Redemption...or...something

I'm a sports fan. This shouldn't come as a shocking revelation to anyone that knows me, but in case it does serve as a shocking revelation to anyone, I'm just laying it out there. I love sports, particularly basketball and football. I dabble a little in baseball and will occasionally watch golf if the storylines are compelling behind whatever tournament is on. A little while back, I asked myself "why?" Why do I like sports so much? Why am I perfectly content with spending an entire Saturday and an entire Sunday doing nothing but watching football? Why am I willing to drive 2 and a half hours to Oxford to watch a 2 hour basketball game and drive 2 and a half hours back home in the same day? And the thing is, I really don't have an answer. Part of it is because I grew up playing sports. From September to July every year, I spent my time playing basketball then moving on to baseball. I was never really a stand out at anything, but I just liked playing.

But for the last couple of years, my interest in sports piqued to a whole new level. When I think back over the last few years, as it pertains to sports, there have been a couple of incredibly compelling stories. To me, Josh Hamilton's story is probably the best story in all of sports. There are a lot of good ones to choose from, and a lot of stories that resonate with me (I mean, come on. I practically WAS Rudy for my high school basketball team. But being one of the worst players on a Mississippi private school basketball team doesn't hold the same appeal as being a walk on for one of the most storied programs in college football) but the story of Josh Hamilton is incredible. Here you have a guy who literally had everything at his disposal. He was one of the top baseball players in his draft class and was considered a once in a lifetime talent. Then he got hooked on drugs and was literally homeless for a little while, then came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, cleaned his life up, and now is one of the best players in Major League Baseball. On top of that, he's not perfect. So many times we hold these guys (athletes, singers, actors, pastors, whatever...) to a standard no one except for Christ himself could uphold. But when he does screw up, he admits it. And he isn't ashamed to talk about Christ through all of it.

But why does that story touch me in such a way? Simple: redemption. And it's not just about sports. I've never met the guy, but I'm sure Josh Hamilton would tell you that if you took the baseball, the money, the fame, and all that away, as long as he still had Christ he'd be fine. But the redemptive aspect of his story rings true in all of us. We WANT a guy like that to succeed, because it gives us hope in our own lives.

It's the same reason we love the story of the Prodigal Son. We've all been there - maybe it wasn't drugs. Maybe it was sex. Pornography. Alcohol. Depression. Broken relationships. We've all been there - hopeless, lost, and past the point of "trying harder." We've reached the point where we've given up all hope and understood the weight of our own brokenness and come to the realization that there's nothing we can do about it.

The beauty about that situation for Christians is that we realize there never was anything we could do about it. It's not about whether or not we can pull ourselves back up by our bootstraps, but it's about what Christ did on the cross for us. We can't exactly explain it, but it comes down to what Josh Hamilton said about his own story - "It's a God thing." The Prodigal Son remembered his father's goodness and knew that even his servants ate and lived better than he was. He knew he wasn't worthy to be called his father's son anymore, but knew his father to be a compassionate man and hoped for the chance.

So, yeah, we want that story to be true. We want those things to happen, because they give us hope. As much as I love seminary, I get caught up in it a lot of times and forget those times when things seemed hopeless and only Christ would be my way out. I like the thought of being able to sound smart and theologize this and rationalize that so much that I often forget that it's not about being smarter or theologizing or rationalizing. It's about faith - faith in God, faith in Christ - and trusting in him and him alone. I think one of the most profound statements in the Bible is in the story of the blind man in John 9. Jesus heals the guy, giving him sight for the first time. When the Pharisees got a hold of him and questioned him about it, they asked if Jesus was a sinner. The blind man responded in John 9:25 saying "Whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see."

I don't know. Maybe this whole thing is a stretch. Maybe finals and papers have fried my brain in such a way that literally anything would make sense right now (wouldn't be the first time...) but seeing stories of redemption like that awaken something in me. Something I want and need to believe is true. And something that I know is true.

-chanchan