My wife and I lived in a newlywed apartment (aka: a dump) during the opening years of our marriage. It was actually a house where the stairs were torn out and the owners had filled in the hole. In spite of our attempts, we never had a great relationship with the people upstairs.
There are a lot of celebrities today who talk about "the man upstairs" as a reference to God. Christians usually take one of two extremes when this happens:
Extreme #1: "He said, 'The man upstairs.' He must be a Christian!"
Extreme #2: "He said, 'The man upstairs.' Burn him!"
Obviously, if someone were truly attempting to give credit to the One True God, I would hope they know His name, and not just His address.
"His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him--though he is not far from any one of us." (Acts 17:27 NLT)
Perhaps the athlete who credits "the man upstairs" genuinely feels their athleticism is a God-given gift, but has failed to fully understand the relationship between the Creator and His Creation. We must be careful not to presume we know anything about these people, and instead pray for them. Pray either for greater boldness if they know Christ, or pray someone would give them an introduction to an intensely personal God who is not far from each of us.
This is exactly what I was trying to say in our conversation about athletes using God to promote a self-image. You just said it a lot better. I miss your periscopes, hopefully, you can find some time.
ReplyDeleteI understand what you're saying Mike. It's important that we never attribute the term "Christian" to anyone who ever mentions God. We need to be willing to take some time with that conversation and find out which "god" we're talking about. I hope to scope more too!
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