Feb. 11, 2015

“I would like to see them blow out some of these lower-level teams; they've never really dominated.”
NCAA Basketball Analyst when discussing Kentucky's 23-0 record

I'm not a basketball fan.  I follow Gonzaga only because we started paying attention to them while in seminary as a way to stay connected to Spokane.  And I will watch the NCAA tournament up until GU loses.  But even if you've only been paying limited attention to the sports world, you've likely heard of Kentucky's quest for perfection (the Zags, by the way, are 24-1).

As I listened to this person discuss Kentucky's record and whether or not they could indeed wrap up the season undefeated, I kept hearing reasons as to why they weren't really that good.  They allow “lower quality teams” to remain in the game.  They don't dominate the teams they should.  They've had to go to overtime and double overtime against two unranked opponents.  In other words, they aren't doing enough to satisfy my personal standards.

And I got the distinct feeling that, had UK blown out their opponents, this same person would be complaining that we could never know how good they really were because they never got challenged, we've never seen them deal with pressure, we don't know if they have any strength of character.

This sounded to me an awful lot like how people view God.

At Morning Prayer yesterday, we read Part I of Psalm 78:

They railed against God and said,* “Can God set a table in the wilderness?
True, he struck the rock, the waters gushed out, and the gullies overflowed;*
but is he able to give bread or to provide meat for his people?”
He rained down manna upon them to eat* and gave them grain from heaven.
So mortals ate the bread of angels;* he provided for them food enough.
But they did not stop their craving,* though the food was still in their mouths.

At what point do we stop denigrating God and others for not always living up to our standards?  At what point do we stop focusing on what's absent and begin focusing on what is present?  At what point do we stop our craving even though we have been provided food enough?

Maybe that time is now.  Now is the time to build up instead of tear down.  Now is the time to focus on our abundance rather than our scarcity.  Now is the time to give thanks for what we have been given rather than grumble about what we are missing.

In other words:  All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above; then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all his love.

Amen.