Appreciated the feedback from the first post. Thought I would go a bit deeper on this one.

Though the blog world is always filled with surprises, I feel that I have some sense of my audience here. I know that some of you reading were really bothered and did not want to comment for whatever reason ranging from not wanting to get a lengthy debate or lack of time to articulate your thoughts or whatever. Having had this conversation a few times now, I’d like to offer the following parameters.

First, I do believe God is sovereign. I believe in His Divine Foreknowledge. I believe His Omniscience contains every detail.
Second, I do not believe that God is arbitrary and that life is random and incidental (I think it’s much, much more complicated than that).
But Third, I do not believe that God is an All-Mighty Micromanager. I do not believe in Foreordination. And I do not believe He manipulates every detail. But I do believe that in providence and that He intervenes (but it is complicated, unpredictable, and beautifully mysterious; a true reflection of His character).
Fourth, To put it simply, I think God “outsources” a lot to free will, that our lives are dramatically altered by a sin-stained world, and that we can learn beautiful truths about God, and the pains, joys, hardships and triumphs of life.
Fifth, EVEN IF, God has a “reason for everything”, I do not believe our finite minds could systematically understand it, predict it, or figure it out.

I know that does not satisfy some people’s concerns but that’s an adequate start for me.

I do not want to make a strawman out of the Steve Johnson tweet but one of the things that frustrates me the most is the lack of consistency in applying this motto. The energy it would take to find the reason in everything would be endless. Sure, in some sense there is a lesson in everything, if you twist long enough and become satisfied when you feel like being satisfied.

But my problem is when we take something random, “I went to the super-market today to get bananas and ran into “so-and-so”. And I wasn’t going to get bananas but I remembered that they are rich in Potassium and I have always felt depleted in that area and so I went and boy am I glad I did! Because I bumped into “so-and-so” and I had a great conversation and “so-and-so” said, “I’m glad I saw you, I needed that.” (For the record, this is based on a true story. In fact, numerous stories. I’m not kidding.)

I am happy for you and “so-and-so”. But what is the lesson here? For one, it may be to always go to the store on a whim to get whatever is needed or to patrol the aisles for acquaintances (yes, acquaintances; if they were friends you could call them rather than wait to ambush them at Shop Rite). The lesson to another is that God’s favorite fruit is the banana and is most glorified by our consumption of it. And the lesson to me may be you should get a job at the grocery store. What is the lesson here? What did God want you to learn from going to the grocery store? And what happens on the day when you go to the grocery store to pick up bananas and nothing really happens? Are you in sin (banana gluttony)? Are you purchasing the wrong products? Do you exit the store, heave the shopping cart and exclaim, “I buy bananas 24/7 and this is how you do me??”

I submit that sometimes God doesn’t expect you to learn anything from the grocery store outside of living your life in the manner He has called you. As fun as this is for me to write, if I understand people correctly, this is how they live … if they were being consistent with “everything has a reason” motto. While I certainly believe that God wants us to learn, meditate, pray, and seek wisdom, knowledge, growth, virtues, love, etc., I think it’s much more of a macro, broad view of being human then the analyzing of selective minutia of life. To put it more simply, as Christians, if we live seeking to follow Jesus, not only will we find “reason” but find communion with God and with each other.

Primary Audience – Those who believe that there is a “reason for everything”.
Secondary Audience – Buffalo Bills fans. This post may be the best part of your season.

Last Sunday, Buffalo Bills wide receiver, Steven Johnson dropped the game winning pass in a near overtime upset against the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers. Not only is Steven Johnson a highly talented rookie with a bright career in front of him, he is also a player on one of my fantasy teams. If you thought QB Ryan Fitzpatrick was upset, imagine how I felt as a fantasy owner. Sometimes you break loose and score 3TD’s and sometimes you drop “the most important pass of your life”, that’s life in the NFL and the reality of fantasy sports.  Later, he tweeted his hurt.

I am obviously very humored by this and honestly,  I truly felt bad for Steve Johnson and I know how he feels. I worry about officiating a funeral and saying the wrong name or performing a wedding and accidentally use the same message that I used at the funeral and therefore getting all the names wrong. Along with our one year old, this is something that keeps me up at night. But THIRD and most surprising and the reason for this post, I cannot believe the number of people who have told me they could really  relate to Johnson!! I heard one person say, “Yeah, sometimes God does stuff like that.” and another hoped that he would change his mind regarding the tweet “You expect me to learn from this???”

First, God doesn’t care about the NFL. The entire season is anchored by mocking the Sabbath – trust me, He doesn’t care.

But second, Johnson’s tweets and post-game interviews reflect a flawed theology called, “There’s a reason for everything.” I have withheld for years blogging about this motto because it tends to do more damage than good but when people connect with the terrible theology behind dropped football passes, then we should reconsider some long-held assumptions.

I am not sure what Steve Johnson was to learn from his dropped pass. Virtues from failures? He’s an NFL player, he’s been playing football his whole life, I’m sure he’s encountered failure before. Some point to humility. Football fans know he’s a bit cocky and recently received an excessive celebration penalty. I just have a hard time believing that God was up in heaven last week and suddenly decided to shine a cosmic flash light in poor Steve’s eyes or have an angel spray a bit of baby oil on his hands and arms just enough for a pigskin to slip through. And if God really wanted to make a statement, why not zap his jersey and padding off with a blue lightening bolt as he celebrates. I’m telling you if God cared enough to do that, there would never be another profanity uttered on the line of scrimmage. Those 300 pound linemen would be quoting the beatitudes and blessing their opponents in fear of their big butts be aired on network television.

Too many have this “cause and effect” expectation of God. Meaning if they pray or read Scripture or praise him 24/7 then God has to bless. Life is not only filled with missed opportunities, sadly it’s marked by tragedies, and defiled by evil. When we read the Scriptures, we see the righteous destroyed by evil. The same sun that gives us life can sometimes give skin cancer. Even water, that is so essential to our survival, can drown us. It’s not cause and effect. Though I wish it were as simple as “Do good, get good”, there are no guarantees in a flawed world.

So then how do respond to this? The short answer is to trust the Lord who is at work in the redemption of all things. I’ll try to elaborate later this week.
Feel free to comment, disagree, or I dare you, defend Steve Johnson’s tweet ;-).