In high school, a few of my football teammates shared a pre-game ritual. Before each game they would sit down in the locker room. The first guy would wrap his left wrist with a roll of tape and hand it to the second guy. The second guy would wrap both of his wrists (left first) then hand back the roll. The first guy would then finish his wrap on his right wrist, and hand back the roll again. He would then get up, move to the other side of his taping partner and toss the roll to a third guy. This guy would then put the roll in his locker until the following week . . .to do it all again. These guys swore by this ritual. Did it work? We went undefeated in the regular season, so the ritual must have worked, right? But in the playoffs, we went down in flames. What good  was it then?

In Jeremiah, God calls His people “fools” for three big reasons: (1) they put God on a shelf; (2) they were extremely gifted at doing bad stuff; and (3) they had no idea what good stuff they should do. They made the ritual their focus.

Getting game ready does not require a ritual. And rituals don’t get wins; they keep us from focusing on the big three. Focus on the ritual and God will call you a fool. Focus on the big three and God will call you game ready. Which do you want to be?