Mixing Actions & Words

Tomorrow they will play the Super Bowl. As a Packer fan, I am still licking my wounds from two weeks ago when the boys let us down and failed to put us in the final game. OK, I have nothing to do with it, but that’s how it makes me feel!

            At the end of the game between the Packers and the Seahawks, a bad thing happened. The media rushed over to interview the winning quarterback. The quarterback had a terrible game. He threw 4 interceptions! However, in overtime, he threw 3 perfect passes to win the game. Through the highs and lows of the 60 minute monumental struggle, through the poor performance, through the peaking in the extra time period, this young man emerged victorious…and emotional. With all his fiber, I believe what he had to say to the media. With tears rolling down his face and not caring who was around him…totally uninhibited… he said, “God is good.”

            I am proud of him for publically living his faith. HOWEVER…to others watching, in one failed swoop the quarterback told millions that God chose him and his team over the other team. Others heard, because we won, God is good. I don’t believe that this is what he meant…but it is what he said. I believe he meant to thank God for His help to achieve a goal and to recognize that it was God who gave him the strength to do it…but that’s not what he said.

            This is no different than when we (yes, I am including myself) have conversations and say things to others like “…good luck….” There is no such thing as luck. There are too many scriptures that tell us otherwise. So why do we do it? For the most part, I believe the answer is twofold. First, I believe that many Christians are simply ignorant of truth and therefore do not have a prepared response. Put this together with the idea that we are merely regurgitating the diet of what we are listening to.

            So, I would like to believe that this young quarterback was praising God for the righteous reasons. If the Packers would have won, I hope the young quarterback would not believe that God chose the Packers team over his team. That would not be “goodness”. Can you imagine, “God likes the Packers more than the Seahawks!” I would imagine there are fanatics who think this way…but that’s just sacrilege. God loves us all the same! If he would have lost the game, I hope that the young quarterback would still believe that “God is good”.

Thus, in a moment, a powerful Christian teaching was presented to millions through actions and words. All that we can interpret is what transpired. After winning the game, the young quarterback said, “God is good”.

How do you translate that?