“What do sports movies have to do with God’s grace?”
One of my favorite things in the entire world is a sports movie. Particularly, a sports movie that is geared for a younger audience. If I was to make a list of my favorite movies of all time there is no doubt that films like “The Sandlot”, “Mighty Ducks”, and “Space Jam” would make the list. What I really love about these sports movies is that even though they are about different sports, even though they are set at different times and in different parts of the universe, they still manage to all follow a very similar narrative arc. Here’s how it works:
First, we are introduced to some generic sports team. It doesn’t matter; basketball, baseball, football, softball, hockey, soccer, team whatever. What we learn is that this sports team is really bad at their sport! They lose all the time and don’t really seem to understand the simplest aspects of the game! But then, they are suddenly given some reason to play well. They need to win lots of games or something bad will happen. But it’s hopeless! They are so bad at sport! And then, there’s some new coach who has come to town that’s going to take this hopeless, rag tag sports team to the championship. And so the coach walks in to the first practice and sees the players running into each other, dropping the ball, missing shots, scoring on the wrong goal – the coach sees for the first time just how terrible this team really is and then – and this is the most important moment – and then the coach takes a deep breath and says with the utmost confidence, “I can work with this.”
I believe, that this is how God sees us. No matter what mess we get ourselves into, no matter what mistakes we make, no matter how unfaithful and undeserving we might be, God looks at us time and again and God takes a deep breath and says, “I can work with this.”
We are going to make mistakes. We won’t be perfect, we will mess up, time and time again we will make decisions that are hurtful and harmful and destructive to ourselves and others. But in the infinite goodness of God, in the infinite creativity of our Creator, in the infinite Holiness of the Holy Spirit, God will see these mistakes and God will take a deep breath and say, “I can work with this.”
One of my favorite things in the entire world is a sports movie. Particularly, a sports movie that is geared for a younger audience. If I was to make a list of my favorite movies of all time there is no doubt that films like “The Sandlot”, “Mighty Ducks”, and “Space Jam” would make the list. What I really love about these sports movies is that even though they are about different sports, even though they are set at different times and in different parts of the universe, they still manage to all follow a very similar narrative arc. Here’s how it works:
First, we are introduced to some generic sports team. It doesn’t matter; basketball, baseball, football, softball, hockey, soccer, team whatever. What we learn is that this sports team is really bad at their sport! They lose all the time and don’t really seem to understand the simplest aspects of the game! But then, they are suddenly given some reason to play well. They need to win lots of games or something bad will happen. But it’s hopeless! They are so bad at sport! And then, there’s some new coach who has come to town that’s going to take this hopeless, rag tag sports team to the championship. And so the coach walks in to the first practice and sees the players running into each other, dropping the ball, missing shots, scoring on the wrong goal – the coach sees for the first time just how terrible this team really is and then – and this is the most important moment – and then the coach takes a deep breath and says with the utmost confidence, “I can work with this.”
I believe, that this is how God sees us. No matter what mess we get ourselves into, no matter what mistakes we make, no matter how unfaithful and undeserving we might be, God looks at us time and again and God takes a deep breath and says, “I can work with this.”
We are going to make mistakes. We won’t be perfect, we will mess up, time and time again we will make decisions that are hurtful and harmful and destructive to ourselves and others. But in the infinite goodness of God, in the infinite creativity of our Creator, in the infinite Holiness of the Holy Spirit, God will see these mistakes and God will take a deep breath and say, “I can work with this.”
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