It’s happened again.
The best teams in baseball didn’t make
it to the World Series. (When I was growing
up, baseball was the national pastime and there were no play-offs, just the
World Series involving the winningest team in each league. Today, every sport has multiple team and
lengthy play-offs primarily because of the economic benefit.)
The American League Los Angeles Angels
had the most wins of any team in baseball during the regular season, but they
were quickly eliminated by a wild-card team, the Kansas City Royals (kudos to
them as they hadn’t made the playoffs since before most of the team members
were born). The Washington Nationals had
the best record in the National League, closely followed by the Los Angeles
Dodgers. Neither survived their first
play-off round, losing to the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals
respectively.
It hardly seems fair.
But isn’t that why we like our sports
so much? The so-called “best” don’t
always win. There’s great excitement
about David defeating Goliath in our modern sports. Media headlines often use words like
“Stunned” or “Shocked”, but that smacks of sensationalism in our world of
competitive sports. Upsets happen all
the time. We ought to be surprised only
when there are no upsets. (Nearly 100
years ago, the great thoroughbred race horse, Man O’ War lost one
race—appropriately to a horse named Upset.)
If we don’t take our sports too
seriously (seeing them as an end in and of themselves), there are great life
lessons to be learned from sports. Teamwork,
dedication, learning that losing/failure isn’t the end, sportsmanship—all great
lessons in life. Another one of those
life lessons is to expect the unexpected.
In my life I’ve learned through
various means that God is a God of the unexpected. God is a God of surprises. In sports we pride ourselves on anticipating
what our opponent is going to do before they do it. That’s key if we are to be victorious. Unfortunately, we sometimes think of God in
the same way: as an opponent whose ways we must anticipate. We think we know God and what God asks of
us. When young, we are taught to keep
the ten commandments; that’s what God wants.
And we know that if we mess up, God is ready to punish us in some
way. That’s what we know about God.
But
is that all there is to God? I don’t
think so.
I
must admit that I don’t remember anyone ever using the word “fun” in relation
to God. In fact, my youthful
recollection is that God didn’t really approve of fun; God was more of a
buzzkill (I hope I’m using that word correctly!) when it came to fun.
Imagine my surprise when I realized
that God has no problem with “fun”, although I suppose it depends on our
definition of “fun”. If “fun” has to include
disrespect or harming others (or the self) or the need to be superior or if it
involves immoral or sinful behavior, then God no doubt has objections. If “fun” is the goal of life, then God no
doubt has objections. However, God has
no problem with leisure activity that we enjoy and that re-energizes us. That’s a basic human need (not just for kids),
although I suppose many of us have a tendency to go overboard about it.
Just to be clear: God never wants to
be our “opponent”, our “adversary” (the word “satan” actually means adversary
and God is the opposite of that). God
wants to be on our team, on our side. If
God isn’t, it’s not God’s choice; it’s ours.
God can surprise us in many ways: by
giving us the grace to forgive others and let go of grudges; by giving us the
grace to refocus on the values that truly matter in life; by giving us the
grace to handle adversity; by teaching us that winning is not the most
important thing in life; by teaching us to love God with our whole being and
our neighbor as ourselves. There are
other surprises, none of which happen in the purely human realm.
And one more thing: while God is on
our team, God is also on every other team.
God wants the best for everyone.
Maybe that surprises us also!
Have a blessed . . . and surprising .
. . week . . .
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