Tuesday 30 November 2010

GOD AND THE PIGSKIN


An NFL player blamed God over the weekend when he dropped a would be game winning touchdown pass. He of course took to his twitter to sound off – oh twitter where would we be without your ability to air our astounding narcissism – that after all the praying he’s done over his life, how could God let this happen. He goes further to exclaim that if the Big Man expects him to learn from this he can forget it essentially, and he’ll never forget this! “Ever.” In case God wasn’t listening to his first threat, he threw in the ‘EVER’ in true juvenile fashion followed by several exclamation points. You hear that God, one of your flock is royally pissed over a pigskin!

I shall put my feelings about religion as a whole to the side and say that perhaps Mr. Football’s lesson is that blaming God for dropping a ball is going to get him utterly nowhere. In fact, I’m sure his god is up there thinking, “Well Stevie (Johnson), I gave you free will, ample skills, and a fun job that pays you more than most make in a lifetime; if you can’t manage to catch a perfectly thrown pass, then even I can’t help you. And stop complaining, I lost money on that game!”

This is what I always find amusing – and slightly confusing - about prayer. When it works for people, it’s a blessing…‘ah yes, through the power of prayer I received X. Hallelujah!’ When it’s denied, or overlooked, it’s ‘why o why aren’t you listening to me God!’ Perhaps he is listening; he just wanted you to drop a football and see how that feels. You know, really show you the unpredictability and unfairness of life. Then again, perhaps God was busy saving thousands from a typhoon and can’t stand football. It is airing on a Sunday after all – the supposed day of rest. That’ll show you to mess with the Lord’s day-off.

The other side of prayer that always made me give pause is when a mere mortal claims they were so blessed (through the power of prayer of course) that they were saved from some hideous tragedy or natural disaster. I remember some celebrity being quoted following the tsunami in Thailand by saying she was SO blessed because she was able to get out of there before it struck. That always made me think, so the ones that didn’t make it out weren’t blessed? Or did they speak too softly in prayer so that they were not heard? I mean, how exactly does it work? And why are some people blessed and others seem to always end up getting kicked in the head by life. These are of course questions of mine that used to drive my religion teacher crazy. She’d answer them, and in her mind ended the discussion and I’d pause, and of course come back at her with a big fat, “BUT, why?” She quickly realized that if she gave me lots of assignments to do it would shut me up for awhile. Of course, then I’d stumble upon something else that didn’t make sense in my mind and I’d have to bring this to her attention.

So, as for Mr. NFL player, if he is never going to forget dropping the ball, I wonder what he is going to make of things like old age, disease, natural disasters, and I don’t know…foreclosure on his mansion when he burns through his money at a rapid fire pace – as they all seem to do. I also can’t help but wonder if his partner/wife is asking God why she got stuck with this complaining butter fingers instead of the receiver on the opposing team that won the game?

Gawwwwd. It’s just so unfair.


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