Does God Care About Football?

The season is over. The Super Bowl is finished. The outcome is known. But back when Tim Tebow was all the rage, the question was, "Does God care about football?" Tebow didn't think so. Most Christians would likely say, "No." I would beg to differ. It was Jesus speaking:

"Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matt 10:29-30).

According to Jesus, God cares about sparrows and the hairs on your head. In the words of one detractor, God is "hyper-interventionist". He is involved in every single event on the planet.

"Okay, okay," some might acquiesce, "He's 'involved'. But does He affect the outcome of a football game?" The question is essentially repeated because we don't really believe that God cares about the outcome of the football game. The question is repeated because we think that God likes to operate remote from Man's Free Will. Let it fall where it will. ("Will" ... get it? Oh, never mind.) Let me refer you to Matt 10 again.

"Alright," even fewer might give, "He cares. But does He care about Tim Tebow and football?" Ah! Now we get a little closer to the real question. You see, if God loved Tim Tebow and God cares about football, well, then, why wasn't Tim Tebow in the Super Bowl? That's an obvious dilemma, isn't it?

Well, it is from a narrow, not-really-thinking perspective. Yes, God does indeed care about football at least as much as He cares about the hairs on your head. Yes, God does indeed love His own, even much more than He loves the world. Yes, I would even go so far as to say that God cares about Tim Tebow (or any other believer) and football. The problem is that we think, then, that this must mean that God will make sure that every believer in football will have a pleasant outcome. And that isn't very wise thinking.

Think about it for a moment. Assume a human parent who really loves her child. Because of her deep love for her dear child, when it comes to sticking needles in her little one's arm, that's not going to happen because if you love someone you only want pleasant outcome, right? Discipline? No way! That's unpleasant (Heb 12:11). A loving parent would never discipline her child. Right? I think we can agree that saving your child's life with necessary albeit painful inoculations is love, and the Bible is quite clear that the parent who loves his or her child disciplines that child. Thus, love does not always seek a pleasant experience for the loved one. Love seeks the best. And sometimes the best is not pleasant.

I think Jesus was quite clear that God cares about His own people down to the very hairs on their head, so He certainly cares about football. We would be mistaken, however, to assume that this means that believers will always win. They will always have the best outcome.

One other consideration in this question, though. If we're thinking that a God who loves His children will always want a pleasant experience for them, we are way outside God's reality. Notice the exchange when Joshua meets "the captain of the host of the LORD."

Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" He said, "No ..." (Josh 5:13-14).

To Joshua, as, perhaps, to Tim Tebow, it was pretty cut and dried. Here is a warrior. "Are you for us or are you for our adversaries?" We could ask God, "Were you for the Giants or for the Patriots?" Plain. Simple. Even obvious. The pre-incarnate Christ in the form of the captain of the hosts of the Lord answered, "No." Hey, now that's not the right answer. We asked which one. You said, "No." And, of course, it was the right answer. Whose side was the captain of the hosts of the Lord on? The Lord's side, of course.

In the end, Tim Tebow, Eli Manning, the NY Giants, the sparrow that falls, the hairs on your head, all this plays out to God's glory. The first priority is not the comfort of the players or the winning of the game or the pleasant circumstances for the believers. Whatever works to the glory of God is the prime concern. Football can do that. Sometimes it can do that when believers lose. It doesn't mean that God doesn't care. He certainly does.