It’s football time!
Beyond watching the game, many of us also coach the players from our dens. Throw the ball! Run! Go for it! As if we know more about the situation then those athletes and coaches who have played and studied the game for years. As if we were physically or mentally capable of doing what they are doing. As if we were willing to dedicate that much of our life to this game. Because let’s face it, I am not. I do not have the skill set or raw talent they have. I have not spent hours on training and physical conditioning. I have not learned the nuances of my teammates or my opponents. I don’t know all the different options available and what determines which plays are carried out when. I have not immersed myself in strategy and analytics. So, what qualifies me to criticize these players and coaches who have?
And if that is true in football, it has become a national obsession with politics. I am completely unqualified and incapable of running for President, being elected President, or governing as President. My guess is that that is true for you as well. And yet, without being to understand the complexities of the job, we routinely criticize whoever holds that position. As if we could do a better job. As if meeting my expectations of leadership were the President’s objective, as if he should value my opinions at all. What hubris!
I fear we do this with God as well sometimes. We question His motives, His presence, His sovereignty. We think He doesn’t love us when we don’t get our way. We stomp our feet like an indignant three-year-old and scream. And when we have finished with our fit, God answers.
Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements – surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? Job 38:4-7.
That is not to say that we should stop asking questions, stop trying to learn more. If we care about football, we should learn the rules, the strategies, and the physical demands of the game. If nothing else, it helps us realize how difficult their job really is. Asking questions and learning the answer may help us understand why the players we were yelling at from our couches did not throw or run or go for it.
And we certainly should care about how our leaders govern us. If there are issues that are important to us, we should be all means get involved in advocating for those issues, whatever they may be. But for the past fifty years, we have made a pastime of hating our President. No matter what our President is doing, we criticize his decisions and how they are made. As if we could do better.
And we should certainly bring our questions to God. We should study and read and learn and pray and worship and stomp our feet occasionally. From Abraham to Nicodemus, God welcomes our questions, our arguments, our wrestling. He wants us to ask because He wants us to get to know Him better.
And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. John 17:3.
Sometimes a question is criticism and sometimes it is a pathway to deeper understanding. Let’s stop asking questions like we already know the right answer. Let’s admit that we are not trained athletes or successful politicians. Let’s admit that we are not God and resist the urge to criticize Him. Instead, let us bring all things to Him in prayer.
Love in Christ, Betsy
