Last Friday was a sad day for South African citizens. yes, our beloved national cricket team, the protea’s, bowed out of the Cricket World Cup. They failed. Even thought they promised us that this world cup would be different. They choked! again
Straight after cricket I went on facebook. yes, of course I did. We love posting our reactions to sport on facebook- most status's looked something like this: “CHOKERS. YOU SUCK PROTEA’S”... “That is why I don’t support South African Cricket”... “worst captain ever! We can’t even win an easy game!”... Now I’m not getting into those reactions, because, we all know how I feel about what it means to ‘support’ your team. Something else interested me in all of this...
One of my friends wrote a similar status. I challenged her with it and she made an interesting comment:
“I didn't give up on them, I am saying they aren’t performing and it upsets me- like when i sin, even tho God loves and forgives me, it still upsets him!”
Wow, suddenly a status about cricket has brought up an interesting debate about God’s grace ! Love it!
I thought about this long and hard, and what she said was true. We do mess up, and God is disappointed in our sin, because he loves us.
But lets just say God had a facebook account. His name is GOD. and he has something like 3 billion friends. He loves me and supports me. and I fail. what would he make his status?
Would he say, ‘JORDAN YOU SUCK!!’... ‘CHOKER!!!’... ‘so typical! one moment you promise me you wont mess up again, and the next moment you do! Ha! its pathetic really’.... ?
My opinion? ... Thats not what he would say. When people let us down, our initial reaction is anger. bitterness. and yes, disappointment too, but this disappointment turns in to anger anyway, we cant really escape it. because we’re human.
But the amazing thing about God is that his disappointment is out of love for us. He is saddened, but always loves us anyway, and doesn’t resent us for turning our back on him. He forgives us. and takes us back immediately, even though he knows we will fail again. and again. and again.
That is what makes God amazing.
Hebrews 8:12 says “And I will forgive their wickedness,
and I will never again remember their sins.”
As human beings, there is nothing more awesome than the fact that God won’t hold our ‘chokers tag’ against us.
this is the beauty of grace!
(Special thanks to Caryn for posting that comment, and encouraging me to blog about it . )
11 years ago
Hey Jordan :)
ReplyDeleteI've never read your blog before but I really enjoyed this article :) Thanks for making me think. God Bless!
how do we know that he is disappointed in us when we mess up?
ReplyDeleteaah jordan this brilliant :) as always though!
ReplyDeleteAlyssa- thank you!
ReplyDeleteNadine- I didn't even know you read my blog. stoked :).. thanks :)
and Anonymous: you pose a very good question. Its pretty clear from scripture that he's disappointed. You see a lot in the old testament how God is disappointed in his people. and in the new testament, Ephesians tells us that we shouldn't grieve the Holy Spirit (which is God living inside of us)... Thats Ephesians 4:30 And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live along with a bunch of other scriptures...
He's not disappointed to make us feel guilty tho, he's disappointed because he loves us. Pretty complicated- this may be a whole separate blog post :) thanks for the question!