Saturday, the week before Thanksgiving, I had the opportunity to be a part of a historical moment in college football history. If you have ever been to Kyle Field in College Station, TX for a Fightin’ Texas Aggie football game, you know that the crowd can really get loud! This week was especially mind-blowing though, because they broke an all-time record for student attendance to a college ball game--there were 31,005 students! The overall attendance topped 91,000 people, which is definitely the largest crowd of any kind that I have personally been a part of.
The Texas A&M Aggies hosted the Nebraska Cornhuskers, and the game was high-energy the entire time, even though neither team scored a single touchdown. The fans kept the volume high, and the Aggie football players pumped the crowd for more after almost every single play. The defensive lines for both teams were really rockin’ this day--the only points scored were the extra points on the oh-so-close fourth downs. It was a great game! Ags pulled off the win, 9-6. Awesome!
I’m so glad that I was not only able to watch this game, but to be immersed in the Aggie culture. You may or may not know that Aggies are very...unique. First of all, they have “yell leaders”, not cheerleaders. These men with military haircuts wearing solid white uniforms run back and forth along the stands, using various hand signals to lead the fans in a variety of cadence-type yells. It seems that everyone knows exactly what to do, and are right on cue every time. When quarters end, the entire stadium is full of people rocking back and forth, singing in unison. Most fans have a small white towel that they swing around in a circular motion almost constantly as they do the yells. With that many people swinging a towel around, from a distance, it looked like confetti wiggling all over the stadium! After the win, the entire student section plus some others swarmed the field. It was really a sight to see!
There are still so many other traditions that the Aggies have carried on throughout the years, and as I reflect on them all, it has caused me to realize how much weight these long-practiced customs actually have. Traditions are more than just things we do because they’re “what we’ve always done”. That phrase has really never meant much to me anyway because I am such a logical thinker. I can’t justify doing something just because it’s what we’ve always done. As I ponder the Aggie traditions, I see some things that spark a new desire in me to uphold traditions of my own in other aspects of life.
We continue traditions because they honor those that paved the road for us. What makes a tradition special is its ability to transcend time, but only as long as the ones that carry it never set it down. It must be passed from generation to generation, but even when you pass a tradition on, it stays with you, too. It’s as if it has a way of stretching indefinitely, but never wearing thin. In the same sense, it can increase in richness and expand in complexity, yet never become a burden to those that hold it. A tradition honors any man or woman who ever had a hand in carrying it on because it actively shows others that the original intentions, purposes, and goals of those it represents were worth noting then, now, and always.
I am realizing that traditions are not only crucial to our future, but are the very thing that give humanity the cohesion required to endure all forms and levels of hardships. Without traditions, we lose touch with the generations that went before us. The original intentions, purposes, and goals become a faded memory to one generation, and then complete unknowns to the next. Without traditions, we can quickly lose sight of why we do the things we do, why we fight for what we fight for, and why we love who we love.
Some would argue that traditions can become a meaningless, mindless, religious, routine. They might say something about how times change, and so should we. They may say that we have to adapt to the evolving world around us, but I am convinced that even in an ever-changing environment, we must still have some constants. It’s not simply that we are afraid of change--it’s about upholding honor for those that cleared the path for change!
Let’s look at the family unit, and remember how family traditions make us feel. Most loving (and fighting) families have a tradition to get together for a special meal at Thanksgiving or Christmas. If for one reason or another something interferes with that tradition, even a dysfunctional family feels a sense of loss. Why? I believe that when we honor a tradition even as common as a Thanksgiving meal, we honor each other. Our actions speak a message of love, and also give value to the purpose of the older generations. Without that tradition, the honor that once flourished, now wilts in the heat of whatever that interference may be. It could be uncontrollable circumstances such as a death in the family, a new job, or that someone moved far away. In these cases, it certainly brings on feelings of disappointment, but sometimes interference with our favorite traditions comes in the form of a careless, forgetful moment. If we forget the objectives of those generations that went before us, we may decide that it doesn’t matter if we carry out the traditions that they started. As long as we can remember and honor previous generations, we will always have a solid foundation to build a new thing upon.
I’d like to point out these same principles as they apply to the church-going experience. Some parts of the Body want to modify the culture around Christianity to “change with the times” and “stay current with the culture,” while others feel like any deviation from the old model of “church” is sinful. If traditions are a way we can honor the previous generation, then we should certainly keep them and remember that our elders made it possible for us to be innovative in our approach to gathering with other believers. We must keep the original intent and purpose of gathering (to interact with, share and support other believers) and I believe that continuing some traditions is the way that we honor and keep our predecessors’ goals on the forefront of our minds. We can build a new thing upon this core foundation that was set in the past, and still have the freedom to be who we are. We don’t have to be stuck in a religious rut, but we should still carry on the traditions of old.
I’m asking myself, “Why do so many people these days feel like that going to church is a waste of time and an empty experience?” Could it be because many of the churches out there are afraid to allow some innovation to be stacked onto their tradition? Or on the other hand, is it possibly that they have only conformed to the culture of the day and let the traditions that honor the previous generation fade?
I think the Aggies have the answers to these questions--whether they be asked about the family, the church, or any other unified group. It’s not just about belonging to a “group”. It’s about surviving every hardship we could ever face as God’s creation.
Honor those that paved the way by upholding their traditions of old and by building a new, innovative tradition upon that solid foundation. We need each other. We need all generations working together so we can endure and prevail against anything!
