If there’s one thing sports has taught us over the past six months is that praising the Lord is a good thing.
In fact, as I was sitting on the couch watching Mississippi State women’s basketball team celebrate their victory taking them back to the Final Four for the second time in a row, something unexpected happened: Coach Vic Schaefer described how they got the victory. He said, Praise the Lord and Go Dawgs!
Being a native Mississippian and minister of the Gospel, it made me proud to see God getting the glory through their victory. But then it dawned on me that lately, every team that has openly given honor and praise to God has experienced unbelievable success, or has won it all.
In fact, The Loyola Ramblers men’s basketball team and their team chaplain, Sister Jean, have not only captured the hearts of fans around the world, but they’ve done it all in the name of the Lord!
I was inspired by Sister Jean’s comments right after Loyola was selected as part of the 64 teams selected to go dancing in this year’s NCAA tournament. Sister Jean, like many sports fans, filled out her bracket, the bracket in which she says is what her human mind told her was correct. Her bracket listed Loyola making it to the Sweet 16.
But then she filled out a second bracket, the bracket she called, “God’s Bracket.” In God’s Bracket, it had Loyola making it to the Final Four and ultimately to the championship game.
Well, God’s Bracket is proving to be correct as the Loyola Ramblers punched their ticket to the Final Four this weekend. They play Michigan at 5:09 pm Saturday.
The 98-year-old chaplain says she tells her No. 11 seeded Ramblers basketball team players, “If you don’t have confidence in Faith, then you might as well not be playing.”
We all can take that advice. Regardless of what we’re up against and regardless of what man says we can or can’t do, having confidence in Faith can take you a long way. In fact, Loyola’s Mens Basketball Team Head Coach Porter Moser said it best, “it’s amazing what you can do with trust, faith, and love.”
And who can forget how trust, faith, and the love of Christ was on full display during the Superbowl? Quarterback Nick Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles, before and after the Super Bowl boldly declared how their success was due to nothing and no one but God. But they didn’t just stop at “God.” Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior is the name they used.
Foles is among several Eagles players and coaches who are Christians. The Super Bowl LII MVP said in the week leading up to the game that he would like to be a pastor to high school students after his football career. He’s even taken online graduate classes at Liberty University’s Rawlings School of Divinity.
“It’s on my heart,” the Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback told the Associated Press. “I took a leap of faith last year and signed up to take classes at seminary. I wanted to continue to learn and challenge my faith. It’s a challenge because you are writing papers that are biblically correct. You want to impact people’s hearts.”
Impacting people’s hearts in the name of the Lord is exactly what the Houston Astros were able to do following Hurricane Harvey. Living in the Houston area, I was especially pleased at how the Houston Astros’ Altuve, gave honor and praise to God throughout the MLB playoffs and the championship. Altuve, in a recent Houston Chronicle article, said it best:
“The best success is to live your life the way God wants you to. If you can do that, if you can be good with God, then I think you will have success in your life. To achieve success wasn’t to get into the major leagues or have the best season in the world. We need to not just ask God but thank Him for everything like our health, our family. And ask Him to bless our homes and to always be present in our daily lives. And to keep us safe is most important.”
Like Altuve, we all have odds stacked against us at some point in our lives, but through faith, God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above we can ask or think.
And so, as we remember Jesus Christ this week, how He died on the cross for our sins, defeated death and rose again on the third day, know that if you have accepted Him as your Lord and Savior, you have that same power (Resurrection Power) that rose Jesus from the grave living inside of you to conquer all odds. That’s good news. Praise His Mighty name!