Why Do We Hate The Ref?

It's pretty hard out there for a referee.

It doesn’t matter what sport or what age the players, everybody seems to hate the ref. Coaches chew them out. Fans rain down boos and threats. Parents vilify them. Players express their utter dismay at the calls they make.

It is having a negative effect. Ask any school or league, refs are getting harder and harder to get. It’s not worth the large amount of time for the little pay just to have your every action called to task. Yet officials are a vital part of the game. So why do we treat them the way we do?

Maybe it comes down to the fact that a refs main job is to tell you when you have done wrong. You committed a foul, stepped out of bounds, didn’t swing at the strike. And seemly now more than ever we don’t like that.

We don’t mind if he says the other man is wrong, no we welcome that! In fact, we get upset if he doesn’t do that. But turn the fault back to us and we are indignant. How dare he!

A fool rejects his father's discipline, But he who regards reproof is sensible.

Proverbs 15:5

Yet without that correction, the game is meaningless. A fair assessment of play and instruction in the rules is what makes the game worthwhile. You can never be successful if you don’t know what it takes to succeed and when you are not doing what the rules require.

This doesn’t just apply to sports. We need to be careful that we don’t turn on anyone that is trying to correct us. The psalmist said in Psalm 141:5 we should welcome it;” Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me; It is oil upon the head; Do not let my head refuse it..

Make sure you are not quick to attack the very person that might just be doing what needs to be done.

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