I’ll admit, I don’t “get” football.

Oh, I understand the game well enough. Two teams of very large and very fast men shroud themselves in padded clothing, slap each other on the backside, then set out to be the best at getting an oblong ball from one end of a field to another by out-running, out-throwing, and out-tackling the other team. The scoring, the rules, the strategy – everything that happens on the field makes plenty of sense even to my feminine mind, especially when filtered through the animated commentary of ESPN sportscasters.

But what I don’t get is what happens off the field.

I don’t understand the fans. I don’t understand the exorbitant amounts of money spent on tickets to playoff games. I don’t understand the “man caves” devoted to favorite teams. And I don’t understand big foam fingers, shaved heads, painted faces, or the complete and utter insanity that otherwise mature men can display during victory celebrations. When I watch grown men with wide eyes and tongues sticking out of their mouths making spectacles of themselves on camera, I get a little embarrassed for them and silently wonder if their wives are watching from home and hanging their heads in humiliation.

“Get a hold of your husbands, ladies,” I want to yell, but never would. “Can’t you get them to stop acting so… undignified?”

However, as it turns out, there is a time and a place for undignified behavior. For inhibitions to fall to the wayside and for typically improper behavior to become temporarily acceptable. For music to become louder. For high-fives to become higher. For celebrations to become… parties.

King David – the shepherd-turned-king, man-after-God’s-own-heart – was once as undignified as a face-painted football fanatic on the fifty-yard-line on Super Bowl Sunday.

When the Ark of the Covenant, which was God’s venue through which He graced the Israelites with His very presence, was brought back to Jerusalem in 2 Samuel 6, the Bible says that King David celebrated with all his might.

There was singing, dancing, eating, leaping, shouting, and even (shhh…) disrobing! Scandalous, I know. And though disrobing down to his linen ephod sounds more revealing than it actually was, it was still a typically improper way to be seen in public.

Needless to say, David’s wife was not pleased.

But David knew the significance of bringing the Ark back to Jerusalem. The Ark was synonymous with God’s presence. With His will. With His protection and His blessing over the nation of Israel. By celebrating the return of the Ark, he was celebrating Israel’s relationship with God. To jump and shout and sing and dance with no inhibitions and no qualms about propriety was simply a natural response to the supernatural influence of the Lord upon his heart.

And so he celebrated. With all his might.

Do you celebrate the Lord like David did? Do I? Or does a bowl game in overtime get you more fired up? Or your children’s dance recital? Or a commission on a big sell? Or your engagement? Your retirement? Your remission? Your grandchildren?

God allows us to enjoy many things, but do we enjoy Him? I will probably never shave my head for VBS or paint my face pink to celebrate the spiritual growth in my Bible study class, but I pray that, like David, “I will celebrate before the Lord.” And, maybe, just maybe, “I will become even more undignified than this” (2 Samuel 6:21-22 NIV).