I had cautiously admired from a distance the outspoken brand of Christianity practiced by McCoy and his fellow quarterback from Florida, Tim Tebow. They seemed to be the real deal, never neglecting an opportunity to give glory to Jesus Christ. Those opportunities were fairly prevalent as they have torn through most of their opponents over the last two-to-three seasons.
But in my observation the relationship between sports and Christianity has always been a bit tenuous. Athletes point to heaven after home runs and touchdowns and field goals as if God had just pulled some sort of cosmic lever, thus changing the outcome of the game, ushering in their success not unlike the bartender in a Buffalo Wild Wings commercial. After these wins the glory would also be given to "God," but it is often uncertain whether that "God" was the Sovereign King of the Universe as revealed through Jesus Christ or simply some nondescript deity fashioned in the player's image. So any spiritual reference uttered by an athlete, no matter how apparently solid, was usually sifted through my suspicious grid.
My own personal experiences had reinforced this disconnect. I'd been party to numerous pre-game prayers designed to curry God's favor in the imminent contest. These were usually vain repetition, verbal insurance policies designed to cover the proverbial bases of preventing injury and pleading for victory. During and especially after the game, God was usually forgotten. There appeared to me no motivation to pray had it been known beforehand that we were going to a.) win the game, and b.) be injury-free.
In an article entitled God is the Gospel, Minneapolis-based pastor John Piper discusses how people often do not want God for God, but simply want him for the benefits he might provide them. He observes how many desire forgiveness, or a job, or a spouse, or to be healed from a disease--all reasonable things to seek--but they don't seem much to want God. He appropriately questions the efficiency and efficacy of these motives and provides these chilling words: God will not be used as currency for the purchase of idols.
But do we do that? I have. I've wanted God to close a real estate deal or give me a listing or help me shoot one last 74 without really wanting Him, for Him. I'd like to sugarcoat it, but I can't. That's idolatry. I might as well worship a golden calf. And my assumption is that many athletes, not unlike us, simply want to leverage their relationship with God to secure their earthly desires, their earthly fames and fortunes.
This assumption is bolstered by the conspicuous absence in sports of Christians giving glory to God in defeat. In fairness, we don't usually care much what the loser has to say and the networks don't always seek out comments from losers. After all, they're losers. What do they have to offer us? And, often defeat is so stunning, so painful, that it renders a believer speechless. In some small way, even the strongest believer probably expected God to come through for him, and doesn't know how to explain why He didn't. This is understandable, but in some cases I fear defeat exposes a counterfeit faith that was only manufactured to engender God's blessing. A faith that may have only been legal tender at the idol store.
Enter Colt McCoy on January 7 in Pasadena. McCoy took five snaps from under center before leaving the game with a nerve injury in his shoulder. He couldn't feel his arm, so he was forced to watch the final and most important game of his career from the sidelines. He had to watch his inexperienced understudy compete gallantly but unsuccessfully in their 37-21 loss.
When interviewed after the game, a devastated McCoy took a few seconds to compose himself, then said, "I always give God the glory. I never question why things happen the way they do. God is in control of my life, and I know that nothing else, I'm standing on the Rock."
How refreshing. McCoy's "Rock" is Jesus Christ. In Matthew 7 and Luke 6 we find the "Parable of the Two Builders." In both these passages, Jesus speaks of the wisdom of the man who follows obediently after Himself. Jesus says "the man who hears My sayings and does them...he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock."
The wise man who built his house on the rock is contrasted with the unwise man who built his house on sand. When the floods came upon that man, "the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."
The Apostle Peter calls Jesus Christ "a rock of offense." (I Peter 2:8) Indeed He is. I observed some Facebook animosity this season spewed toward Christian athletes, particularly Tebow. I believe the venomous comments were grounded in the "offensive" way in which the players like Tebow and McCoy proclaim Christ—their Rock.
An equally memorable depiction of Jesus Christ as the rock is found in the 1836 hymn by Edward Mote called The Solid Rock. The hymn is based on the parable of Matthew 7:24-27 and its chorus reads:
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
McCoy of course is fallible but he challenges me to live a genuine faith, a sincere pursuit that looks the same in season and out. A faith that is identical in winning and losing. A faith that is not shaken by anything the world can dish out because it comes from a world that is wholly other than this one. In this lifetime, we'll undoubtedly have more opportunities to give glory to God through disappointment than through triumph. And the trials, disappointments, and even devastations we experience are the crucibles through which God's grace shines most brilliantly. It's through these experiences that we learn to want God, for God, and we look to the eternal at which we may now only glimpse dimly.
May we too follow after and cling to the Rock, certainly in victory, more so in defeat. All other ground is sinking sand.
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