As you read this Sunday morning Texas Stadium will have been reduced to a pile of rubble.

Growing up in New England in the 1970’s as a National Football League fan there was no sight quite like the aerial view of Texas Stadium – especially on Monday Night Football! To a pre-teen Yankee, Texas seemed so far away, the Cowboys were football royalty, and Texas Stadium was the royal residence. I remember being told that the hole in the roof was there so God could watch his favorite team!

Years later I walked into the legendary stadium to see Denison’s high school football team vie for a state championship. Walking into Texas Stadium was like living a childhood dream - - here I was in the very place that I so admired as a child. I could almost hear the voices of Frank Gifford, Don Meredith, and Howard Cossell announce my arrival. Just two years ago my daughters actually stepped foot on the hallowed turf as one cheered on the Yellowjackets and another marched with the band as once again Denison’s local 11 made a run at the state championship.

The venerable stadium is now just a pile of rubble. Replaced by a newer, fancier, billion-dollar structure Taxes Stadium has been reduced to being the eyesore of Irving – just a heap of stone alongside Loop 12.

And so is the future of every stadium, every structure, every accomplishment of man.

It’s been a lesson that God has been trying to teach us from nearly the very beginning. “Build the best and most beautiful that you can,” God challenges us, “And I will remind you that buildings, stadiums, palaces will never get you to where you want to go.” The Tower of Babel was man’s first attempt to find immortality in buildings and we all know how that worked out. The path that leads to God is not one constructed by humans, yet we continue to believe that buildings, things, possessions can ultimately lead us to the eternal.

A theme of Scripture is that man was never meant to create the eternal; we were made to pursue It.

Jesus reminded us of this when he said, “Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven.” “Turn your sights from human accomplishments toward the divine accomplishment,” he instructs us. “You’ll never find security, lasting peace in those things that eventually crumble, whether it be by carefully placed explosives or something as commonplace as rust and moths.” What a futile quest we find ourselves in when we look for lasting value in transitory things.

Texas Stadium, the awesome structure that inspired and awed me as a youth, is now just a pile of rubble – the common fate of everything in this world.

So goodbye and thanks for the memories. But more importantly, thanks for the reminder.