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Cal's Pastoral Epistles
Looking at the Big Picture
March 15, 2006
There is a cloud hanging over Connecticut this week. Both of the UCONN
Husky teams have been bounced from their respective NCAA
Tournaments. No matter where you go you are apt to hear disheartened
fans talking about the miserable failure of these two highly touted teams.
The men only won 30 games and failed to win their third National
Championship in the last few years. The women won 32 games and lost
to the top seed in the region robbing their fans of another trophy for their
overflowing footlocker.
You hear the talk everywhere you go. Loyal fans are showing up like ants
at a summer picnic trying to figure out exactly what happened and who is
to blame. Standing in line waiting for a coffee or walking down the aisle in
the grocery store you will find people gathered in clusters dissecting every
play and every move made by the coaches. Why even the first ten minutes
of our Bible Study the other night was consumed with a discussion of
what went wrong and how we could have avoided this great travesty.
It always amazes me how easy it is to become Monday morning
quarterbacks when it comes to sports. Yesterday I even heard one fan
suggest that we should fire the Hall of Fame coach because he didn't have
the team ready to play the game. I guess it is far easier to second guess
what someone else is doing than it is to actually do it your self. We
question everyone about their motives and their actions, don't we? We do it
with lawyers, doctors, military leaders, congressmen and women, the
President of the United States and even God.
God is easy to pick on because life is filled with tragedies. We wonder
how a loving God could let certain tragic things happen like Hurricane
Katrina or the devastation of September 11th. I have even caught myself
saying "If I was God I would have..." But then again we are not God. So
we defer to Him.
There was one man in the Scriptures who actually did challenge God and
ask Him to explain himself. The man's name was Job and he suffered a
terrible injustice. He was a good man and when things got so intolerable he
couldn't stand it any more he asked for an audience with God. When the
moment came, he asked God why he let such things happen. One scholar
goes on to say that in the next few moments God quizzed Job on creation
and the things of the universe and then told him that when he understood
these things, God would give him an answer. Amazingly enough Job
backed down and did a crazy thing. He bowed down and worshipped God.
Why? In that moment Job understood that God saw life from a much
broader perspective than he did.
Job, and most of us, only see things from our limited point of view, with
special attention to the here and now. Thank goodness that God and the
coaches, Jim and Geno, have a handle on the bigger picture. That means
that every once in a while we may lose a game but the glory will be ours to
enjoy forever. After all, isn't God a Husky fan too? We'll get 'em next year!
God Bless! See you in church. Cal.
Pastor Cal Lord writes these weekly epistles to
help us see God in every day things.
help us see God in every day things.
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