I still read the sports page first.

A few days ago I wrote a letter to the editor of our local paper about an issue of local importance, so I knew it was likely to be published any day now. But this morning, I still read the sports page first. Then I checked the editorial page, and there was my letter. Ho hum.

So I’m asking myself a teenager’s question: Is there something wrong with me?

When dozens die in a suicide bombing at a Moscow Airport, I am scanning the high school soccer results.

When a Yemeni protest leader is seized because she dared to speak up about civil rights violations, I am amazed to see the Packers declared the early betting favorite for the Super Bowl.

When people in the East must dig their way out of yet another snowstorm, I am wondering why the rest of the Pacific Division (besides the Lakers) is so rotten.

I know all the arguments that have been made for the value of sports. Many of them are valid. For those who play.

But what about for those of us who are only observers? Should someone step up and tell us to get our lives in order, our priorities straight? Should someone remind us that the trophies carried home by this weekend’s Australian Open winners are the kind that tarnish?

My apologies. I don’t mean to barrage you with a list of questions, real or rhetorical. What I mean to be doing is interrogating myself.

You see, I know my Bible. And I know the mind of my God. I am sure there are things to see at athletic events that Jesus would stand next to me and enjoy. But I have a hard time convincing myself He’d be reading the sports page first. Not when there is so much living and dying everywhere else.