves. A manager who told them to wear pajamas on the flight home from a late August west coast trip, which just so happened to end with a Sunday Night game against the Dodgers where Jake Arrieta threw a no hitter. Subsequently Jake gave his no hitter press conference in a moustache onesie.

But as I have been thinking about this for a couple weeks, I have realized something. I realized something that it has now taken 23 years to learn. The love that I have for the Cubs, is a fraction of the love that the Lord has for us. I have seen a 100+ loss year, two 90+ loss season, and an 89 loss season since I graduated from high school alone. Eight 90+ losses since I was born 23 years ago. But yet I still keep coming back and rooting for my beloved Cubs.

And I realized as I sat in my apartment last week re-watching games from last season. I realized that despite all of my sin that God, who created the Universe, has been faithful to me. To me, the scrub that falls into sin often. I realized that I am the Cubs. I am the team that loses often and has not won the title since 1908. That is me and God is the fan that despite the many losses still comes back the next day and cheers me on. The one that still believes in me even though I have so many losses. I commit so many errors and yet God still loves me and truly wants to come the next day and watch me.

The Cubs may just be a sports team to some people, but to me they have taught me so much about my walk with the Lord. So much to learn from fanship. But what is the coolest I believe is that no matter who your team is, you can learn something about how God works. He is faithful to us even when we fall, fail, lose, and commit errors.

So let’s find way that we can be more faithful to the Lord. So for 2016, my goal is to try and be more faithful to the Lord. I will probably have days where I fall and stumble in my pursuit of that. But I believe that God will continue to be faithful and pursue me every day. So I will try my hardest to do the same.

So what are you going to learn this year?

Thad Ernst

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