Life Beyond the Pitch

It made the news this week when a star soccer player had a serious injury shortly after kickoff--in the game slated to be her last.  Megan Rapinoe quipped after the match, "I’m not a religious person or anything and if there was a god, like, this is proof that there isn’t.”  This statement gives me pause to consider what people who do not know God personally think of Him.  Based on her own logic, the fact she previously won world titles without suffering serious injury is proof there is a God.  I have observed people who do not credit God with existence often lash out at God in seasons of pain, frustration and disappointment rather than praising Him when all is well.

The view shared by Rapinoe is one familiar to atheists, skeptics and even professing Christians:  that God's existence is primarily for our benefit, to please us.  Like a divine Santa Claus that rewards good little boys and girls or a genie we pray to for health, wealth and prosperity, God (should He exist) lives to make us happy and enable us to fulfill our goals and achieve our dreams.  Those who know God in truth according to the Bible, however, realise we are created for His good purposes:  to know Him, praise, please and love Him.  It is in embracing our good God in faith we realise all the goals and dreams we have for ourselves pale in comparison to the plans He has for us, for He offers us what this perishing world cannot:  He offers Himself forever.

That may sound lame to people who do not know or value God, who place themselves at the centre of the universe as a god, who live to please themselves and to do their own will.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus knew His hour was drawing near--when He would be crucified on Calvary to provide atonement for sinners.  Matthew 26:39 says, "He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."  Jesus humbled Himself and laid down His will before His Father in heaven, and surrendered His body to intense suffering and death.  He knew what we often do not realise in our pains, for Jesus knew what God would accomplish through His death and subsequent resurrection.  It was knowledge of God and faith in Him--not that Jesus judged the purpose for His death worthy--that Jesus joyfully went to the cross in obedience to the Father He loved Who loves all.

This is a sticking point for us as believers.  It is one thing for unbelievers to malign God or deny His existence in their pains:  we are called to glorify God despite pain He allows us to suffer as Jesus did.  We rejoice, not primarily because He will bring good out of evil (which He always does according to His purposes), but because He is worthy to be praised and celebrated.  By His grace He has given us life and causes the sun to rise on the just and the unjust, for He blesses the believer and unbeliever alike.  Having loved God because He first loved us, our eyes by trust in Him are opened to His love and goodness all around us.  God has made known to us His will to save, heal, redeem and restore.  God can use the end of a sporting career or a tragic incident to open our eyes to see God's goodness, our own folly and our need for Him.

A painful injury, far from proving God does not exist, supports the exact opposite view.  The fact our bodies are wonderfully designed with the capacity to feel pain, tendons, ligaments, bones and muscles that allow us to run and play a game (with the involvement of our circulatory, nervous and respiratory systems and more) with other people demonstrates we have a Creator and Designer.  A soccer ball or goal did not just "happen" to be but had a maker, and neither did we humans who can think, speak, listen and strategise arise without a Maker.  Instead of hating on God who allowed a tendon or ligament to rupture, thank God He gave them to us in the first place and there is a hope of healing and life beyond the soccer pitch--beyond this world where we can live with God Who loves us forever.  By the painful crucifixion of Jesus God demonstrated His love for all people and that God does exist, for such love is not of this world offered freely to us.