“I worship you for the magnificent things you do!”  I read on Russell Wilson’s Twitter hours before the big game. And something in me sinks…I am not sure why.

And then there is the big play, a pass when our team is one yard away from a touchdown. And defying what most might think is a no-brainer, Wilson fails to pass to one of the best running back in the NFL.  Instead, Wilson tosses the ball which is intercepted, twenty seconds left in the game, and the Patriots win the Super bowl.

And though, some might say, “Well, that is just the way sports go”, a fight breaks out.  The Seahawk’s don’t take their loss well.

Still, I wonder if while the jury is out on who is to blame…if often we might do the same?

Like my kids when they were toddlers,  looking to my husband’s hand, instead of acknowledging their dad when he got home..because he loved to bless them with treats.  And don’t we too sometimes throw fits, have tantrums, start pointing figures and demanding…when we don’t get our way?

And can’t we get disappointed, angry, or even bitter when God doesn’t bring us what we want, when we want it, how we want it to fit with what we think is good for us?

And like most challenges, there was another side to the story.  The Patriots defender, Malcolm Butler, stands on the stage, tears filling his eyes, emotion moving this rookie, Division II player from West Alabama after just stopping the game-winning pass with twenty seconds left in the game.

His words, almost robotic as he stares off in space, “I just had a vision that I was going to make a big play”.

The words don’t seem strange, but the countenance of a man who had helped his team just defeat the Seahawks…revealed there was more to this story than, “Russell Wilson’s God wasn’t strong enough to bring the big win”.

And I wonder if sometimes our seeming defeat can be the opening for another person’s victory, if our laying down our trophies and accolades, just may be the very thing giving the opportunities for new-comers to arrive and be seen, experiencing the big-ness of God in a way that us, “always winning”, standing high upon a podium, cannot always achieve.

And I think we can all easily find our doctrine slipping…

• When we start fixing our gaze upon Jesus hands more than His face.
• When we forget the path to Jesus always has always been, the cross.  And although His power is in us…true Christianity demands the death of our flesh.
• When we start thinking, “believing” is all that’s needed to “get”.
• When we have faith in ourselves, our religion, our doctrine, our power, our work ethic, more than the trust of God that can save us and must save us over and over again.
• When we fail to recognize that God cares more about our hearts than our promotion, His fullness less esteemed when our achievements trump His image.
• When we think we are “good” because we start in His strength, but then hijack God, using His power for our own personal purposes.
• When we think God owes us, or that His “good gifts” mean what we want, when we want it.
• When we fail and wonder if God ever loved us, did He leave or forsake us when we just don’t win?
• When we blame our loses on not having enough “faith” instead of recognizing God sets the sun and rain on all us, whether any of us deserve it.

And how do we know we have gotten off in our understanding of Jesus?

• When after we have failed, are humbled, after the world doesn’t go our way, we find ourselves discouraged, bitter, angry, wrestling with our inadequacies, or jealous because someone else is holding the trophy, instead of us.
• When we forget throughout history, cultures have always mixed pure religion with their own brand of theology.  When lust mixes with holiness, selfishness co-exists with Christ-centeredness, greed or personal success in this world tarnishes the central theme in scripture that all revelation, all goodness, all personal achievements only comes from Him.

I bow my head in this day after the Super bowl…Not because I am ashamed of my team, the Seahawks…but because I know inside, there are parts of me that can be just like them, disappointed when this game of life doesn’t go my way.

“I love you Lord my strength” I read on Wilson’s Twitter the next day. And I have hope.

• Hope in a team that bows low before and after every game.
• Hope in a athlete who speaks into his mic during the game, proclaiming Jesus name.
• Hope because the Seattle Times, two weeks earlier, declared Wilson’s game a documented, ‘MIRACLE”.
• Hope because losing is meant to strengthen us in endurance and perseverance, growing us into mature and a deeper relationship with Jesus.

Yes, we can hold our head high….

Not because our team “lost it”, or grew discouraged, not because we stepped over the line or made some questionable pass that will likely go down in history….but because God is our strength, He refines us through our loses, He cares about our hearts, our eternal understanding of God surfacing more than some trophy that will lose glory when death comes and life passes before us.

And isn’t our theology, our understanding of God, the condition of our own hearts, more important than temporary perfection in sports, or music, or school, or even parenthood?  I think so.

I am a twelfth Woman, I always will be…but in some strange way, I am glad the world has been able to see…when we follow Jesus, we don’t always win earthly trophies, we don’t always rise to personal glory, we don’t always stand on the podiums of life…..

But we can praise Him for who He is, more than what He does…..

Because despite our winning, Jesus still sits on His throne, He still rules and reigns, He still loves us when worlds come tumbling down…

And isn’t He our trophy anyway?  The great prize.  Isn’t He the one we live for….

Despite whether we pass, or run long in this game called, life?

UNITE Blog Hop

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