WALSH: What We Can Learn From The Unashamed, Outspoken Christian Faith of The Philadelphia Eagles

By Matt Walsh, February 5, 2018

While a bunch of Eagles fans were looting gas stations and eating horse manure to celebrate their team’s Super Bowl victory last night, the team itself was responding in a very different way.

Head coach Doug Pederson stood on the stage during the post-game celebration and loudly gave thanks to “my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Quarterback Nick Foles proclaimed “glory to God,” echoing what a number of his teammates, like tight end Zach Ertz, told interviewers.

This unapologetic display of Christianity is nothing new. The team has been outspoken about its faith convictions all year. Carson Wentz said that Christ was the “binding force” in the locker room, keeping the men together and helping them to be an effective and cohesive unit on the field. Other players, like wide receiver Torrey Smith, have also spoken powerfully about their spiritual beliefs.

You will sometimes encounter Christians who are cynical about this kind of thing. They find it silly for athletes to thank God after a football game. “God has more important things to worry about,” they scoff. But I personally rejoice at these kinds of demonstrations by people who are, for better or worse, role models and icons in our culture. Football players are rich, athletic, famous — they’re really cool, in other words — and it’s impossible to overstate the benefits of having cool people publicly humble themselves before the Lord. Especially in a society that values coolness more than probably anything else.

I think anyone who sees Eagles players professing their faith so openly and powerfully, and thanking God for their successes, can come away with two important lessons:

1) God does not have more important things to worry about.

A football game is not the most important thing in the world. If all the things that occurred on Earth on Sunday were ranked by importance, the Super Bowl probably would not make it into the top 10 million. It is good, therefore, that Our Lord is omnipotent. He can concern Himself totally with whatever we are doing, and the fact that it’s “not as important” as other things other people are doing is irrelevant. He takes a personal interest in our lives, listens attentively to every prayer, and gives His blessings when we earnestly ask Him for them. Our prayers and petitions do not have to compete with anyone else’s.

So am I saying that God actually helped the Eagles win the Super Bowl? Isn’t that kind of a silly thing to claim? No, it’s not silly, and yes, I am saying that. Nothing can happen outside of God’s will. Which means, yes, it was God’s will that the Eagles win the Super Bowl. Why? I can’t say exactly, but I imagine their faith had quite a bit to do with it. Perhaps He helped them win because He wanted those proclamations of the Gospel to be made on national TV, in front of an audience of millions.

2) Our faith should be a public affair.

Jesus warns against hypocritical and self-serving displays of religious piety, but He also commands us to preach the Gospel to the world. How do we discern between the two? Well, to announce our faith publicly, yet not vainly, is to deflect glory and adulation from ourselves and send it upward to God. Doug Pederson and Nick Foles gave us a nice example of that last night. And I’d say that’s probably the thing — more than any pass or catch or touchdown — that won the game for them.

 

https://www.dailywire.com/news/26755/walsh-what-we-can-learn-unapologetic-outspoken-matt-walsh