The Pastor’s Piece – Kevin Cernek, FCFI Chaplain

FCFI

February 15, 2026

I’ve got a couple things on my mind today. The first one has to do with the Super Bowl from last week. As you may or may not know, the half time show was controversial. So, the night before the big game, I published an alternative option to watch on Turning Point USA (Charlie Kirk’s organization). I sent a mass email out to our church with a link to TPUSA’s website. Well, our mass email marketing platform didn’t care for that. They immediately sent me a note stating that the domain was problematic and was listed on the Domain Block List and likely the email would not be delivered.  Then they warned me saying: “We ask that you kindly remove the link … Further occurrences of this may result in your account being scheduled for a review by our Compliance team.” I immediately sent it again. Sounds like somebody feels threatened … and somebody else feels censored. I guess we’ll be changing marketing platforms.

I also read where each player on the winning team of the Super Bowl received a $178,000 bonus. California has what is known as a “jock tax” and they look at “duty days.” Each team spent seven days in the state of California preparing for the Super Bowl. Those are seven duty days, as they call them, and they pierce their salary at 3.5% for the days they are there. So, let’s take the quarterback on the winning team, he has to pay, when you take into account that he got the $178,000 bonus, plus his overall salary, he has to pay the state of California for his seven days there, a total of $249,000. It actually ends up costing him $71,000 to play in California and win the Super Bowl. Just saying. 

On another note, I subscribe to a blog written by a 90 year old man who is kind of left over from the hippie generation. He writes about all kinds of stuff, but mostly about getting old and what that is like. I don’t care for his politics, but I do like to muse over his writings.

He talked about the artificial stimulants he’s tried in life, and really came to depend on to get him through – things like alcohol, cannabis, and coffee, to name a few. He noted how he has learned that the body has lifetime limits on those things and how one can only consume so much of the so-called “feel-good companions” before they become ineffective. He said the body just doesn’t cooperate like it used to. As we age, he noted, there is loss of muscle mass and reduced liver function along with poorer sleep and a host of other ailments that get in the way of living well. In other words, the keepers of the house begin to tremble.

Ecclesiastes speaks of this season with unsentimental poetry. In chapter 12 it describes how the strong men stoop, the grinders cease, and the almond tree blossoms white. The body wears out. The dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

None of this has to be tragic. It can be clarifying. It’s the path anyone who reaches old age must travel down. I actually read this man’s words with sadness. He doesn’t believe in God or salvation. He doesn’t believe in repentance or forgiveness of sin. He doesn’t believe in heaven or hell. He only believes in the moment. And that is sad – and painful because there comes a point when the smaller pleasures of life loosen their grip and the larger questions press in. What is left when the buzz fades? What sustains when the body won’t? The answer, increasingly, is not found in what one consumes but in Whom one belongs to. Jesus does not diminish with age. His strength is not metabolized, taxed by the liver, or disrupted by sleep. If anything, dependence upon Him grows steadier as other supports fall away. When the body begins to fade, the Spirit beckons us. And the invitation to “Come unto Me all you are weak and heavy-laden” unlike the others, does not wear out.

“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, ‘I find no pleasure in them – before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain; when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim; when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades; when people rise up at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow faint; when people are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets; when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags itself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then people go to their eternal home and mourners go about the streets. Remember Him – before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it,” (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 NIV).

(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin)