God Chooses Sides
Each time I hear an athlete thanking God or praising Jesus for his victory, the big catch, the game winning goal, or a timely homerun ..... I wonder what on earth makes them believe God gives a damn about their sporting event. I'm not a believer, but for this post let's assume there is an all powerful omnipresent Big Sky Daddy watching over every soul on this planet. Wouldn't he have more important things to do than bless one sports team, or athlete, over another? For years I've been wondering if the losing players blame the almighty for their failure. Until now I hadn't heard any, "I guess God was rooting for the other guys.", remarks during the agony of defeat.
Sunday afternoon Buffalo Bills wide receiver Steve Johnson dropped a game winning touchdown pass in overtime. He was all alone, no defender molesting him, the pass was thrown perfectly, and the damned oblong football just slipped through his normally sure fingertips. There must have been divine intervention. No professional misses as opportunity like that, right?
After the dropped pass that would have ended the contest, my team, the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers, took the ball and marched into game winning field goal range. Game. Over. Yay.
Apparently God spends his free time following athletes on Twitter. After the game Johnson tweeted ...... "I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS IS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS???! HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO."
I'm sure the ALL CAPS and overzealous use of dramatic punctuation got God's attention. I don't know how much Steve Johnson earns per season but given the NFL minimum salary is $325,000 ...... even for bench warmers and pass droppers .... Johnson should be thanking someone for the pro football gig he has. A little perspective goes a long way.
I get the faith thing but I just don't have any. If a pair of equally gifted athletes face off in a contest, each a devout Christian, why do victors assume God had some play in their success? The vanquished accepts he was defeated by mortal foe, not that the other guy was chosen by God.
I'm not sure what the "THX THO" at the end of Johnson's tweet was. Maybe he climbed behind the wheel of his Hummer and realized one dropped pass is not the end of the world. And if he happens to be Catholic, is confession, penance, and forgiveness doable with a few tweets? If anyone can find a way to get people to attend church online it would be the Holy Romans, complete with cyber offering plates.
The last line gave me an idea...... and of course the Vatican nabbed this domain. www.sundaymass.com