In honor of the 2017 football season we’ve launched our own season: a “Season of Inspiration.” Each weekend over the course of the season we’re featuring an Inspiration piece sparked by football, however tangentially. Could be a game, a player, a memory, a news account, an athlete’s testimony, a sports movie, even a Scripture-quoting mascot. We leave that to the Stream writers who’ve joined the team and the Lord’s inspiration.

We hope this series is a blessing.

Say “Odell Beckham Jr.” and “The Catch” to an NFL fan and he will know exactly what you’re talking about. On November 23, 2014, the New York Giants rookie wide receiver made a remarkable, leaping one-handed — make that a three-fingered — catch, while falling over backwards into the end zone. Watching it over in slow motion makes the play even more unbelievable. Announcer Chris Collinsworth, himself a Hall of Fame wide receiver, says “That is impossible! That is absolutely impossible!”

Watch yourself:

The image of OBJ’s catch was forever burned into the minds of fans nationwide. It’s the kind of prime time moment that turns a mere football player into a guy who does shampoo commercials. 

Sadly, this week, there was another indelible image of the gifted Odell Beckham. It shows him crying, inconsolable, being carted off the field after suffering a broken ankle. 

One play, and his season’s over. And fears take over. Will he heal completely? Will he be able to continue being one of the greats to play the position?

I’m reminded of another prime time game involving the Giants. This time they were playing my Redskins. It was November 18, 1985. Veteran quarterback Joe Theismann was set to pass … (those who know what I’m talking about are suddenly very queasy.) Joe got hit and his leg bent the wrong way and shattered.

Watching big, bad Giant linebacker Lawrence Taylor freak out only added to the horror. It is about the most grotesque thing ever seen on live TV. The next day Theismann wanted to see the replay. “No you don’t, Joe,” said his girlfriend.  No, you don’t. 

One play and his career was over. 

When Life Offers a Tough Break

Life does tend to offer sudden tough breaks. Doesn’t have to be a sports injury, of course. Maybe it’s a car crash, an unexpected break up, or a wildfire bursting out overnight claiming everything you own. 

These sudden 180-degree swings of fortune so often lead to the most human of questions: “Why me, Lord?” 

Yes, “the rain falls on the just and the unjust.” Easy enough to say when the wind that came with that rain didn’t blow your roof halfway across town. Or that rain threatens to go through the smashed-in window of your new SUV (as happened to us this week). It’s also tough on the ego to realize that, thanks to the Fall, our suffering isn’t all that special. “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble,” Job grumbled. (Job 14:1)

Harder still is accepting that we’re simply not going to have all the answers this side of heaven. Paul writes, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1 Cor. 13:12)

Praise God. But of course we want to know now, and are too impatient to wait for answers. (Think I’m wrong? How many of us have been poking around the Web looking for Star Wars: The Last Jedi spoilers?) 

However, the good news is we have a shelter to huddle under when the sudden storm hits; a Great Physician who heals us when bone or dreams shatter. The God who will never, ever forsake us.

Consider Jesus. (Always a good idea) One day He’s being hailed with cries of “Hosannah!” A couple days later He’s being nailed to the Cross. Jesus broken, bloodied, gasping for breath, betrayed by those He came to save, cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?!” He was quoting Psalm 22. 

It’s a safe bet, despite his suffering, that He also had in mind what David expressed just a few verses later:

From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me.
I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters;
    in the midst of the congregation (or crowd of Roman soldiers or stadium of fans) I will praise you:
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
    All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;
    stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
For he did not despise or abhor
    the affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me,
    but heard when I cried to him.

He hears. He consoles. He promises to work all things for good for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

When we are on the field, the pain shooting through our body or heart, the Lord speaks.

“In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Our Creator knows the score, and the game ends in Victory. 

A Prayer: Father, first off we pray for the full and complete healing of Odel Beckham Jr.’s leg. Let him draw closer to you during his time of recovery. We pray also for all those who have suffered a sudden reversal of fortune this week, including those whose lives and possessions have been ravaged in the California wildfires. We pray you will comfort and heal those hurting and questioning and doubting. Let us all take into our hearts the true significance of what it means when you say you have “overcome the world.” And may we turn each “Why me?” into “Praise You!”

In Jesus’ mighty Name. Amen.