Friday Fun...Thanksgiving Dinner

I hope your Thanksgiving dinner was at least as enjoyable as the one depicted below...

A Thought for Thanksgiving

I love family. I love turkey. And I love football. No doubt many of you share these attitudes, and as a consequence, you share my love for Thanksgiving.

It is my prayer though, that this Thanksgiving, I might focus more on the original intent of the holiday, and that perhaps you might as well. Please consider the statement below from President George Washington proclaiming a National Day of Thanksgiving.  May it enhance your celebration this week.

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor...

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the twenty-sixth day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these United States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we then may all unite unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed...

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable Us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and Concord, to promote the knowledge and practice of the true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3rd of October, A.D. 1789.
- - Go Washington.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For many of us, Thanksgiving is a holiday about the three "F's": Food, Family and Football.  We would all do well though to remember what Thanksgiving is really all about.  On October 3, 1789, George Washington issued America's first ever official presidential proclamation.  It read as follows:

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best. 

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.

Who Invited God to the Ballgame?

I saw an article over at CNN the other day dealing with God, sports, and the connection between the two. It was pretty much standard fare when it comes to this discussion. It seems that whenever this topic comes up, the idea put forth is that if Christians thank Jesus after a sporting event, they are tacitly suggesting that Jesus likes them more than their opponent, or at least that their faith is better/stronger than that of their opponent.

One of the reasons that the general public has this perception is because so many athletes not only project it, they actually believe it. The problem is that this brand of “Christianity” is not only terribly simplistic, it is unbiblical and incorrect.

Does God care about sports? Of course he does! God cares about our whole existence. As Abraham Kuyper famously put it, "There is not one square inch of creation over which Jesus does not proclaim, 'Mine!'" So do I mean to say that God is sovereign, even over who wins and loses sporting events? Yes! That's exactly what I mean to say! God is sovereign over all of creation.

Does the fact that one team won a game mean then that God likes them more or that they have more faith? Absolutely not! To believe this unnecessarily (and quite contrarily to the Gospel) binds what we get to what we deserve. The fact of the matter is though, we all deserve to lose. God, in his mercy, chooses some to be winners in spite of what they deserve. This has nothing to do with our merit and everything to do with God’s grace. A right response to winning a ballgame is indeed to give God thanks. But it should be done without a single hint that the gift he gave you was in any way merited.

Likewise, God is still just as good when he bestows the gifts upon our opponents, and should be glorified as such in those times as well. I thought Colt McCoy did a great job of this after the NCAA Football national championship game last January. Though his team had lost, though he had missed almost the entire game due to injury, though his college career had ended moments before and he was quite clearly gripped with disappointment at the way things had gone, he still managed to give glory to God.



I’ve been asked before if I think there will be baseball in Heaven (or perhaps more appropriately in the New Heavens and the New Earth). When I respond affirmatively, people ask me how this could be, when one team inevitably will lose each game. Fans and players alike would be grieved about this, and whether or not Tom Hanks was right about there being no crying in baseball, we know that the Apostle John was right that there will be no crying in heaven (Revelation 21:4).

The key is this: When we play sports in this creation, especially at the highest levels of competition, our ultimate goal usually is to win. In our sinless re-creation, our ultimate goal will be the glory of God. That means if I work as hard as I can to prepare and the pitcher strikes me out anyway, I will rejoice at the fact that God has so gifted another individual, who happens to be my brother in Christ.

My prayer is that Christian athletes (and all other Christians for that matter, starting with myself) can live their lives here a little more like we will live them in the hereafter.