Today marks the NFL’s deadline to “franchise” a player.  When teams and their respective free agents are unable to come to terms on a new contract, the team has the option to “franchise” a player, thus locking them in to playing for the team for another year, and thus creating an irresolvable tear with that player (note: each team can only franchise one player total).

This week we encounter some very long torah readings dealing with the sin of the Golden Calf.  Long story short, the Israelites miscalculate the amount of time Moses has spent up on Mt. Sinai writing on the two tablets.  There was no internet to figure out when the deadline would pass- no ticker on ESPN.  They believe the time on their original agreement with their boss has run out, allowing them to become free agents.  Moses begs God for forgiveness, and in turn God “franchises” the Israelite nation.  Like all franchised players, the Israelites present that day would be doomed to not make it into the holy land, for their rift with the ownership was too damaged to heal.

My question today is two fold:

1) What kind of things in our lives to we “franchise”? Are there items we put on a to do list and slowly but surely move to the back burner and say “sure I’ll do that later”?  Do we set timelines and deadlines that become meaningless once they’ve past?

2) Can we focus on one of those resolutions, one of those long term goals, or bucket list items- committing to a timeline and vowing that if we don’t begin to at least work on them (baby steps count) then we won’t “franchise” them , dooming them for failure?