I first wrote this the night of the Super Bowl as a Facebook note. Since I sort of want to switch to using this as my blog tho I decided to bring it here. Enjoy and please give me some feedback.
God had his hand all over tonight's Super Bowl contest. - And no, I'm not saying that he sent angels to help the Giants subdue a perfect Patriots team (Although the Manning pocket escape and the catch of the ages by Tyree looked very Supernatural to me). I highly doubt that. God's hands were all over this Super Bowl in very different ways. This Super Bowl had God's hands all over it because of its beautiful imperfection.
Think of it sports fans. Why do we enjoy sports? There are a number of reasons I believe we enjoy sports, but tonight I'm gonna talk about chance. Anyone who witnessed Super Bowl 42 witnessed what we call an upset. When a seemingly lesser team defeats a highly favored powerhouse. This was no small upset either. I would venture out to say that this was "The Perfect Upset".
For those of you uninformed tonight's match up featured the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. Two very different Super Bowl representatives. You see the Pats have won every game so far this year, broken dozens of long standing NFL records and they are the first team to win the first 18 games of a football season.
The Giants on the other hand barely made the football playoffs with 10 wins and 6 losses on the regular season.
The Patriots have the league MVP 2 time super bowl MVP, 3 time winner QB vs the Giants often maligned, young and previously without a playoff win Kid Brother of the Leagues other franchise QB. Brady vs mini Manning...
This is where perfect imperfection comes in. In a 'perfect' world the most skilled, best coached, most proven team would win every time. The Patriots were all these things and more. Still I and many millions of viewers across North America and the world stopped to watch a game fate had predetermined and was set to just be the crowning moment of the Greatest Football team ever amassed. Why? Because anything can happen. And Tonight anything did happen.
Tonight David beat Goliath, the Giants (ironically) took the Super Bowl as David against the far superior foe.
Upsets are an imperfection. A flaw in the system. But as we sports fans know, they are a beautiful flaw. Sports is not the only place this beautiful flaw occurs though. As a matter of fact lately I've begun to notice flaws are a necessary component of Beauty. Take for example the beautiful story of Hosea the prophet who is told by God to marry and love a prostitute. God's intent was for Hosea's unconditional love for his very imperfect wife to reflect to us his unconditional love for us. If Hosea was asked to marry a beautiful ideal woman who never screwed up how amazing would this story be? It wouldn't be amazing or beautiful.
God's design for Earth is sometimes controversial. Recently I've been moving toward an opinion that right now here on Earth we have almost everything we need to have paradise. Yes there are Wars and Injustices (trust me I know about more than I would like sometimes) that plague Earth and greed and corruption as well. Along with these things there is also love, joy, compassion, generosity and those who would seek justice. How valuable are love, joy, compassion, generosity and those who would seek justice tho in a perfect culture though? They are a given most would assume. So they would no longer stand out. For example if there had been a million Ghandi's in India would Ghandi ever have stood out to be the amazing figure he is today? NO. Beauty needs flaws. Love needs failures because love that overcomes nothing becomes redundant and assumed. We need imperfection and so does God. In our relationship with him if we were all perfect what would he gain. All responses would be assumed.
So that is how God's hands were all over the Super Bowl. He created this 'beautiful mess', this 'perfect imperfection' and tonight reminded me and us all of it with this "Perfect Upset".
Anyone who is a fan of sports should also be a fan of our God. The fact he loves us unconditionally in my mind another example of a "Perfect Upset".
(K guys this note was written entirely after 1 am. I got inspired and had to share it. My thots may be a little scattered and slimy so please do take it easy on it. I'll edit a little tomorrow maybe)
Chris Clarke
God had his hand all over tonight's Super Bowl contest. - And no, I'm not saying that he sent angels to help the Giants subdue a perfect Patriots team (Although the Manning pocket escape and the catch of the ages by Tyree looked very Supernatural to me). I highly doubt that. God's hands were all over this Super Bowl in very different ways. This Super Bowl had God's hands all over it because of its beautiful imperfection.
Think of it sports fans. Why do we enjoy sports? There are a number of reasons I believe we enjoy sports, but tonight I'm gonna talk about chance. Anyone who witnessed Super Bowl 42 witnessed what we call an upset. When a seemingly lesser team defeats a highly favored powerhouse. This was no small upset either. I would venture out to say that this was "The Perfect Upset".
For those of you uninformed tonight's match up featured the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. Two very different Super Bowl representatives. You see the Pats have won every game so far this year, broken dozens of long standing NFL records and they are the first team to win the first 18 games of a football season.
The Giants on the other hand barely made the football playoffs with 10 wins and 6 losses on the regular season.
The Patriots have the league MVP 2 time super bowl MVP, 3 time winner QB vs the Giants often maligned, young and previously without a playoff win Kid Brother of the Leagues other franchise QB. Brady vs mini Manning...
This is where perfect imperfection comes in. In a 'perfect' world the most skilled, best coached, most proven team would win every time. The Patriots were all these things and more. Still I and many millions of viewers across North America and the world stopped to watch a game fate had predetermined and was set to just be the crowning moment of the Greatest Football team ever amassed. Why? Because anything can happen. And Tonight anything did happen.
Tonight David beat Goliath, the Giants (ironically) took the Super Bowl as David against the far superior foe.
Upsets are an imperfection. A flaw in the system. But as we sports fans know, they are a beautiful flaw. Sports is not the only place this beautiful flaw occurs though. As a matter of fact lately I've begun to notice flaws are a necessary component of Beauty. Take for example the beautiful story of Hosea the prophet who is told by God to marry and love a prostitute. God's intent was for Hosea's unconditional love for his very imperfect wife to reflect to us his unconditional love for us. If Hosea was asked to marry a beautiful ideal woman who never screwed up how amazing would this story be? It wouldn't be amazing or beautiful.
God's design for Earth is sometimes controversial. Recently I've been moving toward an opinion that right now here on Earth we have almost everything we need to have paradise. Yes there are Wars and Injustices (trust me I know about more than I would like sometimes) that plague Earth and greed and corruption as well. Along with these things there is also love, joy, compassion, generosity and those who would seek justice. How valuable are love, joy, compassion, generosity and those who would seek justice tho in a perfect culture though? They are a given most would assume. So they would no longer stand out. For example if there had been a million Ghandi's in India would Ghandi ever have stood out to be the amazing figure he is today? NO. Beauty needs flaws. Love needs failures because love that overcomes nothing becomes redundant and assumed. We need imperfection and so does God. In our relationship with him if we were all perfect what would he gain. All responses would be assumed.
So that is how God's hands were all over the Super Bowl. He created this 'beautiful mess', this 'perfect imperfection' and tonight reminded me and us all of it with this "Perfect Upset".
Anyone who is a fan of sports should also be a fan of our God. The fact he loves us unconditionally in my mind another example of a "Perfect Upset".
(K guys this note was written entirely after 1 am. I got inspired and had to share it. My thots may be a little scattered and slimy so please do take it easy on it. I'll edit a little tomorrow maybe)
Chris Clarke
Surprising to what I say in this note I went to look for a picture to insert and this pic is in an article entitled "Supernatural' catch by Tyree a play for the ages" at http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs07/columns/story?columnist=garber_greg&id=3229468
This pic belongs to espn and I do not take credit for it. I hope they recognize its relevance and don't mind my non profitable use of it...
This pic belongs to espn and I do not take credit for it. I hope they recognize its relevance and don't mind my non profitable use of it...
No comments:
Post a Comment