Conditional Praise

In a recent game between the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers, wide receiver Steve Johnson flubbed an easy catch in overtime which would have given the Bills a stunning upset win against the heavily favored Pittsburgh Steelers. What ended up getting the most press was his reaction after the game.

Making game-costing mistakes happens all the time in sports. Usually, sports reporters will get trite sound bites from regretful athletes along the lines of “I just didn’t make the plays I needed to” or “I take responsibility for this loss” or “I didn’t do my job and it cost my team.” What was unique and newsworthy about Johnson’s reaction is that he went to his Twitter account and blamed God:

"I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO..."

The rant was interesting on a number of levels. I appreciated the candor and honesty of Johnson’s tweet, because I think it says a great deal about the misunderstanding of God’s work in the midst of athletic competitions and more importantly, the propensity that all Christians (including myself) have to subconsciously expect some correlation between our devotion and “success” as defined by the world.

Tackling (no pun intended) the first point, I find it interesting when athletes give glory to Jesus Christ after sports victories when talking to sideline reporters. This is, for the most part, all well and good. We should absolutely give glory and thanks to God and recognize that He is the source of our gifts, talents and opportunities. However, what never happens (or at least I’ve never seen it) is giving thanks to God in the midst of a tough loss. For example, I’ve never seen a boxer say after losing by split decision, “First of all, I’d like to thank God for giving me the strength to be a contender in the IBF. Even though I lost a tough fight, Jesus kept me and (opponent) Dedrick Tatum more or less healthy after a 15 round fight and I’m still as strong as a bull. See y’all at the evening service.” God equips and God enables, and for that we should give thanks - period. The results - whether it’s an outcome of a competitive event or admittance into a program or job opportunity - are things that with faith we can look and trust in His sovereign grace - but we should never assume that worldly 'success' is what will inevitably happen.

The related second point is that Steve Johnson makes the telling, but honest, connection between his praise of and devotion to God and the results of the game. This is painfully evident in the "I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!!"

Lest we pile on Steve, I need to say that Christians do this all the time. I do this all the time. It just tends to be subconscious and manifests itself into bitterness as opposed to angry tweets.

I remember that I had started business school in the fall of 1999 and was going through a rough patch, when I heard the single most impactful Tim Keller sermon during my time at Redeemer. Reverend Keller said something along these lines:

You can be completely obedient yet profoundly rebellious in your relationship with God. How? We do this when our obedience leads to a sense of entitlement where our natural tendency is to question why God hasn’t given us the relationship, job or life circumstances that we think we deserve in light of our spiritual obedience and service. You’re not in a loving relationship with God; you’ve put yourself on the throne and have made God someone who you can manipulate into giving you what you want. How will you know if you have this sort of relationship with God? You're bitter and resentful of your circumstances.

That sermon hit me like a ton of bricks. And that’s why I sympathize with Johnson’s tweet with more empathy as opposed to harsh judgment. But yes, Steve, just as you tweeted, you actually will learn from this, just in the way that I have learned from my own difficult seasons in life – not the least of the lessons is that God’s faithfulness doesn’t mean we’re immune from us making mistakes at inopportune times, but it does mean His grace is sufficient to carry us through the aftermath of those mistakes.