Dewayne Bryant's Blog, page 18

How Everyone Wins

We all know the nightly news can be one of the most depressing hours on television on any given day. But occasionally we get a treat – a story that is inspiring, motivational, and, hopefully, causes us to rise to a higher level of nobility.

The Coronado High School Thunderbirds in El Paso, Texas played their last game of the regular season this past week. Coach Peter Morales told his manager Mitchell Marcus to suit up for the game. This wasn’t business as usual, because Mitchell has a developmental disability that limits him both physically and mentally. What no one knew was that Coach Morales intended to play Mitchell at the end of the game, regardless of the score. The interviewer asked Coach Morales, “You were prepared to lose that game?” Without hesitation, the coach replied, “For his moment, yes. For his moment in time, yes.”

With a minute and a half remaining, Coach Morales put Mitchell in the game. Coronado led by ten points, but victory was not assured. Mitchell’s teammates passed him the ball, but he couldn’t get it in the basket. With seconds remaining on the clock, the opposing team had the ball. It looked like the fairy tale ending Coach Morales tried to write for his favorite player would be left unfinished, until opposing player Jonathon Montanez put the final stroke on the masterpiece. Montanez got Mitchel’s attention and, instead of passing it to one of his own teammates, passed it to Mitchell instead. Mitchell turned and put the ball into the basket. The crowd erupted and stormed the floor.

Why did Montanez pass Mitchell the ball? Echoing the words of Christ in Luke 6:31, he said, “I was raised to treat others how you want to be treated. I just thought Mitchell deserved his chance, deserved his opportunity.” Mitchel’s basket didn’t decide the game. Coronado already led by 13 points. But Montanez’s turnover did win a different kind of victory. For sportsmanship, decency, and good will toward others.

Only one team was ahead on the scoreboard, but in the hearts of everyone there that night, both teams won.

Bad Reasons For Belief (5/5): Faith Gives Me Fulfillment

The last of our five bad reasons for believing in God has to do with personal experience – namely, believing in God because it gives us a sense of personal fulfillment. This isn’t to say that the Christian life shouldn’t be a fulfilling one. It’s quite the opposite! The Christian life is one that is centered in transcendent realities and values, and one which emphasizes the importance, worth, and nobility of human beings. But basing our beliefs on feelings can pose significant problems.

If we were to ask some of our religious neighbors whether their religions gave them fulfillment, I suspect nearly all of them would say yes. And I would think that the more devoted they were, the more positive their responses would be. It is part of human nature to find fulfillment in being in a group of like-minded and passionate individuals who share our values and beliefs. It is also natural to be uplifted and energized by others when we participate in an environment of mutual support and encouragement. Feeling like we are a part of something bigger gives us hope, optimism, and excitement. No religion has a corner on that market.

Is a feeling of fulfillment really a good argument for belief in God? Not really. Personal feelings are whimsical and fleeting. Our wants and desires can, at times, be contradictory and mutually exclusive (I want to eat as much ice cream as I can hold, but I also want to fit into a pair of jeans with a size 36 waist without it cutting off the circulation to my legs. That’s just not going to happen). Further, the same feelings of fulfillment when we are part of a local church may be none too different from the feelings felt by a Muslim going to the local mosque or a Hindu visiting the nearby temple.

Believers in all kinds of religions may feel like their faith gives them fulfillment. But not all of them (or even most of them) can be true since religions often make contradictory claims. For instance, Jesus cannot simultaneously be divine Son of God in the New Testament and the human prophet we find in Islam. The creation of the human race as outlined in the Bible cannot be reconciled with the science fiction space opera we find in Scientology. A few religions are atheistic, although most are not.

As Christians, we look to find fulfillment in truth, not in personal feelings. Fulfillment is important for us, but we can find that in many things. Even atheists will say they find fulfillment in life despite not believing that they will exist beyond the point of death. As with all things in the Christian worldview, truth governs everything. That truth, we believe, is found in the person of Jesus Christ (John 14:6). A feeling of fulfillment is a necessary by-product of a genuine faith, but we can’t use it as an argument of the existence of God.