I can’t remember the last time I watched a whole Super Bowl. But I did watch this one. I’m glad I did because I saw a valuable spiritual lesson demonstrated for me on the biggest play of the game.
I probably would not have made an effort to watch this Super Bowl had it not been for an article I read earlier in the week about Kurt Warner, the quarterback for the St. Louis Rams. (Those of you who don’t follow football will have to suffer through this a little until I get to the point.)
Turns out that Warner, who only 5 years ago was a stock boy at a local grocery store passing bags of macaroni across aisles to co-workers at 3:am, had achieved, in only his first year in professional football, not only the starting quarterback job on a Super Bowl team, but had become the top passer in the whole NFL as well as the league’s Most Valuable Player. For those of you who don’t follow football this is absolutely unheard of, a true fairy tale. It also helped my interest that he credited his incredible achievement to Jesus Christ.
By now it’s all history and most of you know that this fairy tale story had a truly fairy tale ending complete with a “miracle play” by the star, a shot of Warner rushing into the stands to embrace his tearful wife as the game ended, and a humble “all glory and praise to Jesus Christ” speech from the victory stand.
My spiritual lesson occurred, appropriately, on the “miracle play”, a long pass down the sidelines to wide receiver, Isaac Bruce, who caught the ball in the midst of defenders and sped to the end zone with what turned out to be the game winning touchdown.
All eyes were on Bruce as he made the catch, but the real drama was back upfield where Warner had been knocked on his back by an angry 300 pound defensive lineman. The replay showed that Warner had to make the pass as this mountain with a helmet bore down on him. This massive obstruction caused him to throw the ball a bit short, but Bruce, looking over his shoulder adjusted for the shortened pass and caught the ball.
Had the ball been thrown where it was supposed to have been thrown it probably would have been intercepted because there was a defender in front of Bruce, and Warner’s team would have probably lost the game given that the momentum had already shifted to the other side.
I don’t know if God was watching the Super Bowl that day. It was Sunday so He was probably resting. (Or maybe it was Monday if He was watching in Guam.) But this play reminded me of how God uses what appears to us to be obstacles and adversities, things that get in our face and even knock us down, to help us win, to help us do the right thing, to do the thing that must be done. “In all things, give thanks.”
I am probably reading to much into a simple football game, but God can use anything for His classroom, even a football field. Had there been no 300 pound obstacle in Kurt Warner’s face he would have overthrown his man instead of throwing the game winning touchdown. I must remember that the next time someone gets “in my face” or even knocks me down, it may in fact be God chastising “him whom he loves”.
As I write this, I am looking out of a small window 39,000 feet above the snow covered Canadian Rockies. I never sit next to the window when I fly because it usually means I have to crawl over someone (an obstacle) to get to a very important room on the airliner, which can occur several times on an 11 hour flight. However, there were no aisle seats available when I had checked in earlier that morning. But God had wanted to show me something so He blocked the aisle seats and left open one by the window.
It is a magnificently clear day and the Rockies are staggeringly beautiful in their remote and desolate snow covered whiteness. Only God skis here. It’s His private winter playground. These mountains, in their rugged, immobile silence, give unending millenniums of praise to their Creator. They stand and shout at the roof of the world to Him who even now suspends me by His very breath in this pressurized tube that scratches the heavens at 600mph. It’s a sight that makes you not mind dying if you know that you’ll be able to play with Him in the afterlife in places like this. And I wouldn’t have seen it had their been an aisle seat. Another reminder to me that “In all things, give thanks”.
Tim Rohr
February 9, 2000