God's Love and Your (Football) Success

It probably would have been a good idea for Buffalo Bills wide-receiver to go home and read Romans 8:28-39 before tweeting last Sunday night. On Sunday afternoon Johnson dropped a pass in the end zone that probably would have caused his team to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in a huge upset. Instead, Johnson became hugely upset at being the goat of the game, and decided to blame God with this tweet:

I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO. . .

If I set aside my thoughts on the grammar, spelling, punctuation, spacing, and capitalization of tweets in general and this one in particular, I end up with only a theological problem with what Stevie Johnson has said. Johnson's theology seems to be that as long as he acts in a way that pleases God, then God should give him a good life.

The apostle Paul had no such misconceptions. He had experienced the "tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword" that some might suggest could separate a Christian from the love of God. Paul testified that neither those things, nor anything else would ever be able to separate a follower of God from His love for them- the love that is gloriously displayed through the cross of Christ.

Paul did not deny that much trouble comes to the life of a believer. In verse 36 of Romans 8 he even quotes from the book of Psalms to show that God's followers have always experienced great hardship. Problems in life are not a sign of God abandoning his followers. But problems in life might show us when we have stopped relying on God and started to try to earn physical blessing from Him instead.

I don't know what Stevie Johnson's relationship with Christ actually is. But I can assure you that if you are a follower of Christ two things are true: 1. You will have problems, 2. God's love for you is eternal and will exhibit itself most permanently through granting you eternal salvation.